Port Advocates Call for Heightened Harbor Funding in FY15 Bills
More than 400 ports, transportation services and industry organizations pushed Congress on Oct. 22 to provide harbor maintenance funding, administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in appropriations legislation that mirrors allocations in a water bill passed earlier this year. The Water Resources Reform and Development Act (WRRDA) directs full use by 2025 of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) for maintenance and dredging, with annual increases in use over the next 10 years (see 14051612).
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Critics say only half of the fund was used for maintenance and dredging before President Barack Obama signed the bill into law in June. The WRRDA bill also required a mandatory allocation for small and medium-sized ports. The Oct. 22 letter calls for both the House and Senate to meet the WRRDA provisions on the trust fund in funding bills for fiscal year 2015. House lawmakers passed their version of the appropriations bill in July, but the Senate has not passed a single appropriations bill this year.
Sediment buildups are increasingly making U.S. ports narrower and shallower, and port infrastructure is generally deteriorating, said the letter, addressed to House and Senate appropriators. “The Army Corps of Engineers has reported that nationwide authorized channel depths are available about half of the time, and then only over half of the channel’s width,” said the letter. “This drives up the cost of U.S. exports and imports, which threatens U.S. economic growth.” Congress passed a stopgap funding measure in September that will keep all government agencies operating at fiscal year 2014 levels through the middle of December. Before that deadline, lawmakers will have to rally together to pass appropriations bills or another continuing resolution in order to avoid a government shutdown.