Bill to ensure port, harbor maintenance introduced in House

© Shutterstock

U.S. Reps. Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR), ranking member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, introduced bipartisan legislation that would increase necessary investments in harbor and port projects.

According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), full channels at America’s 59 busiest ports are available less than 35 percent of the time.

The Investing in America: Unlocking the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act seeks to guarantee that money intended to dredge all federal coastal and inland commercial ports would actually go to harbor maintenance, without the need to add more to the deficit.

“The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund was created by the Reagan administration to ensure that our nation’s ports and harbors, like the Port of Erie, would always be properly dredged and fully operational,” Kelly said. “Unfortunately, much of its annually collected revenue is no longer making it back to the ports where it is desperately needed. The result is the inexcusable deterioration of our ports from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast, which negatively impacts our economy in Erie and nationwide.”

The bill would provide more than $18 billion over the next 10 years – a 29 percent increase in investment. It would enable the Corps to dredge all federal commercial harbors to their constructed widths and depths.

The legislation takes the trust fund off budget, allowing the Secretary of the Army to directly use yearly harbor maintenance revenue for authorized maintenance fees. It also maintains congressional authority to appropriate additional harbor maintenance funds from the existing $9 billion currently in the trust fund.

“The federal government has a responsibility to maintain the ports, harbors and waterways that support thousands of jobs and economic growth in communities across the country,” DeFazio said. “This bipartisan, common sense legislation guarantees that funds collected in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund will not be diverted and will only be used for their intended purpose — harbor maintenance. Our legislation will create and sustain thousands of needed jobs, it will provide a tremendous boost to economic competitiveness, and it does all of this without adding a penny to the deficit.”