Legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) on Wednesday would provide a 29 percent increase in federal funding for harbor and port maintenance projects over the next 10 years.
The Investing in America: Unlocking the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act, H.R. 1908, would provide more than $18 billion for inland and coastal harbor maintenance over the next decade, enabling the Army Corps of Engineers to dredge all federal commercial harbors to constructed widths and depths.
The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) was established under the Reagan administration in 1986 to help cover operational and maintenance dredging costs for commercial ports by recovering funds from maritime shippers.
“Unfortunately, much of its annually collected revenue is no longer making it back to the ports where it is desperately needed,” Kelly said. “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 HMTF is paid for by importers and domestic shippers using coastal or inland ports as a 0.125 percent ad valorem user fee on the value of imported cargo. But the HMTF collects far more revenues from shippers than Congress has provided to the Corps to maintain harbors.
There is approximately $9 billion in HMTF revenues sitting idle in the U.S. Treasury, sufficient funds to meet maintenance dredging needs of all federally authorized ports, lawmakers said.
“Failing to maintain our ports and channels destroys American jobs and forces families to pay more money for the goods they need,” Kelly said. “This common sense, bipartisan bill will make sure that America’s ports and harbors are once again fully maintained, which will save and create jobs, grow businesses and keep us competitive on the global stage. We will ensure that the United States is equipped with a modern and efficient transportation system to meet the needs of a 21st century economy without raising a single dime in taxes.”
H.R. 1908 would take HMTF off the budget and enable the secretary of the Army to directly access HMTF deposits to cover authorized maintenance costs. Additionally, the bill would preserve Congress’ authority to appropriate existing HMTF funds to meet additional harbor maintenance needs.
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), who introduced H.R. 1908 with Kelly, said the government has a responsibility to maintain ports, harbors and waterways that sustain economic growth and support thousands of jobs.
“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,” DeFazio said.