Letter urging Harbor Maintenance Trust Funds Actually be Spent on Operating and Maintaining our Nation’s Navigational Channel

Dear House Conferees:

As you proceed to a House-Senate conference committee on the transportation reauthorization bill to resolve differences between S. 1813 and H.R. 4348, we want to call your attention to important provisions included in both of the bills that involve our federal ports and harbors.  

The Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT) and Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) were established in 1986 to strictly and efficiently fund U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) operations and maintenance purposes and ensure that our navigation system operates effectively.   The HMT is a user fee charged against the value of imports and domestic cargo arriving at the nearly 1,000 U.S. ports and harbors and deposited into the HMTF, where they are then subject to appropriations.  Yet only about half of the funds collected through a user fee charged on shippers are actually appropriated for harbor maintenance, threatening width and depth of American waterways.  

The USACE has estimated that even the so-called top-priority harbors, those that handle about 90 percent of the commercial traffic, are dredged to their authorized depths and widths only 35 percent of the time.  This lack of maintenance is simply unacceptable.  Ports and harbors support about 13 million jobs and account for $4 trillion in economic impacts.  Additionally, because waterborne transportation is often the least expensive means of transporting vital commodities used for manufacturing, construction, and energy generation, shipping bolsters our international competitiveness, economic recovery and job creation, while also keeping costs in check for American consumers. 

The harbor maintenance provisions, contained in Sections 1533 and 401 of the Senate and House bills, respectively, would ensure all funds deposited into the HMTF in a given fiscal year be fully expended to operate and maintain the navigation channels of the United States, and not for other purposes.  We ask that this language be retained and strengthened further through an “enforcement of guarantees”; that language should mirror that provided in Section 2(c) of the Realize America’s Maritime Promise (RAMP) Act (H.R. 104).  Similar action was taken for aviation programs in the Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR-21) to more closely tie aviation trust fund revenues with expenditures in the Airports and Airways Trust Fund.  Given this precedent, we believe taking similar action for the HMTF is appropriate, and will provide a greater degree of certainty for waterborne commerce. 

As the economy struggles to recover, we cannot afford to threaten commerce and trade by failing to maintain our harbor infrastructure.  We look forward to working with you to ensure our nation has a strong transportation infrastructure supporting jobs, growing our economy, and competing successfully in this global economy.  Thank you for your consideration of our request.  

Sincerely,