Subcommittee Hearing Focuses on Bill to Ensure Maintenance of U.S. Harbors

The Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee, chaired by U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH), held a legislative hearing today to examine H.R. 104, the Realize America’s Maritime Promise RAMP Act.  

The RAMP Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), requires that revenue coming into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) each year, including interest on the balance, is all invested in U.S. harbor construction and maintenance.  Currently, user fees collected from shippers and deposited into the Trust Fund are not being fully utilized to maintain the nation’s harbors.  Instead, some of these funds are being withheld from their intended purpose and used to offset unrelated federal spending.  If enacted, H.R. 104 could significantly change maritime shipping in the United States and worldwide. Restoring harbors and channels to their authorized dimensions will make them safer, accommodate larger vessels, and increase growth in the import and export industries.

“Unless the issue of channel maintenance is addressed, the reliability and responsiveness of the entire intermodal system will slow economic growth and threaten national security,” Chairman Gibbs said.   “Only if our ports and waterways are at their authorized depths and widths will products be able to move to their overseas destinations in an efficient and economical manner.  Since only two of the nation’s 10 largest ports are at their authorized depths and widths, the President’s budget does nothing to ensure our competitiveness in world markets.”

Rep. Boustany testified before the Committee, stating, “Our economy in Louisiana depends on our waterways.  Dredging and maintaining coastal harbors and ports is absolutely critical to bolstering trade, creating jobs and strengthening American competitiveness. This bill creates the fully-funded, long-term dredging plan necessary for realizing our economic potential not only in Louisiana, but across the country.” 

Gary P. LaGrange, President and CEO of the Port of New Orleans also testified this morning.  He echoed Chairman Gibbs’ support of Rep. Boustany’s bill: “Far more funding is deposited in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund each year than is spent on vital dredging and other operations and maintenance needs.  In Fiscal Year 2010, the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund had a year-end balance of over $5.6 billion.  Total receipts of the fund, in just that one year, were $1.363 billion.  However, only $828 million, or approximately 60 percent of those receipts, were spent for authorized dredging and maintenance purposes, leaving over $535 million from Fiscal Year 2010 alone to be unspent.  The multi-billion dollar surplus is left to languish in a trust fund that continues to grow without being fully used to facilitate maritime commerce for the benefit of our Nation’s economy. 

“I assure you, Mr. Chairman, that proper use of the surplus funds in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, together with the annual revenues deposited into that Fund, would solve many of our Nation’s commercial navigation maintenance needs that are vital to our competitiveness in international trade and to this country’s economic recovery.  That is why we so desperately require the enactment of the RAMP Act,” LaGrange continued.

Bonnie Brady, Executive Director of the Long Island Commercial Fishing Association spoke to the benefits that Long Island’s economy and port industry would receive from the RAMP Act.  She noted, “Commercial fishing on Long Island is responsible for 99% of New York’s landed seafood catch.  In 2009, that translated to over 34 million pounds of fish, shellfish and crustaceans worth just over $59 million dollars at the dock.  With a standard economic multiplier of four, that translates to a $200 million industry which helps to power the economic engine of hundreds of Long Island businesses…Our  Long Island coastal waterways and ports are our Metros and Beltway, and without properly maintained dredging, hundreds of local businesses and families are negatively impacted yearly on Long Island.”

Jim Weakley, President of the Lake Carriers Association also testified in favor of Boustany’s bill: “I respectfully urge you to pass H.R. 104 without amendment. We are on the verge of a national navigation heart attack. We need to revive our dying infrastructure with the angioplasty of dredging and sustain it with a healthy maintenance diet.”

H.R. 104 has gained wide bipartisan support in Congress and has more than 100 bipartisan cosponsors.  A Subcommittee Markup of the legislation was originally scheduled to occur after today’s hearing; however, it has been postponed until a later date.  More information on the hearing, including testimony of today’s witnesses, can be found here.