Waterway navigation encompasses port development, port maintenance, waterway creation, and waterway maintenance. This not only applies to rivers or sea ports, but also to lakes, streams, and marinas. While smaller lakes and streams are generally referenced as recreational dredging, they still play a major role in dredging, and have an effect on local economies. Typically, the general population sees a dredge as an underwater vacuum cleaner and most commonly associates them with port or waterway maintenance.
Ironically, the main reason the global economy has grown is due to the development of port systems around the world. In fact, no other single factor has prompted continual growth of the world’s nations; both in their economies and in their nations’ overall well-being. Without port systems, the only form of trade would be the barter system. Without proper funding, port systems would decline, along with the region’s overall economy.
Dredging allows for free movement of trade between countries. India is providing funding to Bangladesh so the rivers in Bangladesh can be dredged. This will allow Indian ships to continue to deliver goods to Bangladesh ports. Without dredging, commerce between the countries would suffer and prices would go up. It is more expensive to transport goods overland than by river.
STOP THE HARBOR MAINTENANCE BUDGET GIMMICK AND SAVE THE ECONOMY
• The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) was established in 1986 to fund the maintenance of ports and harbors and is funded by the Harbor Maintenance Tax (HMT), which is paid by shippers of maritime cargo.
• Appropriations from the HMTF, which are primarily used by the Army Corps of Engineers for harbor maintenance dredging, dredged material disposal areas, jetties, and breakwaters, have lagged behind revenues into the HMTF for decades. The resulting HMTF surplus was approximately $6 billion at the end of FY11 and continues to grow by hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Charging maritime commerce this tax while failing to provide the service for which it was established is grossly unfair. This appropriations gimmick allows Solyndra-type projects to be funded while using HMTF balances to mask the deficit.
• Due to inadequate appropriations from the HMTF, navigation channels are getting narrower and shallower due to sediment accumulation. The Army Corps of Engineers determined that, nationwide, the authorized depth of federally-maintained navigation channels is available less than one-third of the time, and that is only over half of the authorized channel width. This problem is getting worse each year.
• This means vessels laden with American raw materials and goods cannot carry all they are capable of holding, nor can ships with imports for the U.S. market enter many ports fully laden due to the same concerns. Shallower channels make exports such as agriculture, coal, and heavy machinery less competitive in the world market, increase the cost of domestic transportation, and increase the risk of vessel groundings, which can shut down a port.
• With our economy trying to recover from a major recession, America’s economy must not be choked off because taxes paid by maritime commerce for needed maintenance of America’s harbors are held captive to a Washington budget gimmick.
• Thousands of good-paying American jobs would be created or maintained by using all annual HMTF revenues for their intended purpose, allowing American exports to reach their full potential and preserving American industries dependant on domestic shipping. Similarly, thousands of American jobs are threatened if those navigation channels are not maintained.
• To ensure that HMTF revenue is spent for its intended purposes, Congressmen Charles Boustany (R-LA) has introduced an amendment to H.R.7, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act of 2012. This bill is supported by a broad national coalition called RAMP, which includes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute, the American Soybean Association, ports, and many others. This amendment doesn’t increase total federal spending or violate budget laws, it limits the Appropriators’ ability to use as a slush fund revenue that is collected specifically to facilitate trade.
• The House of Representatives will soon vote on the transportation authorization bill. The RAMP Coalition is pressing the Congress to include the Boustany amendment in the transportation authorization bill when it comes to the House floor. Please tell the Congress that the Boustany amendment is about jobs and economic recovery and to support including it in the transportation authorization bill.