On the recordMay 22, 2014
I am joined by the ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee to discuss a provision of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act conference report, which we will vote on shortly in the Senate. Title II, subtitle B includes a number of important provisions related to port and harbor maintenance. In addition to setting annual spending goals for funds from the harbor maintenance trust fund, HMTF, and providing a set-aside for spending on emerging ports, the section now authorizes new expanded uses of the HMTF. The expanded use authority, which includes dredging of berths and disposal of contaminated dredge material, is limited to those ports that collect more HMTF taxes than they receive in HMTF spending. I also want to note that these new uses are prioritized for the ports that collect much larger amounts of the HMTF fees than they receive in return because the many industries that pay these fees to access American ports deserve to have some of those funds used to improve the facilities they depend on for movement of goods. These ports have unmet needs that shippers into these ports expect to be addressed. In my home State, we have two large ports--Los Angeles and Long Beach. These two ports collect over a quarter of all revenue for the HMTF, but because of the natural conditions at these ports, they require little to almost no traditional dredging to maintain the federally authorized channels.…
