Janice Hahn: “I'm disappointed that, once again, we're shortchanging American ports, businesses, and consumers by failing to fully…”

“I'm disappointed that, once again, we're shortchanging American ports, businesses, and consumers by failing to fully utilize the receipts and surplus of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund on our ports. When our ports aren't well maintained, when we fail to support their infrastructure and their dredging, we threaten more than $3 trillion of economic output and over 13 million jobs. American consumers face higher costs and American businesses have a harder time competing globally. Decades ago, Congress created a tax on the value of the goods imported through our ports to ensure that no American port would suffer underdredging. Yet, for years, Congress has failed to fully use the receipts of this tax on keeping our ports in good order. It has gotten so bad that the American Association of Port Authorities estimates that the full channel dimensions of our Nation's ports and harbors are available less than 35 percent of the time. Ships are constantly forced to light load or wait for high tide to enter U.S. harbors. Those inefficiencies and added costs ripple all the way back to the wallets of average Americans. I don't think it's right to make Americans pay for a tax and pay again for our failure to use that tax that we promised. We may be increasing the amount of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund we are spending on ports in this bill, but it still $700 million less than what our ports are owed.…”