Political Quotes

“I want to thank my colleague and friend from North Carolina for yielding time to me. I rise in support of the rule and of the underlying bill. I am very pleased that the rule has allowed one of my amendments to go forward, a very important amendment, I should add. Our country depends on its maritime commerce. Without the use of our maritime transportation routes, we're not really talking about transportation. We cannot expand exports and we cannot move our agricultural commodities or our manufactured goods to other destinations around the world if we do not have waterways that have been maintained. The Army Corps of Engineers has said to me on multiple occasions, if you take the top 60 ports and harbors in this country, fewer than 35 percent of those waterways are dredged adequately to the authorized depth and width authorized by Congress. My bill, which is now an amendment to this transportation bill, H.R. 104, is the RAMP Act. It is the Realize America's Maritime Promise Act. It has bipartisan support with 190 Members in the House and with over 30 Senators over on the Senate side. What has happened, Mr. Speaker, is this: in 1986, Congress created the harbor maintenance tax and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. This was a user fee on the owners of the cargo--a user fee, an ad valorem tax. The revenue was supposed to be dedicated solely to operations in maintenance dredging by the Army Corps of Engineers where they have Federal authorization.…”