Political Quotes

“I want to thank the chairman of the subcommittee and the chairman of the full committee for working with me to try to rectify a problem with the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and the big-time shortfall we've got in dredging funds going forward. Our top 60 ports in the country are not being dredged to their authorized specifications, and this is hurting commerce. It's inhibiting our ability to export. It's creating all kinds of problems. It's a jobs bill if we can get these ports and waterways dredged adequately. It's at a crisis level. For instance, the Lower Mississippi River, for every foot of draft we lose, it's $1 million per ship per day lost in economic activity. Now, the Harbor Maintenance Tax generates $1.3 to $1.6 billion a year, but little over half of it's being used for the appropriate purpose. The rest is being funneled off into other accounts. This is not fair to those who pay this tax, which, in effect, is a user fee. It was designed as a user fee. And so I hope that the chairmen of the subcommittee and full committee will continue to work with me to correct this inequity. This is not right, and it's hurting American competitiveness. We can do better than this. This tax is a tax that was created as a user fee. It's ad valorem tax on the owners of the goods based on the value of the goods. This is supposed to be used for operations and maintenance dredging.…”