On the recordJuly 9, 2014
I thank the chairman for yielding and for your sympathy toward the intent of the amendment. I commend Congresswoman Hahn and Congressman Huizenga for elevating the question of our ports. Waterborne shipping is the most-efficient mode for moving goods in and out of this country. I think they are performing for this Congress an extraordinary service by uniting on a bipartisan basis and kind of ringing the bell and saying, Hey, pay attention to what is happening here with this harbor maintenance tax and how we help our ports compete, as we see the Panama Canal come online and shipbuilding occurring in other countries like South Korea, for example, and China and Singapore and lots of other places, and saying, Hey, America, wake up. I feel some urgency to want to support the direction of their efforts, but, as with the chairman, it comes to where the offset is. It is true that, with harbor maintenance tax funds, $185 million has been moved into the fund as a result of our efforts that the administration had not requested, so we as a subcommittee are moving in the right direction, but I am hoping that this might begin a conversation with our subcommittee and how we work with them on the harbor maintenance tax in a more effective manner. So I thank the chairman for yielding. They brought an important issue before us that we need to resolve more effectively.
