Senate Hearing, 113TH Congress - Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and The Need To Invest in The Nation's Ports

S. HRG.
113578
HARBOR MAINTENANCE TRUST FUND AND THE

NEED TO INVEST IN THE NATIONS PORTS
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON
ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
JANUARY 31, 2013
Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works
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COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
BARBARA BOXER, California, Chairman
MAX BAUCUS, Montana
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma
FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming
BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama
BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
TOM UDALL, New Mexico
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York
BETTINA POIRIER, Majority Staff Director
ZAK BAIG, Republican Staff Director
(II)
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C O N T E N T S
Page
JANUARY 31, 2013

OPENING STATEMENTS
Boxer, Hon. Barbara, U.S. Senator from the State of California .......................
Vitter, David, U.S. Senator from the State of Louisiana .....................................
Udall, Hon. Tom, U.S. Senator from the State of Mew Mexico .........................
Crapo, Hon. Mike, U.S. Senator from the State of Idaho ...................................
Merkley, Hon. Jeff., U.S. Senator from the State of Oregon ..............................
Boozman, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from the State of Arizona ..........................
Barrasso. Hon. John, U.S. Senator from the State of Wyoming ........................
Sessions, Hon. Jeff., U.S. Senator from the State of Alabama ...........................
Cardin, Hon. Benjamin L., U.S. Senator from the State of Maryland ..............
Whitehouse, Hon. Sheldon, U.S. Senator from the State of Rhode Island ........
Lautenberg, Hon. Frank, U.S. Senator from the State of New Jersey, prepared statement ...................................................................................................
Wicker, Hon. Roger F., U.S. Senator from the State of Mississippi, prepared
statement ..............................................................................................................
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WITNESSES
Darcy, Hon. Joe-Ellen, Assistant Secretary of the Army, Civil Works ...............
Prepared statement ..........................................................................................
Responses to additional questions from:
Senator Boxer ............................................................................................
Senator Lautenberg ...................................................................................
Senator Cardin ..........................................................................................
Senator Vitter ............................................................................................
Senator Wicker ..........................................................................................
Christensen, Michael R., PE, Deputy Executive Director of Development,
Port of Los Angeles; Chair, California Marine Affairs and Navigation Conference ...................................................................................................................
Response to an additional question from Senator Boxer ..............................
Lyons, James K., director and CEO, Alabama State Port Authority ..................
Senator Boxer ............................................................................................
Senator Wicker ..........................................................................................
Lorino, Mike, president, Associated Branch Pilots ...............................................
Senator Boxer ............................................................................................
Senator Wicker ..........................................................................................
Cairns, Andrew, H., P.E., PMP, board member, American Society of Civil
Engineers Coasts, Oceans, Ports and Rivers Institute; Port & MarineNortheast Lead, AECOM .....................................................................................
Response to an additional question from Senator Boxer ..............................
(III)
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HARBOR MAINTENANCE TRUST FUND AND

THE NEED TO INVEST IN THE NATIONS
PORTS
THURSDAY JANUARY 31, 2013
U.S. SENATE,
PUBLIC WORKS,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m. in room
406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Barbara Boxer (chairman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Senators Boxer, Vitter, Cardin, Whitehouse, Udall,
Merkley, Barrasso, Sessions, Crapo and Boozman.
COMMITTEE
ON
ENVIRONMENT
AND
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BARBARA BOXER,

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Senator BOXER. The meeting will come to order. I first want to

welcome the Committees new Ranking Member, Senator David
Vitter. We are so pleased to be working together now. For many
years, Senator Vitter has been a leader in calling for investments
in our Nations ports. He is a pragmatist. When it comes to infrastructure, we have a very good partnership. I am excited about the
opportunity to work with him and other members of this Committee on this and many other water infrastructure issues.
Todays hearing will examine the role of the Harbor Maintenance
Trust Fund in supporting commerce at our Nations ports. The
Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is the primary source of Federal
investment to maintain Americas ports. The Trust Fund is financed through a fee on the value of cargo imported through coastal and Great Lakes ports.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, if funding
continues at current levels, by 2040 the United States will face a
shortfall of nearly $28 billion to meet the dredging needs of the Nations ports. As we will hear from our witnesses today, this funding
gap can have significant economic consequences.
Increasing investment in ports and reforming the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund will be critical components of the next Water
Resources Development Act, known as WRDA. Senator Vitter and
I have already begun working together on this vital legislation,
which supports water resources infrastructure nationwide.
WRDA authorizes the projects and programs of the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers and provides many benefits to the American
people, including expanding and maintaining navigation routes for
commerce.
In the coming weeks, we intend to move forward with the bipartisan Water Resources Development Act. Senator Vitter and I look
(1)
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forward to working with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle
to advance a bill. We are optimistic that we can repeat last years
success on MAP21.
I want to thank the staff of Senator Mitch McConnell, who actually proactively came to us and said that they really wanted to help
us with this bill. I was very pleased about that.
As we will hear from our witnesses today, adequate investment
can boost the economy and create jobs. U.S. ports and waterways,
many of which are maintained by the Corps, move 2.3 billion tons
of goods in Fiscal Year 2011. In my home State of California, our
ports are some of the busiest in the entire world.
Continued maintenance of port facilities is critical for the commerce and jobs that rely on these hubs, and that is why we must
increase investment from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.
Currently, the Trust Fund collects more revenues than are annually spent for maintaining our ports. In fact, the Fiscal Year 2013
budget, the Obama administration estimated that the Trust Fund
would receive $1.8 billion, but the Corps budget request was only
$848 million. This leaves a growing surplus at a time when many
of the Nations ports are not maintained to their authorized depths
and widths.
This is something that has gone on with every administration.
They do not spend the funds in the Trust Fund the way they are
meant to be spent. Significant challenges remain in working to ensure the revenues collected in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund
are fully expended, including identification of necessary offsets, and
I look forward to collaborating with all of my colleagues as we look
for creative solutions to this challenging issue.
In addition, we must also look at ways to ensure that ports
which collect the most Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund revenues
receive an equitable share of Federal investment. Currently, some
of these ports receive only a fraction of the funds that they pay into
the Trust Fund. That is unfair. I propose a provision for the next
WRDA that would increase equity for ports nationwide. The provision would allow certain ports to use harbor maintenance funds for
limited additional uses after other traditional operation and maintenance needs are met. This would be an important step forward
in ensuring our Nations most essential ports receive an equitable
share of harbor maintenance revenues and it just gives a little
flexibility to the program.
I am so grateful to my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for
their interest in this issue and I look forward to hearing from them
today.
I want to say, Senator Vitter, as my Ranking Member, you have
been a driving force behind this hearing and this issue, and it is
with that that I call on you for the first time as ranking.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID VITTER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
Senator VITTER. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am very excited to

be here. I am very excited to be Ranking Member, and I am very
excited about our partnership on infrastructure issues.
The first thing out of the gate with regard to that is, first of all,
this hearing, which is so important. I requested that we focus on
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this issue because it is so vital, including in the context of a new
WRDA, and I appreciate your organizing this hearing; and then in
terms of legislative work, a new proactive, reform-minded, bipartisan WRDA bill, which we are already well into working on, and
I am very excited about the prospects for that, again, as you said,
following the model of good solid bipartisan work on MAP21. So
that is our goal and that is why we are here today.
I certainly want to underscore your comments about how our Nations ports and waterways are grossly underfunded for routine operation and maintenance, and one big reason is the misallocation
of Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund revenues. It is a pretty simple
story. Revenue into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund has increased steadily over the past decade, minus a one-time decrease
in Fiscal Year 2009. The Fund currently collects about $1.8 billion
a year in revenue. However, even though all of that money clearly,
under law, is supposed to be used only for designated purposes
with regard to harbor maintenance, even though that is clearly
true, the Administration only spends roughly half that amount for
harbor maintenance.
What does that mean? Well, some people say that means we
have an unspent balance of $8 billion. It really doesnt mean that;
it is really worse than that, because that money isnt sitting anywhere. There is no pile of cash; that money is gone. What it really
means is that the other money is stolen and spent on other completely unrelated purposes, directly contrary to the statute setting
up the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and the revenue to go into
it.
Meanwhile, what is going on with our infrastructure? You know,
if all of our needs were being met, if we were fully dredging our
crucial waterways and harbors, that might be understandable. But,
of course, that is not the case. According to a recent analysis from
the Corps itself, fully authorized channel dimensions are available
less than an average of 35 percent of the time at the 59 highest
use, harbors and waterways, and those are the harbors and waterways that basically get the best treatment. So there that fully authorized dimension and depth is available only 35 percent of the
time.
Of course, I care about that because the national economy, but
also because Louisiana has five of the top 15 busiest ports in the
Nation, with four of those located on the lower Mississippi River;
and the lower Mississippi River, which is at vital as anything to
our commerce, our waterborne commerce, is traditionally underfunded in terms of this as well.
I want to thank all of our panelists and witnesses today, including my invitee, Mike Lorino, President of the Associated Branch Pilots. He will testify before this Committee about the negative effects of these draft restrictions which followed directly from this
under-dredging and under-funding, restrictions which restrict commerce, restrictions which increase cost on commerce. For instance,
every time a vessels draft is decreased by one foot on the lower
Mississippi because of under-maintained waterways, this costs
shippers about $1 million against the value of their cargo. So that
is a tax on shippers; that is a tax on commerce, and it slows down
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the economy and holds us back from job creation and economic
growth.
So this is a problem we absolutely have to fix, and it is a problem
both Senator Boxer and I are very, very focused on in the WRDA
that we are working on.
One final thought. A lot of folks correctly say that we need even
more resources to fully account for, maintain, dredge, operate all
of this waterborne commerce and infrastructure. I agree, and I
want to be a leader in that effort and fully supportive of that effort.
But, of course, industry, the folks we would ask to pay those extra
resources, are not going to consider doing that if half of it is stolen
for unrelated purposes; and that is what is going on now.
So we need to fix that problem if we expect any more resources
to be put into the bucket. That is a simple and obvious request
from the folks who are paying the bill, so their commerce and their
freight can be transported in these harbors and along these waterways.
Thanks to all of our witnesses, and I look forward to a great discussion.
Senator BOXER. Thank you so much, Senator.
At this point I would ask unanimous consent to place into the
record a statement by Senator Gillibrand, who is over at the Armed
Services Committee. Without objection, I will do that.
[The prepared statement of Senator Gillibrand was not received
at time of print.]
Senator BOXER. Also place into the record a statement from Senator Levin, who has written the Harbor Maintenance Act, a bill to
require funds deposited into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund
be fully expended for operation and maintenance at our Nations
ports. Without objection, we will do that.
[The prepared statement of Senator Levin was not received at
time of print.]
Senator BOXER. I am pleased to call on Senator Udall.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. TOM UDALL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
Senator UDALL. Thank you.

Good morning and welcome, Madam Secretary. I want to express
my appreciation to you for being here and to Senators Boxer and
Vitter for holding this hearing on WRDA. Assistant Secretary
Darcy, I am sorry I wont be able to stay for the entire hearing, but
I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight three issues that are
of importance to New Mexico. Now, these arent harbor issues, as
you can imagine, but they are the closest thing New Mexico has to
harbors, as we had a million-year-old ancient sea which covered
much of New Mexico, but that is obviously gone.
I think we will see you again soon when we convene another
hearing on general WRDA issues, so I hope to discuss these issues
further at that time.
The issues I wanted to raise are the potential for flooding in our
major city, Albuquerque, NM; my continued support for the Rio
Grande Environmental Management Program; and, three, my concern over the current status of the project in the Rio Grande
Floodway, the San Acacia to Bosque Del Apache. The city of Albu-
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querque is our major metropolitan hub in New Mexico. I am particularly concerned about the effects flash flooding can have on our
levee system that protects the city.
The levees clearly need upgrading, and I am hoping that I can
work with you through the EPW Committee and through my additional role on Appropriations Committee to address this issue this
year.
Next, I want to reiterate my strong support for the Rio Grande
Environmental Management Program. I appreciate Chairman
Boxer including this provision in the current WRDA draft again,
but I am disappointed that it has not been funded. I would like to
urge the Corps to include this program in future budgets to help
with planning and conservation projects that will help balance the
complex tradeoffs between flood control, agriculture, and habitat.
The Rio Grande Basin is experiencing a severe drought that is
harming farmers and endangered species, so this program is sorely
needed.
Additionally, I hope the Corps can work with the Bureau of Reclamation and the International Boundary and Water Commission
about ways to better manage the Rio Grande infrastructure in
times of drought. We cant make it rain or snow, but we should
take every measure available to ensure that our available water
stretches as far as possible.
Finally, I understand that there is a disagreement between the
Corps and the Fish and Wildlife Service about how much mitigation is needed for the San Acacia levee project. I want to take this
opportunity to urge both organizations to do their best together toward a resolution on this so that the funding we have in place for
it is not diverted elsewhere.
There are obviously other projects in New Mexico that are of
great importance to me, but, since time is limited, I wanted to take
a minute to highlight those three. Again, I thank you, Madam Secretary. I look forward to working with you on these issues, and appreciate very much Chairman Boxer and Ranking Member Vitter
for this first hearing on WRDA. Thank you.
Senator BOXER. Thank you so much.
Without objection, I will place into the record Senator Inhofes
statement for this hearing. He is also over at the Armed Services.
[The prepared statement of Senator Inhofe follows:]
Thank you, Chairman Boxer and Ranking Member Vitter, for holding this hearing and allowing committee members to receive testimony on the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. I also would like to thank Assistant Secretary Darcy for testifying before us this morning, as well as the four gentlemen who will be joining us
during the second panelthis committee greatly appreciates you and relies on your
expertise, so thank you very much for being here.
I would like to also take a moment to thank the chairman, Senator Boxer, and
our new ranking member, Senator Vitter, for all the work they and their staffs have
done thus far on the next Water Resources Development Act. I look forward to
working with both of you as we build upon our past successes and continue to work
toward preserving and enhancing the infrastructure of this great Nation.
Certainly the most immediate challenge this committee faces is the authorization
of water resources development legislation. As Ive said time and time again, we as
a Congress must pass authorization bills on a regular schedule so as to preserve
the proper authorization-then-appropriations process. It has been 6 years now since
we passed the last Water Resources Development Act, despite the best efforts of this
committeeand that, in my judgment, is too long.
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Our harbors and inland waterways are vital to the economic health of our country. In my home State of Oklahoma, over 90 percent of the grain that is shipped
on barges eventually finds its way to New Orleans to be exported. If the harbor in
New Orleans is not properly maintained, shipping from Oklahoma will suffer. And
vice versafor harbors to gain the economic benefit of shipping from places like
Oklahoma, our inland waterways must also be properly maintained. As everyone
here knows, only about half of the annual revenue in the Harbor Maintenance Trust
Fund is spent as intendedon critical maintenance dredging. But because of the
current structure of budgetary allocations, we simply cannot afford to allow funding
for our inland waterways and ports to be redirectedit, too, needs a source of stable
revenue. The only reasonable solution is increased funding for the system as a
whole.
The Inland Waterways Trust Fund helps fund the 18 locks and dams on the
McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System, but it is woefully underfunded.
In 2012, over 2.7 million tons of cargo shipped from the Port of Catoosa, with over
12 million tons being shipped on MKARNS, but the system could function much
more efficiently and productively if it was deepened from its current 9-foot depth
to the authorized 12 feet, and if hours of service on the locks are not further reduced. This must be a priority.
I have said my entire career that I take fiscal responsibility very seriously. However, I believe the Federal Government has a responsibility to invest in national defense and infrastructure. In 2011 the President cut the Corps of Engineers budget
by $600 million and by $300 million again in 2012. Our nations system of inland
waterways, highways, and coastal ports are our pathway to trade and economic
prosperity, and we cannot continue this downward trajectory. Again, I thank the
witnesses and look forward to their testimony.
Senator BOXER. So now it is my pleasure to turn to Senator

Crapo.
Senator Crapo.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MIKE CRAPO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF IDAHO
Senator CRAPO. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman and

Ranking Member Vitter. A lot of us appreciate your holding this
important hearing to focus on the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.
Of interest, Idaho does actually have a seaport, contrary to New
Mexico. Idaho actually is home to the furthest inland seaport on
the West Coast. This port, the Port of Lewiston, is located at the
confluence of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers in the city of Lewiston. For farmers and other businesses in the west, the Port of
Lewiston provides a critical link through the Snake and Columbia
Rivers to the Port of Portland and ultimately to the Pacific Ocean.
However, the Port of Lewiston, like other ports, faces considerable challenges with meeting shipping needs. Despite a large surplus in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, which has already
been discussed, harbors across the United States are presently
under-maintained. Again, the statistics that have already been presented show that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates that
the full channel dimensions of the Nations busiest 59 ports are
available less than 35 percent of the time.
We too, in Idaho, are very interested and concerned with the
management of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. We have
seen, just as an example from Idaho, that the draft restrictions in
2011 and 2012, due to the Corps inability to maintain the deep
draft portion of the Columbia River, have been significant impacts
on our economy. For every inch of draft that is lost due to the
silted-in channel, vessels are unable to load 358,000 pounds of
wheat. This is just one example of how important it is that we
properly utilize the funds in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.
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Second, Idaho is also very interested in the Inland Waterways
Trust Fund concerns. There are eight locks between the Pacific
Ocean and the Port of Lewiston, and we need to have the adequate
support for the maintenance of these locks and the facilities to
allow for the traffic to reach the port and to return back to the Pacific Ocean.
So we are interested, Madam Chairman and Ranking Member
Vitter, not only in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, but also
in reforming and making more effective the Inland Waterways
Trust Fund that would enable us to have truly effective access to
and support of this critical waterway for our economy in the Northwest.
Each day the condition of our water infrastructure results in significant losses and damages from broken water and sewer mains,
sewage overflows and other symptoms of water infrastructure that
is reaching the end of its useful life; and with these challenges and
the others I have already mentioned in mind, as this Committee
is well aware, a national investment in water infrastructure
projects would create jobs, repair crumbling infrastructure, and
provide significant protection for public health and the environment. A strong focus on improving the financing structure of our
Nations water infrastructure is greatly needed.
Again, thank you again for holding this hearing, Senator Boxer
and Senator Vitter, and I look forward to the testimony we have
in todays witnesses.
Senator.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JEFF MERKLEY,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF OREGON
Senator MERKLEY. Thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank

you, Madam Secretary, for coming. I think you are hearing the general story of the significant challenges in maintaining levees and
jetties and harbor dredging and locks, and how frustrating it is
that we have funds tat are raised specifically for maintenance, and
in this case harbor maintenance, and they are not being spent in
that fashion.
Now, Oregon is a coastal State, so I go to town after town after
town where industry depends upon the success of those harbors
and the maintenance of the jetties; and not only is it important to
commerce moving back and forth, it is important to our fishing vessels, it is important to our recreational coastal industry, and it imposes not just an issue of commerce, but an issue of safety, because
when the dredging is not maintained and the jetties are not maintained, you can have very dangerous entries from the ocean.
So how can I possibly justify that we have funds that have been
raised for a specific purpose, commerce is at stake, safety is at
stake, and we are not spending it in this fashion? I cant justify it.
I want to see this policy changed. I so much applaud the Chair and
Ranking Member for bringing this bill forward and I, like my colleague from New Mexico, apologize because I have a conflict to attend to, but I certainly look forward to your comments. I will be
following up and hope that we can get to the point that we are
spending these funds in the appropriate place. Thank you.
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Senator Boozman, welcome.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BOOZMAN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ARIZONA
Senator BOOZMAN. Thank you, Madam Chair and Ranking Member Vitter, for having this very important hearing today. I am glad
that we are moving forward toward what I believe will be a strong,
bipartisan Water Resources Development Act early in the 113th
Congress, and I think that you are probably excited about that,
also, and there will be tremendous input from you.
I am also glad that the improvements to the harbor maintenance
may be part of this process. Every American benefits from the harbor maintenance. Well-maintained water infrastructure harbors
and inland waterways are critical to our farmers, job creators, exporters, manufacturers, and consumers.
One of our witnesses highlights the tremendous advantage American farmers enjoy over foreign competitors when the Mississippi
Rivers fully authorized dimensions. Water infrastructure does not
get the attention of our other transportation modes, but is an
indispensible part of our transportation system.
I believe in the principle that the Harbor Maintenance Trust
Fund should be fully used, but I also agree with our witnesses who
emphasize that the Trust Fund should be used to boost funding for
the Corps of Engineers. I am concerned that our budget process,
specifically limited allocations for energy and water, could result in
cuts to other Corps priorities if we dont do this properly.
In short, as one witnesss prepared remarks State, this should be
additive. Another witnesss prepared remarks State that the appropriations should not be taken from other Corps of Engineers programs due to the potential increased funding from the Harbor
Maintenance Trust Fund.
Another concern I have is how we move forward on equitable return of HMT dollars. Arkansas is an inland State, but we have significant water infrastructure. Our State, as many other States like
it, receives just a tiny portion of the Trust Fund dollars, but these
funds are critical.
While I understand the importance of equitable return, we need
to ensure that Arkansass infrastructure and similar States, that
that infrastructure is maintained. Expanding the potential uses of
Trust Fund dollars may be a balanced approach, but we must avoid
an inflexible framework, such as a rigid formula, which would
abandon infrastructure States like Arkansas.
Again, thank you all very much for having the hearing. I appreciate your leadership. I also appreciate the witnesses being here
and looking forward to their testimony; look forward to the conversation.
This Committee, again, has a history of being very friendly to the
Secretary, and trying to be supportive, and the rest of the witnesses. Regardless of what happens today, remember it could be
worse; you could be Senator Hagel over there right now in the
midst of his hearing. Thank you.
Senator BOXER. That was an unexpected truth.
[Laughter.]
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Senator BOXER. An unexpected truth.
We want to welcome you, Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of
the Army for Civil Works. I just want to thank you. This is a very
contentious issue. This is not a new issue. We have had people sitting right there on the same issue, where members here were
upset, but this is a circumstance that I think needs to be faced.
People are paying into a fund and guess what? They are not getting what they are supposed to get from it. It is not right. It would
be as if we paid into the Highway Trust Fund and the money was
used for something completely different. It is not right.
So I know you are in kind of the hot seat on it. We want to welcome you. We thank you for your service and what you are doing
to help us every day in our States. Please proceed.
STATEMENT OF HON. JO-ELLEN DARCY, ASSISTANT
SECRETARY OF THE ARMY, CIVIL WORKS
Ms. DARCY. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Boxer, Ranking

Member Vitter, and distinguished members of this Committee. I
want to thank you for the opportunity to testify on the Harbor
Maintenance Trust Fund and the importance of investment in the
Nations ports.
The Army Corps of Engineers provides support for safe, reliable,
highly cost-effective and environmentally sustainable waterborne
transportation systems, investing over $1.7 billion annually, more
than one-third of the total budget of the Civil Works program, to
study, construct, replace, rehabilitate, operate, and maintain commercial navigation infrastructure across this Country.
The Nations ports handle over 2 billion tons of commerce annually, including over 70 percent of the imported oil and more than
48 percent of goods purchased by American consumers.
The Administration understands that our ports are an important
part of the Nations infrastructure and has formed an Interagency
Task Force on Ports to develop a strategy for investment in our
ports and related infrastructure. Maintaining these ports and making targeted investments in their improvement can lower shipping
costs for U.S. exports and imports.
The work of the task force will reflect a strategic, multi-modal
view of the Nations investment priorities for the infrastructure
that supports the movement of freight through our ports, including
the protections for life, safety, and property during transport, as
well as protections for affected communities and for sustaining our
ecosystem.
The Harbor Maintenance Tax and the Harbor Maintenance Trust
Fund were established by the Water Resources Development Act of
1986. The harbor maintenance tax is an ad valorem fee on the
value of commercial cargo loaded or unloaded on vessels using federally maintained harbors. An amount equivalent to the revenue
collected is deposited in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and
is then available to finance certain costs, subject to the congressional appropriations process.
For the Civil Works Program, the Harbor Maintenance Trust
Fund is authorized to be used to finance up to 100 percent of the
Corps eligible operation and maintenance expenditures for commercial navigation at all Federal coastal and inland harbors within
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the United States. Expenditures from the Harbor Maintenance
Trust Fund are also authorized to be used to recover the Federal
share of construction costs for dredged material placement facilities, including beneficial uses associated with the operation and
maintenance of Federal commercial navigation projects. The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is also authorized to be used to finance operation and maintenance costs of the U.S. portion of the
St. Lawrence Seaway.
Harbor Maintenance Tax receipts in Fiscal Year 2012 were $1.54
billion, and the interest earned was $47.3 million. The balance in
the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund at the end of Fiscal Year 2012
was $6.95 billion.
An increasing portion of Civil Works funding in recent years has
been devoted to harbor maintenance. The Presidents 2013 budget
request for the Corps included $848 million for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to support the maintenance of coastal harbors
and their channels and related works, the most ever requested by
any president. This is a significant increase over the level in the
Fiscal Year 2012 budget, which was $758 million; this all at a time
when many programs governmentwide are being reduced in order
to put the Nation on a sustainable fiscal path.
Our investments in coastal port maintenance are directed primarily at providing operational capabilities and efficiencies. To
make the best use of these funds, the Corps evaluates and establishes priorities using objective criteria. These criteria include
transportation cost savings, risk reduction, and improved reliability, all relative to the cost. Consequently, maintenance work
generally is focused more on the most heavily used commercial
channels, those with 10 million tons of cargo a year or more, which
together carry about 90 percent of the total commercial cargo by
tonnage traveling through our coastal ports.
The amount proposed in the Fiscal Year 2013 budget is an appropriate level, considering the other responsibilities of the Corps for
inland navigation, flood risk management, aquatic ecosystem restoration, hydropower, and other Civil Works Program areas. The
Corps is working to develop better analytical tools to help determine whether additional spending in this area is warranted based
on the economic and safety return.
Dredging costs continue to rise due to increases in the cost of
fuel, steel, labor, and changes in methods of disposal of dredge material. We recognize that this presents challenges in maintaining
commercial navigation projects. The pending improvements to the
Panama Canal will increase the draft of vessels transiting the
Canal to 50 feet.
On our Atlantic Coast we now have two 50-foot deep ports capable of receiving these ships, Norfolk and Baltimore. The Corps expects to complete the dredging work for deepening the Port of New
York-New Jersey to 50 feet in fiscal year 2015. The Corps is also
working with the Port of Miami, which is financing a project, to
deepen the Federal channel to 50 feet.
On the West Coast, the Ports of L.A., Long Beach, Oakland, Seattle, and Tacoma all have channel depths of 50 feet or greater.
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In addition to the ongoing work, the Corps is also working with
seven ports on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts to evaluate proposals
to deepen or widen those channels.
Madam Chairman and members of the Committee, I look forward to answering any questions you have, and also to work with
you on this difficult issue as you prepare for the WRDA bill. Thank
you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Darcy follows:]
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Senator BOXER. Thank you very much for that. You know, you
stay away from the bigger notion, bigger issue here, which is is it
right to collect fees and then not spend them on this purpose that
they are supposed to be used for, and I dont blame you for staying
away from that because, in essence, you dont really have control
over that; the Administration does and prior administrations did,
and we do, and we intend to fix it to the greatest extent that we
can.
Now, the Corps has estimated that the Nations 59 busiest ports
have access to their full channel dimensions only 35 percent of the
time. These ports are critical for commerce and international trade.
Restrictions on commerce as a result of inadequate port maintenance can have significant consequences. In fact, a recent report by
the American Society of Civil Engineers, which we will hear about
on our second panel, indicates that failure to adequately maintain
our ports could result in a variety of economic impacts.
Do you agree that failure to invest in port maintenance could
have economic consequences that we must seek to avoid?
Ms. DARCY. Senator, I do believe it could have consequences;
however, I do see that we are investing in our ports. As I noted,
the President has asked for more money for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund than ever before. He has also established the
Interagency Task Force working with the Department of Management and Budget, as well as Transportation, to look at evaluating
what resources are needed for transportation, and we are hoping
that, in looking at transportation in the future, in addition to the
three Rs, which are always rail, road, and runways, it can now be
the four Rs and we can include rivers in that.
I think we need to look at the infrastructure all together, we
need to expand the way we have traditionally looked at it as just
mostly asphalt and make sure that we include the river systems
that need to be reliable for our economy.
Senator BOXER. Well, I do appreciate the President moving in the
right direction, but I still note he is still not spending all that came
into the Fund, and I still note that 59 busiest ports have access to
their full channel dimensions only 35 percent of the time, and I
just think that is as clear as anything; it just shows that we are
not doing enough. But yes, the President is definitely moving in the
right direction, but he still isnt using all the funds that come into
the Trust Fund.
When Congress created the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, it
sought to recoup the cost necessary to operate and maintain U.S.
ports and waterways, but, as we have said, much less is spent on
operations and maintenance than is collected, and, as you point
out, it is in the billions.
Do you believe it is important to increase the amount expended
from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund so that we can better
maintain the Nations ports?
Ms. DARCY. Senator, I believe the amount that is in the Presidents request for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is appropriate at this time, given all of the other fiscal constraints that we
are faced with within not only the Corps, but across the Country.
Senator BOXER. Well, I hear you doing what you should do,
which is defending the Presidents budget. I appreciate you are in
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that situation, but, again, this, to me, isnt about this President.
This President is doing more than any other president, there is no
doubt, but we are in a bad situation here because we are the leading economy in the world and yet, still, we have problems at our
ports. I can tell you, at our ports back home, just out of Los Angeles-Long Beach, about 40 percent of the imports; and you just cant
afford to have problems at the ports.
Let me just go here. You said you would work with us, which I
really appreciate, even though, perhaps, the Administration doesnt
like what we have come out with on this particular issue. Would
you be available for technical assistance? Because we may need to
call on you for that.
Ms. DARCY. Absolutely, Senator.
Senator BOXER. Good.
Ms. DARCY. It would be the first time in my career that I had
not worked on a WRDA bill.
Senator BOXER. I know. Well, we cant let that happen. We have
to use all your experience here. But I think the bottom line is we
are moving in the right direction, but we are certainly not there
because we are still not spending the revenues that come in. Nobody has looked at the backlog and how we can possibly offset
those billions, but Senator Vitter and I, and the rest of our colleagues, are very strong on this, so it is going to be a central piece
of our WRDA bill.
Senator Vitter.
Senator VITTER. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you,
Madam Secretary, for your service. This is something you can tell,
I hope, we are communicating that we care passionately about and
it is thoroughly bipartisan.
Madam Secretary, in your testimony you noted the authorized
uses of this money. It was first set up in WRDA in 1986, Section
210. It was amended a little bit in WRDA 90, Section 316, and you
listed the uses. Are there any other authorized uses?
Ms. DARCY. There is a certain percentage, about $30 million a
year, maybe a little more, that goes to, the St. Lawrence Seaway,
and then there is a portion I think it is about $3 million to $5 million annually that goes to the Treasury and the Customs Service
for the administrative costs of the program.
Senator VITTER. Right. I was thinking of that too. But given that
entire list, are there any other authorized uses?
Ms. DARCY. No, sir.
Senator VITTER. In fact, isnt that money spent on plenty of other
things every year that are not those authorized uses?
Ms. DARCY. Senator, the receipts go directly into the Harbor
Maintenance Trust Fund through the Treasury and then the Bureau of Public Debt, which manages 18 different trust funds across
the Government, then is the dispenser of those funds when our
agency says we have been appropriated this much money and that
is what comes out of the Fund.
Senator VITTER. Doesnt the other money come out of the Fund
for other unauthorized uses, unrelated uses?
Ms. DARCY. The balance of the funds are invested and accumulate interest, and it is up to the Bureau of Public Debt as to how
those funds then are used.
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Senator VITTER. Well, if there is this balance of $6.95 billion,
what vault can I go to and look at it? That is what I am asking.
Because it doesnt exist. So where can I look at that balance of almost $7 billion?
Ms. DARCY. Again, those are the Federal investments in securities, for the most part, I understand, and then the interest that accrues on that is what gets you to that balance.
Senator VITTER. Well, again, this is a big fiction, and I think the
first important part of this conversation is to get beyond the fiction.
It is the same fiction as the Social Security Trust Fund, because
when you go and look at that balance, basically this is what you
find, IOU $6.95 billion. It is gone, it is spent for unrelated purposes, and that is wrong when it is authorized for specific uses
under the law.
Now, you mentioned this administrative task force looking at
water infrastructure, looking at all of this big picture. Is that task
force going to come up with a solution that ensures that all of this
Trust Fund money is spent regularly for its intended uses?
Ms. DARCY. We will be looking at the uses of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and how that can help to ensure that the future
of the navigation system is adequate. I cant tell you, at this point,
what it is we are going to say or do, but it is something that we
will definitely be considering.
Senator VITTER. Well, what you have done previously in that regard is to just want to tremendously expand the uses. Now, there
may be some room for that, but if you just expand the uses to all
sorts of other things, you dont solve this problem, the same thing
happens. That is what is happening now. So let me just repeat the
question. Is the task force focused on our central question today,
which is ensuring that all of the revenue into the Trust Fund is
spent for authorized uses under statute?
Ms. DARCY. It is one of the issues that will be focused on, Senator. We will also be looking at the uses for the other trust funds,
including the Inland Waterway Trust Fund. This is a navigation
system; it is not just a port system, it is an inland waterway system as well, that we must maintain given the other competing
uses, as well as what the other agencies, including OMB and the
Department of Transportation, and Commerce, can bring to the
table as we look at it as a system.
Senator VITTER. Let me ask a related question that I mentioned
in my opening statement. A lot of folks, including me, think it is
going to take more resources to fully maintain this vital infrastructure that is important for the economy. Do you think it is reasonable to expect the folks affected, like industry, to pay more into
anything when it is being diverted, in this case, to unrelated uses?
Ms. DARCY. I dont think that we would expect people to pay
more. I understand, that since the total balance is not being spent
in the intended use, that there would be a concern by those paying
the tax that there be some way to get the return on what it is they
are paying for.
Senator VITTER. I will close with this. I am out of time. I think
you all have already proposed they are paying more in some instances, like, for instance, lockage fees, just one instance. I am just
pointing out I think it is a commonsense nonstarter to even have
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that discussion if half of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is
being diverted for unrelated purposes. Thank you very much.
Senator BOXER. Thank you, Senator.
What we are going to do is Senator Boozman will ask his questions and then we will go to Senators Barrasso and Sessions to use
their 5 minutes for either an opening statement, questions, or both.
Senator Boozman.
Senator BOOZMAN. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Again, thanks for being here, and we do appreciate your office.
You have always been very open as we have approached you with
different difficulties relating to all of this and, like I say, we appreciate that. You were a big help with the recent crisis on the Mississippi River, which is kind of an ongoing thing with the dredging
and stuff, making it such that we were able to get our farm products out. Again, you cant always help us, but you always do listen,
and we do appreciate that.
As Senator Boxer mentioned, in your data and in a recent CRS
report, it keeps coming up the busiest 59 ports are available less
than 35 percent of the time as far as their full channel width and
depth; and then the CRS report goes on to point out that that
makes it such that the vessels are less efficient, they cant carry
as much, there is essentially more prone to accident and things like
that. So that is a serious problem; I think we all agree with that.
In your testimony you mention while the Corps could spend more
on harbor maintenance and related work, the amount proposed in
the 2000 budget for this purpose, which is financed from the HMTF
is an appropriate level, and then you go on considering the other
challenges that you face.
I guess, for me, it is hard to reconcile that. If only 35 percent is
operational on a given day, and yet to come back and say that you
are happy with the funding that you are getting.
Ms. DARCY. I think I said appropriate, not happy. But in looking
at the overall budget for the Corps of Engineers, we have to manage for all of the missions within the Corps, we operate under a
cap, and we know that if you increase one mission, there must be
a decrease somewhere else within the program.
As I said in my statement, over one-third of our budget, $1.7 billion, is spent on navigation, and that additional money that does
not come out of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is spent on
other studies or construction, because the Harbor Maintenance
Trust Fund does not fund construction.
Senator BOOZMAN. So you mention the cap, which is a concern,
and you also mention that we are going to be increasing the money
spent from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. So where is that
coming from, is that new money or is that money that you are essentially shuffling around, so that something else under the cap is
going to suffer?
Ms. DARCY. The 2013 budget request which includes $848 million
is $90 million more than Fiscal Year 2012. Within our program we
had to make a decision as to how to balance preograms, because
we are still under the $4.7 billion program. We did put more money
on activities reimbursed from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund,
so some of the other programs like some of our other operation and
maintenance activities were reduced. Although operation and main-
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tenance has also increased in our overall budget over the last couple of years. We would have to take decreases in some other programs, including some of our CAP programs, which are our small
project programs. Again, the overall program has to be balanced
across all the business lines within our budget.
Senator BOOZMAN. So I guess that is really the real problem. It
doesnt matter how much we put into the Harbor Maintenance
Trust Fund; the reality is it really wouldnt be any additional new
money.
Ms. DARCY. No. But also within the budget process, when the appropriations committees get their 302(b) allocations, there is a cap
in there, and there is Army Corps of Engineers within that 302(b),
there is the Nuclear Program, there is the Energy Program. So the
balance within that allocation would have to either be increased in
order to accommodate increases across all the programs.
Senator BOOZMAN. Right. OK. Thank you very much.
Senator BOXER. Thank you.
Senator Barrasso, welcome.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BARRASSO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WYOMING
Senator BARRASSO. Thank you, Madam Chairman.

We agree in a bipartisan way that our Nations harbors and
ports are vital to the economic growth of the entire Country. The
majority of our Nations ports are along the coasts and the Great
Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, but the products that our Country exports come from all 50 States and, in the case of the west, many
are exported from river ports. I think it is vital that the Country
maintain all ports for the benefit of the people whose jobs depend
on these exports and the communities where they live.
So American exports really are one of the backbones of our economy, and it doesnt matter which sector of the economy, whether
it is high-tech manufacturing, whether it is the aerospace industry,
automobile production, pharmaceuticals, ranches, farms, mineral
extraction. All of these sectors require modern, fully functioning
ports and growing ports to export our products.
Now, the White House has stated that it is putting a priority on
maintaining and improving ports, streamlining the barriers to port
projects. In July of last year, the President established the White
House Task Force on Ports. The mission calls for improved coordination and streamlined review of investments in port-related infrastructures. Last July, on the 19th, the White House announced
that five major ports in the eastern United States would receive
help in making the permitting and review process for infrastructure projects more effective and efficient, saving time while driving
better outcomes for local communities. Those ports include, as you
know, Jacksonville, Savannah, New York, New Jersey, and the
Port of Charleston.
Madam Chairman, I believe that all American ports, especially
in the west, need a quicker, more efficient review process for building and expanding their operations as well.
So the questions that I have are do you agree with the Presidents initiative with regard to the need for expanding port projects
across the Country?
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Ms. DARCY. Yes, Senator.
Senator BARRASSO. In his State of the Union Address, going back
even to 2010, President Obama announced the National Export Initiative, stating, We will double our exports over the next 5 years,
an increase that will support 2 million jobs in America.
How close do you think we are to achieving that goal?
Ms. DARCY. I think we will achieve the goal by 2015. I think the
fact that this budget reflects an increase in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, as well as other investments in navigation, will
help to prove that not only within the Army Corps of Engineers,
but across the Government, including the Department of Transportation.
Senator BARRASSO. Yesterday, the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy had actually shrank, which would
defy the expectations. CNBC reported that the economy shrank
from October through December for the first time since the recession ended, and they had a number of different reasons that they
listed, one of which was fewer exports. So I dont know if you are
aware of the report, but do you believe we need to increase the export of all American goods by mobilizing and modernizing our Nations ports in an expeditious and fiscally responsible manner to
help address this falling exports?
Ms. DARCY. I think that we do, and I think that we will be able
to meet the goal by 2015.
Senator BARRASSO. Finally, you said in your written testimony
the White House created this Task Force on Ports in July of last
year. According to the White House announcement, the Task Force,
they said, will develop a strategy to inform future investment decisions and identify opportunities for improved coordination and
streamlined review of investments and port-related infrastructures.
Now, your agency is one of the 10 Federal agencies involved in
this project. Can you give us an update as to the progress of the
Task Force?
Ms. DARCY. Yes, Senator. Actually, I think we have a meeting
next week, but I have to check. What we have done is establish the
principles of what it is we want to move forward on, and part of
what we have already done, is working with the other Federal
agencies, looking across programs as to where we are making our
investments.
For example, the Corps of Engineers, as you know, operates and
maintains and dredges ports and harbors, and the Department of
Transportation has what is called the TIGER Grant Program,
where they make investments on the land side at different ports
around the Country. Working with the Department of Transportation, we have looked at where we have our ports deepening and
where it would make sense for an investment to be made on the
land side, so that we are not working at cross purposes with the
Federal investment in that port on the land side.
Senator BARRASSO. Well, thank you. I think all of us look forward to seeing the Task Force recommendation in a timely manner.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Senator BOXER. Thank you very much.
Senator Sessions, welcome.
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OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JEFF SESSIONS,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ALABAMA
Senator SESSIONS. Madam Chairman, involved as I know Senator

Inhofe is now with the Armed Services hearing on the confirmation
of former Senator Hagel, and I am sorry to have missed earlier.
Thank you for having this hearing, Madam Chairman. I congratulate you particularly because looking at the amount of money spent
under the energy and water appropriations, harbor maintenance is
about 1 percent. So it is an important 1 percent, and I am glad that
you found time to have a hearing on it. It is not as much money
as has been coming in.
We have a chart, I think, as you just pointed out, has been mentioned before, but this indicates in blue how much of the funds that
are coming in are actually spent on harbor maintenance and how
much finances the rest of the Government, and our smart staff
found that that surplus would make a huge difference for harbors
and ports, but only funds for the Government for 3 hours, in terms
of what it would contribute to the overall spending.
So thank you for your presence here, and I think we will be looking at how to deal with some of the issues. I am skeptical about
proposals that give the Corps more authority and Congress less
control over water resources, and I am skeptical about creating
new programs when we are having a hard time funding the ones
we have, and I do think we have to confront this issue of our ports
and how we get there.
I know the Chairman and Ranking Member understand that one
of my problems is fixing this surplus or using more of it has budget
consequences that we cant ignore, and that makes it harder than
we would like it to be. The President has submitted spending the
money in that fashion and Congress has gone along with that, so
if we change it, it wont be as easy as a lot of people might think,
but I think we need to work in that direction.
So I guess I wont ask any questions now, Madam Chairman.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here.
I guess I would just ask Secretary Darcy would this surplus, if
it allowed to be utilized by you and for harbor maintenance, make
a substantial improvement in our ability to meet the needs of harbor maintenance?
Ms. DARCY. It would.
Senator SESSIONS. That is an easy question. Thank you.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator BOXER. Well, that is the point of this hearing. We thank
you for your honest answer, and your very good question and your
brilliant staffs chart.
Now, we thank you very much, and we will work closely with
you, as we have in the past, on this whole harbor maintenance
issue, because it will, Senator Sessions and Senator Boozman, a big
part of our WRDA bill. So we really want to reform this situation
so we dont put somebody like Jo-Ellen Darcy in a tough situation,
and the future Jo-Ellen Darcys, because this is an issue that both
Republican and Democratic presidents have handled the same way;
they have never spent on the harbor maintenance what comes into
the Fund. So we thank you very much.
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We will ask our second panel to come up and, as they do, I will
be introducing Michael Christensen and Senator Vitter will be introducing Mike Lorino, Senator Sessions will be introducing Mr.
Lyons, and I will introduce Mr. Cairns. Is that right? OK.
So please step forward. This is an excellent panel we have coming forward because they work with these issues and these policies
every single day.
So, Mr. Christensen, I will introduce you. You are the Deputy
Executive Director of Development and No. 2 ranked executive at
the Port of Los Angeles. That is a big job. You are responsible for
oversight of the planning, the permitting, the design, and construction of all port infrastructure.
Mr. Christensen is a transportation engineer with over 35 years
of experience in the planning, design, and construction of a wide
variety of port, rail, and highway programs. Mr. Christensen also
serves as Chair of the California Marine Affairs and Navigation
Conference, and he is a member of the California Association of
Port Authorities.
Well, welcome to you, and I am sure you cant wait to get back
home after witnessing some of the winds out there. Please do begin
your testimony.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL R. CHRISTENSEN, PE, DEPUTY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT, PORT OF LOS ANGELES; CHAIR, CALIFORNIA MARINE AFFAIRS AND NAVIGATION CONFERENCE
Mr. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you very much, Chairman Boxer,

Ranking Member Vitter, and Senators for this opportunity to testify on behalf of the Port of Los Angeles, the California Association
of Port Authorities, and the California Marine Affairs and Navigation Conference. I am Michael Christensen and, as was mentioned,
I am the Deputy Executive Director at the Port of Los Angeles responsible for all of the capital improvements and infrastructure at
the Nations largest container port.
The Port of Los Angeles, in conjunction with our neighbor, the
Port of Long Beach, handles over 40 percent of all the containerized goods that come into the United States, worth approximately
$311 billion. This cargo supports about 900,000 regional jobs, nearly $40 billion in annual wages and tax revenues, and nationally the
goods that come through the port complex of Southern California
support also about 3.5 million jobs throughout the United States.
We are not tax supported; instead, our revenues are all derived
from fees and from other shipping service revenue.
Now, I am testifying today on behalf of a number of organization.
One is the California Association of Port Authorities, which is comprised of the States 11 publically owned commercial ports. It is
dedicated to maintaining vigorous and vital port industry throughout the State of California.
I also serve right now as Chair of the California Marine Affairs
and Navigation Conference, which is also a consortium of California harbors and ports, both large and small, along with marine
interest groups dedicated to optimizing Californias maritime benefits by supporting the maintenance and improvement of Californias
harbors, ports, and navigation projects.
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We very much appreciate the purpose of this hearing on HMT.
It is a critical source of funding, as has been mentioned a number
of times, for the ports and harbors not only within our State, but
also within the entire Country in order to keep us globally competitive. With the sense of Congress in support of full use of the HMT
that was included in MAP21 and the changes contemplated in
this draft of the WRDA, we are encouraged that are being taken
to improve HMT.
The maintenance that is funded by HMT supports a well-functioning navigation system that includes the ports and harbors that
accommodate a wide variety of commodities: containers, bulk
goods, agriculture products, automobiles, fisheries, and also serve
these facilities of service critical harbors of refuge. The system not
only supports jobs in operation and maintenance, but facilitates
trade that supports jobs throughout the supply chain throughout
the United States, reduces the transportation costs for American
businesses, and ultimately keeps the prices lower for American consumers.
For this reason, the California ports support the following: No.
1, full utilization of HMT revenues for operations and maintenance
purposes; No. 2, the prioritization of HMT funds for use on traditional O&M purposes, including maintenance of Federal navigation
channels, disposal sites, selected in-water projects such as breakwaters and jetties, and studies; No. 3, more equitable return of
HMT funds to the systems of ports of California; and, No. 4, a costshare formula for maintenance that reflects the current cargo fleet.
First, we believe HMT should be fully used for O&M purposes.
Appropriations from the HMTF have lagged behind receipts for
several years, leaving a surplus and deferring maintenance on our
Nations system of ports and harbors. Achievement of full use of
the HMT should be additive in nature. That is, in a given fiscal
year, the guarantee of full utilization should not be achieved by
taking funds from other U.S. Army Corps priorities.
We commend you for including the full utilization and the additive aspects in this draft of the WRDA. We support a more equitable allocution framework within WRDA. Even if HMT funds are
fully utilized for O&M, we believe efforts should be made to increase the funding return to systems that contribute large amounts
to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.
One of the reasons we believe in this approach is because the
users, not the ports, pay into the harbor maintenance tax. The
users of the California port systems, for example, have reasonable
expectation that the money they pay would be returned to the systems that they use.
Now, based on these facts, we believe that an equitable return
should be part of an HMT reform effort and, in fact, the American
Association of Port Authorities has come out with an equity principle that I am sure they will be sharing with you.
Senator BOXER. I am going to ask you to sum up, if you can.
Mr. CHRISTENSEN. In conclusion, I would like to again thank you
again, Chairman Boxer and Ranking Member Vitter, for
prioritizing the WRDA authorization and allowing me the opportunity to provide testimony on behalf of the California Ports and
Harbors. I would like to reiterate our support for full utilization of
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HMT for its intended purpose, an equitable return in updating the
cost-share formulas. As you continue to work on the reforms for
HMT, the California ports would like to offer our continued assistance and support. Please refer to my written testimony for some
of the other information, and I am available for questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Christensen follows:]
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Senator BOXER. Thank you so much, Mr. Christensen.
Due to his schedule, Senator Sessions, we are going to ask you
to introduce your witness, Mr. Lyons, who will then testify, and
then we will move to Mr. Lorino, introduced by Senator Vitter.
Senator SESSIONS. Thank you. Appreciate that very much.
Mr. James K. Lyons, we call Jimmy, has served as Director and
CEO of the Alabama State Docks since 1999. He is a senior port
director, one of them around the Country. A native of Mobile. He
spent four decades in the maritime industry. The port has done exceedingly well, Jimmy. Congratulations on your leadership. We
have seen hundreds of millions of dollars in capital improvements.
Those investments are paying off. Steel shipments were up in
2012 26 percent; containers were up 31 percent; export coal shipments increased substantially. So the port is doing well. It also is
unusual in the sense that we export a lot more out of the Mobile
Port than most ports as a percentage of the cargo, and that reduces, in some way, the money that comes in, but it is really great
for job creation and that sort of thing.
So he is involved in many activities, including being on the
Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank in Birmingham and
married to Beth Marietta Lyons, an attorney and prominent
Mobilian herself.
Thank you, Madam Chairman.
Mr. Lyons, I wont call you by your first name, although I am extremely tempted to. Mr. Lyons, we really do welcome you, and the
floor is yours.
STATEMENT OF JAMES K. LYONS, DIRECTOR & CEO, ALABAMA
STATE PORT AUTHORITY
Mr. LYONS. Thank you, Madam Chairman, Ranking Member

Vitter, and distinguished members of the Committee. Thank you
for this opportunity to discuss the Harbor Maintenance Trust
Fund.
I am going to try to bring a little bit of local perspective to some
of the facts and figures that I have here in my written statement.
These facts and figures have been quoted several times here today,
but I will try to bring a little bit of local perspective and just sort
of bringing it down into the micro aspect.
Mobile is amongst the 90 percent of the Nations top 50 ports in
foreign trade commerce that require regular maintenance dredging.
In total, dredged ports move nearly 93 percent of all waterborne
commerce by weight annually.
The 35 percent availability is a very real figure, something that
we can attest to from Mobile, and in talking to my fellow port directors in other ports, I believe this is a very real number. As an
example, between 2006, after we finished the dredging cycle that
included supplemental funding that came as a result of Hurricane
Katrina, and 2011, Mobile had only half of our authorized width in
much of our 30-mile-long channel. These conditions caused numerous groundings, forced restrictions in vessel traffic, and, in short,
cost the shippers using our port a great deal of time and money.
The budget versus the appropriation in Mobile is, again, very
real, just as it is. We saw the figures in the chart that Senator Ses-
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sions put up. Mobiles 2012 budget was $22.6 million, but we really
need $28 million to fully maintain our authorized width and depth.
So enough money is not being appropriated in the Mobile harbor
project, and the same applies to many of our other projects that require dredging.
These poorly maintained harbors increase the cost for all port
users, reduce U.S. global competitiveness, and exacerbate the
maintenance dredging backlog, all of which adversely impact the
U.S. tax base and the job market.
Aside from dredging backlogs and funding shortfalls, we are
deeply concerned with how the Nations ports will be expanded,
funded, and maintained in the current fiscal climate.
As Congress considers requests for use of the Trust Fund to resolve the dredging conundrum, we ask Congress to consider the
long-term relevance and economic impact of ports within the context of re-examining the base of all major Federal spending and tax
programs.
There is legitimate need for port investment to serve larger vessels transiting most trade lanes. Any Federal project investments
will ultimately draw on the trust as deepened and widened channels are brought online. We recognize the link between fee collections and expenditures is complicated. Increased maintenance
spending on harbors will impact the Federal deficit unless spending
in other areas is decreased or other collections are increased.
We also understand guaranteed funding for dredging, and the
budget protects dredging obligations from competing interests with
revenue sources of type. We are also mindful that any guarantee
limits congressional discretion to make tradeoffs in spending priorities. Our fiscal realities necessitate policies that discourage zero
balance or expanded uses of the Trust Fund.
The Committee has been very supportive of dredging in large
and small ports, and we applaud the Committees work in MAP
21. Congressional intent notwithstanding, there is still no provision
to dedicate Trust revenues to fully maintain our ports.
Regardless of how increased allocation for port maintenance
dredging is addressed absent offsets otherwise, solutions are likely
to increase the Federal deficit.
The Port Authority supports fiscally responsible priorities in the
use of the Trust Fund and encourages Congress to mandate full
maintenance funding of existing Federal projects first and foremost. We also request Congress resist expanded use of the Trust
to guarantee a reliable maintenance funding source for future
growth.
The State Port Authority thanks the Committee for its leadership in recognizing the nexus between water resources and economic prosperity. Thank you for this opportunity, and I would be
glad to address any questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Lyons follows:]
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54
Senator SESSIONS. Madam Chair.
Senator BOXER. Yes, go right ahead.
Senator SESSIONS. Thank you for that.
One point I would like to make that is important, I think, to all
our ports, Jimmy, and that is the ports themselves are supported
locally, too, by State funding and bond issues and that kind of
thing. We are not asking the Federal Government to do all of this
work. Can you give us an indication of how much the State has
helped you maintain your operation?
Mr. LYONS. Our State really does not providethey have provided us with some capital funding. In my tenure, in the last 14
years, they have provided some capital funding that enabled us to
serve as a basis for a large capital program, a 10-year program
that we did. That was $100 million out of $700 million. But as far
as operations, debt service, etcetera, we are a self-sustaining entity.
We are an enterprise agency; we strive to make money so that we
can generate capital to continue to reinvest in our facilities and pay
our share of the Federal project.
Senator SESSIONS. That is a bond issue that you pay back?
Mr. LYONS. It is.
Senator BOXER. Thank you.
Senator SESSIONS. Thank you.
Senator BOXER. So am I right to assume that this funding for
O&M is very important to you, because the State doesnt do that?
Mr. LYONS. Yes, it is critical. The State has not stepped in on
any of the O&M or any of the expansion projects that we have done
over the last 14 years; it has been all Port Authority.
Senator BOXER. I think that is an important point because, Senator, this is really a classic case of private-public partnership. But
we do have this important role, and you will be happy to know, before you came in, I am sure you know this, that we are working
very closely with your staff and all of us to make sure that these
funds are spent for their purpose, the purpose for which they are
being collected, and it is critical because right now the funds are,
frankly, going to make it look like we have a stockpile of $6 billion
somewhere, which, as Senator Vitter points out, is illusory.
So what we are going to do now is turn to Senator Vitter to introduce his witness, Mr. Lorino, and then we are going to go to Mr.
Cairns. After that we will turn to Senator Cardin and Senator
Cardin will have the opportunity, after the last witness, to make
his opening statement and then ask whatever questions.
OK.
Senator VITTER. Thank you, Madam Chair.
I want to welcome Captain Mike Lorino. Captain Lorino is a lifelong resident of Louisiana, living along the Mississippi River for almost 40 years of his life. He was first elected to the oldest pilot association on the entire river in August 1972, and after a 5-year apprenticeship he was fully commissioned as a bar pilot in 1978.
Then he served on the board of that bar pilots association, then as
vice president, and today he serves as president of that important
association.
For those of you who arent familiar with what a pilot, a river
pilot, not an airline pilot, is, they safely guide those huge ships entering the mouth of, in this case, the Mississippi River to ports and
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avoid accidents, any one of which could cause a multibillion dollar
industry to come to a dead stop and maybe be an environmental
disaster. So he is a true expert.
He proved his expertise a couple years ago, in June 2011, June
9th. A big ship, the Ratna Puja, ran aground in the lower Mississippi, just above Cubits Gap. The way I found out about it at
6:30 in the morning is Mike Lorino called me and said the entire
lower Mississippi is shut down right down.
Authorized depth is 45 feet. That depth at the time was, maximum, 42 feet; and it ran aground, shut the whole river down.
What is even more interesting is the way the Corps found out
about it. General Peabody, who is in charge of dredging, was when
I called him at 6:32 in the morning. I had been arguing with General Peabody to properly dredge the lower Mississippi for a week
right at that time. He had resisted. Needless to say, the dredges
arrived that afternoon, finally.
But that is what we need to avoid, shutting down something like
the entire lower Mississippi. By the way, it could have been much
worse because the cargo on the Ratna Puja was black oil. Thank
God we didnt have a big spill.
Thank you, Mike, for being here.
STATEMENT OF MIKE LORINO, PRESIDENT,
ASSOCIATED BRANCH PILOTS
Mr. LORINO. Thank you, Chairman Boxer and Ranking Member

Vitter and distinguished members of the Committee.
Chairman, I was honored to be here last year at this, but I can
say this, listening to the conversations thus far this morning, I can
see this process has grown legs and is moving forward, and I need
to commend you and also the Ranking Member and members of
this Committee for doing that. It is unbelievable how much can be
done in 1 year when you put your mind to it, as we do, too.
But the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is not a Louisiana
issue, it is a Nation issue. It is an ad valorem tax for dredging jetties, breakwaters, and it is being abused. Seven million dollars is
just being moved somewhere else.
A little bit about the Mississippi. The Mississippi River touches
31 States and two Canadian provinces. We have five deepwater
ports, the largest complex in the world. Not in the United States;
in the world. Last year, my association that I represent, we did
12,000 ships in the Mississippi River. There was 40,000 movements
of vessels from the mouth of the river to Baton Rouge, 40,000 in
1 year. It is unbelievable. Thirty percent of the Nations oil, 60 percent of the Nations grain is shipped out of the Mississippi River
system.
If we would shut down the Mississippi River, and that has happened a few times, it is $295 million a day for the Country, and
grows exponentially after the fourth day. A hundred percent of the
channel helps us maintain cost effectiveness in the world market,
$0.13 per bushel saving over highways or rail when dimensions are
100 percent.
Narrow channels hinder our ability to compete globally. What
happens there, a ship will come in to load cargo and he cant get
it all on that ship. So one would think, well, we will send it to the
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West Coast. That works for 1 year. After that we cannot compete
with Brazil and Argentina. Now our prices are gone. Our farmers
in the heartland lose that business. It is not acceptable when we
have this money coming in.
A closed Mississippi River system would dramatically affect gas
prices, grain prices, all exports and imports. After our Hurricane
Katrina, gas prices went up overnight because we had the refineries on the river. We couldnt get fuel oil out; we couldnt get aviation oil out. It is unbelievable. We need this.
Someone mentioned about environmental. That is gigantic. We
had an oil spill down there with BP. We have tankers coming in
the Mississippi River system with 600,000 barrels of oil on one
ship. If that ship runs ground and puts a hole, we have another
BP in the Mississippi River system. But the travesty for that is
very simple: that ship is paying. It is importing here, paying that
tax, and here he could run aground and have another problem after
he is paying money to come into the United States. That is unacceptable, ladies and gentlemen.
Current draft at the present time is 45 by 700 feet. Channel
width is crucial. Last year we were down to 100 feet from 750. We
had to have one-way traffic.
Now, I must say something. The Corps of Engineers does a great
job when they have equipment and money, Chairman. I just wanted to make sure I said that for the record.
The cost for the Mississippi River for the last 5 years, we have
been underfunded by approximately $50 million a year. Fifty million a year. You know what I have to look for, and it is a shame
in our great Country? I have to look for a catastrophe to put a supplemental on there to get funding. That is not the way it should
be. That is not the way it should be.
Safety. Safety is a huge, huge factor. Chairman, you had an incident out there in California a few years ago. You know what happens when oil is dropped in the water: everybody is concerned; especially a pilot, especially the owners. We cant have that. It happens sometimes with human error. It happens sometimes with mechanical. But it is not acceptable to have it happen when we have
money coming in to keep our channels and ports open to project dimensions.
The Administration said they would like to double exports. How
can we double exports when I cant load what we have today? It
is impossible. I am just a pilot.
Solutions? We need the legislation that the Chairman and Ranking Member and this Committee are talking about. We need the
point of order to be used. I know why the point of order, nobody
wants it, because then you can challenge it and stop it. We need
to have it like they have it in the Aviation Fund, so we can have
this money directed for what it needs to be used for. This is a problem that can be fixed with no new taxes. The money is being collected.
Solution? Yes, maam, I am finished. Solutions? We need 100 percent.
I thank you once again, Chairman Boxer, for this invitation,
Ranking Member and distinguished members, and I would be
happy to answer any questions.
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[The prepared statement of Mr. Lorino follows:]
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Senator BOXER. Well, Mr. Lorino, let me thank you for that excellent testimony, beautiful testimony. You make the point. If our
roads, well, you didnt say roads, I am saying if our roads and our
waterways are clogged, we cant double exports. We can barely
keep up with what we have got. Your State and my State particularly understand this, other States as well.
I am going to call on Senator Vitter just to bid his farewell, because he is going off to give aI mean to question Senator
[Laughter.]
Senator VITTER. Well, I want to particularly thank Mike for his
very concrete, persuasive testimony. I just want to underscore two
things about what he said and then make a final comment about
what we are working on.
First of all, I want to underscore, because maybe not everybody
heard it, lower Mississippi River, biggest waterway in the Country,
one of the biggest in the world, reduced in some cases to one-way
traffic. That is like having the biggest interState in the Country
and people around there get up 1 day and there is an announcement, oh, I10 is one-way today for the foreseeable future. If you
want to go east, you better go from midnight to noon; if you want
to go west, plan on noon to midnight. Crazy. Crazy.
Second, funding for the lower Mississippi, this is the last 5 years
Mike talked about, average funding in the normal process, under
$60 million. The average total funding after the supplementals we
need to manufacturer, over $130 million. That is not the full need
because that even involves restricted width and depth.
My final statement is we are hard at work and making a lot of
progress on a fully bipartisan WRDA. We are going to come out
with that relatively soon and it absolutely is going to address this
crucial challenge. I thank all of you and all the Committee members, particularly the Chair, for that work.
Senator BOXER. Thank you so much, Senator Vitter.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Madam Chairman?
Senator BOXER. Let me just tell you what I plan to do, and then
I will call on you. I was going to have our last witness, because we
interrupted our witnesses, our last witness, then I was going to go
to Senator Cardin, Senator Whitehouse for your opening statement
and questions. Did you have a particular response?
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. I had hoped to respond before the Ranking
Member left, but he has now left.
Senator BOXER. Oh.
Mr. WHITEHOUSE. So I will make my point during my opening
statement time.
Senator BOXER. That would be wonderful. I am sorry. I know he
is rushing off to question.
So we will move on to Mr. Cairns is a professional engineer with
over 25 years of engineering and management experience, with the
last 20 working exclusively in the port and maritime engineering
field. Mr. Cairns presently serves as the Northeast Regional Manager for the ports and marine groups within AECOM. He is the
past chairman of the American Society of Civil Engineers Committee on Port and Harbor Engineering. He is presently a member
of the Board of Coasts, Oceans, Ports and Rivers Institute of the
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ASCE. So he understands these issues from a very broad perspective.
We look forward to your testimony.
STATEMENT OF ANDREW H. CAIRNS, PE, PMP, BOARD MEMBER, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL ENGINEERS COASTS,
OCEANS, PORTS AND RIVERS INSTITUTE; PORTS & MARINENORTHEAST LEAD, AECOM
Mr. CAIRNS. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Senator Vitter

and members of the Committee, it is an honor for me to appear on
behalf of the American Society of Civil Engineers to discuss the importance of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and to our Nations overall economic health.
The United States has approximately 300 commercial ports,
12,000 miles of inland and intercoastal waterways, and 240 lock
chambers which carry more than 70 percent of the U.S. imports.
However, in order for this system to remain competitive, U.S. marine ports and inland waterways will require investment in the
coming decades beyond the $14 billion currently expected to be
spent.
According to the ASCEs Failure to Act Economic Study, aging
infrastructure for marine ports and inland waterways threatens
more than 1 million U.S. jobs. Additionally, between now and 2020,
investment needs in the marine ports and inland waterways sector
will total $30 billion nationwide.
With planned expenditures only expected to be about $14 billion,
a total Federal investment gap of nearly $16 billion remains.
Meanwhile, the costs attributed to delays in the Nations inland
waterways system were $33 billion in 2010, the cost is expected to
increase to nearly $49 billion by 2020.
Unfortunately, even with the ever-growing price tag, these costs
do not address the landside connections or inside-the-fence infrastructure that is the responsibility of the port authorities. Therefore, the Nation will either need to pay for much needed investments in our ports and harbors now, or will pay more severely in
lost labor, exports, and GDP down the road.
Historically, the Nations marine ports and inland waterways
have been the critical link that make international commerce possible. However, with the scheduled expansion of the Panama Canal
by 2015, the average size of container ships will increase significantly, while many U.S. ports still require significant harbor and
channel dredging to handle these larger ships.
If the Nation makes an additional investment of $15.8 billion between now and 2020, the United States can eliminate this drag on
our economic growth. However, if the Country does not make the
needed investments, transporting goods will become costlier, prices
will rise, and the United States will become less competitive in the
global market.
Therefore, the key solution to ensuring that the Nations ports
remain competitive is restoring trust back into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.
In 1986 Congress enacted the Harbor Maintenance Tax to recover operation and maintenance costs at U.S. coastal and Great
Lakes harbors. The tax is based on the value of goods that are
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being shipped and then placed into a trust fund that is used for
maintenance dredging of Federal navigational channels. However,
dredging the Nations ports and harbors has suffered from years of
under-investment.
The Corps of Engineers estimates, as we have heard many times
today, that the dimensions of the Nations 59 busiest ports are
available less than 35 percent of the time. This creates an environment where vessels must carry less cargo or adapt to increasing
delays.
In Fiscal Year 2013, the Obama administration requested $839
million to be appropriated from the Harbor Maintenance Trust
Fund. This amount equals only 50 percent of the total estimated
revenues in the Trust Fund, and nowhere near the estimated
needs, which, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, is between
$1.3 billion and $1.6 billion annually.
This troubling trend toward reduced investments has led to evergreater balances in the Trust Fund, with the unexpended balance
growing to more than $6 billion by September 2013, according to
the Office of Management and Budget. Therefore, the Committee
should include a provision in the Water Resources Development
Act requiring the total of all appropriations from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund be equal to all revenues received by the Trust
Fund that same year.
While ASCE understands that this is a complex issue, the longterm viability of our Nations ports requires action to be taken to
ensure revenues in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund are expended for their intended purpose.
ASCE supported language that would do just that in the WRDA
draft that this Committee discussed last fall. ASCE has also supported bipartisan legislation from the last Congress that would tie
Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund expenditures to revenues.
In the 112th Congress, Senator Levins Harbor Maintenance Act
received 37 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle. While the companion legislation in the House, the Realize Americas Maritime
Promise, or RAMP, Act, received 196 cosponsors.
Congressman Boustany reintroduced the RAMP Act last week,
and the bill has already seen 48 Members of Congress sign on.
In conclusion, ASCE applauds the Environment and Public
Works Committee for working to fix the funding for shortfalls out
of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and looks forward to working with the Committee on a WRDA bill this year. ASCE also looks
forward to sharing with this Committee the inland waterways and
ports grades in our 2013 Report Card, scheduled to be released on
March 19.
Thank you, Senator Boxer. This concludes my testimony, and I
would be pleased to answer any of your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cairns follows:]
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79
Senator BOXER. Well, thank you all very much.
So here is the way we are going to go. We are going to give 10
minutes each to Senators Cardin and Whitehouse and Boozman. So
go ahead.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND
Senator CARDIN. Thank you, Senator Boxer. I dont intend to use

the 10 minutes, but first let me apologize for not being here for this
entire hearing, because this is a critically important subject matter
and hearing. But, as you know, the conflicts are I had to chair a
Senator Foreign Relations briefing. The urgency here is clear.
Mr. Lorino, put me down with your enthusiasm as to the urgency
of this matter, I am totally with you. I am going to ask my full
statement be put in the record.
Senator BOXER. No objection.
Senator CARDIN. Madam Chair, I will have questions for the
record for Ms. Darcy as it relates to specific projects in Maryland.
The economic impact of the work that we are doing here is clear:
this is jobs, jobs. It is making America competitive. The
globalization of commerce. We have to be competitive. We have set
up a mechanism in which to be competitive and we are not using
that mechanism; the funds are sitting there.
I applaud the Chairman, I applaud the Ranking Member. We
work together; this is not a partisan issue. Working together on an
extremely important bill, the Water Reauthorization Act. We have
to get it done. We have to get this to where it needs to be done.
As we have already stated, the top ports in our Country handle
90 percent of the commerce and they are only dredged to their authorized depth and width 35 percent of the time. The impact here
is incredible.
I can talk about the Port of Baltimore. Since 2005, the costs in
the Port of Baltimore has gone up 55 percent to maintain our port
to the competitive depth and width. The funding during that period
of time has been flat. Well, you can just do the simple arithmetic
here, Madam Chairman. We are not going to be as competitive as
we need to be.
The equity issue here. From 2004 to 2010, the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund generated revenue through the Port of Baltimore
at $227 million. We received $157 million. Where is the fairness
here? The moneys are there. The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund
was created to produce the revenues needed to do the work, and
now we are not using those revenues. We have to do a better job.
What is the impact? Well, vessels are loaded at a lower level; less
efficiency, less competitiveness, and we lose jobs in the United
States as a result of not doing what the law intended to be done.
So there is a sense of urgency here.
The Port of Baltimore is ranked ninth among U.S. commercial
ports in terms of total value of goods moved through the port. In
July 2012, the Port of Baltimore handled a record 853,000 tons of
general cargo. This cargo would not have reached the port if it
were not for the projects financed through the Harbor Maintenance
Trust Fund.
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In preparation for the opening of the expanded Panama Canal,
the Army Corps, the Maryland Port Administration, and the regional freight logistics companies have been working fast to make
the Port of Baltimore the East Coast premier international shipping destination. Between the newly operational super postPanamax cranes at Seagirt, the planned intermodal transfer facilities in Baltimore City, and the deepening of the Federal channel,
the Port of Baltimore is open for business.
But let me make it clear. We need the projects to maintain the
dredging capacities for this to work. My predecessor, Senator Sarbanes, originally got authorization for Poplar Island. I mention it
frequently here. It is a dredge site. It also is an environmental
treasure, Madam Chair. We did both. We have a dredge site plus
a restoration of our barrier islands that were disappearing in the
Chesapeake Bay.
Well, we need to make sure that the Poplar Island expansion is
adequately authorized, and I am working for the Corps, and I will
have a question for Ms. Darcy, that we have to make sure that that
is, and I thank you, Chairman and Ranking Member, for working
with us on the WRDA bill to make sure that that is handled. That
is an important site for dredge material and environmental restoration.
We have a Hart Miller Island issue that we are working between
the State and the Army Corps. We have Pearce Creek, which is another site for dredge material that we have to work through. On
the environmental front we have the Conowingo Dam. I mention
that because there is incredible environmental risk to sediment
being contained by the Conowingo Dam. We have had a couple
studies. We have to get a game plan to deal with that.
So, Madam Chair, I just want to underscore the importance of
the work that you are doing, that the Ranking Member is doing.
There is an urgency here. It is very much competition and it is very
much the investments that we make paying off for our Country. As
I said, I applaud the witnesses that are before us for being here,
for your working with us, for your somewhat understanding of the
political process that we have to go through here. But this should
be one in which we reach out together and do what is right for our
Country.
I will have some questions for the record for Ms. Darcy, and I
thank again the Chairman for her courtesy.
[The prepared statement of Senator Cardin follows:]
STATEMENT
OF HON. BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, U.S.

FROM THE STATE OF MARYLAND
SENATOR
Madame Chairman, I appreciate you holding this hearing today to discuss the importance of Americas ports and the work the Corps does to maintain the economic
viability of our ports. I also want to congratulate Senator Vitter on becoming our
new Ranking Member. I appreciate and share his interest in reauthorizing the
Water Resources Development Act and I am grateful that the two of you are not
wasting any time in getting back to work on the 2013 WRDA bill.
I am hopeful that our committee will build on the bi-partisan success we had in
passing MAP21 in the last Congress.
The high quality jobs associated with maintaining and building our infrastructure
makes reauthorizing WRDA all the more important. The Harbor Maintenance Trust
Fund, and the Army Corps projects it supports, keep our shipping channels open
and maintain Americas leadership in todays global economy.
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The 2007 WRDA received overwhelming bi-partisan support from this committee.
The projects that bill supported provided critical employment opportunities at a
time when were beginning to face uncertain economic times. Now, weve come back
from the brink of economic catastrophe and reauthorizing WRDA this year will help
keep our economy on the right course.
IMPACTS OF WRDA TO NATIONAL ECONOMY
WRDA projects are critically important for to the U.S. economy. For example, according to the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, today 1 in every
11 shipping containers engaged in global trade is either bound for or originates from
a U.S. port.
However, the Corps of Engineers estimates that our top-priority harbors, those
that handle about 90 percent of the commercial traffic, are only dredged to their
authorized depths and widths about 35 percent of the time.
Costs have risen more than 55 percent for the Baltimore District and 40 percent
for the Philadelphia District since 2005, while funding levels have remained essentially flat. As a result the Baltimore District is performing about 20 percent less
dredging each year, the Philadelphia District about 50 percent less.
In the Philadelphia District, some dredging funding is also diverted to address
other needs, such as bridge maintenance.
The Port of Baltimore has been affected by underfunding for maintenance dredging. Over the period 20042010, Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund taxes generated
by imported cargo at the Port of Baltimore totaled approximately $227.7 million. Yet
during this period, only $154.7 million of dredging was completed in the channels
leading to the Port.
Each year approximately 45 million cubic yards of material must be removed
from the Port of Baltimores channels to maintain the authorized depth and width.
Given the highly competitive nature of maritime commerce, it is important that Port
of Baltimore channels be maintained at their authorized depth and width on a yearround basis and that adequate dredged material placement capacity is available in
order to retain and enhance the advantages of the Port of Baltimore.
This results in ships having to light-load, which increases the cost of shipping
and, in turn, increase the cost of goods at the cash register. These days many Americans are watching very carefully what they spend at the store and any change in
the cost of goods has a direct impact on their consumer decisions.
Moreover, well maintained harbors decrease costs for American companies who
are shipping goods abroad, thereby giving American producers an advantage in the
global marketplace. It is therefore imperative that we ensure that the resources are
in place to maintain the shipping infrastructure that our nation relies on.
BENEFITS OF WRDA TO MARYLANDS ECONOMY
Every year the Army of Corps Engineers, in partnership with the Maryland Port
Authority, works to maintain Marylands vital navigation channels by clearing tons
of eroded sediment from the Federal navigation channels leading in and out of the
Port of Baltimore. Keeping our port open and the channels dredged is essential not
just for Maryland, but for the Nation.
The Port of Baltimore is ranked ninth among all U.S. commercial ports, in terms
of total value of goods moved through the port. In July 2012, the Port of Baltimore
handled a record 853,818 tons of general cargo. This cargo would not have reached
the port if not for Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund projects.
In preparation for the opening of the expanded Panama Canal, The Army Corps,
the Maryland Port Authority and our regional freight logistics companies have been
working fast to make the Port of Baltimore the East Coasts premiere international
shipping destination. Between the newly operational Super-Post Panamax Cranes at
Seagirt, the planned Intermodal transfer Facility in Baltimore City and the deepened Federal channel: The Port of Baltimore is open for business.
All of the cargo that comes through the Port would not be possible without the
dredging projects that are supported by revenues paid into the Harbor Maintenance
Trust Fund.
The extensive work that is done to maintain Marylands shipping channels generates a great deal of dredge material that needs to be disposed of in a safe and
responsible manner. The Corps and the State have worked successfully over the
years to redevelop the barrier islands that have historically been present in the
Chesapeake Bay using dredge material from the Harbor. As the constructed islands
reach their designed capacity the State and the Corps need work to close these facilities and move on to the next disposal site.
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I was recently informed that the Baltimore Corps District is working to revise its
Dredge Material Management Plan (DMMP) to reflect the closure of Hart-Miller Island (HMI). The new Cox Creek facility will replace HMI as the disposal site for
dredge material in the DMMP for Baltimore dredging projects. I am pleased that
the discussions I facilitated between the Baltimore Corps District and the State are
resulting in revisions to the DMMP in that reflect a mutually agreeable fee structure and location for where dredge material will be disposed of in the future. I will
continue to follow the development of this process and will be in contact with the
Assistant Secretary as the revised DMMP makes its way to her for approval.
Id be remiss if I didnt also take this opportunity to mention the important work
the Corps is doing in Maryland, and throughout the Bay region, to provide critical
environmental restoration of natural resources. The Corps shoreline protection,
sediment management, and oyster and habitat restoration programs are integral to
Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts. And since oysters represent more than just a
source of income for Marylands watermenthey are natural biological filters continually cleaning up the Bay ? WRDAs habitat restoration is leading to long-term
solutions for water quality in the Bay.
It has been more than 5 years since Congress passed the last WRDA legislation.
It is essential to our Nations infrastructure, economy, and environment that we
work together to craft a strong, effective bill. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the latest reauthorization of WRDA. Thank You.
Senator BOXER. Well, we thank you for your passion, because

this is really serious business, and we are lucky to have the Committee that we have.
Senator Whitehouse.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. SHELDON WHITEHOUSE,
U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
Senator WHITEHOUSE. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you

for holding this very important hearing. I just want to say that I
come at this issue with a particular history and a particular context, and particularly when I hear Mr. Lorino and his wonderful
voice and the message that he brings from the Mississippi and the
Gulf Coast about the urgency of their problems, and that is that
not too long ago in Congress we passed a piece of legislation that
conferred an enormous multibillion dollar benefit along the Gulf
Coast, and we did so as the result of an agreement that was
reached that the bulk of the benefit was going to flow to the Gulf
Coast, but that there would be a small portion that would accrue
to the benefit of all coastal and Great Lakes States.
After the agreement that allowed that to go forward was reached,
the part that went to the benefit of all coastal and Great Lakes
States was stripped out. An agreement was made and an agreement was broken. I am inclined to, and I want to, support enhanced traffic on the Mississippi River. I want to support the protection and growth of the port in Louisiana and, frankly, in Los Angeles and Alaska, and everywhere else. But the past bargain has
to be honored for me to be very enthusiastic about going forward
with further benefit that goes to the Gulf and to the Mississippi,
and I just want to make that point.
Senator BOXER. I understand how you feel. I certainly shared
that disappointment. All I can say is we need to move forward on
a WRDA bill, and I would like to work with you because you have
a couple small ports there. Maybe there is a way to help you
through this WRDA bill.
Bettina, I would like to work with Senator Whitehouse and the
ways that we can work with his State, because there is no question
we need this WRDA bill for the good of the Country.
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Senator WHITEHOUSE. But it is also, if I might say, Madam
Chairman, it is a matter of the good of the Senate. If agreements
are that easily broken after they are made, then the sinews of the
Senate begin to come apart, and I think it is fair for Senators who
have been on the receiving end of a broken agreement to insist on
the honoring of an agreement that I believe, thought, everybody
had entered into in good faith.
Senator BOXER. Right. There is a lot of reasons for this; some of
them come from the House, et cetera. But the point is, in my view,
if you listen to John Kerry yesterday, which you did, he made an
unbelievable speech, and I hope all colleagues would read it. We
have to treat each other better. Yours is an example of not treating
each other the way we should. However, there is always tomorrow
and a chance to recoup and come together and move forward, and
I pledge to you that I will try to do that in the WRDA bill.
We are going to have a WRDA bill, and lets make sure that everybody is enthusiastic about it, including the small States and the
States with inner harbors and the rest. We need this for the good
of our Country, and we are going to always have these problems
if we dont come together and keep our bargains.
So as somebody who always has kept her bargains, as far as I
can remember, I would love to work with you on this WRDA bill
in a way that gives you some redress. It is not going to make up
all the ground, but I hope you would work with me on that. Would
you do that?
Senator WHITEHOUSE. We will, of course, work with you.
Senator BOXER. Good.
Senator WHITEHOUSE. I appreciate the support that you were
able to give to our efforts in the previous effort that has turned into
a broken agreement.
Senator BOXER. Well, we are going to make another effort. There
may be a way we can do something for the smaller ports here that
really gives them an opportunity, because when you listen to Senator Whitehouse talk about his State, his State is in jeopardy right
now, we know that, because of what is happening with the rising
sea levels. He just needs to have some attention paid. In the last
WRDA bill he was knew, I remember it. We really didnt do what
we should do.
By the way, just saying to colleagues who are here, we had a
really hard time drafting this bill because there are no more earmarks, and we have to take care of our States. So the way we did
it here is to make sure that any project that had a complete Corps
report which was sent down from the Corps would get funded without naming any projects or getting into all that. This could be very
well the last WRDA bill that we can figure out how to do without
naming projects; after this one it is going to get increasingly more
difficult.
But I think we figured out a way to walk the walk on here without the earmarks and get it done right, and I look forward to working with you, Senator Whitehouse, to make sure that this bill reflects the priorities of your State. That is all I can say. I cant undo
what was done, but I can move forward and make sure that we try
to look at your priorities and answer them in this bill.
Senator.
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Senator BOOZMAN. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think we all
agree, the panel, the Committee, the audience, whatever, that we
need to, I would like to say, protect the integrity of the Trust Fund,
but we need to establish some integrity, almost, before we protect
it and go forward, much like the Highway Trust Fund and the
Aviation Trust Fund and things like that. So that is pretty easy.
It is difficult to get done, but we can at least reach agreement.
The more difficult thing is, and we really have a varied panel
with our ports and our engineer, is, once you have the trust fund,
how do you divvy it up, realizing that it is a system-wide whatever?
Los Angeles is remarkable in the sense that you have all this highvalue stuff coming in there. You are creating about, I think, over
13 percent of the revenue that comes in, and because of the nature
of your port you need more than what you are getting, but you are
not getting very much of that 13 percent out. Some of our other
ports, again, through no fault of their own, are in situations where
there is a lot more silting; there is just a lot more need for dredging
and things, and that is the difference in the East Coast and the
South. It is just the way it is.
So I guess what I would like to know from you all, that is not,
and then the other thing that we have is the protection of, as Senator Crapo mentioned, again, my ports that lead into the Mississippi River that ultimately come out and create some of this
traffic, how do you do all that? I guess what I would like to know
from you all is what are your thoughts on that, how we can address
the problem of, once we get the Trust Fund dollars that we like,
or even dealing with what we have, what are your thoughts on
equalizing the funding mechanism? We will start with California,
the port that is funding a large part of it.
Mr. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you for your question, Senator. I believe that the biggest hurdle is getting the full use for intended
purposes. That is the biggest hurdle that we can see. As Captain
Lorino mentioned, and Mr. Lyons, the Corps of Engineers, from our
perspective, does a pretty good job once they are funded, once they
get the money they need for things. They have a system for racking
and stacking and prioritizing. In our State they do a pretty good
job; they just dont have enough money to cover the priorities that
have already been established. So, from my perspective, if the HMT
could be spent fully for its intended purpose, the major part of the
problem would be dealt with.
Senator BOOZMAN. OK.
Mr. LORINO. Senator, thank you for the question. As I mentioned
when I started my testimony, this is not a Louisiana issue, this is
a Nation issue. I just wanted to make sure that was there. But how
do you do it? It is going to be tough, but you hit the nail on the
head. Every port is not the same; every port is unique to itself. The
Mississippi River, the area where we pilot, where my association
pilots, shows up every year. I can look at you right now and say
we will spend $83 million next year, at least. The only question is
is it going to be more than that.
So do you look at it on what the value that your port is bringing
in or exporting? Do you tie it into jobs? Do you tie it into the
amount that you have to spend over a 10-or 12-year period? I dont
have those answers right off the top of my head, but I do know one
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thing, and I have been told this by the Corps: that if we can receive
the full authorization from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, it
should take care of all of our ports, no matter where they are, for
their projects. That is the way it should be, because every port is
importing cargo that is paying that money. I really believe the answer to it would be get all the money and then figure it out on an
economic basis or a condition basis, one of those two.
So that is the best I can say on that, sir.
Senator BOOZMAN. Mr. Lyons real quick, and then Mr. Cairns.
Mr. LYONS. Senator, one thing I have learned about being around
ports for about 40 years is that they have one thing in common,
and that is that they are all different. They are different in the
types of cargos that they handle; some high-value, some low-value.
Some ports handle a lot of electronics; some ports handle a lot of
low-value manufacturing raw materials. Some ports need a great
deal of dredging; some ports need none.
The Harbor Maintenance Tax, in my view, is a tax that is paid
by the consumers of these goods that are imported into our Country, whether they are a person who buys a TV in Arkansas or Alabama, or a company that is buying wood fiber from Brazil and
using it to manufacture something else. They are who are paying
this tax. So that tax is paid by all the taxpayers. The tax, like all
of our taxes, should be allocated to where they are needed. I think
our biggest concern really needs to be that we, first of all, direct
all of the money to take care of all of the dredging needs that we
have throughout this Country. I agree with you that the inland waterways, which is a separate issue from the Harbor Maintenance
Tax, is a big, big issue. We have it in Alabama, as you do in Arkansas.
So I think the big issue is to, first and foremost, get the tax allocated out to take care of all of the dredging needs, whether in Louisiana or whatever State or whatever port. Second, if there is something left over, then we can talk about that.
Senator BOOZMAN. Very quickly, Mr. Cairns.
Mr. CAIRNS. Sure, Senator Boozman.
ASCE agrees with you that it is really trying to get the intended
funds used for what their purpose is, so if the harbor maintenance
funds are there, they should be used and spread about to the
projects that have those needs. As far as the equity, really, ASCE
doesnt have a position on which ports and how that should be.
Senator BOOZMAN. You are a wise man.
Thank you very much.
Senator BOXER. Thank you, Senator.
So I have just a few questions.
Mr. Christensen, you laid out four recommendations in your testimony: first, full use of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund; second, equity for ports that contribute the most; third, allowing the
Highway Maintenance Trust Fund to fully maintenance up to 50
feet; and, fourth, prioritization of traditional maintenance dredging.
I am asking you, because these are so important to California,
that moves 40 percent of the cargo through, the imports, could you
elaborate on why these recommendations would be beneficial for
ports around the Country?
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Mr. CHRISTENSEN. Yes, Senator. Before I start, Senator, let me
reiterate my thanks to you and the Ranking Member and the Committee for doing this. This is such a great thing to be talking about.
As I mentioned, full utilization gets us mostly where we need to
be, and I think, as we have heard from some of the other members
of the panel, that is the big issue; get it spent for its intended purpose. So that is our No. 1 ask.
The No. 2, about prioritization of funds for their traditional purposes, we agree that that needs to be in the water. This needs to
be spent on things that have a direct
Senator BOXER. You think that is important for all the ports, not
just our port? That is the point I am making.
Mr. CHRISTENSEN. Absolutely. This is, I think, as Captain Lorino
had mentioned, it is a nationwide issue, it is a nationwide problem.
It is a California-wide problem. In California, our ports operate as
a system, and while you have three larger container ports, you also
have quite a number of other ports that are working to support
their niche functions. The ports, by their very nature, are entrepreneurial; they operate as a business.
The free market system has, in essence, brought these ports in
California to their own specialty; they each do something very well.
We feel we do containers very well. There are other ports that do
bulk shipments very well. They all have to be maintained to keep
this system operating. If they dont, if one of the wheels comes off
on one of those other ones, it affects everyone, because those other
uses get piled on.
Senator BOXER. We call our ports a river highway.
Mr. CHRISTENSEN. We do.
Senator BOXER. Which I think was Ray LaHoods idea, looking
at all the ports together as a highway.
Mr. CHRISTENSEN. That is right. In fact, we have a demonstration project in California, as you are well aware, Senator, in the
Port of Stockton.
Senator BOXER. Yes.
Mr. CHRISTENSEN. But even the Port of Stockton is suffering because of lack of maintenance funding. They have shoaling that
means that iron ore ships loaded in Stockton cannot leave full, they
have to leave light-loaded; they go to Oakland and then they get
topped off. That is extremely inefficient.
Senator BOXER. Well, let me thank you for your very clear testimony on those four things, because I do think they apply across the
board here. As we look at extreme weather we see more problems
with dredging, too, because there is more silt coming down and
more problems. So this is absolutely essential.
Mr. Lorino, my final questions are for you, and then I will turn
it over to Senator Whitehouse, should he have some followup questions.
I just thought your testimony was so good because I know what
you have gone through in Katrina; I was there and I understand
the unique challenges in some way because the beauty of that
State is all around, and in the middle of all that you have all this
heavy industry and all this port activity. The balance of that is so
important is so important. If there is a problem, everything is hurt.
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So I wanted to ask you about beneficial uses of dredge material.
In your testimony you raised the possibility that increased spending from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund could create additional opportunities for beneficial use of dredge materials, such as
wetlands restoration, and it was mentioned by Senator Cardin.
Could you elaborate on some of the beneficial uses of dredge material that might be realized if we increased investment in dredging
navigation channels?
Mr. LORINO. Chairman Boxer, yes, maam. First of all, I did meet
you down there during that time, and I just wanted to say thank
you very much. It was very nice for you to come down and do that,
along with other Members of Congress.
But beneficial use in the State of Louisiana is a very tough issue,
and it is only tough because of one thing: money. As I discussed
a few minutes ago, we have $83 million to spend, and that is picking up sediment that comes down every year. The State would love
us to use that for beneficial use. We would love to use that for beneficial use. But we are barely keeping our channel open. To use it
for beneficial use, we have to transport it further. That would take
time. There is not enough dredges to do that at the present time.
So we have this conflict that is going back and forth.
What I would like to see, if we could, and we are looking at a
50-foot channel also on the Mississippi River. Someone mentioned
on the East Coast about the port study to get the 50 feet. They left
out the bulk port, and that is very important. The Mississippi
River is a bulk port. But if we could dredge, we could use a
cutterhead dredge and build the coast down in Plaquemines Parish
that was devastated by Katrina.
But we need the money and it has to be a combination between
our State and the Federal Government; it cant just be the Federal
Government, it has to be the State also. We work on that a lot, but
it is a very difficult issue to tackle when we can barely keep our
head above water to keep the channel open the way we are doing
it now, if I am making any sense.
Senator BOXER. You do. You do. I mean, it all comes down to the
resources. It just seems so unfair to me when people pay into a
fund and then the fund is not used for that purpose. I just feel it
is, in a way, defrauding people. It is not right, and that is why we
are going to hope to move in a very bipartisan way to change that.
I would ask Senator Whitehouse if he has some closing questions.
Senator WHITEHOUSE. I have time for questions, but I have no
time for answers, so what I would like to do is to ask the questions
for the record and ask you to get back to me, if I could, and it is
for the port operators who are here.
Senator BOXER. Well, why dont you ask your questions.
Senator WHITEHOUSE. Two questions. The first is, in your particular port, what are you seeing, looking forward, that would affect
you as the result of bigger storms, rising seas, and other effects of
climate change, and how are you responding to those threats? That
is question one.
Question two is the American Port Operators Association is a
strong and staunch supporter of a process that goes by the rather
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unhelpful name of Marine Spatial Planning. Are you engaged in
that in your areas? Is it beneficial, and how?
AMr. Lorino, you may very well have views on that. You are invited to join, if you would like to. Any witness who cares to add
something to that is welcome to add.
But I have a noon meeting that I have to be on time for and I
apologize. But I want to again thank the Chairman for this hearing
and for bringing us together around this very important issue.
Senator BOXER. I thank you, Senator, so much. We really do look
forward to working together, and I hope on a pretty fast track.
There is a lot that the Senate is going to be doing, and we want
to sort of maybe get it started in a very positive direction.
All of you have been so articulate, every one of you, and I
couldnt imagine a better panel for what we are trying to accomplish here.
We stand adjourned. We thank you and we look forward to working with you. We are asking you to help us get this WRDA bill. We
will call you when we feel we are running into some waves. Thank
you very much.
[Whereupon, at 11:57 a.m. the committee was adjourned.]
[Additional statements submitted for the record follow.]
STATEMENT
OF HON. FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, U.S.

FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY
SENATOR
Madam Chairman,
The Water Resources Development Act is about strengthening our water infrastructure, and nowhere have we seen a clearer reminder of the need to improve our
water infrastructure than in my State of New Jersey.
Since Superstorm Sandy hit our shores, we have seen the catastrophic damage
that can be caused when infrastructure is unprepared for the force of an extreme
weather event.
The storm sounded the alarm that the Federal Government must invest in infrastructure to recover from the storm and build it stronger so we are prepared for the
next storm.
Thats why the Sandy supplemental appropriations law I helped write contains
funding to rebuild and expand Army Corps beach projects and other infrastructure
projects critical to protecting communities.
But lets be clear: our changing climate means severe storms will become more
and more common, and that means a new WRDA bill must make it permanent policy to build these infrastructure projects stronger than before.
During Sandy, we also saw the limits of our outdated water infrastructure when
two (2) water treatment facilities were damaged, with one (1) plant leaking millions
of gallons of sewage into Newark Bay as a result.
So we must include smart financing programs in the WRDA bill, to ensure our
clean water infrastructure is modern and effective.
Sandy also damaged the Port of New York and New Jersey, which is the largest
port on the East Coast and serves more than one-third (1/3) of the country. More
than two-hundred seventy thousand (270,000) jobs depend on this port.
But the majority of the ports terminals were shut down for more than a week
because of power outages, structural damage, and hazards in the water that could
impair ships.
We learned from Superstorm Sandy that the effects of extreme weather events on
our ports can be devastating to the economy.
Madam Chairman, the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is critical to maintaining
and repairing our ports. We need to ensure the strength of this fund, but we must
do so in a responsible way that does not compromise the Army Corps flood control
projects.
I look forward to working with Chairman Boxer and our new Ranking Member,
Senator Vitter, on a new WRDA bill that can take the important next steps to modernize our infrastructure, strengthen our ports, and protect our communities.
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STATEMENT
OF HON. ROGER F. WICKER, U.S.

FROM THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI
SENATOR
I want to thank the Chairman and Ranking Member for holding this hearing on
a matter that is vital to Americas economic prosperity and important to my State
of Mississippi.
Our ports are gateways to global commerce, fuel economic development, and support millions of American jobs. Failing to make the proper investments at this critical time would have a serious impact on jobs and economic growth. The expansion
of the Panama Canal has generated new interest in U.S. ports along the Gulf Coast
and Eastern Seaboard.
By 2015, the Canal will have the capacity to accommodate significantly larger
cargo ships. As global trade increases, we must be ready to take full advantage of
growing import and export opportunities. According to a June report by the Army
Corps of Engineers Institute for Water Resources, the expansion of the Panama
Canal could provide significant opportunities for our Gulf and South Atlantic ports
to become more competitive. Geographically, ports in these regions are positioned
to be the most impacted by the expansion. U.S. ports need to be ready for postPanamax vessels, which will play a major role in facilitating greater global trade.
These vessels are expected to make up an estimated 62 percent of all container ship
capacity by 2030. The boost in maritime commerce means States like Mississippi
will be able to capitalize on international trade opportunities that would benefit the
entire country.
Because shipping is less expensive than other types of transport, reliable port capabilities help keep our countrys trade market competitive. Yet, there are challenges. Despite opportunities for maritime commerce, our Nations ports face numerous hurdles. Americas 59 busiest ports are maintained at authorized widths and
depths only 35 percent of the time. The Corps estimates a backlog of $2.2 billion
in current harbor maintenance projects.
Although the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund collects sufficient revenue each
yearand has a surplus of nearly $7 billionthese funds are not utilized for their
intended purpose. Mississippis State port at Gulfport has been dredged to its authorized depth of 36 feet only once since recovering from the destruction of Hurricane Katrina. Today, some areas of the channel are as shallow as 32 feet. This restricts Gulfports throughput capacity and its associated economic benefits.
I would like to know Assistant Secretary Darcys views on this issue and what
the Corps is doing to address dredging needsparticularly when lack of maintenance dredging makes a port less competitive in securing future maintenance dredging. For Mississippis State port, this has become a vicious cycle that must be addressed. I am also curious to know why the Corps funding needs for dredging and
other activities are not accurately reflected in the Administrations budget from year
to year.
Again, I thank the Committee for holding this important hearing.
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S. HRG.

HARBOR MAINTENANCE TRUST FUND AND THE

JANUARY 31, 2013

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COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS

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JANUARY 31, 2013

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HARBOR MAINTENANCE TRUST FUND AND

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BARBARA BOXER,

Senator BOXER. The meeting will come to order. I first want to

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Senator VITTER. Thank you, Madam Chair. I am very excited to

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Senator UDALL. Thank you.

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Senator BOXER. So now it is my pleasure to turn to Senator

Senator CRAPO. Thank you very much, Madam Chairman and

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Senator MERKLEY. Thank you, Madam Chairman, and thank

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Ms. DARCY. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Boxer, Ranking

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