Water Resources Development Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, I rise to address the Water Resources Development Act that we passed today.

This important legislation authorizes Army Corp of Engineers projects that provide flood control, ensure navigation to get our goods to market, and help restore our ecosystems and environment. One component of this bill deals with the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.

Shippers pay a Harbor Maintenance Tax, which goes into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and is then appropriated for operations and maintenance at ports throughout our country.

Now, although this legislation does not address the Harbor Maintenance Tax, I want to take a moment to talk about it. Because unfortunately, this policy is encouraging cargo diversion from our ports.

A Federal Maritime Commission report released last year, which I requested with Senator Cantwell, indicated that cargo coming into U.S. ports cost, on average, an additional $109 due to the Harbor Maintenance Tax.

I find this report extremely troubling.

While this bill does not address the tax, it does address the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. The bill sets goals for additional expenditures from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, and it includes a provision that I worked on closely with Chairman Boxer and Senator Cantwell.

This provision will allow our ports to be more competitive internationally by providing payments to shippers entering or transporting cargo through an eligible donor port--one that takes in significantly more in Harbor Maintenance Taxes than it receives back for operations and maintenance, like the Port of Seattle or the Port of Tacoma.

It is meant to reduce cargo diversion from United States ports to international ports, but not to induce cargo diversion within the United States.

I appreciate the hard work by Chairman Boxer to include this provision in the manager's amendment and to keep the provision intact throughout consideration of the Water Resources Development Act.

This provision is a step in the right direction.

But we can do more, and we must.

That is why I'm working on legislation that will comprehensively reform the Harbor Maintenance Tax and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.

It will ensure full spend out of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and ensure all cargo is treated equally as it moves through the supply chain.

My goals are to increase our international competitiveness, ensure we are getting our goods to market, and provide good, family-wage jobs.

I have been working with ports in Washington state and the Northwest, and I plan to introduce this legislation soon.

I look forward to working with my colleagues on these important issues.

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Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank Senator Cantwell and Chairman Baucus for coming down here today to discuss port competitiveness, infrastructure, and American jobs, issues which are close to my heart. I believe these are important issues to be addressed, which is why I have been working on this issue throughout my Senate tenure and why Senator Cantwell and I introduced the U.S. Port Opportunity and Revitalizing Trade Act in 2002.

We appreciate that the legislation before us today, the Water Resources Development Act, works to improve expenditures from the harbor maintenance trust fund and that it includes provisions we championed to begin to address the competitive issues our ports face. I would like to say thank you to Chairwoman Boxer, who included a provision in the managers' amendment that would authorize payments to ``donor'' ports those ports that contribute a significant amount of funds, but receive less than 25 percent of the benefit that can be used to offset the cost of the HMT being paid by shippers.

The language in the managers' amendment does not mean that the job is done. We do not believe this language will fully correct the challenges U.S. ports face now and will continue to face in the future. Rather, we believe this is an interim solution that will help until we can work together to find a larger, more permanent solution addressing cargo diversion. Senator Cantwell and I look forward to working with the Chairman Baucus to address comprehensive reform of the harbor maintenance tax.

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