Congress Sends White House Bill To Boost Ports
The Senate on May 22 easily passed a long-awaited water policy bill that would allow dredging at ports around the country ahead of the widening of the Panama Canal.
In a 91-7 vote, the upper chamber sent the White House the bipartisan Water Resources Reform Development Act legislation that took more than a year to craft.
The bill would authorize 34 Army Corps of Engineers projects on port dredging and flood control, estimated to cost $12 billion. It would deauthoirze at least $18 billion in projects that had been authorized.
Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and David Vitter (R-La.), chairwoman and ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, respectively, touted the bill’s passage.
“For jobs, for business, for ecosystem restoration, for our oceans, it’s a great bill,” Boxer said. The Senate vote comes two days after the House overwhelmingly passed the bill on a 412-4 vote.
The bill provides assistance to smaller ports that have not been maintained at their approved depths and widths in recent years. It also would allow ports to cover the costs of harbor-deepening projects and request reimbursements when Congress approves them.
Next year’s expansion of the Panama Canal will allow larger ships to access U.S. waters, but many domestic ports do not have the capability to accommodate vessels of that size. Ports also must invest in larger cranes that can reach across the broader width of those bigger container vessels, which are expected to become the standard for shipping.
Navigation projects approved in the bill include:
• The Sabine Neches Waterway in Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana that has an estimated federal cost of $748 million and nonfederal cost of $366 million;
• The Savannah Harbor expansion project in Georgia with an estimated federal cost of $492 million and a nonfederal cost of $214 million
• The Jacksonville Harbor project with an estimated federal cost of $362 million and a non-federal cost of $239 million.
The bill also would limit to three years the period in which feasibility studies must be completed and it would streamline the environmental review and permitting process. Additionally, the bill would authorize $50 million a year through fiscal 2018 in discretionary appropriations to be used by certain ports for dredging.
Last fall, the House and Senate passed their water policy bills and spent months ironing out their differences.
