Although President Trump has unveiled a record $1 trillion plan to rebuild infrastructure in America, the maritime community is extremely concerned about proposed cuts to several major inland waterway and port programs.
Trump’s fiscal 2018 budget, released on May 23, also includes a proposal for $1 billion in new user fees for the inland waterways over 10 years that would be paid for by commercial operators.
“We were surprised because, for an infrastructure president, to see a budget request like that was very disappointing,” said Debra Calhoun, senior vice president of the Waterways Council Inc. (WCI).
On the port side, the president’s budget eliminates the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program, a multi-modal grant initiative that last year awarded $61.8 million for dock, rail and road improvements. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security’s Port Security Grant Program, funded at $100 million last year, was cut 52 percent to $47.8 million, according to the American Association of Port Authorities. Spending from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is now pegged at $965 million, significantly lower than the $1.3 billion approved in the fiscal 2017 omnibus budget.
On the inland waterways side, Trump’s budget calls for funding only one capital initiative: the Olmsted Locks and Dam Project on the Ohio River. “Under this proposal, workers at three priority navigation projects – Lower Mon, Kentucky and Chickamauga – will be laid off, with additional costs incurred from shutting these ongoing projects down,” said Mike Toohey, president of the Waterways Council Inc.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers budget proposed by the president is higher than President Obama’s fiscal 2017 request, but about $1 billion less than the $6 billion that Congress appropriated for fiscal 2017.
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