Page 24: of Marine News Magazine (March 2021)

23 25

Feature

Inland Waterways “Optimizing the HMTF is an important step in raising the the inland waterways system. nation’s “C+” ports grade,” Smith said in a press release, WRDA is also important for not including two proposals referencing ASCE’s national “infrastructure report card.” in the President’s funding request. First, a proposal to discon- tinue funding for ongoing waterway construction projects

Money and policy: that didn’t have a bene? t-cost ratio above 2.5 (bene? ts are at

II. Inland Waterways Trust Fund least 2.5 times project costs). That didn’t happen. Congress

The big news with this fund is that Congress reduced rejected that metric and directed that one new trust fund cost- the portion of Fund monies required to pay for water- shared project should be started with FY2021 money (i.e., a way construction projects. This was a 50-50 split: half the “new start.”) Second, the administration proposed an annual money came from the fund and half from general revenue, user fee on commercial vessels. Again, Congress said no.

i.e., general taxpayers. WRDA revises that split; now the Maritime business of? cials applauded these WRDA fund will pay for 35% of project cost, and general revenue funding revisions. The cost-share change was a top priority picks up the remaining 65%. This is for 11 years, for proj- for the Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI), the national trade ects funded from FY2021 through FY2031. Recall that the group focused on the inland waterways. In a press release

IWTF is funded by a $0.29/gallon fuel tax paid for by the WCI president Tracy Zea commented that “in a dif? cult commercial vessels that use the 11,000 miles that make up COVID-19 environment, the passage of WRDA is a signi? - in a dif? cult COVID-19 environment, the passage of WRDA is a signi? cant achievement for ef? cient modernization of the inland waterways system, potentially providing more than $1 billion in additional construction funds over 10 years that should help signi? cantly reduce the backlog of authorized projects.” – Tracy Zea, President, WCI © Richard & Susan Day / Adobe Stock 24 | MN March 2021