Page 11: of Marine News Magazine (May 2026)

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Insights

Inland Infrastructure efforts, encouraging competition among individual projects staff continuity and institutional knowledge that can be rather than coordination across this national system with a brought to bear on project delivery.

geographic footprint directly touching 28 states. INCO would not change Congress’s authority over ap-

Inland navigation projects rely on a hybrid funding mod- propriations, remove project delivery responsibility from el, with mega capital projects funded through 75% general Corps’ Districts and Divisions, or require new statutory treasury funds and a 25% nonfederal share from the Inland authority; rather, it would provide a clearer framework to

Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF), which is the repository of coordinate existing functions.

a 29-cents-per-gallon diesel fuel tax on commercial opera- With China completing a $10 billion mega inland-to- tors. Barge and towing companies are the only bene? ciaries sea project in the South China Sea in less than one year of the waterways system to pay tax for its use. that will reduce shipping by 350 miles, the United States is

The Inland Waterways Users Board (IWUB), the federal losing global competitive ground. Formulating INCO into advisory committee that advises the Corps and Congress on the Corps process and creating an Inland Program Manager inland waterways infrastructure priorities, developed and are relatively small steps toward modernizing our critically recommended to Congress a long-term Capital Investment important inland waterways system to more ef? ciently meet

Strategy (CIS) to guide investment for IWTF projects. But the challenges of the world’s transportation supply chain.

the HDR study suggests that the Corps’ annual project ex- ecution plan does not re? ect the CIS. As a result, Congress receives differing messages from the Corps and nonfederal partners about project priorities, further complicating ap- propriations decisions and limiting federal spending.

As part of INCO to further improve transparency and accountability, WCI is also urging the Corps to establish a single Inland Program Manager to: • Coordinate funding priorities across major and mega inland navigation projects.

• Conduct regular progress reviews of project scope, budget, and schedule.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for Congress and the IWUB.

• Ensure alignment between long-term investment strategies and annual appropriations. This structure is modeled after existing Corps’ program organizations used for dam safety and military construction, which centralize oversight while allowing individual districts to retain responsibility for project delivery.

The Inland Program Manager can consolidate infor- mation across Corps Headquarters, Divisions, Districts, and design centers to reduce duplication and con? icting reporting. This can help identify risks earlier and provide lawmakers with more reliable information on project ex- ecution. Given federal workforce reductions that have depleted experience levels across the Corps, the Inland

Program Manager can also underscore the importance of www.marinelink.com MN 11|