Attention focused on water resources

The support for the bill, worth an estimated $12bn over the next 10 years, came from both Democrats and Republicans; an unusual show of bi-partisanship in these fractious times. However, it’s far from a done deal; a parallel version of the legislation may see an uphill fight in the House of Representatives, where Republicans dominate.

Port interests are obviously keen to see the bill come into law, because it would push decisions on which projects to pursue, which includes dredging of channels and improvement of ports, down to the Army Corps of Engineers, responsible for maintaining the US navigation system.

A key part of the bill concerns the Harbor Maintenance Tax, which has been collected from trade flows. Under the WRDA’s language, most of the HMT funds would actually be spent on dredging, rather than being simply accumulated, or, worse, used to subsidise some non-maritime project.

From a macro perspective, the Federal government share of port project spending could grow, relative to the state and local share. The tricky part is the balancing act between benefits to the nation, overall, versus, those that accrue to purely local interests.

The objectors to the bill, from the conservative side of the spectrum, seemed to be reluctant to move the authority for allocating project resources to the Corps and outside of Congress, where ‘earmarks’ for pet expenditures of all types are easy to add.

If you believe, as I do, that all things maritime are of little interest to the public at large (how many times have I written that ‘cargo does not vote’?), then it’s axiomatic that ports and rivers would get the short end of the stick, if Congress was left to its own devices.

Votes for maintenance dredging, or channel work related to a real improvement, for example the deepened channel underneath the Bayonne Bridge, could very easily be bartered away for support on some other issue.

That’s all just part of daily political life in Washington, DC; I’d be happy to keep some of that life to the south of New York.