Lawmakers talk ports with LaHood

   The Obama administration is committed to supporting investment in seaports because they are the lynch pin for $3.15 trillion of business activity and 13.3 million jobs in the United States, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in his “Fast Lane” blog Wednesday after he and Maritime Administrator David Matsuda met the previous day with members of the congressional PORTS Caucus.
   The PORTS (Ports Opportunity, Renewal, Trade and Security) Caucus is a new discussion forum founded by freshman Rep. Janice Hahn of California to promote the importance of ports and port security on Capitol Hill. Hahn is a former Los Angeles city councilwoman and advocate for the Port of Los Angeles, the nation’s largest container port.
   The group now has 67 members, up from 40 members earlier this year. Representatives at the meeting with LaHood were from districts that include the Port of Beaumont, Texas; Port Everett, Wash.; Port of Savannah in Georgia; and the Port of New York and New Jersey.
   Lawmakers said they discussed how the federal government can make sure ports and other infrastructure are maintained and augmented to efficiently move goods, a goal that is taking on increasing importance with the expansion of the Panama Canal in 2015 to allow passage of much larger cargo vessels.
   The maritime industry is especially concerned about the limited amount of money devoted to maintaining authorized depths of harbors and channels and the slow process for funding deepening projects to accommodate larger vessels. Port stakeholders also want Congress to pass a multi-year surface transportation bill that funds continued upkeep and construction of highway and rail links to ports.
   Ports are local entities supported through revenues, city or state appropriations, and borrowing for capital projects. The federal government typically does not fund improvements other than navigational aids and dredging, but the TIGER grant program launched by the Obama administration for the first time has directed a small amount of money to ports. The Department of Transportation has awarded more than $276 million to 17 port projects in three rounds of funding, LaHood noted. 
   The TIGER program has provided money to several major rail projects that improve intermodal access to and from ports.
   The secretary also mentioned the creation of a new White House task force to develop a maritime investment strategy and the inclusion of industry members in the DOT’s Marine Transportation System Advisory Council as examples of the administration’s attention to port matters. – Eric Kulisch