Congress holds hearings on financing of U.S. ports’ infrastructure

Congress holds hearings on financing of U.S. ports’ infrastructure    The Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives will hold hearings of congressmen and industry today (Thursday) on how to finance port infrastructure.
   The committee said in a statement that the hearings will address “current methods of financing port infrastructure projects and the adequacy of those financing methods.”
   Representatives Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Doug Ose (R-Calif.) will be witnesses at the hearings. Three industry spokesmen will also talk: Jean C. Godwin, executive vice president and general counsel at the American Association of Port Authorities; Robin Lanier, executive director of the Waterfront Coalition; and Christopher Koch, president and chief executive officer of the World Shipping Council.
   Ports rely on a variety of financing methods to pay for infrastructure projects, the committee noted, listing port revenues (including user fees), bonds, loans, grants, lease revenue, state transportation trust funds, and federal, state, and local appropriations.
   The House committee also cited the “greater emphasis placed on security at ports.”
   Movement of goods through U.S. ports is expected to double by 2020. The increase in trade is placing “large demands on ports to provide additional infrastructure to handle the increase in traffic and larger ships,” the committee said. These conditions place seaports “in a state of near continuous construction,” it added.
   In the five-year period ending in 2001, the public port industry averaged $1.4 billion per year in capital improvements.