The House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee recently marked-up their 2016 Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) reauthorization bill and it is now ready to go to the floor of the House and the Senate.

One unexpected provision included in the bill that is of interest to the American Soybean Association (ASA), is language to move the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) from discretionary to mandatory spending.  The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) has a Harbor Maintenance Task Force that is currently evaluating the provision and stakeholder groups are awaiting their analysis.

The 2014 WRRDA bill included compromise language with appropriators that established increased amounts that would be provided annually for the HMTF through the discretionary appropriations process.  If it can avoid objections from appropriators, moving the HMTF to mandatory funding would seemingly benefit ports and increase funding available for expansion and upgrades.

Also during the House T&I Committee mark-up, Rep. John Duncan, Jr. (R-TN) and Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) offered an amendment, supported by the waterways industry, to increase the threshold of a major rehabilitation project to $35 million. The amendment was withdrawn after the Committee leadership promised to work to address the issue in subsequent negotiations on the bill.

Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL) offered another amendment to the House WRDA bill, which passed on a voice vote to direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate alternative models to manage the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (IWTF). This could include possible transfer of management authority to a government-owned corporation.

The Senate version of the bill was marked up on April 28 by the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee.