In a letter to House Ways and Means Committee leadership Tuesday, ASA joined with dozens of trade, farm and transportation groups in urging an increase in the user fee that barge and towing companies pay into the Inland Waterways Trust Fund. The fee is currently set at 20 cents per gallon of fuel used while operating on the inland system, and ASA and its fellow petitioners recommend that it be raised to between 26 and 29 cents per gallon.

“This amount is matched by General Treasury funds and is dedicated to new construction and major rehabilitation of the inland system,” wrote the groups. “This user fee increase is supported by those who pay it—just 300 commercial operators—while the entire nation benefits… The inland waterways provide the most cost-competitive transportation option for our bulk commodities used in America and exported to marketplaces worldwide.”

The groups pointed out that the increase in the user fee would be used to conduct repairs and overhauls of a system that is in dire need of attention. “Most of America’s locks and dams were built in the 1920s and 1930s, yet are used to transport 21^st-century cargoes that fuel our modern economy. This critical component of the transportation supply chain needs reinvestment and recapitalization; and a WRRDA bill that joins industry-supported project delivery reforms with an industry-sought increase  in the user fee it pays is fiscally responsible.”

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