I 111th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 3447 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 31, 2009 Ms. Richardson introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned A BILL To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to implement on-going appropriations for withdrawals from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, and for other purposes.

1.

Short title

This Act may be cited as the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Reform Act.

2.

Findings

The Congress finds the following: (1)According to the Army Corps of Engineers Fiscal Year 2008 Contract Dredging Program, only 160 contracts for America’s over 300 harbors were awarded last year at a cost of $710,841,061 to dredge 146,747,977 cubic yards of sediment. (2)Vessels are increasing in tonnage, requiring deeper drafts and making the dredging of America’s harbors vital to keep America’s ports globally competitive. (3)According to the Department of Transportation, approaches and alongside depths in several key ports must be increased to as much as 45 to 50 feet to allow increasingly larger vessels to access America’s ports. (4)The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund has a current surplus of approximately $4,600,000,000. (5)In fiscal year 2009, $1,626,426,155 was deposited into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, yet only $710,841,061 or 43.7 percent of the revenue generated in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund was appropriated out to fund the dredging of America’s harbors. (6)Each of the 22,975,000 businesses throughout the United States are suffering as many of our Nation’s harbors are inadequately dredged, creating the need to use smaller and less cost-effective vessels to access American markets. (7)Ports, States, and municipalities are utilizing sparse resources on dredging instead of funding critical transportation infrastructure or health and education programs. (8)The expansion of the Panama Canal has serious economic consequences to the United States economy as increased cargo diversion will occur due to the increased amounts of cargo entering the Unites States via foreign port use. (9)According to the United States Census Bureau, United States ports handled some $3.95 trillion in international trade for an all-encompassing range of goods and services in fiscal year 2007, with nearly 1.4 billion tons, valued at $1.4 trillion, in waterborne imports and exports alone. (10)According to the United States Census Bureau, United States ports generated more than $23.2 billion in United States Customs duty revenues in fiscal 2007, representing 70 percent of all Customs duties collected.

3.

Harbor maintenance trust fund reform

(a)

In general

Section 9505(c) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by striking shall be available, as provided in appropriations Acts, and inserting shall be available, without further appropriation,. (b)

Effective date

The amendment made by subsection (a) shall apply to fiscal years ending after the date of the enactment of this Act.

4.

Harbor maintenance expenditures

(a)

Availability of amounts from Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund

(1)

In general

Section 210 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 (33 U.S.C. 2238) is amended— (A)in the section heading by striking Authorization of appropriations and inserting Funding; and (B)in subsection (a) by striking are authorized to be appropriated and inserting shall be available, without further appropriation,. (2)

Effective date

The amendments made by paragraph (1) shall apply to fiscal years ending after the date of the enactment of this Act. (b)

Annual report to Congress

Section 210 of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2238) is amended by adding at the end the following: (c)

Annual report to Congress

Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of the Army shall submit to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the Senate a report that— (1)describes the progress of making expenditures from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to meet requests for funding projects; (2)analyzes the benefits dredging projects have to the overall economy of the United States; (3)analyzes how critical each dredging project is to the local, State and Federal economy; and (4)addresses the sufficiency of balances in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to meet anticipated project requests. .