[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 638 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 638

 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exempt from the harbor 
 maintenance tax certain commercial cargo loaded or unloaded at United 
                             States ports.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 22, 2009

 Mr. Cummings introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                      Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to exempt from the harbor 
 maintenance tax certain commercial cargo loaded or unloaded at United 
                             States ports.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Short Sea Shipping Promotion Act of 
2009''.

SEC. 2. EXEMPTION OF CERTAIN COMMERCIAL CARGO FROM THE HARBOR 
              MAINTENANCE TAX.

    (a) In General.--Section 4462 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 
is amended by redesignating subsection (i) as subjection (j) and by 
inserting after subsection (h) the following new subsection:
    ``(i) Exemption for Certain Short Sea Shipping Cargo.--
            ``(1) In general.--No tax shall be imposed under section 
        4461(a) with respect to cargo contained in intermodal cargo 
        containers and loaded by crane on a vessel, or cargo loaded on 
        a vessel by means of wheeled technology--
                    ``(A) that is loaded at a port in the United States 
                and unloaded at another port in the United States or a 
                port in Canada located in the Great Lakes Saint 
                Lawrence Seaway System, or
                    ``(B) that is loaded at a port in Canada located in 
                the Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway System and 
                unloaded at a port in the United States.
            ``(2) Great lakes saint lawrence seaway system.--For the 
        purposes of this subsection, the term `Great Lakes Saint 
        Lawrence Seaway System' means the waterway between Duluth, 
        Minnesota and Sept. Iles, Quebec, encompassing the five Great 
        Lakes, their connecting channels, and the Saint Lawrence 
        River.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section shall take 
effect on the date of enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>