2009’s economic crisis brought ports together in unprecedented fashion. Through that collaboration, we successfully lobbied Congress for relief and help. More importantly, our unified outreach — against the backdrop of an ambitious agenda for national economic recovery — helped policymakers see that ports are at the intersection where an increasingly antiquated national transportation system will buckle under the weight of future economic and trade policy.
Congress is beginning to recognize the need for a national fund to address large, often multi-jurisdictional projects that typically do not fare well in funding formulas that trickle down through state and local authorities. Creation of a $1.5 billion discretionary multimodal fund in the stimulus package was a step in the right direction. In the year ahead, however, we need to keep up the momentum of industry collaboration and lobby aggressively for a federal strategy that clearly lays the framework for how our nation will fund transportation infrastructure.
We need policies that go beyond surface transportation reauthorization, provide a national freight program with dedicated funding for port development and emphasize freight mobility as a key factor in the long-term viability of our national transportation infrastructure.
The year ahead will not be much easier. Ports should continue to work to reduce costs, modernize facilities and prepare for a post-recession era of lower margins and increased competition. Along the way, ports and port stakeholders should take every opportunity to promote the direct jobs, indirect jobs and ancillary economic benefit they generate. Lean times like this can help underscore how our ports and transportation infrastructure are the backbone of national prosperity and we should invest in them accordingly.