Waterways Council Inc.

One important change affecting the inland waterways industry this year is the election of a new president, as well as many new members of Congress, all debating how to bring economic recovery to the nation. For the inland waterways industry, investment in lock and dam infrastructure can strengthen our nation’s economy by bolstering commodity movements and exports, and keep American citizens productively employed. The U.S. waterways system is an economic generator, transporting more than 625 million tons of commodities valued at $300 billion annually, including grain for domestic and international markets, steam coal for electric power generation, steel destined for domestic and international locations, petroleum products to distributors, feedstocks to chemical plants, and aggregate materials for construction use. This national asset — a world-class water transportation system — deserves our nation’s commitment to efficiently move these goods today and into the future. We will continue to work with appropriators to fund the Water Resources Development Act, passed in 2008 through veto override, as well as to address a logical solution to the decreasing Inland Waterways Trust Fund. Waterways’ commercial users pay a diesel tax into the fund that supports half of the system’s new construction and rehabilitation. We will also urge increased operations and maintenance dollars to fix the aging infrastructure to sustain reliability on the system. Another high priority will be to work with the Army Corps of Engineers to ensure that priority infrastructure projects are completed more efficiently, bringing full transportation benefits to American taxpayers in a more timely way. 2009 will bring continued work with our stakeholders and members of Congress to underscore the value of moving our nation’s “building block” commodities goods by water, with the goal of properly funding our nation’s waterways infrastructure and its ensuring its reliability for the future.