House Approves Record Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Spending

On July 9, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a record amount of funding for maintaining the nation’s ports and harbors through dredging activities. The House voted 281-137 to pass an amendment by Reps. Janice Hahn (D-Calif.) and Bill Huizenga (R-Mich.) that added $57 million to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. The amendment actually brings the HMTF to the funding level Congress authorized in the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014, a bill which only 11 members of Congress voted against. That funding level is now over $1.1 billion, representing 67 percent of the total annual revenue generated by the harbor maintenance tax. For years, less than 50 percent of those revenues went to harbor maintenance. For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at (703) 837-5325 or christiansonj@agc.org.