Soy Transportation Coalition applauds legislation authorizing multiple water infrastructure projects
The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure finalized a new Water Resources Development Act. After months of back and forth between Republicans and Democrats, the Committee crafted a bipartisan compromise with their Senate T&I Committee counterparts and members of the House and Senate Environmental and Public Works Committees. Lawmakers are hopeful the bill will have enough support to clear the full House and Senate and be signed into law.
House T&I Committee Chair Sam Graves, R- Mo., says the legislation will deliver critical water resources and infrastructure improvements to communities across the country. That includes improved ports, levees, navigation channels, flood protection and more. He says the bill also includes reforms to streamline Corps of Engineer processes, reduce red tape and ensure projects are completed faster.
“Furthermore, this agreement includes additional reforms advanced by our committee this Congress that will improve the utilization of public building office space, reduce the amount of taxpayer dollars wasted on empty federal buildings, and get federal workers back in the office,” Graves says.
This is the sixth WRDA bill Congress has passed since 2014. The biannual legislation authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works Program to proceed with projects aimed at improving ports and inland waterway navigation. It also authorizes flood and storm protection initiatives as well as other water infrastructure projects.
This year’s bill is officially named the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024 in honor of the retiring Delaware senator. Carper has served in the upper chamber since 2001. Before that he served two terms as Delaware governor and 10 years in the U.S. House.
Soy Transportation Coalition Executive Director Mike Steenhoek equates investing in the nation’s inland waterway system and ports to investing in the success of soybean farmers. He notes that 48% of U.S. soybean exports are transported by barge, primarily along the lower Mississippi River.
According to Soy Transportation Coalition data, one barge can hold between 52,500 and 57,000 bushels of soybeans. That capacity is the equivalent of 16 rail hopper cars or 62 semi-trucks. A 15-barge tow can transport the equivalent of 219 railcars or 940 semis. In other words, barge traffic plays a critical role in transporting product across the globe.
Steenhoek says an adjustment to funding formulas should also benefit new inland waterway construction and rehabilitation projects. Under the current formula, 35% of project costs come from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund. The trust was founded to help underwrite costs for inland waterway system projects. It is funded on a $0.29 per gallon tax on diesel fuel consumed on 12,000 miles of the inland waterway system. The system includes major shipping routes like the Gulf and Atlantic Intracoastal Waterways, as well as major rivers like the Mississippi, Ohio, Illinois and lower Missouri.
The new funding formula reduces the trust’s cost share responsibility to 25%. The federal government will now be responsible for the remaining 75% of project funding. According to Steenhoek, this will likely result in inland waterway projects being completed faster, enabling other priority projects to proceed.
“Having a well-maintained system is one of key reasons farmers in the middle of the country are international entrepreneurs vs. local, parochial small business owners,” Steenhoek says. “Being able to cost-effectively transport the soybeans grain farmers grow to our export terminals hundreds of miles away has
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