Press Releases

Today, Congressman Bill Huizenga (MI-02), Congresswoman Candice Miller (MI-10) and Congressman Dan Benishek (MI-01) released the following statements after introducing the bipartisan Great Lakes Navigation System Sustainability Act of 2013:

Rep. Huizenga: "Ensuring Michigan's harbors and ports throughout the Great Lakes are properly dredged is critical to Michigan in terms of manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism as well as the economic longevity of the entire Great Lakes Region. The Great Lakes Navigation System Sustainability Act of 2013 classifies the entire Great Lakes Navigation System as a unified body, recognizing the economic benefits that come from interdependence. The Army Corps will be instructed to count the 160 million tons of cargo shipped throughout the various ports in the Great Lakes Region as a single entity rather than forcing all 140 harbors to compete against one another.

"By classifying the Great Lakes like other major shipping waterways, harbors spanning from the St. Lawrence River Basin to Lake Michigan will be able to compete for funds needed to alleviate the over $200 million dredging backlog throughout the Great Lakes. Lastly, this legislation provides the Detroit District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with the flexibility they need to work with local communities to prioritize spending for dredging projects instead of leaving those decisions to unnamed bureaucrats in Washington."

Rep. Miller: “Our Great Lakes harbors and supporting waterways create and sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs throughout the entire region and the commerce carried on the Great Lakes contributes greatly to the entire nation’s economy. Throughout my career in public service, I have recognized the important role the Great Lakes play in our economy and have advocated and worked to improve our harbors and waterways’ infrastructure on the Great Lakes. Simply put, more efficient Great Lakes shipping helps to create a strong U.S. economy. In order to grow and strengthen our regional and national economy we must ensure our harbors and waterways are provided the resources they need.

“There is currently a backlog of needed dredging projects that will cost $200 million to remove 18 million yards of sand and silt to enable the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin harbors to become fully functional. By using existing funds to implement a program where the federal government and state and local communities work together, this legislation will help eliminate this backlog. This partnership is important now more than ever as the Great Lakes continue to experience historic low water levels. By treating the Great Lakes as a ‘system,’ our nation will utilize the user-funds collected under the Harbor Maintenance Tax for their intended purpose – operations and maintenance of our nation’s ports and harbors. For years much of this fund, which was created through fees placed on shippers, has sat unspent or used for other purposes while important infrastructure projects have been ignored. My goal is to incorporate this legislation into the Water Resources Development Act the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is set to begin work on.”

Rep. Benishek: “Our harbors and ports are a critical part of Northern Michigan’s economy. Unfortunately we’ve seen the funding that’s supposed to be used for our harbors being siphoned off and spent on other things. Frankly, we need to fix that. I’m pleased to join with Rep. Miller and Rep. Huizenga in offering this legislation to address these problems. Properly maintaining our harbors is more important than ever because our region is facing historically low water levels in the Great Lakes. I’ve been speaking with citizens all over Northern Michigan whose jobs depend on well maintained harbors and they want to see some solutions. That’s exactly what this legislation does.”


Background: The Great Lakes Navigation System Sustainability Act of 2013 uses existing funds from the vastly underutilized Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to dredge Great Lakes commercial harbors and establishes a cost sharing program that makes funds available by giving priority to recreational harbors that provide 50% of the cost to a Great Lakes Navigation System project.

Joining Huizenga, Miller and Benishek as original cosponsors of Great Lakes Navigation System Sustainability Act of 2013 are representatives Louise Slaughter (NY-25) and Brian Higgins (NY-26).

Groups in support of the Great Lakes Navigation System Sustainability Act are: the Great Lakes Small Harbors Coalition, the Great Lakes Maritime Task Force, the Lake Carriers’ Association, the Great Lakes Metro Chambers Coalition and the American Great Lakes Ports Association.