We agree with AAPA and Kurt Nagle.
In the US, there is little systemic planning or funding for strategic national system transportation and economic development. If the new Washington Administration is at all serious about economic growth on a global stage, it is imperative that the country take demonstrative steps toward creating a thoroughly modern, super-efficient freight transport infrastructure. In large measure, this is not the case today and the programs and investments over recent years, though helpful, were but small bandages applied to an old, creaky patchwork that comprises the national cargo movement system. Certainly, we cannot go backwards – rather, we need to be doing a heck of a lot more. At this point though, we are not seeing the kind of vision and leadership that we need and this must evolve and evolve quickly.
This is not a seaports issue. This is not a railroad issue. This is not a roads issue. And, this is not an airports issue. This is a fundamental national economic development issue for the United States. We can talk all we want about jobs and fair trade agreements, but if businesses in the US cannot with seamless efficiency deploy manufactured goods around the country and to foreign customer markets, the system won’t provide the platform and competitiveness to succeed. Not by a longshot. And if you’re located in middle-America, away from the country’s seaports, or located some distance from a cargo center airport it isn’t pretty.
To make the point of this invisible time-bomb, the chorus should not be echoes from the representative silos – but needs to increasingly be an organized super-structure that makes the case to lawmakers and budget-makers. It is important for other key trade associations to make this more than a refrain on a long list of priorities. And we need groups like the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) to pick this up and tell the story.
It is simple: the US will not compete well over the next 25 years without an underlying re-think about how economic growth and infrastructure finance is undertaken and financed.
| AAPA Advocates for FY 2018 TIGER-Style Multimodal Funding |
| This week, AAPA urged leaders of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations to include a “TIGER-like” program in an appropriations bill that continues the successful multimodal funding for port and maritime projects that has been in place since 2009. The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program, an AAPA priority, and its success are viewed as essential building blocks that led to a funded freight program in 2015’s FAST Act.
AAPA President & CEO Kurt Nagle stated in the letter, “TIGER continues to be a key multimodal funding source for freight projects that are vital to rebuilding our national infrastructure while addressing multimodal transportation funding challenges and needs. TIGER is 100 percent multimodal, which is a top priority for ports. Only a limited percentage of FAST Act freight funding ($1.13 billion of $11 billion) is multimodal, and FASTLANE grants are primarily highway focused, outside the gate projects, whereas TIGER has funded important inside the gate projects that assist ports to be “big ship ready” for the 21st century and assists in returning existing facilities to a state of good repair.” In addition, both the House and Senate have circulated support letters requesting that the TIGER program continue in FY 2018. The bipartisan Senate letter was led by Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and included 42 Senate signatures. The House letter included 140 signatures. President Trump’s FY 2018 budget, which did not include many details for programs, zeroed out TIGER funding. The FY 2017 appropriations that will be deliberated later this week include TIGER funding in both the House and Senate bills. During the AAPA Spring Conference fly-in last month, port representatives met with Congressional appropriators and advocated keeping a TIGER-like program in the FY 2017 budget and beyond. Staff Contact: John Young |
