NAWE asks Congress to establish maritime trust fund and and implement legislation supporting revitalization of maritime industrial base

The National Association of Waterfront Employers (NAWE) sent a letter to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) and Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-WA), urging Congressional leaders to incorporate the creation of a Maritime Trust Fund to serve as a dedicated funding source to support America’s maritime industrial base development.

NAWE believes a portion of the trust fund should be used to invest in domestic manufacturing of cargo handling equipment, including ship-to-shore cranes and large yard marine equipment, and to support port and terminal expansion. This mechanism would support President Trump’s “Restores America’s Maritime Dominance” Executive Order, which seeks to revitalize the U.S. maritime industrial base.

“NAWE and its members are ready to be a cornerstone in rebuilding our maritime capabilities,” said NAWE President Carl Bentzel. “Establishing a robust maritime trust fund is a critical step toward reindustrializing our ports and ensuring the security and efficiency of our supply chain.”

In the letter, NAWE recommends capitalizing the fund using maritime-generated revenue, such as penalties on foreign ships and tariffs on imported maritime equipment, to invest in domestic maritime investment. The trust fund, as proposed, would be modeled after the off-budget Highway Trust Fund and would provide economic and national security benefits by supporting strategic ports and the broader defense logistics network.

Read the full letter below or here.

Dear Chairman Graves and Ranking Member Larson,

As the leadership and membership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee move forward with the reauthorization of the transportation bill, the National Association of Waterfront Employers (NAWE) would like to highlight policy objectives that will have a lasting impact on our maritime industry and our nation’s supply chain.

Specifically, the NAWE membership would like to work with the committee to help implement the legislative vision embodied in President Trump’s “Restores America’s Maritime Dominance” executive order, implementing the Maritime Action Plan (MAP). The MAP, in part, calls for the administration to deliver a legislative proposal to establish a Maritime Security Trust Fund, funded by new or existing tariff or tax revenue, to serve as a dedicated funding source to rebuild shipbuilding and the U.S. maritime industrial base.

While implementation of the executive order and the proposed Maritime Security Trust Fund resides with the Office of Management and Budget, and other federal agencies, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will be the dominant committee considering authorizing legislation attendant to programs supported by the trust fund. NAWE would urge the Committee to aggressively consider the forthcoming Maritime Security Trust Fund, and we would be honored to share our perspectives on how to create a stronger port operations community of marine terminals at U.S. ports.

NAWE is a nonprofit trade association whose member companies are privately owned stevedores, marine terminal operators (MTOs), and other U.S. waterfront employers. NAWE’s member companies engage in business at major U.S. ports on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the Gulf of Mexico, the Great Lakes, and Puerto Rico. Accordingly, NAWE’s members operate the critical connection between global commerce and our nation’s economy and are committed to keeping America’s international trade and commerce flowing, while maintaining an unwavering dedication to workplace safety for waterfront workers.

With more than 50 members, NAWE’s membership handles over 90% of the nation’s containerized trade, a substantial portion of the nation’s breakbulk trade, and a majority of the nation’s cruise ship passengers. NAWE members are in the business of running our nation’s ports, handling the nation’s supply chain and will be a major building block in the revitalization of the U.S. maritime industrial base.

While one of the proposed objectives in creating the maritime trust fund has been to jump-start the country’s shipbuilding industry and capabilities, NAWE supports these efforts and objectives, but emphasizes that the rebuilding of the U.S. maritime industry cannot be overlooked or undervalued. A strong national maritime industrial base must be in place to sustain our country’s maritime industry.

Driving the renewal of the U.S. maritime industrial base will be the U.S manufacturing of cargo handling equipment (CHE). NAWE strongly supports building a maritime trust fund that would assist in the transition of ship-to-shore (STS) cranes and Large Yard Marine Equipment (LYHE) to the United States manufacturing sector as primary function and funding-eligible objective of a new maritime trust fund.

As the U.S. builds back its maritime capabilities, the manufacturing and availability of CHE must be a central criterion and priority for the U.S. maritime trust fund. This equipment, along with the STS cranes and LYHE, are the engines of ports moving cargo through terminals and out on the national supply chain or onto ships for exports.

NAWE recommends that base funding for the maritime trust fund be capitalized by maritime-generated funding, such as the penalties the administration has proposed on Chinese ships entering U.S. harbors. Other proposed tariffs on maritime equipment and Federal Maritime Commission penalties could also be collected and utilized in the Maritime Trust Fund. NAWE looks forward to not only working with policymakers on the structure of the maritime trust fund but also identifying maritime funding sources to sustain the much-needed maritime trust fund.

Additionally, this maritime trust fund will provide important national security benefits to the ports and MTOs that support the strategic seaports and to the defense industry in general, as a healthy maritime industry means stronger national security.

Finally, as the Committee, U.S. Department of Transportation, and OMB craft the structure of the trust fund, NAWE would recommend that it remain off-budget, modeled after the Highway Trust Fund.