RESOLUTION TO RESTORE TO STRENGTHEN U.S. EXPORTS AND THE INTEGRITY OF THE HARBOR MAINTENANCE TRUST FUND

WHEREAS, The Mayors’ National Leadership Meeting on Ports and Exports highlighted the causes and consequences of the federal government’s underinvestment in harbors, channels, and ports at a time when global economic forces require the United States to mount an unprecedented expansion and modernization; and

WHEREAS, The President has called for a doubling of our nation’s exports, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors has endorsed that goal; and

WHEREAS, America’s cities and their ports, and the jobs and industries which they support, are ramping up, but suffer from the diversion of more than one billion dollars annually from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to other purposes unrelated to commerce or goods movement; and

WHEREAS, Both houses of Congress have passed separate legislation on a bipartisan basis to direct at least a portion of Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund monies to harbors, channels, and ports;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That The U.S. Conference of Mayors endorses legislation to assure that all moneys in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund are appropriated to maintain and deepen the nation’s harbors and ship channels, and to modernize America’s ports.