Title: Investing In America: Unlocking the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works

Summary:
Investing In America: Unlocking the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act
This bill amends the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 and the Internal Revenue Code to make certain amounts in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund equivalent to port use tax receipts available for its statutorily prescribed purposes without further appropriation, including for expenditures to pay 100% of the eligible operations and maintenance costs of specified portions of the Saint Lawrence Seaway and up to 100% of the eligible operations and maintenance costs assigned to commercial navigation of all U.S. harbors and inland harbors.
Trust fund receipts and disbursements shall:

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1908 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1908

 To provide for the use of funds in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund 
for the purposes for which the funds were collected and to ensure that 
funds credited to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund are used to support 
                              navigation.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 5, 2017

Mr. Kelly of Pennsylvania (for himself and Mr. DeFazio) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation 
   and Infrastructure, and in addition to the Committees on Ways and 
 Means, and the Budget, for a period to be subsequently determined by 
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall 
           within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for the use of funds in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund 
for the purposes for which the funds were collected and to ensure that 
funds credited to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund are used to support 
                              navigation.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Investing In America: Unlocking the 
Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act''.

SEC. 2. USE OF HARBOR MAINTENANCE TRUST FUND TO SUPPORT NAVIGATION.

    (a) Availability of Amounts.--Section 210 of the Water Resources 
Development Act of 1986 (33 U.S.C. 2238) is amended--
            (1) in the section heading by striking ``authorization of 
        appropriations'' and inserting ``funding for navigation''; and
            (2) in subsection (a) by striking ``There are authorized to 
        be appropriated'' and all that follows before paragraph (1) and 
        inserting ``Amounts made available from the Harbor Maintenance 
        Trust Fund in accordance with section 9505(d) of the Internal 
        Revenue Code of 1986 shall be used to pay--''.
    (b) Amendment to Trust Fund Code.--Section 9505(c) of the Internal 
Revenue Code of 1986 is amended--
            (1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1) by striking ``, 
        as provided by appropriation Acts,'' and inserting ``, in 
        accordance with subsection (d),''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(d) Availability of Amounts.--Beginning on October 1, 2017, there 
shall be available from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for making 
expenditures under subsection (c)--
            ``(1) without further appropriation, an amount equivalent 
        to the taxes received in the Treasury under section 4461 for 
        the previous fiscal year, as determined by the Secretary of the 
        Treasury; and
            ``(2) such additional amounts as provided by appropriations 
        Acts.''.
    (c) Estimate of Harbor Maintenance Needs.--Section 1537(2) of MAP-
21 (33 U.S.C. 2238a(2)) is amended by striking ``amount of 
appropriations'' and inserting ``expenditures''.

SEC. 3. BUDGETARY TREATMENT OF HARBOR MAINTENANCE TRUST FUND.

    Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the receipts and 
disbursements of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund--
            (1) shall not be counted as new budget authority, outlays, 
        receipts, or deficit or surplus for purposes of--
                    (A) the budget of the United States Government as 
                submitted by the President;
                    (B) the congressional budget (including allocations 
                of budget authority and outlays provided therein);
                    (C) the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit 
                Control Act of 1985; or
                    (D) the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010;
            (2) shall be exempt from any general budget limitation 
        imposed by statute on expenditures and net lending (budget 
        outlays) of the United States Government; and
            (3) shall be available only for the purposes specified in 
        section 9505 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

SEC. 4. ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS.

    Section 330 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1992 (26 
U.S.C. 9505 note; 106 Stat. 4851) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) by striking ``and annually thereafter,'' and 
                inserting ``and annually thereafter concurrent with the 
                submission of the President's annual budget request to 
                Congress,''; and
                    (B) by striking ``Public Works and Transportation'' 
                and inserting ``Transportation and Infrastructure''; 
                and
            (2) in subsection (b)(1) by adding at the end the 
        following:
                    ``(D) A description of the expected expenditures 
                from the trust fund to meet the needs of navigation for 
                the fiscal year of the budget request.''.

SEC. 5. HARBOR MAINTENANCE TRUST FUND DEFINED.

    In this Act, the term ``Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund'' means the 
Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund established by section 9505 of the 
Internal Revenue Code of 1986.

SEC. 6. APPLICABILITY.

    This Act (including the amendments made by this Act) shall apply to 
fiscal years beginning after September 30, 2017.
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