Full Utilization of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act

Bill: 116-hr-2396
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. DeFazio, Peter A. [D-OR-4]
Introduced: 2019-04-30
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works
Subjects: Appropriations

Budget deficits and national debt

Congressional oversight

Government trust funds

Navigation, waterways, harbors

Sales and excise taxes

Transportation programs funding

User charges and fees

Water resources funding
Latest action: action_date: 2019-05-01
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment.

Summaries:
action_date: 2019-04-30
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><b>Full Utilization of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act</b></p> <p>This bill provides a discretionary spending limit adjustment for full utilization of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to ensure that funds are used to support navigation and maintain federally authorized harbors.</p> <p>The bill makes certain amounts in the trust fund available, without appropriation, to pay</p> <ul> <li>100% of the eligible operations and maintenance costs of specified portions of the Saint Lawrence Seaway (a system of locks, canals, and channels in Canada and the United States that permits oceangoing vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes); and</li> <li>up to 100% of the eligible operations and maintenance costs assigned to commercial navigation of all U.S. harbors and inland harbors.</li> </ul> <p>The discretionary spending adjustment in a given fiscal year may not exceed the amount within the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund on the last day of the fiscal year that is two years prior to such fiscal year.</p>

tv_txt: I 116th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 2396 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES April 30, 2019 Mr. DeFazio introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure , and in addition to the Committee on 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, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Full Utilization of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Act . 2. Use of Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund to support navigation 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) by adding at the end the following: (g) Adjustments to discretionary spending limits Amounts made available from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund under this section or section 9505 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 shall be made available in accordance with section 251(b)(2)(G) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. . 3. 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. . 4. Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund discretionary spending limit adjustment Section 251(b)(2) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 ( 2 U.S.C. 901(b)(2) ) is amended by adding at the end the following: (G) Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (i) In general If a bill or joint resolution making appropriations for a fiscal year is enacted that specifies an amount for harbor maintenance activities, then the adjustments for that fiscal year shall be the total of such amount in that Act for such purpose for that fiscal year, but may not exceed the total amount within the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund under subsection (a) of section 9505 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 on the last day of the fiscal year that is two years prior to that fiscal year. (ii) Limitation The adjustment under clause (i) with respect to an amount made available for harbor maintenance activities may only be made if such amount— (I) is derived solely from funds in such Trust Fund; and (II) is made available for expenditures described under subsection (c) of such section 9505. .