US container ports warn against Trump budget cuts

WASHINGTON — Executives from the largest US container and energy ports that had been set to receive close to $330 million this year for maintaining key infrastructure are warning Congress not to accept the Trump administration’s plan to cancel the money.

In a letter sent Thursday to lawmakers responsible for appropriating the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF), the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) and 22 port directors asked that they restore requirements agreed to by Congress in 2020 – but which the administration has stripped from its FY25 and FY26 budgets – that allow “donor” ports, which typically include large container ports, along with ports that specialize in energy cargo, to receive a more equitable share of the trust fund as well as to be able to use it for projects other than harbor maintenance.

Donor and energy ports historically have contributed considerably more to the HMTF than they get back in project revenue.

In FY24, approximately $332 million was awarded to such ports to carry out “expanded use” projects across the country.

“Unfortunately, the Administration opted to ignore Congressional intent … when making spending allocations of HMTF funding” for FY25, the letter stated. “Donor and energy ports, which were expecting to receive nearly $330 million … ultimately received no funding for this program. Similarly, the FY26 budget request includes no funding” to carry out the new funding provisions approved by Congress, the letter states.

“Ports need consistent and predictable funding to plan and execute the billions in additional expanded-use projects in their pipelines,” the port directors assert. “These projects are critical to supporting a robust and resilient supply chain infrastructure as well as our economic, energy, and national security.”

During a water resources budget hearing in June, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., called it “troubling” that the Trump administration believes it’s not the federal government’s responsibility to provide the funding “even though that is one of the explicit purposes Congress passed into law,” she said. “That is really unacceptable.”

At the hearing, Murray asked Lee Forsgren, acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Army’s civil works division, which is responsible for overseeing the HMTF, if he would commit to ensure donor ports receive their full share from the fund.

“I will commit to working to ensure that the [HMTF] is used to the maximum extent it possibly can,” Forsgren responded. “We understand the [HMTF] is the backbone of the commercial navigation system for our ports and that system has to be able to be functional across all of the nation’s ports.

“But I will say,” he added, “there needs to be a primary focus on the principal federal responsibility which is the mainline channels.”