Greetings. I am writing today to provide a re-cap of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association’s 2013 Congressional Meetings in Washington, D.C. The meeting attendees included AIWA board representatives from commercial,recreational, and governmental interests. We participated in nine meetings during the trip that included Congressional delegations from Virginia to Georgia.The Florida Inland Navigation District was in Washington earlier in the week meeting with the Florida delegation.

Overview
The primary purpose of our meetings was to continue to highlight the importance of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW) to the Nation, and identify the challenges facing the waterway with two proposed avenues for increased maintenance. During the course of the meetings, the attendees highlighted the need for a healthy, maintained waterway for not only commercial purposes, but also life and safety, recreational usage, national defense, and economic development opportunities for towns and businesses along the AICW.Specifically, the Association was asking support on funding for waterway maintenance through the annual appropriations process; and for the introduction of language for the Water Resources Development Act to highlight the value of the AICW as an alternative for congested, major transportation routes. More discussion is provided below.

Congressional Meeting re-cap
The Association was warmly received in all of our meetings. We had the pleasure of meeting and thanking Congressmen Walter Jones (NC) and MikeMcIntyre (NC) for their ongoing support of the waterway. One exciting topic that was discussed by Rep. McIntyre was the re-starting of the Congressional Waterway Caucus and holding a WRDA 101. We offered to support those efforts by sharing this information with our delegation. We were also able to directly brief new Congressman Tom Rice (SC) on our issues and will be following-up with his staff related to specific economic benefit questions. Generally speaking, all three Congressmen explained that times are tough and budgets are tight, but economically-justified investments in infrastructure should be a focus of the federal government.
In our meetings with Congressional staff, it was clear that the staffers were aware of the challenges facing water resource projects, and the value that inland waterways like ours provide to the nation. One such discussion, and the focus of our WRDA request, is to recognize the use of the AICW as an alternative for I-95. This idea was well received in our meetings and we will continue to provide examples of other federally-authorized waterways that also relieve congestion on major transportation routes.
In regards to federal funding, our request was to continue the FY 2012 practice of establishing `mini-pots’ of funding within the Operations & Maintenance account of the Navigation line item in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) budget. This process allows for the AICW to compete for funding against similar projects, instead of competing against high use projects. While the federal funding process has since been impacted by sequestration, we will continue to work on these efforts and await the release of the House GOP Budget and the Administration’s budget, which is now expected in April.

Next steps to support our Congressional agenda
Our first steps are to respond to requests for more information from the Congressional delegations. The information requested are economic impact information for the entire waterway, and the identification of other waterways that will relieve congestion on major transportation routes. Other activities that we will be working on in the immediate future include:
‘¢ Support Congressman McIntyre’s re-start of the Congressional Waterway Caucus and WRDA 101 session
‘¢ Continue to watch and evaluate new and existing legislation, and act appropriately to support legislation that is beneficial to the AICW
‘¢ Meet with Colonel Ed Jackson and the USACE South Atlantic Division staff in April to discuss the President’s budget and impact on the AICW.

Additional Legislation
1. In our meeting with Senator Lindsey Graham’s office, we discussed a Port and Inland Waterway Modernization bill that has yet to be submitted to Congress, but has been shared with others in the Senate. It is our understanding that this bill would have a price tag in the billions but would lead to a 5-year infusion of dollars to bring over 95% of ports and waterways to their authorized width and depth. This bill is designed to allow USACE to clear its backlog of projects thus freeing up future dollars. It is premature for the Association to act as the bill has yet to be filed, but we will be watching and weigh in at the appropriate time.
2. As noted in recent news reports, a bill has recently been introduced in the Senate that relates to Inland Waterways, amongst other issues. Although the bills are not identical, the Casey Bill (S. 407) is very similar to the WAVE Act. Barry Holliday, our Vice-Chair, has been closely following these bills on behalf of our organization and will continue to serve as our eyes and ears on the matter, and alert us when an action is needed.

Brad Pickel, Executive Director
Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway Association