Austin News

U.S. Senator John Cornyn from Texas has introduced a new piece of legislation aimed at improving access to federal funding for Gulf Coast ports. Co-sponsored by Senators Gary Peters (D-MI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Roger Wicker (R-MS), and Todd Young (R-IN), the Securing Smart Investments in Our Ports Act is intended to ensure a more equitable allocation of resources for port infrastructure projects.

Explaining the motivation behind the legislation, Sen. Cornyn stated, “Texas’ seaports facilitate hundreds of billions of dollars in international trade that benefits state economies across the country, but the current division of funding for critical infrastructure projects doesn’t reflect this reality.” He went on to say, “This bill would direct the Maritime Administration to even the playing field between ports on the East and West Coasts and those on the Gulf and Great Lakes, ensuring a fairer funding allocation for investments in Texas and elsewhere.”

The federal Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP) is a grant initiative managed by the Maritime Administration that addresses the needs for port safety, efficiency, and reliability. It funds projects such as dock reconstruction, enhanced access to transportation routes, and expanded storage capacities. Despite these efforts, the latest data indicate a disparity in funding distributions, with Great Lakes ports receiving only two percent and Gulf Coast ports receiving six percent of PIDP awards from 2019 to 2024. Meanwhile, East and West Coast ports received approximately 70 percent of the funding allocations.

The proposed legislation aims to correct these imbalances by mandating that the Maritime Administration considers equitable regional distribution when assigning PIDP funding.

For further details on the PIDP, additional resources are available online.