Click Here to Read the Letter to President Bush

Wyden, Smith call on President to provide adequate funding for small coastal ports
Senators cite Oregon unemployment, economic impacts to support funding

July 18, 2003

Washington, DC – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith, concerned about the economic vitality of small ports and the surrounding rural communities, have called on President Bush to adequately fund shallow draft harbors and channels, which the Senators called, “the economic lifeblood of Oregon coastal communities.” The Administration has consistently sent its budget requests to Congress with inadequate funding for small ports.

Wyden and Smith wrote to the President, saying, “In addition to several deep draft ports, we represent small coastal ports and harbors along the Oregon coast. These ports are the economic engines of their rural communities. These smaller ports -- home to fishing fleets, marinas and significant recreational facilities -- are critical to the economic survival of their communities.”

“Given our state’s economic climate, we have to protect our small ports and the jobs they provide,” Wyden said. “Senator Smith and I are committed to fighting for adequate funding for these rural economic engines.”

“Oregon’s coastal communities depend on well-maintained navigation channels for their economic survival. Access to the sea determines our state’s ability to fish, attract tourists, and export goods,” said Smith. “I will be doing everything I can to make sure these communities get the funds they need.”

In their letter to the President, the Senators cited a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study of the economic impacts of the recreational use of 18 Oregon shallow draft ports, which indicates these ports generate (with multiplier effects) $94.3 million in sales, $35.9 million in income and 1,542 jobs. Coupled with Oregon’s highest-in-the-nation 8.5 percent unemployment rate, they wrote, “Oregon urgently needs federal investments that will bring economic growth to our state. Denying funding to the smaller shallow draft ports literally leaves these ports and the communities they serve high and dry.”

Wyden and Smith also urged the Administration to work with the Senators to develop, “a long-term, rationally based system for maintaining our waterways and for funding needed capacity improvements” to avoid the annual back and forth over port funding.

The Senators were able to restore funding for a number of small ports in the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill that was voted out of the full committee yesterday. The small ports in Oregon that saw their funding restored included Coquille River ($300,000), Depoe Slough ($400,000), Port of Siuslaw ($200,000), Tillamook Bay and Bar ($300,000), Port Orford ($300,000), and Chetco River ($300,000). The Senators will continue to fight to get the funding restored for all of Oregon’s small ports.

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