U.S. ports should have more access to private activity bonds and federal loan programs as part of the Trump administration's effort to upgrade the country's maritime industry.
That's the view of Squire Patton Boggs attorneys who penned an
"Mr. President, if you are as serious about this subject as you say you are, there's a pathway there for you that has been followed for surface transportation," said Gregory Johnson, a Squire attorney who helped write what he called the "part alert, part advocacy piece."
Following the surface transportation model would mean establishing a national volume cap on PABs for ports, similar to
"The volume cap is a real constraint," he said. "If ports are a national priority, why not give them a national volume cap, and layer on federal loan programs," like Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. "TIFIA has worked wonders in the surface transportation realm," he said.
Johnson suggested the PABs and TIFIA provisions could be attached to two pending bills, Shipbuilding and Harbor Infrastructure for Prosperity and Security Act of 2025, or SHIPS Act, and the Building Ships in America Act of 2025.
"That's one potential platform," Johnson said. "It's a case where you have legislation that's in place that's meant to enhance the maritime industry, and you have a policy that says use public-private partnerships — the next logical step is serious consideration to using those statutes or something like it to implement some of the financing tools."
A previous version of the SHIPS Act would have expanded a key competitive grant program for ports — the Port Infrastructure Development Program — but the provision was dropped in the latest bill, said a spokesperson for the American Association of Port Authorities. The industry is lobbying for some type of "port-specific infrastructure funding" to be included in the bill, the spokesperson said.
"We're obviously very supportive of the administration's goals to revitalize the maritime industry and the industrial base and we're big fans of more funding vehicles for ports," he said.
The administration's plan would also create "Maritime Prosperity Zones," modeled after Opportunity Zones, that would incentivize private investment in America's maritime industries and waterfront communities.
The Maritime Action Plan also calls for a land port maintenance tax — imposed on merchandise entering the U.S. through land ports — that would go into a newly created Land Port Maintenance Trust Fund to support land port infrastructure, on par with an existing similar tax for seaports.
