The Marine Transportation System and the Federal Role Measuring Performance, Targeting Improvement -- Special Report 279 (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
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Manufac tured goods are brought into and shipped out of the country in stan dardized marine containers transported by the thousands in vessels that regularly cross the oceans. Commodities essential to the economy and 1
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At the same time, it continues to be heavily influenced by many long-standing polit ical and institutional structures that reflect past economic arrangements and divisions of responsibility. In this regard, the very notion of an MTS is compelling.
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While these federal responsibilities are substantial collectively, they are widely dispersed and not well coordinated. They are fulfilled by many federal programs administered by multiple federal agencies and governed by numerous statutory requirements, some reflecting past federal inter ests and institutional arrangements.
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INFORMATION AND ANALYSIS FOR DECISIONS The committee finds that strengthening of the information and analytic bases for federal decisions relating to the MTS is urgently needed. Fed eral program expenditures on individual components of the MTS are large, and each expenditure must be justified in its own right.
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For example, much information is collected on the incidence and length of delays at individual locks on the inland waterways. These data, while help ful, are not now being used in more comprehensive ways to assess con gestion and delays on the system as a whole and their impacts on national freight transportation patterns and costs.
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Therefore, the committee urges the following: The Secretary of Transportation should seek a mandate from Congress for DOT to take the federal lead in measuring, mon itoring, and assessing options to strengthen the MTS's con tribution to the furthering of key national interests, including commerce, environmental protection, safety, and security. While legislative authorization is imperative to sustain such an effort, DOT should assume this leadership role immedi ately -- thereby demonstrating the value to Congress.
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Hence, as a central part of fulfilling the role recommended above, the committee recommends the following: DOT should immediately begin to develop, and seek a man date from Congress to produce on a regular basis, reports on the use, condition, performance, and demands of the MTS modeled after the biennial C&P reports developed for the fed eral highway and transit programs. Not only should these reports portray current conditions and performance, they should also look to the future by assessing the funding levels and investments required to improve system conditions and performance over time.
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OTHER CONCERNS AND RECOMMENDED ACTIONS With goals for and good information on MTS conditions and performance, federal policy makers will be in a much better position to ensure that fed eral programs are well devised and resources well placed. Moreover, the experience from other transportation modes suggests that the analyses and regular performance reporting recommended above will draw the atten tion of both the public and Congress to the needs of the MTS.
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The creation of national, broad based trust funds for the federal aviation and highway programs, coupled with multiyear congressional authorizations and contractual obligations for the use of these funds, has helped foster a federal commitment to fully reinvest user-generated revenues back into the system to improve condi tions and performance. Similar devices and commitments by Congress and the executive branch to prevent the diversion of user-financed trust funds established for waterway infrastructure do not exist.
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The challenges involved in integrating the nation's freight transportation systems, and the jurisdictional issues that arise, are perhaps most apparent at the interconnections of the nation's public seaports, public highway systems, and private railroads. At these points, federal, state, local, and private-sector interests and responsibilities intersect, but they are especially difficult to coordinate because of differing planning hori zons, resource constraints, and investment priorities.
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The frag mented roles of the federal agencies in promoting marine safety, secu rity, and environmental protection have led to many prevention, mitigation, and response activities, each tending to focus on specific subsets of problems. The result is a mix of efforts, such as economic protections afforded domestic shipbuilders and carriers in the name of promoting national security and the regulation of vessel designs and operations to promote safety and protect the marine environment.
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Expe rience from other federal transportation programs suggests the value of federal support of research in improving the national trans portation system; thus, a comparable supporting role in the fur thering of the national MTS deserves consideration. As part of its efforts to measure and monitor MTS perfor mance, DOT should aim to develop a more thorough under standing of the operations, capacity, and use of the system, and of the freight system in general.
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CONCLUDING OBSERVATION The integration of the nation's transportation modes, particularly for the movement of freight, is a long-term phenomenon that may ultimately compel changes in federal responsibilities and institutions. Short of such change, much can be done to ensure that the federal government remains responsive to the needs of commerce and the public.
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