WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a Senate Budget Committee hearing yesterday, U.S. Senator David Perdue (R-GA) asked Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Mick Mulvaney how the Trump Administration plans to prioritize infrastructure projects that provide the greatest return on investment, like the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project:

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Transcript:

Senator Perdue: “In states like Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, their ports are trying to accommodate the new Panamax ships that would dramatically improve our ability to compete around the world. I believe those investments are caught up in the Army Corps of Engineers budget being cut but are not being moved over to the infrastructure investments in the President’s budget. These port investments actually offer a higher rate of return than some of the infrastructure investments I think we’ve contemplated. Can you address that?”

Director Mulvaney: “At the risk of making a small correction, we absolutely anticipate that the deep-water ports will be part of the infrastructure bill. In fact, the largest part of the infrastructure bill, 50 percent of the $200 billion, $100 billion, is in our mind set aside for programs that can contribute their own portion of the funding. As you know, the Port of Savannah is exactly that. We specifically had the deep-water ports in mind when we fashioned the infrastructure bill.”

Senator Perdue: “Good. That’s comforting.”