A86 
It looks promising and I think that, too, will be a factor to con- 
sider. 
Mr. HuGues. Thank you. I thank the panel and I thank the 
chairman. 
Mr. BrEAvx. Mr. Pritchard? 
Mr. PriTcHARD. I guess I would ask Mr. Brinson one question. 
Your contention on fees is that it is not a matter of what level they 
should be, but that there should be no user fees; is that correct? 
Mr. Brinson. Well, our position is that the issue of user fees 
must be considered in light of what the national interest is, and 
where it is. If there are to be user fees, if Congress decides that we 
should have user fees, regardless of how they are applied and 
under what objectives, then we would certainly hope that they are 
reasonable, and we think that is yet another issue. 
But before we get to that decision we think that the national in- 
terest simply has to be considered and defined, and it is our posi- 
tion that the Nation as a whole has a fundamental interest in the 
capability of the navigation system, both in terms of the economy 
and national defense. 
The Port of New York, for example, if you look at a statistical 
profile, serves cargo from all 48 continental States. A relatively 
anes port like Savannah, Ga., regularly serves cargo from 25 
tates. 
We have heard the story of the Mississippi this morning. The 
mandate of the Nation now with coal exports emphasizes the role 
of the navigation system. We think that we have to define the na- 
tional interest. 
It is our position that the national interest is there, it is clear, 
and it must be considered. 
Mr. PRITCHARD. Well, I think that certainly the national interest 
has to be considered, and the Federal Government should play a 
very major role. If the Federal Government, say, was picking up 90 
percent of the cost, that would certainly show an involvement and 
a concern and a Federal role. 
So I am just trying to find out if your position is that there 
should be no user fees, period, or whether there is some middle 
ground where [| think probably we will end up. 
Mr. Brinson. Well, as you can certainly understand, we have 
been dealing a great deal with user fees these days and I guess for 
the record I have to say that we don’t think that any user fees are 
indicated. 
When you look at the role of the local and State port authorities 
in this country and the fact that we have invested within the last 
30 years some $6 billion in infrastructure, the Federal Government 
has invested only $4 billion in navigation channels. When you 
think that the Federal Treasury realizes direct revenues of $6 bil- 
lion annually in customs receipts collected on waterborne com- 
merce in this country, it is not a subsidy. 
We are talking about the Federal Government making a well- 
paying investment. 
If we want to talk about subsidy, it was suggested by another 
congressional committee this week that perhaps we are subsidizing 
the Federal responsibility. My answer to you is no, we don’t think 
