{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-dr-rand-paul-reintroduces-bill-prioritize-smaller-harbors-0/", "Dr. Rand Paul Reintroduces Bill to Prioritize Smaller Harbors", "2019-11-26", "2019", "2019-11", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nNovember 26, 2019\n\nContact: Press@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Last week, U.S. Senator Rand Paul reintroduced the Harbor Equity Act (S. 2923), which modifies the existing criteria used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to dredge smaller harbors. Currently, the Corps prioritizes dredging solely for larger harbors that see 1 million or more tons in traffic per year \u2013 often forcing small community harbors to fund their own dredging or be forced to shut down operations.\n\nThis legislation drops the minimum tonnage requirements to 500,000 tons, prioritizing smaller harbors for dredging.\n\nOur inland waterways are crucial to the economic success of a wide variety of industries, including coal, steel, agriculture, and manufacturing. Dr. Paul\u2019s reintroduction of the Harbor Equity Act is a continuation of his commitment to ensuring our waterways remain a vital part of our country\u2019s infrastructure and a source of economic growth for Kentucky communities.\n\n\u201cMaintaining America\u2019s robust inland waterway system means properly caring for harbors of all sizes, as the system\u2019s interconnectedness requires dredging smaller connecting harbors to ensure goods are efficiently transported,\u201d said Dr. Paul. \u201cThe Corps\u2019 current system prioritizes dredging for larger harbors, hindering economic growth and threatening the future of smaller harbors. These smaller ports are the backbone of local commerce in communities along our waterways, which is why I\u2019m proud to reintroduce my bill to ensure they are considered for the Corps\u2019 dredging efforts and to help protect them from facing potentially devastating shutdowns.\u201d\n\nYou can read S. 2923, the Harbor Equity Act, below:", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-06-27T23:43:09Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-dr-rand-paul-reintroduces-bill-prioritize-smaller-harbors-0/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.14760797098279, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}