• Implementation of the short sea transportation program as authorized in Title 11 of PL 110-140. Implementation of the short sea transportation grants program as authorized in PL 111-84. Improving awareness of the Coastal Connect project and related subject, such as alternative marine fuels, among policy and program persons in the Federal government.
• Exemption from the harbor maintenance tax for intermodal cargo moving in the coastwise trade such as provided in HR 638 and S 551.
• Funding for the Short Sea Transportation program, and legislation (enacted) to create a short sea grants program (PL 111-84).
• Developing how marine highway policy and surface transportation policy can be merged in the upcoming surface transportation legislation including the Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009 (committee print) and S. 1038, which would have USDOT establish plans and strategies for meeting goals such as increasing non-highway usage in goods movement.

Duration: October 18, 2008 to July 7, 2010

General Issues: Marine/Maritime/Boating/Fisheries, Taxation/Internal Revenue Code, Budget/Appropriations, Transportation, Environmental/Superfund

Spending: about $70,000 (But it's complicated. Here's why.)

It can be tricky to figure out how much an organization spent on a particular lobbying engagement. The law only requires lobbyists to report the amount they were paid for federal lobbying each quarter rounded to the nearest $10,000—and if it's less than $3,000 in a given quarter (or less than $13,000 for organizations with in-house lobbyists), they don't have to disclose it at all. Plus, some organizations include spending that doesn’t belong in the report—for instance, money spent lobbying state governments or other legal work.

Agencies lobbied since 2008: House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, Maritime Administration (MARAD), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Maritime Administration (MARAD),, Transportation - Dept of (DOT)