§ 55601. Short sea transportation program

• (a) The Secretary of Transportation shall establish a short sea transportation program and designate short sea transportation projects to be conducted under the program to mitigate landside congestion or to promote short sea transportation.
• (b) The program shall encourage the use of short sea transportation through the development and expansion of—
  • (1) documented vessels;
  • (2) shipper utilization;
  • (3) port and landside infrastructure; and
  • (4) marine transportation strategies by State and local governments.
• (c) The Secretary shall designate short sea transportation routes as extensions of the surface transportation system to focus public and private efforts to use the waterways to relieve landside congestion along coastal corridors or to promote short sea transportation. The Secretary may collect and disseminate data for the designation and delineation of short sea transportation routes.
• (d) The Secretary may designate a project to be a short sea transportation project if the Secretary determines that the project uses documented vessels and—
  • (1) mitigates landside congestion; or
  • (2) promotes short sea transportation.
• (e) For a short sea transportation project designated under this section, the Secretary may—
  • (1) promote the development of short sea transportation services;
  • (2) coordinate, with ports, State departments of transportation, localities, other public agencies, and the private sector and on the development of landside facilities and infrastructure to support short sea transportation services; and
  • (3) develop performance measures for the short sea transportation program.
• (f) The Secretary, in consultation with Federal entities and State and local governments, may develop strategies to encourage the use of short sea transportation for transportation of passengers and cargo. The Secretary may—
  • (1) assess the extent to which States and local governments include short sea transportation and other marine transportation solutions in their transportation planning;
  • (2) encourage State departments of transportation to develop strategies, where appropriate, to incorporate short sea transportation, ferries, and other marine transportation solutions for regional and interstate transport of freight and passengers in their transportation planning; and
  • (3) encourage groups of States and multi-State transportation entities to determine how short sea transportation can address congestion, bottlenecks, and other interstate transportation challenges.
• (g)
  • (1) The Secretary shall establish and implement a short sea transportation grant program to implement projects or components of a project designated under subsection (d).
  • (2) In order to receive a grant under the program, an applicant shall—
    • (A) submit an application to the Secretary, in such form and manner, at such time, and containing such information as the Secretary may require; and
    • (B) demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Secretary that—
      • (i) the project is financially viable;
      • (ii) the funds received will be spent efficiently and effectively; and
      • (iii) a market exists for the services of the proposed project as evidenced by contracts or written statements of intent from potential customers.
  • (3) An applicant shall provide at least 20 percent of the project costs from non-Federal sources. In awarding grants under the program, the Secretary shall give a preference to those projects or components that present the most financially viable transportation services and require the lowest percentage Federal share of the costs.

§ 55602. Cargo and shippers

• (a) The Secretary of Transportation shall enter into memorandums of understanding with the heads of other Federal entities to transport federally owned or generated cargo using a short sea transportation project designated under section 55601 when practical or available.
• (b) The Secretary shall consult shippers and other participants in transportation logistics and develop proposals for short-term incentives to encourage the use of short sea transportation.

§ 55603. Interagency coordination

The Secretary of Transportation shall establish a board to identify and seek solutions to impediments hindering effective use of short sea transportation. The board shall include representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency and other Federal, State, and local governmental entities and private sector entities.

§ 55604. Research on short sea transportation

The Secretary of Transportation, in consultation with the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, may conduct research on short sea transportation, regarding—

• (1) the environmental and transportation benefits to be derived from short sea transportation alternatives for other forms of transportation;
• (2) technology, vessel design, and other improvements that would reduce emissions, increase fuel economy, and lower costs of short sea transportation and increase the efficiency of intermodal transfers; and
• (3) solutions to impediments to short sea transportation projects designated under section 55601.

§ 55605. Short sea transportation defined

In this chapter, the term “short sea transportation” means the carriage by a documented vessel of cargo—

• (1) that is—
  • (A) contained in intermodal cargo containers and loaded by crane on the vessel;
  • (B) loaded on the vessel by means of wheeled technology;
  • (C) shipped in discrete units or packages that are handled individually, palletized, or unitized for purposes of transportation; or
  • (D) freight vehicles carried aboard commuter ferry boats; and
• (2) that is—
  • (A) loaded at a port in the United States and unloaded either at another port in the United States or at a port in Canada located in the Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway System; or
  • (B) loaded at a port in Canada located in the Great Lakes Saint Lawrence Seaway System and unloaded at a port in the United States.