Tuesday President Obama signed the Water Resources Development Act or WRDA bill into law. The $ 12 Billion measure authorizes lock and dam and port upgrades on the nation’s waterways. Soy Transportation Coalition Executive Director Mike Steenhoek says the next step in the legislative process will be to pass an appropriations measure to fully fund WRDA.
Steenhoek says WRDA will help boost U.S. trade competitiveness in agriculture. He says the port upgrades will allow the U.S. to load more soybeans on U.S. ships and get them out to foreign markets.
He says a lot of that value will be seen when the Panama Canal expansion is completed in 2016.