National Strategy for the Marine Transportation System: A Framework for Action

FACT SHEET

• The National Strategy was created by the Committee on the Marine Transportation System (CMTS) in response to the 2004 Ocean Action Plan which called for the CMTS to recommend strategies and plans to maintain and improve the U.S. marine transportation system (MTS).

• The National Strategy is the product of a two year effort by the CMTS membership - 18 Federal Departments, agencies, and White House offices - and approved by the CMTS on July 10, 2008.

• The MTS consists of ocean, coastal, and inland waterways, ports, intermodal connections, vessels, and commercial, military, and recreational users.

• The MTS is a critical component to the Nation’s ability to trade with the rest of the world, with nearly 80 percent by weight of all U.S. international trade being carried by the MTS. The MTS supports military deployments from strategic seaports, a growing cruise line industry, tens of thousands of commercial fishing vessels, and millions of recreational boaters.

• The National Strategy provides an overview of the MTS, its components and functions. It also describes the most pressing challenges facing U.S. marine transportation. These challenges include system capacity: channel depths, inland waterway maintenance, maritime data, and container transportation; safety and security; environmental impacts; disruptions; and finance and economics.

• The National Strategy contains 34 recommended actions to improve the U.S. marine transportation system in five priority areas: capacity, safety and security, environmental stewardship, resilience and reliability, and finance and economics.

• The National Strategy serves both as policy guidance and as an interagency framework for the CMTS to take action to improve the MTS.

• The National Strategy is a “living document” to be coordinated with MTS stakeholders, and enhanced and updated, as the CMTS completes its assessment of the MTS or as other MTS studies become available.

• The CMTS Coordinating Board is developing an implementation plan to define, assign, schedule, and execute the recommended actions of the National Strategy.

• Many National Strategy recommended actions are already being addressed by the CMTS. These include:
  
  ---- Inventory of Federal maritime data available on the cmts.gov web portal;
  ---- Integration and coordination of Federal navigation technologies;
  ---- An assessment of the state of the MTS;
  ---- Review of Federal MTS-related funding; and,
  ---- Review of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund.

• The National Strategy is available on the CMTS web site, www.cmts.gov .

Committee on the Marine Transportation System U.S. Department of Transportation System 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE W28 340 Washington, DC 20590 (Ph) 202-366-3612 (Fx) 202-366-7403 www.cmts.gov

***Photo courtesy of the Port of Los Angeles.