Mayors: Prioritize Mississippi River In Supply Chain Group

During their recent visit to Washington, D.C., mayors of Mississippi River towns and cities urged the White House to prioritize the corridor in various projects and initiatives. The Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI)—an association of local governments from across the Mississippi Valley—met with Ryan Whalen, special assistant to the president and senior adviser for Inflation Reduction Act implementation, and Monica Gorman, special assistant to the president for manufacturing and industrial policy and senior adviser to the president’s Supply Chain Resilience Council.

Mayors proposed assisting the council on several of their inaugural initiatives. Among them:

• Including the Mississippi River port superstructure and assets in the quadrennial supply chain review.Including the Mississippi River Corridor in tabletop exercises for supply chain disruptions, since “months of drought along the Mississippi can be more expensive to the nation than years of drought in the West.”

• Expanding the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s  drought early warning system and U.S. Geological Survey nutrient monitoring to the entire Mississippi River. “This is particularly valuable considering the 2022/23 year-long drought cost the nation over $26 billion in losses,” MRCTI said.

• Assisting in developing the agenda and partnerships for the Supply Chain Data and Analytics Summit. “Mayors believe they can bring scaled resilience into the summit by linking climate vulnerability to supply chain disruption along with natural solutions to address disruptions at scale using land-based projects,” MRCTI said.

• Expanding the EPA Clean Ports grant program to include climate mitigation and resilience capacities to protect new emissions technology.

“Nearly a trillion dollars in product passes the St. Louis Arch on the Mississippi annually,” MRCTI said in its newsletter. “All of that product is also passing through MRCTI member city ports.”

Boozman Honored

The MRCTI honored Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), co-chair of the Mississippi River Caucus, as a “champion of the Mississippi River” for his leadership and constant alliance with the mayors to realize positive change for the river. Boozman “spearhead[ed] multiple initiatives such as enacting the first lower Mississippi River Ecosystem Restoration Project and introducing the Mississippi River Basin Fishery Commission Act as well as co-sponsoring the Recycling Infrastructure and Accessibility Act.”

To mark the halfway point of the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, MRCTI released its platform for 2024 of eight major policy recommendations together with seven appropriation priorities. The platform includes goals for increased resilience, climate mitigation, ecosystem restoration, recycling infrastructure, conservation and water security.