Biden continuing administration port push

Vice President Biden will continue the Obama administration’s recent port tour with a trip to the Port of Houston, the White House announced on Wednesday.

Biden will tour the Houston port and give a speech about “the importance of investing in infrastructure to improve America’s competitiveness, strengthen the middle class, and grow our economy,” the White House said.

The speech follows a recent visit by President Obama to the Port of New Orleans, and a trip by Biden last month to the Port of Charleston, S.C.

{mosads}The White House said the “the Vice President will highlight how federal investments are helping the Port of Houston and ports across the U.S. prepare to capitalize on the expansion of the Panama Canal.”

The White House added that Biden will follow the trip to the Houston port with a trip the next day to the Panama Canal.

The White House said Biden’s would take a “tour of the Panama Canal expansion project, which will double the capacity of the canal and allow significantly larger ships to call on U.S. ports, helping spark job creation and prosperity at home and across the Americas.”

The White House’s focus on ports in recent weeks comes as Congress is expected to begin conference negotiations on a new bill to boost U.S. ports and waterways.

Both chambers have passed versions of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which includes authorizations for about $8.2 billion worth of port and waterways projects. The chambers are expected to begin conferencing soon to iron out differences in their approaches to selecting the projects that will receive the investments.