Mayors from cities along the Mississippi River are calling on Congress to increase U.S. Army Corps of Engineers funding to keep commerce flowing on the waterway.
The mayors asked for additional funds in a Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative and Delta Regional Authority meeting Thursday where they discussed the river’s economy. Flooding and droughts have plagued river ports since 2011.
Natchez, Miss., Mayor Larry Brown says the Corps does all it can to maintain river commerce, but it doesn’t get enough funding to deal with dredging and infrastructure problems. In recent years some ports have relied on local funding for those projects.
