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Iowa Corn applauds Trump’s infrastructure plan

The Iowa Corn Growers Association (ICGA) is applauding President Trump’s commitment to modernizing America’s transportation system.

Wayne Humphreys of Columbus Junction, Iowa, who chairs ICGA’s corn export and grain trade committee, says upkeep of existing locks and dams on the Mississippi River system is essential to the ag industry.

“Those locks and dams have what is called a ‘single point of failure’,” Humphreys says. “If one lock somehow loses hydraulic or loses a gate or has a wall collapse, the entire system comes to a halt.”

And Humphreys says there is no backup system.

“There is no alternative. There’s no redundant system,” he says. “Once that grain is on a barge, it is very difficult to get it on some other mode of transportation and get it to its destination.  So it’s absolutely critical.”

Humphreys says an estimated 60 percent of U.S. grain exports travel on U.S. waterways.

Trump has proposed a one trillion dollar, ten-year infrastructure investment plan to be funded through public-private partnerships. It calls for rural America to receive grants for rebuilding bridges, roads and waterways.

AUDIO: Wayne Humphreys