March 5, 2021 By Jim Myers Washington, D.C.—A leading House chairman used a group’s influential scorecard on inland waterways, ports and other modes of transportation to again call on Congress to pass a transformational infrastructure measure. Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, termed the overall C- grade from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) as unacceptable. ASCE gave inland waterways a D+, levees a D and ports a B-. “Recent boosts in federal investment and an increase in user fees have begun to reverse decades of declining lock and dam conditions, with unscheduled lock closures reaching a 20-year low in 2017,” ASCE stated in its overview of the nation’s inland waterways.