Pauses Of Advisory Committees Are Not Brand New

The operation of all advisory committees—including the Inland Waterways Users Board and several others in which our industry advises the Corps of Engineers and Coast Guard—is being paused while the Defense Department reviews them to ensure that they mesh with the priorities of the new Trump administration.

This pause is somewhat inconvenient, but in this age of social media and clickbait headlines, it’s good to remember that this is not the first time this has happened. Advisory committees have been paused, suspended or allowed to lapse before, both collectively and individually, under several presidents and for various reasons. When President Joe Biden took office, he conducted a “zero-based” review of such committees, leading to the Inland Waterways Users Board being paused for a year.

In the current pause, all current serving members have been told they may have the opportunity to reapply, although no timeline for this has yet been given.

Advisory committee members are typically unpaid volunteers with vital industry expertise. They are important arteries of communication between federal agencies and communities directly influenced by their decisions and actions. In the case of the IWUB, it’s an important forum for the Corps to help the barge industry, whose gasoline fees help pay for locks and dams through the Inland Waterways Trust Fund to understand its funding decisions.

Advisory committees are not the only channel between regulated communities and federal agencies, but they are an important one. It’s impossible to quantify all their benefits, but without doubt they help to make government more efficient and responsive. We thank all of our advisory committee members for the work they do to make sure that our industry’s voice is heard where it counts, and also to help government be more responsive, flexible and cost-effective.