Lawmaker pushing to make MO port Midwest shipping hub

News

Lawmaker pushing to make MO port Midwest shipping hub

The Missouri House Policy Chairman is pushing for $23.5 million to expand the New Madrid, Missouri port along the Mississippi River in the southeast corner of the state.

Don Rone tells Brownfield Missouri, and much of the Midwest, has an inefficient supply chain for ag goods and other products.

“We depend on three ports to bring our containers into our area,” he said. “That’s L.A., that’s Savanah, Georgia, and Charlston, South Carolina.”

Rone said his proposed port investment would provide a hub for products to move to and from New Orleans.

“It would help exports, the return investments there,” Rone said. “And it would help to bring about, and I’m looking way down the road, value-added for agriculture products.”

He said the project has been in the works for a couple of years and the requested state funding would push it across the finish line.

“Out of a $40-something-billion budget, you wouldn’t think that’d be hard to come by, would you,” Rone said. “But it is hard to come by.”

Representative Don Rone Interview

.