President Barak Obama visited PortMiami Friday to talk about the economy. Meanwhile, Governor Rick Scott was asking the federal government to repay Florida for the money it's spent on port improvements.
Although Governor Scott often criticizes the federal government for spending too much, he says this is different.
"...so we're doing the right things here, they need to do the right things, but right now they ought to reimburse us the money we're spending on our ports because we know it's going to create jobs, so we can even create more jobs", Scott said.
The state gave PortMiami $77 million to help pay for a major dredging project which will allow larger cargo ships to dock at the port. PortMiami Director Bill Johnson says expansion projects like the deep dredge are important for Florida ports to stay competitive.
"There's a system of 15 ports in the state of Florida, deep water ports. It's a great system of ports", said Johnson. "And one of the largest drivers of our economy of our great state of Florida is in fact trade, international trade."
PortMiami-- as well as several other ports up the east coast-- are dredging in order to accommodate larger cargo ships that will be coming out a newly deepened Panama Canal in 2015.