Lawmakers Considering Emergency Aid to Ports to Relieve Congestion, Supply Chain Issues
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is hoping to fund an emergency maritime relief program to help unclog port congestion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and provide relief for U.S. shippers. The Maritime Transportation System Emergency Relief Program, created last year, could provide more resources to terminals that are seeing severe shortages in skilled labor and equipment, and help alleviate the nationwide backups in trucks and container vessels, House members said.
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“We're about to do another COVID relief package. We've done several. Unfortunately the maritime industry has not been included in any of these,” Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., said during a Feb. 9 hearing in the House Subcommittee on the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. “We're here today to hopefully begin to make the case to our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee that this is something that should be funded this year.”
U.S. and global ports have struggled to keep supply chains running since the start of the pandemic, partly due to sharp increases in demand for a range of medical supplies and a shortage of port workers who have been forced to quarantine after contracting the coronavirus. The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports in California have been especially hard hit: Dozens of container vessels in the San Pedro Bay have been waiting for weeks to unload their cargo, slowing both imports and exports (see 2102020050).
Without aid, the port issues may only increase, said Lauren Brand, president of the National Association of Waterfront Employers. Brand told the subcommittee that almost as many L.A. and Long Beach longshore workers tested positive for COVID-19 in the first three weeks of 2021 as in the first 10 months of the pandemic. She said both the demand for personal protective equipment imports and U.S. agricultural exports are “pushing the system to its limits.” The goods “flowing through this trade lane change faster than the system can reinvent itself,” Brand said.
Ohio Rep. Bob Gibbs, the top Republican on the subcommittee, said U.S. agricultural exporters are struggling to find containers to ship their goods, and when they do find containers, there are often delays. Many of those problems stem from “connectivity” issues between inland and coastal ports, said Mario Cordero, executive director of the Port of Long Beach. “We need to upgrade our infrastructure here in the port community” so that “the American exporter, particularly the American farmer, has a competitive opportunity to the largest market in the world, which is Asia,” Cordero said.
Cordero, Brand and other industry representatives urged the subcommittee to push for funding for the Maritime Transportation System Emergency Relief Program, saying it would help fund training for maritime workers, prioritize vaccinations for port workers and mitigate COVID-19 impacts on trade. “By funding this new maritime relief program,” Cordero said, “Congress can sustain critical supply chains and ensure that maritime operations continue at a high level.”
Shippers have also asked the Federal Maritime Commission to address a range of port issues, including unfair detention and demurrage charges, labor shortages and steep increases in container fees (see 2011170041). But it remains unclear whether the FMC has the authority to step in. Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif, chair of the subcommittee, said he hopes Congress can provide relief. “Requests for assistance have gone unanswered,” he said, “while demand on our ports and cargo-carrying U.S. fleet only increases.”