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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Friday, December 20, 2024
The House of Representatives voted 369-42 Monday to approve the Senate’s version of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act in an effort to reduce bottlenecks at U.S. ports and improve conditions for agricultural exports. The overwhelming vote sends the legislation to the White House, where President Joe Biden says he will sign it.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai continued her defense of a Biden trade agenda that does not so far include traditional free trade agreements with other nations, but several senators strenuously pushed back, arguing that the U.S. is being left behind on the international stage as China pushes forward with new tariff-slashing pacts.
President Joe Biden will release his fiscal 2023 budget on Monday, just six months before the new budget year begins, while Senate leaders search for a way to move a bill aimed at relieving port bottlenecks.
The price consumers paid for groceries jumped 1.4% in February, helping to drive an overall increase in the Consumer Price Index of 7.9% over the past 12 months, the largest in 40 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday.
The Ocean Shipping Reform Act, a bill aimed at ending port bottlenecks for ag exports, was introduced in the Senate Thursday even as sponsors of a tougher House-passed version sought to ramp up pressure for its enactment.
The Biden administration, together with U.S. shippers and the ag sector, are pressuring ocean carriers to stop turning down farm commodity shipments, but it may take Congress to force the issue.
Farm groups are concerned the Senate version of the House-passed Ocean Shipping Reform Act won't have the same strong provisions for getting U.S. farm goods onto container ships amid the supply chain crisis.
Congressional Democrats are punting the next battle over the debt limit until after the 2022 elections, checking off a key item on their long December to-do list, but chances for moving their Build Back Better bill through the Senate are looking less likely.
The House of Representatives Wednesday easily approved legislation aimed at stopping ocean carrier companies from refusing to load U.S. agricultural and other goods for exports to Asia and around the globe.
Support on and off Capitol hill is building for legislation that would help U.S. ag commodities get to foreign buyers despite bottlenecks at some of the biggest U.S. ports.
