US House Passes Ocean Shipping Bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation on Monday to improve oversight of ocean shipping, which supporters say will help curb inflation and ease export backlogs. The Ocean Shipping Reform Act was sponsored by South Dakota Senator John Thune and Congressman Dusty Johnson.

The bill passed 369-42 and will head to the White House for President Joe Biden’s signature. Biden said in a statement he looked forward to signing it into law.

The bill would boost the investigatory authority of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the U.S. agency that oversees ocean shipping, and increase transparency of industry practices.

It would allow FMC to launch probes of ocean common carriers’ business practices and to apply enforcement measures, require ocean common carriers to report to the FMC “total import/export tonnage” each calendar quarter and would bar ocean carriers from unreasonably declining opportunities for U.S. exports under new rules to be determined by the FMC.

The Ocean Shipping Reform Act passed unanimously in the Senate in March. Similar legislation had passed the House 364-60 in December but lawmakers needed to resolve differences in the bills before it went to Biden to sign. It

Congress has few tools to combat inflation, which hit 8.6% in the 12 months through May, according to the U.S. consumer price index. Beyond the shipping bill, Democrats are also pushing measures to lower prescription drug prices to try to address the issue.

Imports in the nation’s major retail container ports are expected to reach near-record volume in June as retailers seek to meet consumer demand and protect themselves from disruptions in West Coast ports, the National Retail Federation said in a statement last week.