Costa Joins Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers, Industry Stakeholders on Capitol Hill to Discuss Supply Chain Issues

WASHINGTON- Rep. Jim Costa (CA-16) joined Reps. David Valadao (CA-21) and Dusty Johnson (SD-AL) in moderating a roundtable on strengthening American Supply Chains. The roundtable was organized by the Congressional Problem Solvers Caucus and featured industry leaders in transportation, agriculture, and trade. The roundtable can be viewed here.

Rep. Costa is helping lead the effort in Congress in taking on supply chain issues. He is a co-sponsor of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act which has passed the House, recently introduced the bipartisanOcean Shipping Antitrust Enforcement Act, and in January,led a bipartisan letter to President Biden, urging him to take executive action to the strengthen supply chains.

"It is more urgent than ever that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle put partisan differences aside to address supply chain issues. It affects us all," said Costa. "The American people are sadly seeing essential everyday goods drastically increase in price because of foreign shipping companies taking advantage of their control on the ocean shipping market. The House has already passed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which ensures American exporters are treated fairly when moving their goods out of the country in our ports. I urge my colleagues in the House and Senate to build on this momentum to continue to confront the supply chain crisis. Taking quick action is a major step in bringing down prices for the American consumer."

"Experts in American manufacturing and agriculture made it clear at today's roundtable: America's economy and businesses need the Ocean Shipping Reform Act signed into law," said Johnson. "There are solutions to some of the problems we're seeing with our supply chain and foreign flagged ocean shippers – the Ocean Shipping Reform Act establishes rules of the road and puts Americans on an equal playing field."

"I represent farmers that feed the world, and our agriculture economy has been hit hard by the ongoing supply chain crisis," said Valadao. "We need solutions like the Ocean Shipping Reform Act to ease the bottlenecks that have resulted in lost revenue for our farmers and increased food prices across the country. I was glad to join the Problem Solvers Caucus today to discuss bipartisan ways to strengthen supply chain security."

The other participants on the panel included:

• Ben Siegrist, Director, Infrastructure, Innovation, and Human Resources Policy at the National Association of Manufacturers
• Peter Friedmann, Executive Director at the Agriculture Transportation Coalition
• Jonathan Gold, Vice President, Supply Chain and Customs Policy at the National Retail Federation
• Jaime Castaneda, Executive Vice President for Policy Development and Strategy at the National Milk Producers Federation
• Jonathan Eisen, Director, Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference at the American Trucking Association