Supply Chain Issues Need More Solutions

Supply chain issues continue to take legislative priority as America faces potential long-term consequences. Congressman Ron Kind says just nine companies dominate trans-pacific shipping, and have increased shipping rates of 1,000 percent in the last 12 months. He hopes the Ocean Shipping Reform Act can combat this.

“But what's most infuriating right now is they bring those loaded cargo ships over from China to our ports on the West Coast, and many times the shipping companies are sending those cargo containers back empty without U.S. goods and products on it. And we're saying with this legislation that we passed, no more, that they're going to have to load up those American exports. A lot of it is agriculture exports heading to China, if they're going to be sending those ships back out west. So, it was long overdue. I'm glad we were able to meet with this bipartisan legislation, President Biden has been calling for this for some time.”

“Part of that is what President Biden has been talking about in-sourcing these jobs, in-sourcing these manufacturing facilities, so we're more reliant on ourselves for what we need. We're working on a bill called America Competes right now, which would make major investments in the microchip industry of the United States. We're so dependent on foreign countries for our basic microchip and microprocessor supply, the world runs on that now.”