Over the past year, American producers, exporters, and entire economic sectors have grappled with widespread delays, bottlenecks and increasing fees at U.S. ports. These challenges are exacerbated by reports that vessel-operating common carriers are declining to ship U.S. agricultural commodity exports from U.S. ports.
In mid-March, a bipartisan group of House members sent a letter to Michael A. Khouri, chair at the time of the Federal Maritime Commission, voicing concerns over the slowdowns. House Agriculture Committee members – Rep. Jim Costa, D-Calif., Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., and Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif. - met April 6 with the new FMC Chairman Dan Maffei and Commissioner Rebecca Dye to discuss the current situation.