country continues this fight against the covid-19 pandemic. as the chairwoman of the border security facilitation operations subcommittee and a member representative of the port of los angeles, the largest container port in the nation, i understand how important it is that resources -- that ports have the resources they need in order to support timely travel. i'm encouraged that secretaries have traveled to the port of los angeles to see the challenges firsthand. the nation's investment in seaports is critical to ensuring that goods coming through the ports make it to their final destinations without delay. support of los angeles and keep ports across the nation have continued throughout the covid-19 pandemic. despite the gains, as people have shifted spending habits toward more consumer goods, delays have searched, which makes the issue of packing and protecting staff at our seaports from the virus even more important. our seaports have long been understaffed by u.s. customs and order protection's office of field operation, the leading agency responsible for facilitating trade and travel, including our seaports, land ports, and airports. while the decline in air travel and cruises during the pandemic initially allowed staff to be redirected toward seaports to help with surging cargo, travel volumes are now rising across all ports of entry. in fact, some officers at seaports are being reassigned to assist at rising travel at land ports of an. seaports were paying for additional overtime and services for the reimbursable services program. as i expect we will hear from our witnesses, this standing approach toward staffing is not sustainable. we also need to ensure that our ports are taking appropriate steps to protect the workforce during this pandemic. these front-line workers continue to facilitate trade and travel, despite the risk posed by the virus. seaports have also struggled with infrastructure and technology challenges, which have hampered trade facilitation over the last year. for example, at the ports of los angeles and long beach, a lack of storage space and increase in ships has contributed to the congestion at the ports. other smaller ports have experienced delays with travel times taking up to three weeks to complete. concerns persist particularly in relation to cybersecurity. cyber attacks against u.s. maritime targets increased 400% in 2020. as cyber attacks continue to become more dangerous, a successful cyber attack against a major seaport could cripple trade and have significant applications for the u.s. economy. in addition, appropriately resourcing our seaports continues to be a challenge. we have concerns that seaports have been charged with upgrading facilities and equipment. cbt has attempted to alleviate long-standing challenges through programs that help meet short-term needs, but we must and need to make sure we are addressing systematic challenges. seaports are critical to the american economy. i look forward to hearing from our witnesses today on what assistance congress and this committee can offer. i'm also interested in hearing any recommendations from our witnesses on changes that need to happen to cdp's public/private partnership. i recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee, mr. higgins from louisiana, for the opening statement. mr. higgins, are you on? representative higgins: i am, good lady, and thank you for the technological advice. i thank my friend, the chairwoman, for holding this important meeting today, and i would also like to thank our witnesses for joining us, especially director self from the port of lake charles in my district. ports are an incredible component -- an incredibly important component of our nation's daily life. as many across the nation have seen recently, disruptions in our nation's poor can have disastrous consequences to our nation's supply chain and in our daily lives. while the media and our government have focused heavily on the covert-related disruptions at ports in california and new york, there are ports around the nation such as port of lake charles, the 12 busiest port in the country in the seventh fastest growing in america. lake charles has faced natural disasters and covid head on. the port of lake charles relies on reports as a shipping channel . its main products include aluminum and other materials. it is and energy port, and significant products move through it for the betterment and survival of all america. the port of lake charles was severely impacted by the two major hurricanes that hit southwest louisiana last year. the port and associated businesses suffered over $240 million worth of damage between hurricanes laura and delta, only weeks apart. they are still being addressed today. the impact of a natural disaster combined with covid and workforce shortages -- they affected lives of every american, and we are august on that today in this hearing. the primary issue faced by my district is the slow pace of federal funding and approval for that funding from agencies like fema. it is and unnecessary injury on top of injuries. ensuring ports are functional from lake charles to los angeles is key to our nation's recovery. a healthy port system greatly contributes to our national and economic security. i look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses today, and i am hopeful congress can work together to solve many of the challenges our nation's seaports face. i thank the chairwoman, and i yield. chair barragan: thank you. i want to thank the ranking member for his opening statements, and members are reminded the subcommittee will operate according to the guidelines laid out by the chairman and ranking member in their july 8 colloquy. the chair is looking to see if the full committee chair, the gentleman from mississippi, mr. thompson is on so i can recognize him for an opening statement. let me scroll through my screen here. i do not yet see him on. i don't think i see him here. ok, so, having not seen him on my screen, i will move on. i also do not see the ranking member. i will also move on as well. with that, they can join us later on. i want to take the opportunity to welcome our panel of witnesses. mr. christopher connor is the president and chief executive officer of the american association of port authorities. his association is comprised of 78 public port authorities along the atlantic, pacific, and gulf coast, the great lakes, and alaska, hawaii, puerto rico, guam, and the u.s. virgin islands. our next witness, mr. anthony reardon is the national president of the national treasury employees union, representing over 29,000 customs and border protection office and field operation employees stationed at 320 air, sea, and land ports across the united states and 16 preclearance stations at airports abroad. mr. eugene seroka's executive director at the port of los angeles and oversees the bigoted -- the busiest seaport in the western hemisphere and has over 33 years of maritime shipping experience in the united states and abroad. i'm proud to work very closely with jean -- with gene. i now recognize congresswoman lori to recognize our witness from the port of virginia. representative gloria: although i'm a member of the homeland security, i'm not normally on this committee, but i had to take the opportunity to join and introduce kathy vick from the port of virginia. -- representative luria: where the third largest port on the east coast and had a record year in 2021. all while ports across the country faced some challenges, i think the port has unique attributes that allow them to not only keep up with but increase volume throughout the year, and hopefully, she will highlight some of those in her remarks. the port of virginia has received $7 million as well, which will bring us to be the deepest port on the east coast at 50 58. she oversees economic development, government, and community relations sustainability, and environmental and maritime emergency response team. she kind of does it all. you cannot go to the port without seeing kathy and her great work, so we are really excited to have her before the committee today. thank you again, and i yield back. chair barragan: thank you, rep luria. it is great to have neighbors come up here to introduce our districts and brag about our ports. with that, i now want to recognize ranking member higgins to introduce our witness from the port of lake charles. ranking number higgins: -- ranking member higgins: one of port charles' honest citizens, director self serves as executive director of the port of lake charles in louisiana and has been with the since 2003 as the director of administration and finance. he was promoted to deputy executive director in 2017 and was hired as executive director in 2020. he is a native of lake charles. he holds a bachelor of science and business, master of business administration from the university of new orleans, and he is a certified public accountant. in 2016, director self was appointed to the louisiana board of international commerce our governor, john bel edwards, the louisiana board of international commerce serves as the authority on behalf of the state to advance the louisiana state international commerce economic session, honored to host director self today, and we look forward to hearing his opening statement and his response to some questions. i yield to madam chair. chair barragan: thank you for that introduction. with that, the witnesses' full statement will be entered into the record. i now ask each witness to summarize his or her statement for five minutes, beginning with mr. connor. mr. connor: sorry, had to unmute first. my apologies. members of the subcommittee, good afternoon. i would like to thank the subcommittee on border security, facilitation and operations for your recognition of the critical role seaports play in our national security and the challenges they face, particularly as ports have dealt with the unprecedented demands of the global pandemic. in view of my already submitted written testimony and to respect the time constraints and leave ample time for the impressive group of panelists gathered here today, i will focus my brief remarks on the three issues -- one, screening staff shortages at cbt, screening facility upgrades, and three, maritime security. as a preamble to my remarks, it is important to note that while ports have a vested interest in secure cargo and passenger movement, it is the duty of the federal government to fund and staff customs inspection facilities. the brave men and women of our law enforcement agency are vital partners in port security. we are grateful to them for their commitment throughout the challenges of this pandemic, and we continue to advocate that they have the resources they need to carry out their missions. screening staff shortages -- even before the pandemic, shortages of cdp officers and specialists were a chronic problem at ports. our own workforce staffing models shows a deficit of officers. as a result, ports are concerned about processing capacity. during this crisis, some shippers have two smaller ports as a relief valve of sorts, and these ports have recorded difficulties getting officers -- officer coverage when they need it most. cbp has allowed ports to enter into reimbursable services agreements to pay officer over time. this was intended to be a temporary fix but has -- but is becoming the norm at more and more ports around the country. last year, one medium-sized port in california paid over $1 million in overtime out of a budget of roughly $20 million. these overtime expenses represent a significant portion of our ports' already tight budgets and limit their ability to make long-term capital investments. we ask for full staffing of cbp. with regard to screening facility upgrades, cbp also faces funding shortages for facility and ports of entry. close that gap cbp has in recent years turned to ports to pay for major rates and new facilities. this represents an attempt to shift the burden of financing their inspection mission from the federal government onto ports. this is both unsustainable and outside the authority for cbp. our association's initial research into the legal basis for these demands shows no statutory authority that allows cbp to require nonfederal entities to contribute to their inspection mission. in fact, over the years, legislative changes, including amendments to the immigration and naturalization act, have restricted the ability of cbp to push off the burden of maintaining its minimal operational requirements. other authorities cited by cbp merely entitle them to the use of a room, literally a floor to conduct inspections. over the years, this has been expanded to include office space, i.t., recreation areas and gems, parking, gun lockers, kitchens, and more. these demands are excessive and well beyond the original intention of the free space agreements. the financial burden of these requirements also wreaks havoc on port budgets. seaports are public entities with limited resources, particularly at a time when we desperately need infrastructure upgrades to ensure our country's long-term competitiveness, adding these expenses hampers ports' abilities to make outlays for their future. as mentioned, ports work in partnership with cbp, and our members rely on the courageous efforts of cbp officers to keep our gateways safe, but ports are unable to bear the burden for the financial demands. congress must act to provide cbp with the resources they need to effectively carry out their important mission. finally, with regard to maritime security, the port security grant program was created in the wake of 9/11 and is the main method by which ports can make large-scale security rates. in recent years, funding for this program has fallen sharply, even as threats have increased and taken on new forms. we ask congress to return the port security grant program to its highest level and ensure that ports are the main recipient of port security grant funds. in conclusion, i appreciate the opportunity to give you an update on our country's ports and security needs going forward. while the past two years have presented unprecedented challenges to the supply chain, we should all be proud that u.s. e-sports have remained open and safe. the pandemic has shown us where we have problems and where we can make improvements. as we continue to recover, ports are looking forward to continuing their roles as gateways to commerce and the first lines of defense against potential threats. thank you. chair barragan: thank you, mr. connor, for your testimony. i now recognize mr. reardon. mr. reardon: i thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of over 29,000 front-line cbp officers, agricultural specialists, trade enforcement specialties -- specialists, and port staff. these employees ensure the efficient processing of legitimate trade and travel and stop illicit trafficking of people, drugs, weapons, and money. improving trade and travel and ensuring the safest possible work environment for cbp personnel at all ports of entry are of paramount importance to our members, especially during the recent covid-19 crisis. to date, the cbp workforce has had over 13,000 confirmed covid-19 cases, according to cbp-wide gears, and 59 line of duty deaths due to the virus. we mourn these losses with family and friends of these workers and greatly appreciate their service to our country. international ports of entry are an economic driver of the u.s. economy, contributing $74 billion in revenue in 2020. in addition, cbp officers' drug interdiction success is indisputable with seizures of internal i ports of entry up over 300%. another example is 2019, cbp seized 17 tons of cocaine with a street value of over $1 billion from a cargo ship at the adelphia seaport. however, -- the philadelphia seaport. however, there is no greater challenge than the lack of efficient cbp staff. as i have testified in the past, ports of entry continue to be chronically understaffed, despite the decrease in international trade and travel volume primarily at air and land ports due to the pandemic, according to cbp's own staffing model, there continues to be a staffing shortage of over 900 cbp officers, 200 cbp agriculture specialists, and 200 cbp nonuniform trade specialists. the pandemic has affected trade volume at air -- other ports with a much lesser effect. despite the pandemic in 2020, there was a 6% increase in activity at the long beach seaports that has been felt by cbp personnel. a significant increase of container vessels at the l.a. and long beach seaports and other major seaports as the world has begun to reopen can be seen at the docks and sitting out in the water as container vessels wait to enter commerce. the average wait time was estimated at 22.18 hours, up from -- 28 point 12 hours, up from 27.12 hours in 2018. while neither dhs nor the transportation department track how staffing allocations and cbp staffing shortages affect vessels along prime destination seaports, we believe it does have a negative effect. in 2021, understaffed southwest border land ports necessitated the deployment of two 850 cbp or faux from airports and seaports for temporary duty assignments to those ports. the lifting of non-essential travel ban at the northern and southwest border ports last november has further exacerbated cbp port staffing shortages. there's one additional pandemic-related issue i want to mention that threatens to disrupt our economic recovery -- the reduction in user fees collected due to the drastic drop in international commercial travel and to a lesser extent, trade volumes since march 2020. these user fees include -- fund 8000 cbp officer positions. to address the ongoing issue, congress has provided appropriated dollars to bridge these user fee shortfalls in the cr and appropriate or have assured that the final fiscal year 2022 deal will continue this funding. if congress is unable to come to a final deal, we urge congress to ensure that there is no it is vital that congress continue to authorize and fund additional staffing to ensure the support of entry can continue to succeed in their important work. thank you and i'm happy to answer any questions you may have. thank you mr. riordan for your testimony. >> thank you and good afternoon. ranking member higgins and other distinguished members of congress, i am the executive director at the port of los angeles and the -- and the city of los angeles chief logistics officer. this is a very important hearing. the port of los angeles with our neighboring port in long beach comprise nearly 40% of all container imports and a 30% of all exports of containers for the united states. it flows from more than 160 countries across the globe and reaches every congressional district in the united states. our bottom reflects changes in consumer behavior, and changes to manufacturing supply chains. trade on the third quarter rose more than 6.7% year-over-year for $783 billion in quarter three of 2020. we averaged more than 900,000 container units per month since july of 2020, even exceeding one million monthly 2021 equivalent units in may of 2021. this is an amazing, schmidt for our marine terminal operators as well as our long short workforce. before the pandemic we averaged 10 ships calling per day. here during the search we have averaged more than 15 ships a day. the cargo surge has affected every node within the supply chain. warehouses have reached capacity. and as a result, our terminals are full. we put out a daily operational report on our website made available to the public every day. as of this morning, the situation is as follows, 18 container vessels at birth, 98 vessels have either left asia or are on their way to this port complex. on dock railed well is at three days, down from a peak of nearly 13 and a half. street well is at 11 days. nearly triple the normal street well time. with the assistance of the white house we began joint port action meeting three times a week with stakeholders across the supply chain to discuss the operational challenges we face in the san pedro bay and recommended actions. through this effort we continue to work directly with cargo owners to expedite the movement of goods out of the marine terminal using expanded gate hours and additional work efforts. this was done as accelerate cargo los angeles. we addressed the lack of available chassis, we were able to accept containers near empty docks. we also continue to expand our first and only information sharing system with additional modules including the and action based factual data. lastly, our board has adopted a container accessed 12 feedback in the month of october. that fee has never been implemented, we have not collected a dime but incredible progress has been made. this morning we reported to the white house a 61% reduction in containers. with the recent infrastructure built we have focused on applying the lessons learned over the past two yard to strategic investments made in our nations port and goods movement system. there are four critical areas in need of attention. first to apply adequate train workers across the sub flight chain. we are working with industry partners to address the nation's first workforce training campus right here in los angeles. next we need investment in facilities that allow our systems to flex the scale of the needs of the goods and movement system. third, a consistent need is timely information sharing on the port optimizer and investing in critical technology. fourth, the optimizer digitizes maritime data and provides stakeholders with unimproved system. lastly, supply chain disruption and inefficiency leads to higher emissions of in-house gas as a criteria of pollutants. we need to invest in cleaner technology to reduce emissions. that's why the climate smart ports act is so important. and we developing a first in the nation program to deploy zero emission trucks to handle cargo within 25 miles of our port. we intend to support this program, but will need federal partnership in a sustainable market maker effort. chair barraga: mr. soroka, your overtime. >> i am happy to answer any questions you may have. chair barraga: thank you for your testimony. i will try to give people equal time to everybody. i would now like to recognize miss -- >> good afternoon esteemed colleagues and members of the subcommittee and committee, and 90 for the kind introduction. extending our reach all the way into the ohio valley, a gateway of international trade with the largest rail volumes on the east coast serving farmers and manufacturers throughout our heartland. 2021 was certainly our most productive year, and as the supply chain congestion has shown we are moving more cargo than ever before. we processed 3.4 million teus last year. the increased volume represented all categories. we handle these record volumes without congestion at our berths or gates. over the last five years, we have invested $800 million to add one million containers of capacity to our terminals and help us be prepared for this surge in cargo. we started a dredge in it and -- dreding and deepening of our channels. we had an announcement today related to that. we have the advantage of a we call the virginia model where we have one single terminal operator and owner that keeps us flexible and aware that we can show measurable results to our ocean carriers. we do not see any particular economic interest or level of profit, and we can be flexible on our operations to accommodate our customers if needed. last year has not been without challenges though, as mentioned by other colleagues covid-19 has affected our workforce. but we have been able to overcome those challenges and keep our focus on delivering best in class performance. what the pandemic has revealed to us, you saw the cascade across the global supply chain, is that we really need to keep a laser focus on the supply chain and how essential it is to the nations economic security. making it a key federal policy. and we appreciate all of the efforts you have done, especially with the passage of the infrastructure act. i think we will continue to see the fruits of that as we move forward. looking at cybersecurity issues, we are the most technologically advanced port and it allows us to maximize our land use efficiency better. it also allows us to plan our operations in advance and move containers to the optimal position within the yard. we do a lot to protect ourselves. we have close working relationships with cbp and the fbi. collaboration among federal agencies helps us all focus on our mission and safety. shifting to cbp staffing and capabilities, we share a lot of the same concerns touched on by mr. connor. we have participated in the 559 program, originally in 2015 we were paying 1.5 million annually on a temporary basis. nearly seven years later, we are still continuing to play $750,000 annually with no end in sight. we have been presented with demands not only for space, but for equipment, system upgrades and then maintenance costs for those systems upgrades. a lot of times without advanced notice, and with the threat that there will be service disruptions if we do not do it, even though there was no input and no capital planning during our budgeting process. thank you again for the opportunity to testify and share our perspective. happy to answer any questions you all have on the committee. and really appreciate your support and the opportunity to share how we can work together to solve them. chair barraga: thank you miss vicki for your testimony. >> good afternoon chair, ranking member, and distinguished members. thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. since 2020 from covid-19, 22 devastating hurricanes here in southwest louisiana. i am executive director of the port of lake charles, i was born and raised here. except for a four year stint when i went to graduate school i have lived here my entire life. as director of administration of finance and was promoted to deputy executive director in 2017. and just before the hurricanes hit in 2020, i was hired as executive director for the 14th busiest port district in america. 2022 is the 95th year of this channel as a global shipping destination. the port of lake charles and a shipping channel that connects to the gulf of mexico referred to as america's energy corridor. we support energy in three ways. to creating other petroleum products, the port of lake charles supports the full spectrum of the industry. second, southwest louisiana as a leader in moving liquefied natural gas all over the globe. lng terminals operate at world-class levels here, and the sector continues to grow. those terminals are built on land leased from the port, and they rely on the services provided by the port. finally, our port is an emerging national pathway for land energy components. we have moved wind components. we have loaded vessels destined to wind farms across america. to marshal the components to be installed in the gulf and along the east coast. in doing this, we will meet the growing needs for green energy choices. the port of lake charles serves everything from traditional fossil fuel to the newest in renewable energy technology. that's what makes us america's energy corridor, and that is why the nation depends on us. what we do affects the pocketbooks of her constituents. the cost for the supply of lumber for home improvement whether -- the past two years have brought unprecedented challenge to our area. the effects of covid-19, our operating revenues declined and the impacts continue to be felt in 2022. these issues were compounded by the strongest hurricane in our regions recorded history. two months later we were hit by hurricane delta. portions of our complex were decimated. the damage was estimated at $240 million and counting. we lost 300 ship loaders. not only are they very expensive, but they require a long lead time. the operating cost was significantly higher than pray hurricane levels. we lost 85% of our cover storage. without these facilities coming operational, the port will potentially lose the cargo and the local farming community will be devastated. what has hampered our recovery though is the lack of federal disaster relief beyond fema a ssistance and federal covid relief. it has not been enough related to the devastation from the hurricane. although congress did pass the supplemental bill in december to address the pressing needs for the hurricane and other disasters in 2020 it has not been enough. please help southwest louisiana. i appreciate the opportunity you've given me explain our port in southwest indiana as -- and southwest louisiana. we are not just a place that is far away that needs on a. we are doing america's heavy lifting. america needs us. please help us convince your colleagues on capitol hill of the immediate help we need. chair barraga: thank you, mr. self. and i want to thank all witnesses for their testimony. i will remind the subcommittee that we will each have five minutes to question the panel. without objections, members not on the subcommittee shall be permitted to question the witnesses. i will now recognize myself for five minutes. this question is for everybody who represents a port. for nearly two years, our country has been battling the covid pandemic which has affected all parts of our life. workers at seaports have continued to show up despite the risks. i appreciate hearing from each of the seaports on the actions they have taken to protect these front-line workers from covid-19 and the additional support if needed from the federal government in this effort. why don't we start with you, mr. seroka? mr seroka: bang last year when eric garcetti appointed me to be the first-ever chief logistics officer in loss angeles, we have ushered more than 10 million ppe. two truckers, warehouse workers, and farmers through the central valley. under the direction of mayor garcetti and governor newsom we have set up testing at our longshore hall and other locations including the international cruise facility in los angeles for longshore dockworkers, truckers, and others including families and community members. we then jumped into action as early as february 2021 with vaccinations and combined with our neighbors in long beach and have vaccinated more than 5000 land-based workers, and the international seafarers association has got on board vessels to vaccinate crewmembers from across the world. there is much more work to do as evidenced by los angeles and long beach partnering again this week to ramp up testing at our long short dispatch call five days per week with omicron variant continuing to permeate our workforce. i am very proud of what we have done, more work to do in combination with federal authorities. chair barraga: miss vick, how about you? >> similarly to mr. seroka, we were able to gain access to early vaccination through our local health department. the local health department set up dedicated vaccine sites for our workers which we were able to send to our cbp partners in our area. in addition to some of the other things mr. seroka talked about we also put in enhanced cleanings at all of our facilities. we rented additional equipment so that each person was able to be in their own denigrated equipment, not ride with another colleague or use the same equipment as someone else in the ship before. we also were able to reduce capacity of our admin's, so telework as needed. because of our technology, a lot of our operators are actually inside, so the operators are remote. we were able to space their workstations more than six feet apart by using conference rooms as dedicated workspaces instead of having them so close together particularly our checkers. we really are appreciative of fema, we have been able to receive federal assistance of just over $4 million to help with some of these measures. chair barraga: anybody else want to chime in? mr. self, did you want to? >> similar to my colleagues, the port of light charles -- lake charles utilizes enhanced spring methods, masks, we telework when necessary. chair barraga: i'm going to go onto the next question because i have got 30 seconds left. the port of los angeles has a dedicated center dedicated to combating cybercrime. do you recommend that ports establish similar cyber operation centers? mr. seroka: we created the nation's first cyber security operations center in 2014 with a dedicated grant from the department of homeland security. we created one of the first cyber resilience centers, having more now than 40 members in both the public and private sector, it is a program to print text -- protect and share information under a cloak of anonymity. chair barraga: thank you, my time has expired and i will now yield to mr. higgins, our ranking member for your five minutes. mr. higgins: director self, i have a couple of yes or no questions for you. and i am going to ask you to expound upon inquiry that i would like you to share with america. all that you do on behalf of the port of lake charles, i thank you. the port is just an incredibly significant hub of economic prosperity. i fully support the work you do, the men and women there are amazing, thank you for your dedication. as a representative, including traditional oil and gas, liquefied natural gas and wind energy component, the lake charles port supports on all of the above american produced energy policy. would you agree that having a report fully operational allows the united states to be more self-sufficient which bolsters our national security while at the same time provides robust economic opportunity for businesses across louisiana and the nation. >> absolutely. >> let's talk about getting the port of lake charles fully operational. the port and ship channel contribute 39 billion dollars to the united states gross domestic water. -- product. however, a nonoperational or damaged port can hurt a community and greatly restrict our national supply chain. the port of lake charles and southwest louisiana as a whole was devastated by two hurricanes in 2020, and well over a year later you are still waiting on disaster reimbursements. would you concur with what i just stated? >> yes i would. >> my office has written countless letters, we have urged within the parameters of congressional restraint. we have done some door kicking and had some very animated conversations with our colleagues at fema urging them to add act upon existing applications that the port of lake charles and other of my constituents that have been impacted by the 2020 hurricane season. can you provide for my office so that i can share with colleagues who care deeply by the way that we fix this thing. both sides of the aisle, we want the federal government to perform especially when it comes to disaster recovery. we stand shoulder to shoulder as just solid american citizens to overcome the bureaucratic tendencies that we sometimes face. can you provide specific examples of federal resources that have been held up and delayed by fema? >> so far, over $25 million in fema projects from hurricane lauren and hurricane delta, today we have received $1.1 million of the fema portion of that. obviously, we are not the biggest port in the u.s. we are finding that out of our cash reserves. mr. higgins: let me just ask you to clarify for my colleagues on the committee here, the port of lake charles, your assessment of your applications for the $25 million, would you say you have done your part and you are waiting on the federal government? >> absolutely. mr. higgins: i asked the chairwoman who is a leader that i admire, madam, i ask that we take this under advisement and look at these examples director self will provide. i yield, thank you madam. chair barraga: i am happy to see what can be done. thank you, mr. ranking member and mr. self for your testimony. i am going to continue to recognize members. we will alternate between majority and minority. with that our next member up, senator korea from california. >> thank you, madam chair. and mr. higgins, i agree with you this is not a democrat or republican issue, this is an issue of national security and interest. i only have five minutes and will try to be quick here. thank you for hosting myself and the congress members as we toured your port to make sure you are up and running. my question is related to national security. we saw the suez canal and what happened there late march. that really just bottled up that whole area of the world. texas colonial pipeline, that was essentially a cyberattack. that chain is only as strong as the weakest link, have we done enough to make sure your partners private and public are employing the best practices to make sure they cybersecurity is the best it can be? >> thank you, it is an ongoing process led by our head of public safety across federal, state and local allied agencies. the cybersecurity operators you saw at the port of los angeles is now stopping 40 million cyber intrusion attempts per month. that is double the success rate of where we were before covid-19, double the activity. the introduction of the cyber resilience center. we still have a long way to go, we performed tabletop exercises on aurora taylor -- on a regular basis. we know we are only as good as the information we share across these industry verticals and sectors. we understand what is coming, and how we can protect ourselves. we need to keep this front and center everyday. we will not rest until we continue see progress. >> mr. seroka, the port of long beach and los angeles, both of these ports announced a container dwelling fee to hold these containers accountable. the port of l.a. saw a 50% decline in these containers since announcing the new surcharge in october, yet the fee has been extended. is this policy working? mr. seroka: you saw those containers stacked up to the heavens are cap a month ago. mr. seroka: number one are that data insights we get. being able to see around corners before they start. we noticed with the confluence of cargo coming, see sunil and retail cargo being pulled before the holidays. we were hit with so much product , it was no longer order just in time, it was ordered just in case. the entire supply chain is offkilter. based mainly on the strength of american consumer buying patterns, and they are helping us get to the other side of covid-19 economically. what we saw was cargo piling up on our docs. there are contracts that allow for that extra storage time. what we attended to do is not publicly shame anyone, but if you did not need your product at the market move it aside right now. the third of the penalty was never collected. containers have been depleted by 61% as of this morning. parts and components to u.s. factories as they continue to increase output, and holiday markets >> bottlenecks, we are trying to get bottlenecks cleared up tomorrow ports. -- from our ports. you've got good partners overseas, can we continue to count on them to make sure that only good stuff arrives at our u.s. ports and we don't have to turn around and implement some policies that would slow down commerce in the u.s.? >> when i was in the private sector, my company was part of the founding group of the customs trade partnership against terrorism. it has been extremely effective since the tragic events of 9/11. we need to go upstream with the evaluation of supply chain partners to make sure they are truly vetted, and we understand what is coming in our vessels. we have a great partnership with cbp to make sure we are applying the 24 hour manifest rule and having visible the cargo on those ships. rep correa i just want to make sure you stay for the public that is watching and for us policymakers that your public and private sector, cbp, and others are being effective to make sure that nothing but good stuff is coming to the ports of the united states. mr. seroka: that is absolutely correct and when it is not we jump into action immediately. >> high yield the rest of my time. chair barraga: there was no time. thank you for yelling back -- yielding back. the gentleman from mississippi, you are next. >> mr. reardon, in your recent testimony you talked about cbp's office, the task of stemming the opioid epidemic. the agency seizes more than 9000 pounds of illegal drugs. you say cbp officials testified that fentanyl increased from 279,000 pounds in fy 19 to 300,000 pounds, an increase of 54%. the amounts seized were 5048 pounds in 2021, an increase of over 300%. and then in the you talk about narcotics seized at our seaports. you talk about you george -- new york and new jersey, and in the port of philadelphia the seizure of 1185 pounds of cocaine. and then you mentioned in june of 2019 in the port of philadelphia a seizing of an astonishing 17 tons of cocaine having a street value of over $1 billion. the report from the coast guard talked about the coast guard cutter hamilton coming to port in florida with over 2600 pounds of cocaine and 3700 pounds of marijuana, a street value of over $500 million. i'd like to ask you, could you speak on how our seaports and droughts are being used by drug cartels illicit products in the united states? >> what i will say is i am certainly no expert on the methods used by drug cartels. but i can tell you as the union representative, is that we continue to see an increase of the numbers you just mentioned that illustrate a rising in the numbers of seizures happening in this country. one of the things i would mention is i think cbp does such an outstanding job in interdicting those drugs. but i also think that cbp could do an even better job if we fully staffed the office of field operations with the appropriate number of cbp officers as called for in the workload staffing. >> this is important to me. when you look at one seizure at philadelphia that resulted in 17 tons of cocaine. i would agree with you that this is, that this committee needs to look at for us to increase our policing presence at our seaports. with that increased presence of personnel, with additional training, that is going to have an increased impact on our ability to fight the flow of illegal drugs. in addition to the increase in staffing and training, are there any other things that we as a committee need to be looking at as to how we can better improve policing in our seaports with the main event to stop the flow of illegal narcotics from coming into the country. >> you touched on one thing, which is training. i think that needs to be focused on. the other thing i would mention is, i mentioned in my testimony that we had last year 800 50 cbp officers that had to be moved from various airports and seaports around the country to the southwest border on temporary duty assignments. we always have to remember, i understand that needed to happen but what it does is removes those cbp officers from other ports around the country, and that really takes away from the security and everything else that cbp officers do in their home ports. so i think that's something we have got to make sure we are paying attention to as well. chair barraga: thank you to our witness. i would now like to recognize the gentlewoman from new york. >> thank you, madam chair and ranking member higgins. i would like to start with mr. reardon. i think staffing is at the heart of a number of our challenges, working to have the personnel to make sure the activity runs smoothly is russian about. -- is questionable. can you describe how the lack of full staffing has impacted your members, and how would it change if cbp were able to hire the additional officers needed for ports of entry? mr. reardon: thank you for your question. i just described one of the impacts around the issue of temporary duty assignments. if cbp were fully staffed, those assignments were not the level at the session necessary at the level they have been the last several years. in terms of staffing, and i just actually met with a large number of cbp leaders last week. and one of the things they talk to me about is tony, at the core of nearly all of our problems is the issue of staffing. let me point to one for you. the issue up tomorrow -- of morale. cbp is on the order of 341st out of just over 400, they are way down the line. i think that's an issue. we need to continue to look at the issue of hiring. it takes too long to get somebody from the point where they fill out an application. when people apply for a job, they need a job. they need money to pay for rent and everything else. when it takes that long, they decide to go to work for the sheriffs office, or at some other place. so i think the hiring has to be fixed. i know there is a lot done that has been approved, but it is still in need of more fixing. >> how do you think that congress could assist in meeting of the staffing needs? clearly, the fact that we have been operating on crs has not been helpful. what are some of the suggestions that you could see particularly in the staffing needs? mr. reardon: congress could enact a stand-alone bill to authorize funding for cbp officers for new hires to the level that is identified in the workload staffing model which right now is 900 cbo's. congress applied 22 funding for new cbp agriculture inspection personnel. another thing that would be helpful for the employees who are already on board is support hazardous duty pay for cbp officers who from the first day of this pandemic showed up at work. they had to be at work protecting our ports of entry. ms. clarke: thank you mr. reardon. i want to add in the time i have two all of our port leadership, i am the chairperson of the sub committee, i am concerned about the posture of our ports in regard to cybersecurity. can you describe what actions can mitigate the chances of a cyberattack? we have a little bit of time left, but i am going to yield back once they have completed their responses. mr. seroka: as i mentioned it to your calling, the port of los angeles was the first to implement a cybersecurity operations enter in september 2014 partly funded by the department of homeland security. today that a center stops 40 million cyber intrusion attempts per month, double what it was before covid-19. we have seen the attack in eastern europe that disrupted maersk, and their associated terminal operator. and at a marine terminal at the long beach container terminal. following those episodes, we have instituted the cyber resilience center which now brings in private sector partners around the port. as i said, there is much more work to do. i am proud of the efforts we have made so far, but we need this to be a community effort from the federal, state and local level as well as private partners. >> adam gerol, i am going to yield back. i don't think we have any further responses, and perhaps we can do a joint hearing to just hone in. chair barraga: thank you so much. i now will recognize mr. bishop. mr. bishop: mr. seroka, it sounds like you have got a story of considerable improvement in the situation we read about in the media. there is one statistic i am not sure is right. last week, there were a record 105 container ships waiting in california ports, is that correct information. and if it is correct, if it is a record, it seems to run contrary to the testimony that things are improving. mr. seroka: that is a misinterpretation of the number. back in november 2017, the private sector employers association of shipowners marine exchange in southern california decided to redo their queuing system of arrivals. we now count ships the moment they leave asia until they reach the breakwater right outside the port of los angeles and long beach as we count as 105 ships you referred to. if we did a like for like comparison prior to that, we had 89 ships that have just departed asia and are waiting to move in just outside the breakwater. these are ships represented in the early lumen or new year ahead of their holiday which will begin at the evening at midnight on january 31. as i have shared, there is much more work to do in the supply chain across both private and public sector partners that we engage, but this is not terribly worse than it was before this new queuing system went into place. we need to move more cargo efficiently. our goal time -- dwell time has basically been cut in half since we instituted our policies, we need to further reduce that and get into a position where cargo is going through this port safely. another area of work we have done is we have seen major retailers and importers begin to order as much as they can. they did not want to be the retailers we saw the beginning of 2019. our inventory sales ratio nationwide is the lowest it has been, they are trying to match up with this unbelievable consumer demand. this is why you see so much cargo, and across the pacific. >> i got that pretty clearly. the queuing of ships, i am not an expert on the different methodologies for queuing, we heard media stories about ships waiting, on an apples to apples basis, has the problem of ships waiting offshore to come in worsened or improved? >> improved. three reasons why the private sector changed their queuing system from their departure in asia to the breakwater was the emissions of ships with an distance of our shoreline. at its peak was more than 80. >> ap get 80, what is the number now? >> it is in single digits as of this morning, i believe the number was nine. >> do they wait farther offshore in order to avoid that breakwater? >> you have more ships at the 180 mile marker, which is also measured as we leave asia. three reasons why the private sector did this. number one, reduce emissions in our coastal communities with vessels two miles offshore. second, the safety and security of crews as we experience the santa ana winds coming into the basin of the port complex, they were parked very close together in what we call anchors, making sure we had more distance for the safety of crews was paramount. and thirdly, according to the employers association, the ship and vessel operator could not request its labor fulfillment until they reached that 40 mile perimeter. allowing that vessel to institute their request for labor upon departure from asia allows us to spread out these ships, and our port of call optimization model. >> i yield back. chair barraga: i now recognize the gentle men from new jersey. >> thank you for holding this timely and important hearing. seaports are seeing a record number of cargo volume, which is adding to congestion. and having an impact on our supply chain. i encourage the implementation of the national guard to help move critical goods including protective equipment. and to utilize that transportation command played for noncombatant vessels to put them to work which means they carry thousands of containers for our critical supplies. many ships are moving goods back and forth from europe, i think utilizing this reserve would further ease supply chain disruptions. mr. connor what are the options your team are advocating for to ease the critical supply disruptions and is there anything you think we should be doing that we are not? >> thanks for that question. i think there is already some pretty creative things happening, probably notable is what happened outside the san pedro bay complex where hours of operation went from 16 hours a day to 24, two potentially 24 hours a day seven days a week. the other thing that happened is the creation of pop up container facilities. this is off terminal, offering property -- off marine property container yards were containers can be staged for pickup and alleviate congestion. >> there was money in the infrastructure package for these pop-up facilities? >> there was residual money from the pipp program that was allocated. ports were never designed to be storage compounds. they are designed to be transit points. i think making the terminals open for hours and creating these pop-up facilities to get away from the marine compound are two examples that have helped ease some of the pain we have been feeling. we are super enthusiastic about the infrastructure money headed our way. it is going to be 18 months or so before we start to see the fruits of that company or in -- come through in efficiency. chair barraga: i think we are waiting on mr. galtheimer. >> exports of foreign products remain strong. i would love to hear your perspectives on the challenge with foreign flag carriers. mr. seroka: it is just not one lever you can pull. number one, policy. we need to look at the phase one trade deal with china that has created noncompensatory pricing for the american farmer from the moment the product is harvested. i understand folks don't share our same ideals across a variety of issues but this is important. we need to bring people back into the sector, work on round-trip economics and see what we can do from training and upscaling to get more productivity in agriculture and manufacturing, reconnecting our american exporters with their partners overseas. while the strength of the u.s. dollar helps our economy, it disadvantages some exporters in the asia-pacific theater. one example is soybeans from the midwest of the united states. we are working closely with the international dairy farmers association, the agricultural transportation coalition, to find ways to bring more exports into the flow. we have got a lot of empty containers, the idea is to work from the coast inward. on average, dairy products moving through the port of los angeles have doubled year-over-year. but we have much more work to do. >> ms. vick? ms vick: we have seen issues because of the upstream constraints. what we have done is focused on moving cargo more efficiently. we will continue to work with them along with their partners to try to facilitate that match back and the quicker movement of goods. chair barraga: your time is over. with that, i would like to recognize the gentleman from georgia. >> thank you very much, chairwoman. i wish we had a representative from the port of savannah at this hearing, and potentially the inland port of gainesville as well. these questions are for mr. self, mr. seroka and ms. vick, as port directors. we have been hearing over the past year about the increased cargo, the volume of both inbound and outbound commercial vessels serves to me as a litmus test for the health of the overall economy. can you provide the committee with insight into the overall volume of cargo vessels coming through the port currently, and how that compares to pre-pandemic levels say this time january of 2019 or 2020, when it hit the fan in march of 2020. mr. self, if you could go first. mr. self: currently, pre-pandemic it was slightly lower. the only reason there has been a shift is some of the lng projects that were under construction completed construction in 2020. it's kind of an anomaly because while petroleum products that's going to be a growing trend in our port. we anticipate that to continue. there are several project that is will be making their final investment decision in the next 12 months. and we anticipate that number to continue to grow for the channel. >> all right. thank you, sir. i appreciate that. >> mr. falka. mr. falka: volume is up 6% and compared our percentage. on average the number of container vessels that come to the port of los angeles is approximately 1800. and that is represented by eight carriers headquartered in asia and europe. this year, we saw 10 new entrance to the trade. think of the intraasia middle east carriers that have schiffed their vessel assets to the trans pacific in an effort to help support the rise of american imports. we've seen one-way charter higher by retailers that have come in. in the end when all the vessels are counted we're going to be up 12% to 13%. but that's not the whole story. charter vessels were of a smaller variety of ship. many left asia without reservation at our ports marine terminals. they would call us on the way traversing the pacific to see if we could accommodate their ships and work them with our long-shore labor. part of that gummed up the works. better planning. better information, better notification would help tremendously. all in an certificate to satisfy us, u.s. consumers is why you saw a number of players come into the mix this past 12 to 15 months. >> thank you, that's very good information. >> ms. vick, could you comment on the port of virginia? >> yes, thank you, representative clyde, we have seen a tremendous amount of growth. during the beginning of the pandemic. we saw a 7% dip for about five months. now, we recovered and saw a 17% increasing over that prior year. and that year we're up 25%. the biggest shift that we've seen is really in the balance of imports and exports. traditionally we've been like 48%, 52%. now, the growth is 11% in exports but 27% in loaded import s and we're seeing that mostly because of a shift in consumer behavior where you're seeing a lot more e-commerce rather that the traditional real estate tail story. so instead of going to a distribution center we're seeing more developers in close proximity to the court and put cross-dock facility where is they can very quickly shift to do domestic con contain -- containers and get out to the consumers. lit be interesting to see how long wong occurs. we have an economist who doesn't see relief yet in sight. there are a number of economic factors and potentially community factors such as how many more of these variants and shutdowns overseas at facilities and things like that but also inflation and some of the pressure that folks are feeling. so thank you for the question. >> all right. well, thank you for the answer. so i'm seeing a significant increase across the board. so for mr. anthony reardon. in your testimony you said according to our middle east most recent briefing, 80% of employees are vaccinated -- with 10% not vaccinated. what's going to happen with those 10%? >> your time has expired. i'm going to let the witness answer the question if he heard it. >> ok. thank you. >> does the witness have a short answer? >> well, the short answer is that -- as i understand it, there are -- i think it's 97% are in compliance, which means they've either been -- they've either gotten the vaccine or they are in -- they've requested an exemption. so i think it's 97%. in terms of what happens to folks that either don't get the exemption or just refuse all together, my understanding is that they will be terminated. >> are you getting exemptions? >> we've not gotten c.v.p.'s -- as far as i know. decisions have not been made yet on the requests at r.a.'s -- exemptions. >> so they have not granted any exemptions yet? >> in c.v.p., i'm not aware that they've granted any yet. but it's certainly possible that they could have been, i'm just not aware of it. >> thank you, mr. clyde. we're going to a second round of questions. you're welcome to stay. we'll see if we can get a second round of questions in here. i'm going to go ahead and start if witnesses have to leaf. i understand. a few more questions. i'll start by recognizing myself for five minutes. and then we'll alternate for any member that is want to follow-up questions. my questions is -- fema has provided funding to improve port infrastructure that deter terrorists and other emerging threats. can you describe how this program has i proved your port's security and how this program could be improved? we'll start with mr. sro -- soroka. >> thank you, chairwoman. a number of area where is this has been successfulful this port of los angeles has more than 450cctv cameras throughout the complex. it has also helped us stand up a threat detention center which mansion those cameras in conjunction with other private sector partners. the aforementioned cyber security initiatives around the cyber security center and the cyber resilient center are part of that. the port security grant have funded the mobile assets on ground and water that we have across the port of los angeles that are led by again head of public safety and police chief tom gazy and the 200 sworn and civilian peace officers here at that time port. >> thank you, mr. self? >> yes, just echo what mr. soroka said you utilized it for camera systems that we operate along with cameras for our harbor police department. >> great, ms. vick? i think you're on mute, ms. vick. >> we too have used port security grant to support our port. we also have camera systems that have been funded. and then we work with amar'e time incident of response team of our other local governments or assests if their use as well for radar detention search and rescue equipment, a vast lists of things like that. >> great, thank you. is aapa on? if they want to comment. i don't know if they're on there. >> i'm here. but i think the guys on the ground covered it well. >> i want to get you a couple of questions. i want to start with mr. connor on this next question. public private partnership such as tvp reverse program offer additional custom immigration and agriculture service. they informed the committee that overtime pay under the reimburse able service program has accounted for the processing of 2.5 million travelers and one million inspections. what challenges if any have your organization experienced in utilizing the reimburseable program and do you have any recommendations you have to improve the program? i think you're on mute, sir. >> yeah, thank you. >> i i think our overarching recommendation would be that we staff even as mr. reardon has himself said that cvp level is where we don't have to rely on overtime. but also opens up a fatigue in burnout situation for the officers and employees of v.c.p. as i listen to mr. reardon's comments throughout, one thing is consistent between the port community and c.v.p. is we're asking for a robust staffing and funding of c.v.p. so we can protect and serve the -- the mission of c.v.p. and the ports in this country. >> great. thank you. anyone want to comment next? mr. soroka, mr. self, ms. vick? >> well covered. >> ok. hearing nothing further on this, i will go ahead and end my questions. i do want to thank you mr. soroka which mentioning the bill which i've been getting to zero emissions in ports. this is part of build back bert and basically it would provide funding for ports across the country to be able to informs in technology with the hope of eventually getting to zero admissions and helping communities that live in the surrounding areas and the health impacts their having from ports. everybody here should be able to ben it from that should we get it across the finish line. >> i know that mr. higgins said that you have also another round of questions. so i yield to the gentleman, the ranking member mr. higgins. you're recognized for five minutes. mr. higgins: thank you to the chairwoman. ma'am, i want to represent on both sides of the isle a bill that is currently within the committee for considering. we've spoken a lot about c.v.p. staffing and the needs there. i have a bill within committee that's being considered for mark-ups, minority staff has worked with the majority staff. i ask for your kind consideration madam chair. the c.v.p. workload staffing model app hr-1 p of 3 -- hr-138. it's a bipartisan bill that the homeland security security committee is known for passing. and i just respectfully ask for it to be heightened on your own radar. so that perhaps we can work together and offer some solution s through a mark-up in the near future for staffing issues for c.v.p. i thank our witnesses for being here today. and i yield. >> thank you, mr. ranking member higgins and happy to work with you. i thought i saw another member with their hand raised but looks like that member is gone. soy will take this opportunity as well to thank the witnesses for their valuable testimony and the members for their questions and the members of the subcommittee may have additional questions for the witnesses. and we ask that you respond as soon as you can in writing. without objection the committee record shall be kept open for 10 days. again, thank you everybody for being able to work, the impact that you have on our committee and jobs and everybody is so greatly important. with that, we will wrap the hearing. pend nothing further business, the subcommittee is adjourned. >> live wednesday at 4:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org or full coverage on c-span now. >> c-span is your unofficialed view of government. we're funded by these television companies and more. including cox. >> cox is committed to providing eligible familiars access -- families access to the internet bridging one divide one family at a time cox, bring us closer. cox along with these other television providers giving you a front receipt to democracy. >> dr. kirk newman the c.e.o. of children's national hospital in washington, d.c. joined page cunningham from "the washington post" for a discussion on covid-19 and its effect on children. this is under 20 minutes. >> hi, we're back, i'm sorry. we lost the connection for a moment. but we're back here with dr. newman. he's president and c.e.o. of children's national hospital here in washington, d.c. dr. newman, welcome back to "washington post" live. dr. newman: well, thank you,-page. i really appreciate having the opportunity to speak with you and your audiences and i appreciate the focus of "the washington post" on children. it's

Related Keywords

New York , United States , Louisiana , Texas , Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , Washington , China , Florida , Whitehouse , District Of Columbia , California , Indiana , Virginia , Ohio Valley , Russia , Guam , Mississippi , Lake Charles , Mexico , Puerto Rico , New Orleans , New Jersey , Capitol Hill , Hawaii , America , Russian , American , Kathy Vick , Aurora Taylor , Christopher Connor , Anthony Reardon , Los Angeles , Cox , John Bel Edwards , Kirk Newman , George Newyork ,