Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force

White House taps retired general to be new port czar

Container ship leaving Port of Los Angeles

Work remains for the Biden administration’s new port envoy, Stephen Lyons, to untangle freight supply chains.

Gen. Stephen Lyons (Credit: Department of Defense)

The White House and the U.S. Department of Transportation on Friday appointed Stephen Lyons to replace John Porcari as the port and supply chain envoy for the Biden administration’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force.

Lyons, a retired four-star Army general, most recently led the U.S. Transportation Command, which provides cargo...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/white-house-taps-retired-general-to-be-new-port-czar

Former TRANSCOM commander is new port and supply chain envoy

Retired General Stephen R. Lyons, former commander of the U.S. Transportation Command, will be the new port and supply chain envoy to the Biden administration Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force.

General Lyons will take over the role from John D. Porcari and will work with the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), the White House National Economic Council (NEC), ports, rail, trucking and other private companies across supply chains to continue to address bottlenecks and speed up the...

https://www.marinelog.com/inland-coastal/ports-terminals/former-transcom-commander-is-new-port-and-supply-chain-envoy/

Power index: Top 10 pending bills affecting freight markets

Freight supply chains have never been more at the front of the average consumer’s mind than the past two years, and House and Senate lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been responding with proposals that affect all modes.

Whether they can make it to the president’s desk is the question. So far in the 117th Congress, only 3% of bills introduced — including those rolled into larger pieces of legislation — have been signed into law, and that percentage is unlikely to climb much higher,...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/power-index-top-10-pending-bills-affecting-freight-markets

FMC considering PierPass overcharge investigation

The nation’s top international ocean shipping regulator wants to investigate whether West Coast terminal operators are taking advantage of supply chain disruptions by gouging shippers on rates charged for off-peak terminal gates.

Federal Maritime Commission Chairman Daniel Maffei on Friday said he will ask for a meeting of the full commission “as soon as practicable” to consider whether the agency should launch the probe of PierPass, a nonprofit company set up in 2005 by Los Angeles and Long...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/fmc-considering-pierpass-investigation

White House prioritizing imports of COVID-19 rapid tests

Millions of at-home rapid test kits for COVID-19 are being prioritized by ocean carriers, terminal operators, trucks and trains as the surge in positive tests for the fast-moving omicron variant has boosted demand for the product.

The initiative is being coordinated by the Biden administration’s Port Disruptions and COVID-19 task forces, revealed John Porcari, the administration’s port envoy, when asked during a White House briefing on Wednesday about shortages of rapid tests throughout the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/white-house-prioritizing-imports-of-covid-19-rapid-tests

Feds to provide $230 million to speed cargo through ports

Despite reports to the contrary, shelves are stocked for the holidays.

That was the message hammered home on Wednesday, three days before Christmas, by President Joe Biden’s Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force.

“We’re making real and sustained progress at the ports — there’s increased fluidity and velocity in the goods movement,” John Porcari, the task force’s port envoy, told the president and other meeting attendees at the White House. Container dwell times at the ports of Los Angeles and Long...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/feds-to-provide-230-million-to-speed-cargo-through-ports

Power index: Top 10 regulatory/legislative stories of 2021

Amid the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on U.S. supply chains, 2021 has seen significant new laws and changes within the regulatory and legislative landscape affecting carriers and their customers. The following are what we consider the Top 10 stories — in no particular order — chronicling those changes and why they matter to freight markets.

Bipartisan infrastructure package

Summary: President Joe Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill — known formally as the...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/power-index-top-10-regulatory-legislative-stories-of-2021

How does Biden’s Build Back Better plan affect freight?

John Porcari, the port envoy to the White House Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, was asked this week for his long-term assessment of the U.S. supply chain.

“The pandemic laid bare a system that creaks along in the best of circumstances,” Porcari said. “We have an unprecedented opportunity here with the bipartisan infrastructure law and with Build Back Better to build a goods movement system that will serve our children and grandchildren. We really need to make some long-term structural...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/how-does-bidens-build-back-better-plan-affect-freight

California lawmakers seek supply chain ‘state of emergency’

Federal lawmakers from California are pressuring Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency and suspend or eliminate regulations to deal with a supply chain crisis they say has no letup in sight.

In a letter sent Wednesday to Newsom, a Democrat, eight U.S. representatives — all Republican — said that while President Joe Biden’s recent call for 24/7 operations at California ports is a “step in the right direction,” more than 100 ships are still anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and...

https://www.freightwaves.com/news/california-lawmakers-seek-supply-chain-state-of-emergency

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