WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative Peter Meijer (R-MI) this week led a bipartisan letter with Representatives Young Kim (R-CA), Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), and Norma Torres (D-CA) to President Biden, Transportation Secretary Buttigieg, and Commerce Secretary Raimondo urging the Administration to adopt a whole-of-government approach to fix the nation’s crippling supply chain issues. The letter focuses on four key areas: the chip shortage, disruptions in the port system, labor shortages in the trucking and warehouse industries, and rising prices of raw materials.
Excerpt from the letter:
“Our economic recovery depends on resolving these supply chain bottlenecks. Therefore, we urge the Administration to immediately use all options available across agencies to deal with this crisis. We believe that this new effort should include the following additional steps to deal with each supply chain issue that we have discussed. First, the Administration should immediately work to boost domestic chip production and onshore much of the chip supply chain to prevent these problems from occurring in the future. Second, it should work with our ports, warehouse workers, and retail companies to adopt 24 hours a day, seven days a week operation at ports nationwide, including on both coasts where backlogs continue to delay shipments and raise costs. These operations should function in a manner that supports our workforce and provides proper workplace accommodations. Additionally, these efforts should work to ensure that bottlenecks are not simply shifted down the supply chain onto other industries and workforces, such as the warehouse industry. Third, it should take steps to ease the labor shortage in the trucking industry and warehouse workforce, including through relevant regulatory actions and worker training programs. Finally, it should move to boost domestic raw material production at plants nationwide and provide short-term tariff relief to importers of such raw materials.”
Original source can be found here.
