Today, Rep. Cindy Axne (IA-03) spoke to industry experts about ongoing disruptions to U.S. supply chains and sought input on solutions that Congress can implement to help alleviate bottlenecks and workforce shortages that are contributing to delays and other problems for Iowa businesses and families.
The experts shared their viewpoints with Rep. Axne and others on the House Agriculture Committee today as a part of a hearing on challenges facing food supply chains.
You can watch that conversation HERE.
“The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to disrupt our nation’s supply chain, leading to bottlenecks and, of course, delays and uncertainty,” Rep. Axne said to Jon Samson, Vice President of Conferences and Executive Director of the Agricultural & Food Transporters Conference at the American Trucking Association. “You noted in your testimony that the trucking industry needs about 80,000 more drivers to meet demand. I'll tell you, I always have Iowans in my office on this issue. We know these are tough jobs, but they're critical to our nation…can you expand to us here what the industry is able to do to recruit workers?”
“What we're trying to do is go out and recruit younger drivers,” said Mr. Samson. “We're trying to diversify the workforce. We're trying to bring in those from the military. Women in trucking has been a big piece as well.”
Rep. Axne highlighted her concerns about a shortage of shipping containers that are typically used to transport Iowa’s exports to other countries, as it has become more profitable for shipping companies to return those containers overseas without picking up U.S. cargo.
“Iowa is our nation's second largest exporter of ag products, I'm concerned about how some foreign owned shipping companies are essentially dictating trade. They're bringing in imports into our ports, but yet they're leaving with empty ships without our products being exported on them,” Rep. Axne said in an exchange with Mike Durkin, President and CEO of Leprino Foods Company. “Can you elaborate on…the Ocean Shipping Reform Act and other solutions that we might act on here in Congress?”
“Put a limit in terms of the empty containers that are going back,” said Mr. Durkin. “That number was around 10% prior to COVID and now we’re at 70%. So there clearly is an issue that's kind of escalated to a point where — I call this, obviously — as a crisis.”
In the hearing, Rep. Axne highlighted the investments that would be made in easing supply chain disruptions when Congress takes up the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the U.S. Senate earlier this year.
“I strongly urge my colleagues to support the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act because it's a bipartisan legislation to help us provide significant and long overdue investments in our crumbling infrastructure,” said Rep. Axne. “As many of our witnesses have testified, this legislation will address years of underinvestment and allow us to meet the needs of the future.”
The IIJA would invest $20 billion to modernize U.S. ports and includes more than $500 billion to upgrade transportation systems and surface transportation infrastructure.
Original source can be found here
