Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Next Week’s House Vote On The Senate-Passed Ocean Shipping Reform Bill

Washington, D.C. –  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor regarding next week’s House vote on Senate passed legislation to lower costs and relieve supply chains by reforming unfair shipping practices. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

Next week, the House is to vote on a much-needed bill, passed unanimously by the Senate, to lower costs and relieve supply chains by reforming unfair shipping practices hurting exporters and consumers alike. 

Rising costs are top of mind right now for the American people, and one of the more flummoxing causes of inflation is the crushing backlog that we are seeing at our ports. We have all seen the pictures of scores of ship lining up in ports from Los Angeles, to Savannah, to Seattle, to my home port of New York and New Jersey.

These backlogs have created serious price hikes: according to one study from earlier this year the price to transport a container from China to the West Coast of the United States costs 12 times—12 times—as much as it did two years ago. And the American consumer is paying the price.

And it hurts both ways when shipping costs go up: it affects exports that we send overseas and imports that come back. It’s a double whammy, whacking the American peoples’ pocket books and wallets.

At the end of the day, the American consumer ends up paying the higher price.

So I am very glad that the House will finally act on the Senate-passed shipping bill next week. This shipping reform bill will help us lower costs. It will clear our ports and relieve our supply chains. And American families will feel the benefit.

And I want to thank my colleagues Senators Klobuchar and Thune, the authors of the legislation, as well as the fine work of Senator Cantwell, in leading this legislation earlier this year, out of committee, onto the floor, and passing here in the Senate. 

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