[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                      GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS AND SMALL BUSINESS 
                                 TRADE CHALLENGES

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

       SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT, INVESTIGATIONS, AND REGULATIONS

                                 OF THE

                      COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS
                             UNITED STATES
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                               __________

                              HEARING HELD
                            OCTOBER 20, 2021

                               __________

[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
                               

            Small Business Committee Document Number 117-037
             Available via the GPO Website: www.govinfo.gov
             
                               __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
45-827                     WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------   
            
                   HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SMALL BUSINESS

                 NYDIA VELAZQUEZ, New York, Chairwoman
                          JARED GOLDEN, Maine
                          JASON CROW, Colorado
                         SHARICE DAVIDS, Kansas
                         KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
                        DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
                         MARIE NEWMAN, Illinois
                       CAROLYN BOURDEAUX, Georgia
                         TROY CARTER, Louisiana
                          JUDY CHU, California
                       DWIGHT EVANS, Pennsylvania
                       ANTONIO DELGADO, New York
                     CHRISSY HOULAHAN, Pennsylvania
                          ANDY KIM, New Jersey
                         ANGIE CRAIG, Minnesota
              BLAINE LUETKEMEYER, Missouri, Ranking Member
                         ROGER WILLIAMS, Texas
                        JIM HAGEDORN, Minnesota
                        PETE STAUBER, Minnesota
                        DAN MEUSER, Pennsylvania
                        CLAUDIA TENNEY, New York
                       ANDREW GARBARINO, New York
                         YOUNG KIM, California
                         BETH VAN DUYNE, Texas
                         BYRON DONALDS, Florida
                         MARIA SALAZAR, Florida
                      SCOTT FITZGERALD, Wisconsin

                 Melissa Jung, Majority Staff Director
            Ellen Harrington, Majority Deputy Staff Director
                     David Planning, Staff Director
                           
                           C O N T E N T S

                           OPENING STATEMENTS

                                                                   Page
Hon. Dean Phillips...............................................     1
Hon. Beth Van Duyne..............................................     3

                               WITNESSES

Mr. Kevin Loe, Director of Customer Engagement, Redi-Rock 
  International, Petoskey, MI....................................     6
Mr. Chris O'Brien, Chief Commercial Officer, C.H. Robinson, Eden 
  Prairie, MN....................................................     8
Ms. Christine Lantinen, President and Owner, Maud Borup Inc., 
  Plymouth, MN...................................................     9
Mr. John ``Chuck'' Fowke, President, Homes by John C. Fowke Inc., 
  Valrico, FL, testifying on behalf of the National Association 
  of Home Builders...............................................    11

                                APPENDIX

Prepared Statements:
    Mr. Kevin Loe, Director of Customer Engagement, Redi-Rock 
      International, Petoskey, MI................................    39
    Mr. Chris O'Brien, Chief Commercial Officer, C.H. Robinson, 
      Eden Prairie, MN...........................................    41
    Ms. Christine Lantinen, President and Owner, Maud Borup Inc., 
      Plymouth, MN...............................................    51
    Mr. John ``Chuck'' Fowke, President, Homes by John C. Fowke 
      Inc., Valrico, FL, testifying on behalf of the National 
      Association of Home Builders...............................    53
Questions for the Record:
    None.
Answers for the Record:
    None.
Additional Material for the Record:
    ABC - Associated Builders and Contractors....................    58
    NLBMDA - National Lumber and Building Material Dealers 
      Association................................................    62

 
        GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS AND SMALL BUSINESS TRADE CHALLENGES

                              ----------                              


                      WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2021

              House of Representatives,    
               Committee on Small Business,
                    Subcommittee on Investigations,
                Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:02 a.m., in 
Room 2360, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Dean Phillips 
[chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Phillips, Davids, Mfume, 
Bourdeaux, Chu, Evans, Craig, Luetkemeyer, Hagedorn, Stauber, 
Meuser, Van Duyne, Donalds, and Fitzgerald.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. All right. Good morning, everybody. I 
want to call this meeting to order. And without objection, the 
Chair is authorized to declare a recess at any time.
    I would like to begin by noting some important 
requirements. First, House and committee rules in practice will 
continue to apply during hybrid proceedings. All Members are 
reminded that they are expected to adhere to these standing 
rules, including decorum.
    House regulations require Members to be visible through a 
video connection throughout the proceeding, so please keep your 
cameras on, and remember to remain muted until you are 
recognized to minimize background noise. If you have to 
participate in another proceeding, we ask that you exit this 
one and log back in later.
    In the event a Member encounters technical issues that 
prevent him or her from being recognized for their questioning, 
I will move to the next available Member of the same party and 
will recognize that Member at the next appropriate time slot, 
provided that they have returned to the proceeding.
    Lastly, in accordance with the Attending Physician's most 
recent guidance, all Members and staff physically present in 
the committee room today are required to wear masks in the 
hearing room except when you are speaking, and that goes for 
witnesses as well.
    Furthermore, all Members and staff who have not been fully 
vaccinated must also maintain 6-foot social distancing from 
others. Members will, however, be allowed to briefly remove 
their masks, as I said, if they have been recognized to speak.
    With that, we shall begin with my opening statement. I want 
to start by thanking our distinguished witnesses for joining us 
today for this vital hearing on the state of the global supply 
chain and its impact, grave impact on small businesses.
    The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is, what we hope, is a once-
in-a-generation crisis that has created massive economic 
challenges for businesses and consumers alike.
    An extraordinary increase in demand for goods has 
exacerbated the many weaknesses in our supply chain, which 
predated this pandemic and has inflicted chaos on supply chains 
worldwide delaying the delivery of critical goods and products.
    The complexities of the global supply chain are often 
unseen and unappreciated, especially in an age where consumers 
have come to reliably expect rapid delivery of goods and 
products. That a port closure in Shanghai can impact a hardware 
store in Chaska, Minnesota is not a reality that lends itself 
easily to a sound bite on cable news or to political posturing 
in Washington.
    We are here today because we have a duty to investigate the 
challenges facing our small businesses and using what we have 
learned come together to address them. As I mentioned, the 
COVID-19 pandemic has exposed cracks that have long been 
present at nearly every connection point in our global supply 
chain, and this is adding considerable economic stress to small 
businesses which are already suffering from the economic 
fallout of the pandemic.
    COVID helped create the perfect storm for the disruptions 
that we have seen over the past 19 months, adding to dwindling 
natural resources, climate change, workforce development 
problems, trade wars, and a lack of investment in our 
infrastructure, which is undermining the entire foundation of 
the international and domestic supply chain.
    What is more, as our economic recovery has picked up, these 
problems have worsened. Private businesses, whose operations 
slowed during the height of the pandemic, are now struggling to 
keep pace with the steep rise in demand as the economy roars 
back to life putting even more stress on our supply chain.
    All of these factors have combined to create difficult 
circumstances. Disruptions have led to supply shortages, 
backlogs in major ports, and terribly severe delays in 
delivering goods, as we all know. These disruptions are not 
only harmful to consumers; they also can be disastrous for 
small businesses.
    Small companies have limited inventories and cannot afford 
to wait weeks or months for the products or supplies that they 
need. At the same time, they often depend on lower prices from 
overseas goods making the skyrocketing costs of imported 
materials prohibitive.
    These higher costs might be manageable for bigger 
enterprises that can absorb the higher shipping costs and 
negotiate favorable terms with shipping companies. Small firms 
engaged in international trade have no choice but to accept the 
prevailing market rate.
    Throughout the last year, surveys have shown that over 
half--half of small business owners feel supply chain 
disruptions are hurting their businesses. I have heard from 
many of them directly. In fact, Ranking Member Van Duyne and I 
met with several personally, including one of our witnesses 
here today, when she visited my district this past September.
    So we must take a closer look at how weakened supply chains 
are hurting small firms and our economy and what Congress can 
do to strengthen them. By making our supply chains more 
resilient, we can help ensure the uninterrupted flow of vital 
goods and prepare ourselves for future potential disasters.
    As part of that, I believe the federal government must work 
closely with the private sector to find solutions--I stress, 
find solutions. We understand the problems--to alleviate that 
pressure on our supply chains. We also must look to existing 
measures that we can utilize to help small businesses with 
issues surrounding supply chain and foreign trade, which is one 
reason I look forward to hearing more about SBA's State trade 
expansion program that aids entrepreneurs as they market and 
sell their products overseas.
    I am on a mission to get to the bottom of this issue, and I 
commit today to work with Chairwoman Velazquez, Ranking Member 
Van Duyne, and the White House to make certain that this 
administration is doing everything in its power to help small 
businesses weather this terrible storm.
    With that, I would like to yield to the Ranking Member, Ms. 
Van Duyne, for her opening statement.
    Ms. VAN DUYNE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And I 
very much appreciate you gathering this subcommittee to discuss 
such an important and timely topic.
    Just last month, I appreciated the opportunity to tour 
businesses in Chairman Phillip's district, as he mentioned, and 
discuss how supply chain problems are affecting businesses all 
across the country. These issues are particularly harmful, as 
the Chairman mentioned, to small businesses who lack the 
purchasing power, diversified supply networks, robust 
contingency plans, and pricing flexibility to be able to 
compete with larger firms.
    NFIB's recent small business economic trends report found 
that 90 percent of small business owners saw supply chain 
disruptions that are having an impact on their business. 
Additional reporting has found that nearly 50 percent of all 
small businesses have experienced product delivery delays from 
their suppliers. Twenty-five percent of all small businesses 
have succumbed to slower delivery times to their customers.
    And the same study also found that supply chain disruptions 
might cause approximately 20 percent of all small businesses to 
rethink their current supply chain. As ``help wanted'' signs 
are becoming a common site on the doors of small businesses in 
local communities across the country and store shelves have 
become increasingly bare, the American people are taking notice 
to these Democrat-induced economic crises. For example, a 
recent survey found that 85 percent of American adults are 
concerned that supply chain problems may lead to shortages of 
basic items.
    And just let me give you a few examples that we have seen 
in national news headlines recently: Wall Street Journal, 
``Supply-Chain Bottlenecks, Elevated Inflation to Last Well 
Into Next Year''; NPR, ``Dual Challenge: Combatting the 
Shortages of Labor Workers and Supply Chain Breakdown''; USA 
Today, ``Grocery Store Shelves Bare? These Products May Be Hard 
to Find Due to Supply Chain Issues''; New York Post, ``Supply-
Chain Woes Forcing Toy Manufacturers to Scramble to Meet 
Christmas Demand.''
    In my home State of Texas, a local Dallas news headline 
reads, ``Businesses Have Never Been This Stressful: Supply 
Chain Issues Hurting Small Businesses in Dallas.''
    Supply-chain disruptions have left small businesses paying 
more of their hard-earned money for goods that they may not 
receive for months on end. The Job Creators Network September 
monthly monitor poll found that higher prices coupled with 
inflation continue to be the leading concern for small 
businesses, and make no mistake, Americans are paying more for 
just about everything.
    The Biden administration's labor crisis is also a key 
contributing factor to the rising cost of goods and empty 
shelves. The worker shortages have hindered the ability to get 
cargo to shore, unpack these much-needed goods, and find truck 
drivers to transport the products throughout the nation.
    U.S. employers across all industries are struggling to fill 
more than 10.4 million job openings to meet rising consumer 
demands. And the NFIB reports that 51 percent of small business 
owners have unfilled job openings. Again, 51 percent of small 
businesses have unfilled job openings compared to a historic 
average of 22 percent, which is a 48-year record high for the 
third consecutive month.
    America's economy is being held hostage by Joe Biden's 
supply chain failures. Last week, the President's very own 
chief of staff referred to inflation and supply chain 
disruptions as, quote, high-class problems. Additionally, 
Secretary of Transportation made jokes about supply chain 
issues and how they could impact Christmas gift giving for all 
Americans.
    This smug small business negligence within the Biden 
administration is unfortunately a reality that will crush 
businesses all over this country, that depend on increased 
sales and spending during the holiday season. Simply put, small 
businesses are left to bear the brunt of President Biden's 
supply chain crisis.
    Inflation is skyrocketing. Cargo ships stocked with 
thousands of containers are circling U.S. ports with no 
available slips to unload, and small businesses cannot find 
workers. And without the products or workers, store shelves 
across the country are becoming increasingly empty.
    And while we are holding this hearing, the Biden 
administration continues to minimize this crisis and seems 
confounded by the seriousness of our supply chain issues. The 
challenges that we are facing and this administration's blatant 
inability to address it go far beyond a slightly less Merry 
Christmas for the rich.
    Supply chain problems are keeping not just toys but medical 
supplies, oxygen containers, and basic necessity out of the 
hands of all Americans. And when you couple this with the 
devastating inflation and escalating energy costs as colder 
winter sets in, President Biden's policy will literally cost 
American live this winter. This is the undeniable reality of 
what we face in the months ahead.
    I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today, and I 
hope to work with my colleagues on real solutions to support 
our small businesses and secure America's supply chain without 
enacting legislation that authorizes large amounts of new money 
and fails to combat overregulation, labor shortages, and 
taxation.
    Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I yield back.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Thank you, Ms. Van Duyne. The gentlelady 
yields back.
    I would like to take a moment to explain how the hearing 
will proceed. Each witness will have 5 minutes to provide a 
statement and each committee Member will have 5 minutes for 
questioning. Please ensure that your microphones are on when 
you begin speaking and that you return to mute when you are 
finished.
    With that, I would like to start by introducing our 
witnesses. I begin with Mr. Kevin Loe, the sales director for 
Redi-Rock International. Redi-Rock is the industry leader of 
large block retaining wall systems and has been expanding its 
footprint across international markets, thanks in part to the 
SBA's STEP program. Mr. Loe has been instrumental in taking 
Redi-Rock from a business from zero export sales to a global 
market leader. Prior to joining Redi-Rock, Mr. Loe served with 
the United States Coast Guard. Appreciate you joining us, Mr. 
Loe.
    Our next witness is Mr. Chris O'Brien, the chief commercial 
officer of C.H. Robinson, a third-party logistics provider 
located in the heart of my congressional district. C.H. 
Robinson is committed to solving logistics problems for 
companies large and small across the globe. Mr. O'Brien has 
been with the company since 1993 and has worked his way up from 
a manager in Raleigh, North Carolina, to president of C.H. 
Robinson's European division to now senior vice president and 
then--I sorry, and now chief commercial officer. And we 
appreciate you being us with today, Mr. O'Brien, remotely.
    Our next witness is Ms. Christine Lantinen, the president 
and owner of Maud Borup, Incorporated, a woman-owned and 
veteran-owned company reinventing classic sweets profoundly 
committed to sustainability. Maud Borup, founded in Minnesota 
in 1907, has a long and delicious history, including chocolate 
covered marshmallows in my great grandmother's drawer.
    Ms. Lantinen purchased the company in 2005 and revitalized 
and reinvigorated a great small business, which has brought 
about 150 different products to market. Ms. Lantinen has 
received numerous awards for her work, including SBA Small 
Business Person of the Year. We welcome you, Ms. Lantinen.
    And now Ms. Van Duyne will introduce her first.
    Ms. VAN DUYNE. Mr. Fowke is a Tampa-based, Florida-based 
small business owner with 40 years experience as a custom 
homebuilder. Mr. Fowke is also the National Association of 
Homebuilders' 2021 Chairman of the Board. He has been active in 
the NAHB leadership structure at the local, State, and national 
levels throughout his career. And as a senior life delegate, he 
has served in the leadership of the association for more than 
20 years.
    He was named builder of the year by the Tampa Bay Builders 
Association in 2006 and 2009 and is a past president and 
lifetime director of the TBBA. He was also president of the 
Florida Homebuilders Association and continues to serve the 
association. In 2019, he was inducted into the FHBA's Florida's 
Housing Hall of Fame, and he received the Florida Homebuilders 
Eagle Award in 2012.
    Mr. Fowke joins us today as unprecedented increases in 
supply chain disruptions and lumber prices have crushed the 
American workforce over the past year and a half. As we have 
seen in more recent weeks, these issues continue to harm small 
businesses, homebuyers, and the housing industry alike. 
Homebuilders like Mr. Fowke are facing prolonged delivery 
times, skyrocketing material costs, and escalating labor 
shortages.
    We appreciate you and the other witnesses for joining us 
today as we explore this critically important and timely topic. 
And I look forward to your testimony, and I yield back.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. And I join Ms. Van Duyne in expressing 
gratitude to all of you, and with that, we will begin with Mr. 
Loe. You are recognized for 5 minutes.

STATEMENTS OF KEVIN LOE, DIRECTOR OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT, REDI-
    ROCK INTERNATIONAL, PETOSKEY, MI; CHRIS O'BRIEN, CHIEF 
COMMERCIAL OFFICER, C.H. ROBINSON, EDEN PRAIRIE, MN; CHRISTINE 
 LANTINEN, PRESIDENT AND OWNER, MAUD BORUP INC., PLYMOUTH, MN; 
  AND JOHN ``CHUCK'' FOWKE, PRESIDENT, HOMES BY JOHN C. FOWKE 
    INC., VALRICO, FL, TESTIFYING ON BEHALF OF THE NATIONAL 
                  ASSOCIATION OF HOME BUILDERS

                     STATEMENT OF KEVIN LOE

    Mr. LOE. Good morning, Chairman Phillips, Ranking Member 
Van Duyne, and Members of the subcommittee. I thank you for the 
opportunity to testify before you here today. I am truly 
honored to be here. My name is Kevin Loe, and I am the director 
of the customer engagement team at Redi-Rock International.
    At Redi-Rock we believe in changing the world in concrete 
ways by unleashing the possibility of people, products, and 
technology to create large block retaining wall systems that 
you can trust for a lifetime. Today we are working with 120 
independently owned and operated concrete manufacturers around 
22 different countries around the world that license the Redi-
Rock precast product and provide great retaining wall systems 
throughout.
    We provide one integrated solution of wall solutions to 
create engineered solutions behind the wall and natural stone 
appearances on the face of the wall, creating like one-ton 
legos to build fast retaining walls.
    Currently, Redi-Rock employees over 55 hardworking team 
Members with positions in welding, production, marketing, 
engineering, and finance and sales. We manufacture our products 
in beautiful Charlevoix, Michigan, in export containers to 
different countries around the world. Our headquarters is just 
down the road in Petoskey, Michigan, and Little Traverse Bay on 
Lake Michigan.
    I want to start by saying that because of the State Trade 
Expansion Program, also known as STEP, and the U.S. Small 
Business Administration and the Michigan Economic Development 
Corporation, MEDC, that Redi-Rock went from almost zero export 
sales to becoming a global market leader in our industry. STEP 
was a catalyst for us to invest our time and resources into 
international trade, and as a result Redi-Rock has grown our 
export revenue to more than $3.5 million in all these 22 
countries.
    These exports have allowed us the freedoms to get good-
paying, hardworking jobs, diversify our sales, increase our 
market share, and continue manufacturing in the State of 
Michigan. This has allowed us to work through the global 
pandemic without eliminating any positions. We could not have 
achieved the success without the support of the STEP grant in 
MEDC.
    Just a quick story that goes with this is that our very 
first employee, Larry Pop, has been with the company since we 
started in 2000. As part of the international growth 
initiatives, Larry's son, Owen, now works for the company 
helping us in our manufacturing facility, becoming our first 
and only multigenerational employee working with us.
    We are seeing similar generational success and impacts in 
the international as well as in France. Our customer, Lashow 
Baton, had a gravel business that struggled through the 
recession in 2008 and in the years following. When the next 
generation took over the family business in 2013, they were 
hungry to innovate. That is when they chose Redi-Rock. As a 
result, this family business has seen year over year growth and 
is invited to the French palace to receive an award for 
invitation from our product.
    Redi-Rock has allowed small family businesses to thrive in 
the next generation, and the STEP funding has been pivotal in 
helping us empower small business growth here and also abroad. 
Small businesses like us, we don't have those resources to be 
able to navigate the global market and export process. That is 
where our partners come in handy with MEDC and the federal 
trade agencies that are absolutely crucial and vital for a 
company like us to succeed in this market.
    During the pandemic even, we quickly had to shift our 
operation strategy to continue to grow our exports. Through the 
STEP program and MEDC, we participated in several virtual trade 
tours and events and looking at potential buyers in Australia 
and also in Peru. We were able to utilize Zoom, build our 
relationships, and in the end we secured a new customer in 
Australia because of the work that they were able to do to help 
us. We are still working on securing our exports in Peru. It is 
a work in process.
    Typically, these sales would've required extensive travel 
and these countries to take between 6 and 12 months to 
finalize. But with the help of STEP and MEDC technology, we 
were able to secure the export system.
    I want to conclude by expressing my strong support for the 
STEP program. It has been vital for our ability to grow as a 
small business. We strongly support the reauthorization of the 
program and continued funding of the STEP program. We would 
also advocate to increase the funding to $50 million per year. 
This is good money spent, and we so appreciate that as a small 
business.
    In addition, we strongly support the bipartisan 
infrastructure bill and investing in our aging infrastructure. 
This will help ensure we can remain competitive in the global 
markets while also creating support jobs here in Michigan.
    Thank you to this committee, thank you for the opportunity 
to appear here, and I look forward to your questions.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Thanks, Mr. Loe. You make me want to buy 
a retaining wall.
    Now, Mr. O'Brien, you are recognized for 5 minutes for your 
opening statement.

                   STATEMENT OF CHRIS O'BRIEN

    Mr. O'BRIEN. Thank you. Chairman Phillips, Ranking Member 
Van Duyne, and Members of the Small Business Committee, thank 
you for the invitation to testify at today's hearing. As one of 
the nation's largest third-party logistics providers, C.H. 
Robinson has a unique view on how goods and commerce flow from 
manufacturer to consumer.
    My name is Chris O'Brien, and I am the chief commercial 
officer for C.H. Robinson. I joined the company 29 years ago, 
and I have been the chief commercial officer since 2015. I am 
responsible for overseeing our customer strategy, and I lead 
our marketing and external communications functions.
    We were founded in 1905 and have grown to over 15,000 
employees globally. We are Minnesota's eighth largest 
publically held company headquartered in Eden Prairie. We serve 
customers of all sizes, but we provide critical freight 
transportation services to over 60,000 small businesses and 
assign their freight to a network of carriers that includes 
over 50,000 active small business trucking companies. 
Freightquote by Robinson, based in Kansas City, includes a 
self-service tool made specifically with and for small 
shippers.
    In the global trade area we operate similarly. We simplify 
complex international landscape for our customers by connecting 
them to the world's ocean and air freight capacity as well as 
customs and trade support. We do not own any commercial trucks 
or containerships ourselves but rather build technology 
platforms and logistics services that allow our customers to 
save time and money. This is especially beneficial to small 
businesses who we empower with our prebuilt tech to give them 
an advantage of larger companies.
    The congestion in the supply chain has been well 
documented, but I want to describe the factors that influence 
these outcomes. Over the course of my 29-year career, the 
fundamentals have not changed. Supply of capacity and demand 
for goods ebbs and flows to create conditions either favorable 
for the flow of goods and lower freight cost or conditions that 
challenge the flow of goods and increase freight cost.
    Economic growth, weather, labor availability, regulation, 
and other factors push and pull on the demands of available 
transportation. Capacity in the form of trucks, drivers, ships, 
and sports adjust over time to these market signals. For 
example, right now we are seeing the surge in formation of new 
small trucking companies.
    What makes 2021 unique are the orders of magnitude in speed 
with which the system has gone from one extreme to the other. 
The world's supply chain simply weren't built to handle the 
nearly shut down of early COVID followed by the rapid restart 
and the robust consumer demand that followed.
    The current supply chain congestion is creating challenges 
for our large customers, but the impacts cause magnified 
personal stress for small business owners. Like large 
businesses, small companies have experienced significant and 
rapid freight cost increases across all modes of 
transportation, shipment delays, port detention charges, 
difficulty assessing available capacity, and supply chain 
challenges have forced all business to make painful choices 
regarding passing on increased cost to their customers.
    As many have said, the current supply chain challenges are 
complex and with few easy fixes. We would encourage the 
committee to focus on four primary areas: First, stimulative 
economic policy in COVID reopening has driven surging demand 
across the economy. U.S. GDP growth has exceeded 6 percent for 
two quarters in a row. Freight congestion and cost increases 
have naturally followed. We feel that if economic growth 
continues at higher than historic levels, trucking, ocean, air, 
warehousing, and port capacity will be challenged to keep up.
    Secondly, our industry has been dealing with a shortage of 
truck drivers that predates COVID by decades. Policymakers can 
help truck driver shortage by focusing on driver quality-of-
life investments like truck parking, driver recruitment, and 
training. Many new truck drivers and warehouse workers are 
recent immigrants and there are opportunities to increase 
participation within that workforce. We support both the DRIVE 
SAFE Act and the Women in Trucking Workforce Act which would 
expand the driver pool.
    The China trade war has increased costs in the form of 
tariffs and high-price inputs on many small business. Small 
businesses are asking themselves tough questions. Are tariffs 
likely to continue or expire? Congress and the administration 
can provide more concrete signals to small businesses regarding 
the direction of the trade war so they can make long-term 
decisions.
    Immediate trade relief for small businesses was included in 
the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act. The Trade Act of 2021 
would be retroacted to December 2020 and could mean section 301 
exclusion refunds of tens of thousands of dollars in duties for 
some small businesses.
    Next, COVID-related shutdowns in facilities here and 
especially abroad continue to adversely impact supply chains. 
Lockdowns, partial shutdowns of ports and manufacturers 
continue to add to delays periodically and recently. Truck 
parts sourced from overseas have also seen shortages from 
foreign factory shutdowns, and this delays repair and takes 
capacity off the road.
    Finally, many small businesses who hire mortar carriers are 
unaware of the risk they take in selecting them. Some shippers 
shy away or exclude small trucking companies from business 
opportunities to mitigate this risk. We would encourage Members 
to support H.R. 3042 to establish a mortar carrier selection 
standard to increase safety and protect small businesses and 
shippers and small business truckers.
    Thank you for the opportunity to share our views, and we 
look forward to the questions.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Thank you, Mr. O'Brien.
    And now I recognize Ms. Lantinen for 5 minutes. You have 
got to unmute.

                STATEMENT OF CHRISTINE LANTINEN

    Ms. LANTINEN. Thank you. All right. Chairman Phillips, 
Ranking Member Van Duyne, Congressman Hagedorn, and Members of 
the subcommittee, thank you for the honor of testifying today. 
Before I discuss my business supply chain challenges, I would 
like to give you some background on myself and my company.
    My name is Christine Lantinen, and I am the president and 
owner of Maud Borup, a candy manufacturing and food gift 
company. We are a privately held, Minnesota-based business 
employing over 200 team Members. The company's growth has been 
strong and steady since I took ownership of the business in 
2005, and this year we are on track to grow sales by 75 
percent.
    Maud Borup is over 100 years old, and like me, it has deep 
ties to Minnesota. I grew up a farmer's daughter in Le Center 
working as a server at the American Legion at the age of 13. I 
joined the Army and attended basic training at the age of 17 
and went on to serve almost 10 years as a medic. I graduated 
from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and after working my 
way up the corporate ladder found myself in a unique position 
to acquire and lead Maud Borup. Today, as a certified woman- 
and veteran-owned business, we are deeply committed to our 
community, with our corporate office located in Plymouth and 
our factory in Le Center.
    I was asked to join today's hearing to share my perspective 
and experience navigating supply chain challenges. I would 
begin by placing a spotlight on our workforce. My business 
faces a dire shortage of workers. At 200 employees, we are down 
roughly 100 from our optimal number of staff.
    Since December of 2020, we have instituted a 36 percent 
hourly salary increase, and we still have trouble recruiting 
workers. Some factors driving this situation are economic; our 
general community maintains a low unemployment rate, almost a 
full percentage point below the State average of around 4 
percent. Other factors are geographic; we are located in 
proximity to peer businesses competing in the same worker pool.
    Perhaps most relevant to this committee is the factor of 
worker development. Trade programs producing certified truck 
drivers, welders, and other specialists are not producing 
workers fast enough for businesses like mine to hire them. I 
urge this committee to take a hard look at policy solutions to 
accelerate the pipeline of trade certification and education 
programs.
    To put it directly, the biggest and most immediate 
challenge to my business' supply chain is a lack of workers. 
The situation is so severe that despite a purchase of 6 acres 
of land adjacent to our lot, our business has put expansion 
plans on hold. Our desire is to continue operating in our 
corner of Minnesota, but our current workforce shortages are 
unsustainable.
    Another supply chain challenge currently impacting our 
business is the cost of transportation for goods and supplies. 
In August of 2020, the cost to ship a standard 40-foot shipping 
container was approximately $4,300. By August of 2021, that 
figure had exploded to $30,000. Like our shortage of workers, 
this situation is also unsustainable from a business management 
standpoint. We need to see action to alleviate the bottlenecks 
mostly caused by labor shortages.
    According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 
100 million Americans not in the U.S. labor force. Forty-two 
percent, 42 million of that number, are retirees. The Fed 
classifies the U.S. labor force as every U.S. citizen 16 or 
over who is not incarcerated, in the U.S. military, or in a 
nursing or residential care home. Retirees are considered part 
of the labor force.
    How can we incentivize retirees and others currently not 
working but able to work to enter the workforce to help fill 
the 10.4 million job openings America currently has? Bolstering 
participation is critical for U.S. competitiveness and economic 
strength.
    Lastly, I would be remiss if I didn't mention a 
longstanding challenge to businesses like mine, not just in the 
chocolate and confectionary industry but the broader food and 
beverage manufacturing sector as well. I am referring to the 
U.S. sugar program, which consists of a combination of domestic 
marketing allotments, tariff freight quotas, guaranteed price 
support loans, and the Feedstock Flexibility Program.
    This labyrinth of policy is so convoluted I do not have the 
time nor the expertise to walk you through it all. The result 
is that the federal government restricts the supply of sugar to 
inflate prices. American businesses that rely on a steady 
supply of sugar are thus often forced to pay twice what our 
global competitors pay on the global market.
    Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today. I am 
grateful for the subcommittee's interest in my business, and I 
appreciate you looking at the troubling set of urgent supply 
chain challenges we are currently faced with. If you have any 
questions, I would be happy to answer them. Thank you.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Thank you so much, Ms. Lantinen.
    And with that, I recognize Mr. Fowke for 5 minutes.

               STATEMENT OF JOHN ``CHUCK'' FOWKE

    Mr. FOWKE. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. 
Supply chain disruptions have affected the homebuilding 
industry profoundly. From record high lumber prices to severe 
shortages of other building materials, the result has been 
lengthy delays or postponed projects and dramatic price 
increases. This is further harming housing affordability at a 
time when we face an ongoing housing affordability crisis.
    Coordinating the timely delivery of materials and products 
to the build site is challenging under the best of 
circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic has roiled global supply 
chains making this once challenging endeavor nearly impossible.
    In May of this year, a widely regarded framing lumber index 
hit a previously unthinkable all-time high of $1,500 per 1,000 
board feet. NAHB estimated at the time the dramatic rise in 
lumber prices was adding nearly $36,000 to the price of the 
average new single-family home and nearly $13,000 to the price 
of each new multifamily home.
    And while lumber prices began a sharp decline soon after, 
prices began rising again in September and have increased by 
more than 40 percent over the past 6 weeks. Lumber pricing and 
availability is just one of the many problems we face with the 
supply chain.
    Supply chain challenges are driving scarcity and elevated 
prices on almost every product or good or material that goes 
into the construction of the American homes. According to the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average price of goods used as 
inputs to residential construction has risen 13.2 percent thus 
far in 2021, more than triple the rate of the core inflation 
over the same period.
    While historically high prices and supply shortages remain 
a challenge for all homebuilding firms, they pose unique 
challenges for smaller firms. Among the unique challenges small 
firms face in these times are volatility and uncertainty as 
well as the ability, or more often the inability, to pass along 
these ever-increasing prices.
    Without large economies of scale, small businesses 
generally cannot negotiate bulk discounts. Builders have been 
forced to commit to purchasing material such as lumber without 
knowing exactly what the cost will be when delivered. The 
effects of the uncertainty trickle all the way to the buyer, 
many of whom have balked at projects at the last minute due to 
unexpected price increases.
    At the core of today's building material supply chain 
issues are two fundamental problems: Barriers to trade and 
challenges associated with moving goods to their final 
destination. I applaud the Biden administration for its action 
to date on the homebuilding supply chain. Convening the 
homebuilding supply chain summit in July was critical to 
identifying some of the issues facing homebuilders.
    Prioritizing building materials and supplies is part of the 
Department of Transportation's hours of service waiver for 
trucking has been helpful, but it is only a start. More can be 
done and should be done. Congress and the administration need 
to consider steps to reduce or move barriers to trade. This 
includes at least temporarily suspending duties and quotas on a 
wide array of imported building materials and goods, from 
Canadian softwood lumber to steel and aluminum.
    In addition, Congress and the administration must continue 
to aggressively explore solutions to port congestion and the 
persistent delays in truck and rail transportation. Building 
materials, supply chain challenges exposed and exacerbated by 
the COVID-19 pandemic are driving an unsustainable increase in 
the cost to construct a new home.
    Until we address all the underlying causes of the crisis, 
millions of households are denied the American Dream of 
homeownership and millions more are rent burden. Housing has 
been a bright spot for the U.S. economy as the nation continues 
to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. But historically high 
lumber and building material prices continue to serve as 
headwinds for the U.S. housing sector.
    And there is mounting evidence that housing is at risk, has 
seen a dramatic increase in the cost of materials.
    One sign that the market may be slowing down is the number 
of housing units, permitted but not started, has risen over 40 
percent in the past year. Any slowdown in housing production 
would be troublesome as we remain well off the mark of making 
up the shortages from under building over the past decade.
    I commend Chairman Phillips and Ranking Member Van Duyne 
for holding this important hearing today, and I look forward to 
answering any questions you may have for me. Thank you.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Thank you, sir. And thank you to all of 
our witnesses for being with us today. There are current and 
former small business owners on both sides of the aisle on this 
committee, and rest assured, we share your pain, we empathize, 
and I hope I speak for all when I say our obligation and 
intention is to identify solutions today.
    With that I will begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes. 
We pointed out the problem. I don't think we need to keep 
identifying what is wrong. Mr. O'Brien, I am going to start 
with you.
    You identified four areas that are causing the supply chain 
issues, surging demand, a trucker shortage, the China tariffs 
and a trade war, COVID-related shutdowns are the four that I 
believe you referenced.
    You know, my intuition tells me that today you might hear 
from certain Members of this committee that Joe Biden is 
responsible for this whole problem, the Biden administration's 
policies have led to inflation and supply chain issues and 
labor shortages and the like. You might even hear some say it 
was the former administration. The fact of the matter is, I 
don't care who is responsible; I want to find solutions.
    So with that, Mr. O'Brien, you know, can you point to a 
policy of either the past Trump administration or the current 
Biden administration that you believe is, A, responsible for 
the issue that we are now facing relative to supply chains, and 
if so, how do we fix it?
    Mr. O'BRIEN. I can't point to any specific policy--thank 
you for the question, Representative Phillips--but I would say 
that it is--this is a long-term sustained problem. The current 
demand--the other thing I would talk--describe is that this has 
been an unprecedented inversion of supply demand.
    This is a very unnatural event when you talk about--the 
world's supply chain, the world's economy simply wasn't built 
to shut down and restart and then deal with increased demand, a 
whole new product set that really occupied the global shipping 
lanes for the first several months was PPE.
    But I will say that this demand has exposed long-term 
chokepoints in the supply chain. And today, you know, it 
started with manufacturing and it had to restart, but it has 
exposed other physical and infrastructure challenges throughout 
the supply chain from our ports to available chassis to the 
draymen that haul containers out of a port.
    I mentioned in my testimony the one longest term--so every 
4 or 5 years we have seen a port slow down when demand is high. 
We have never seen anything like this. But really in every 
period of increased demand we have dealt with truck driver 
shortage.
    So if there is one area that I would want the committee to 
focus on the most, it is the part of the supply chain crunch 
that has been the most enduring and problematic.
    The additional benefit is that it will benefit both the 
international supply chain and the domestic supply chain. Many 
small businesses rely on North American trucks. Our job is to 
consolidate that small carrier group and bring access to them 
to small shippers.
    So like I testified, I would say anything that we can do 
like the DRIVE SAFE Act and the Women in Trucking Workforce Act 
to increase supply. It is no secret that truck driving is a 
business that is not attracting adequate labor, and anything we 
can do to help the lifestyle and improve the attractiveness of 
that role is important, and I think anything else to address 
the other supply chains.
    I would just say, it has been a long-term challenge, and 
today's crunch has just magnified it and brought it to all of 
our attention. But over the long haul, disruptions like this 
are unusual. And the international, the global, and the 
domestic supply chains have been resilient, but probably the 
weakest link is North American trucking due to the driver 
shortage that we have had for years.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. And, Mr. O'Brien, is it also fair to say 
that our infrastructure is not as sound and robust as some of 
our international peers relative to ports? And also a lack of 
an integrated communication system between ports and customs 
and the like, is that an area in which we can improve?
    Mr. O'BRIEN. That is an area that we can improve. Compared 
to other world-class ports, ours are backed up more right now, 
and we have less automation and less adequate communication 
programs at our ports. So I would agree that there is an 
opportunity to invest there as well.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. And would you say that the--I think it 
is $17 billion or $18 billion in the bipartisan infrastructure 
bill dedicated to port improvement, would that help?
    Mr. O'BRIEN. I think anything that we can do to improve 
infrastructure, especially transportation infrastructure, is 
helpful, not just at the ports but across our highways, our 
intermodal systems, our rail terminals, anything that can 
reduce those, you know, endpoint supply chain chokepoints that 
we have today.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Okay. Well, hopefully we will be voting 
on that soon in the affirmative.
    With that, my time is expiring, so I will turn to my friend 
and Ranking Member, Ms. Van Duyne, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. VAN DUYNE. Excellent. Thank you. And it is good to see 
so many of you that we visited with when I was up in Minnesota 
last month.
    I want to ask, Mr. Fowke, I understand that you referenced 
the limitation of pricing flexibility for small businesses.
    President Biden's recent announcement mentioned that 
commitments from large companies like UPS and FedEx, Wal-Mart, 
and Target to use expanded hours to move goods. But can you 
walk us through, from the ports to the trucking company to the 
supply house to the builder, how small businesses continue to 
be harmed and left out in times of supply chain shortages?
    Mr. FOWKE. Well, the biggest challenge we have with the 
supply chain is the production of goods, and then once the 
goods are produced having them tracked or delivered to the 
sites has become a bigger challenge.
    Inventories are low for materials. But having UPS and FedEx 
ramp up their delivery process doesn't do a lot for the 
challenges that we have with lumber, labor, and things of this 
nature that are handicapping our industry and creating a 
shortage of new houses which has put a stress on existing 
housing stock, and therefore, the possibility of affordable 
housing has left the scene.
    Ms. VAN DUYNE. I was going to ask you, I know that you did 
a great job in your testimony talking about the impacts 
actually on homebuyers. Do you want to just kind of just run 
down very quickly how the supply chain shortages within the 
homebuilders industry is directly affecting consumers?
    Mr. FOWKE. Well, it affects every price level in housing in 
some fashion. Affordability is the biggest thing that we are 
affected by. Housing affordability is always a challenge. You 
know, in my business, if people come to me to have a home 
built, they want to have an idea what the house is going to 
cost.
    And over the past--you know, I have been doing this a long 
time. And, you know, every year in January we get a letter from 
suppliers that there is increases. For the last 12 months, we 
get letters about increases not every 30 days but every week. 
So to be able to identify the cost of a house is almost 
impossible, so therefore the entry level home buyer is being 
pushed out of the market.
    The $36,000 that lumber added to the price of a home, if 
you do the math, for every $1,000 increase in price of a home, 
150,000 people are pushed out of the market. They can no longer 
afford the American Dream. So if you do the math, the $36,000, 
the impact for lumber alone.
    But the challenges we have as builders, to better answer 
your question, trying to schedule material has become virtually 
impossible. I ordered windows last year in November. The 
windows were delivered to the job site in June. And in the 
sequence of construction, you cannot produce the home and 
construct the home without having the windows installed.
    And so that is just one of the simple things. You know, the 
ability to get appliances, the ability to just get cabinets, 
and if you can't get the cabinets, you can't put the 
countertops on, so therefore, you know, these things have been 
slowed up. And anybody and everybody that works in this 
industry is in dire need of added labor. We have got to do 
something about the labor situation that will help us with the 
supply chain.
    If the supply chain disruption continues and prices 
continue, inflation is going to hit us; therefore, Chairman 
Powell is going to raise interest rates. And our entire economy 
is going to come to a screeching halt if something isn't done 
quickly to get people back to work.
    Ms. VAN DUYNE. I appreciate that answer and you definitely 
answered my question.
    My first question had to do with how this is affecting 
small businesses. We know some of the larger businesses, larger 
companies, multinational companies are being able to work 
around some of these issues directly because they have got the 
capability. How are you seeing this affect small businesses the 
most because they don't have those capabilities?
    Mr. FOWKE. Well, the large companies buy in bulk and they 
design and build in bulk. Small firms, small building firms--
and just, for instance, you know, the National Association of 
Home Builders is built up of--we have 30,000 builder Members. 
And these builder Members build about 80 percent of the houses 
built in this country.
    We alone, when the pandemic hit, we alone carried the 
nation's economy on our back with our industry. But with small 
firms build 80 percent of the houses are handicapped in 
production, the ability to buy in bulk or even the ability to 
forecast when materials can be delivered, makes it virtually 
impossible to run a business much less tell a buyer what the 
price of a home is going to be.
    The large builders can buy in bulk and move materials 
around where needed where we don't have those opportunities as 
small businesses. So in Tampa, it is a little different because 
the large-volume builders build about 70 percent of the houses 
in Tampa Bay, and that is not, you know, the--similar to in 
other parts of the country and other regions of the country. 
But----
    Ms. VAN DUYNE. My time is up.
    Mr. FOWKE. Okay.
    Ms. VAN DUYNE. I am sorry. I apologize, and thank you for 
answering. I yield back.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. The gentlelady yields back. And now I 
recognize the gentlelady from California, Ms. Chu, for 5 
minutes.
    Ms. CHU. Thank you.
    Mr. O'Brien, as a representative from the Los Angeles area, 
which is home to the L.A. and Long Beach ports, which together 
process 40 percent of all shipping imports into the U.S., I 
have countless constituents whose businesses are impacted by 
day-to-day conditions at the port. I understand that many of 
the shipping delays are attributable to supply and demand 
issues, but it is undeniable that some of these disruptions are 
due to anticompetitive and unfair practices by shipping 
companies.
    For instance, at the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach, we 
have seen many shipping containers refuse to load exports from 
the U.S. because they will make more money sending empty 
containers back to foreign ports with the highest demand. Some 
will not even allow containers to be sent inland to collect 
agricultural products because they would rather immediately 
load those containers back onto ships.
    The federal Maritime Commission is responsible for 
protecting American exporters and importers from 
anticompetitive activities, but they lack the authority to take 
concrete action. That is why I have cosponsored H.R. 4966, the 
Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2021, which would give FMC the 
authority to enforce import and export logistics and implement 
minimum safety standards, as well as prohibit ocean carriers 
from unreasonably declining opportunities for U.S. exports.
    So can you talk about how anticompetitive behavior in the 
shipping industry has contributed to the current supply chain 
disruptions and discuss whether the federal government can step 
up its enforcement? Do these types of anticompetitive behaviors 
result in greater hardships for small businesses than larger 
ones?
    Mr. LOE. Thank you, Representative.
    Mr. O'BRIEN. I will start with the basics on the export 
economy, in that containers have always gone back to empty to 
source of origin. And the greatest problem there and what drive 
that is a lack of balance trade that the United States has. So 
since containerization steamships have not made the choice to 
turn back empty containers but they have brought them back, and 
I think some of the demand for returning those containers empty 
today is driven by our own demand for these urgent imports that 
we have today.
    I am not aware, from any of our customer situations, where 
they have seen illegal activity or had containers refuse to get 
loaded. I do think, if that is going on, we are curious and 
looking forward to hearing more about the Ocean Shipping Reform 
Act. And if there is the possibility in that, you know, to 
empower, if things like that are happening, I do believe that 
them having the power to investigate that is a good thing. But 
from the beginning of international trade, it is our trade 
balance that has, for rational reasons, sent containers back to 
Asian manufacturing centers empty.
    Ms. CHU. Well, I certainly do hope we have ocean reform 
because we do have American exporters frustrated with higher 
freight rates for shipping companies and increased tension 
between shippers and ocean carriers over fees and the 
availability of containers.
    Nonetheless, let me talk about another issue, which is the 
fact that there are changing consumer trends that are 
increasing the demand. In fact, U.S. retail sales increased by 
8 percent between 2019 and 2020 and another 14 percent between 
2020 and 2021. So Americans have shifted much of their 
consumption away from services and towards goods, the majority 
of which are imported.
    So the demand that we are seeing at ports like Los Angeles 
and Long Beach might be a long-term trend that is here to stay, 
so it is important that we focus beyond the ports at ways 
improving capacity along the entire supply chain.
    I first want to thank President Biden for taking action in 
southern California to move our ports to 24/7 operation so that 
we can clear the backlog, but he can't solve the problem by 
himself. For example, 60 percent of the goods coming through 
the ports transit through my district in the San Diego Valley 
via train and truck.
    We need containers to be emptied and restocked at the 
ports, but we also need better, cleaner ways to quickly move 
these goods to warehouses and businesses. And, in fact, there 
was a survey from the National Retail Federation which said--
had 22 percent of the Members said that they were experiencing 
intermodal rail delays and that 3 weeks had been added to their 
supply chains.
    Anyway, both the Senate infrastructure bill and the Build 
Back Better Act will help transform our ports to meet these new 
consumer patterns. But can you talk about other measures that 
Congress should be thinking about to increase our capacity to 
move and process these goods domestically?
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Ms. Chu, unfortunately, your time is 
expired.
    With that, I yield to Mr. Hagedorn, the Ranking Member on 
the Subcommittee on Underserved Agricultural and Rural Business 
Development. Mr. Hagedorn, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate that.
    Ranking Member Van Duyne, good to be with you.
    Thanks to the witnesses.
    I mean, I appreciate this hearing. It is a good topic, very 
important, timely. But I would just encourage my friends on the 
other side of the aisle that if you want to stop the bleeding 
of this whole supply chain issue and inflation, let's quit 
micromanaging the economy, let's quit dumping cash into the 
economy at a time when businesses aren't ready to respond and 
spurring more inflation, shortages of products, services, 
labor, you name it.
    I don't think this bill that is coming along, $3.5 
trillion, whatever it is, with all sorts of taxes, regulations, 
higher cost energy, I mean, I don't know a small business out 
there that says higher-cost energy is going to do the trick. 
And then, you know, more government spending without any work 
requirements or technical training requirements for people on 
welfare, those things all have been stripped out. I tried to 
put that back in the Ag Committee. Voted down. I don't think 
that is the way to go.
    And, by the way though, Mr. Fowke, I appreciate you being 
here. The homebuilders have supported a piece of legislation 
that I have introduced to help people get technical training 
certificate programs and things like that. Our bill would allow 
people that have saved for 529 education savings accounts to 
not just use those moneys for their kids to go to a 4-year 
college but to also go to vocational school and things like 
that. I know, you know, you need a lot of those types of 
skilled workers. Is that still something you support, and do 
you think it would be a step in the right direction?
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Sir, turn on your microphone, if you 
would. Thank you.
    Mr. FOWKE. We are working very hard to train our 
individuals in our industry. We are an aging industry. For 
every five people we lose, whether it is retirement or for 
whatever reason, we are only able to replace them with two 
right now. And any type of legislation that will help us with 
training is very, very important.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Thank you.
    Ms. Lantinen, and I note for the record that your 
headquarters, I guess your manufacturing facility, is in Le 
Center where you grew up. It is in our district, in southern 
Minnesota, and I have toured it many times. Very impressive. 
You have been expanding there. And your success is quite 
something. I think you started your business when you bought it 
with about $100,000 in sales, and now you are up to about $45 
million. That is quite an increase, so congratulations on that.
    What do you think about the workforce shortages? Do you 
have any ideas that maybe we could address here at this 
committee or across the nation as to how we can help?
    Mr. LOE. Hi, Jim. First and foremost, hope your health is 
is well, as always. I think the most important thing we can do 
right now is dive into the 100 million Americans currently not 
in the workforce. Forty-two percent of them are retirees. How 
do we target that group which is a huge portion of potential 
workforce we could tap into, provide them with incentives? Can 
they work tax free up to a certain dollar amount? Are there 
further Social Security benefits we could give them for coming 
back to work?
    I feel like we need a Rosie the Riveter character focused 
at retirees that says ``We Need You'' as the tag line. And we 
really need to focus on these potential groups that could be 
contributing to our society because we will fall behind if we 
don't have the employees to run our businesses.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Many of the businesses I speak with in 
southern Minnesota tell me that they just sometimes can't 
compete with the federal government. There is so much money out 
there flowing from the federal government. It was enhanced 
unemployment compensation. Now it is a number of different 
areas, and I think that is still an issue.
    I go back to work in technical training requirements for 
welfare. It works every time that we implement it. We have 
gotten away from that. Some people say that it is tough for 
folks to get back in the workforce because they lose benefits, 
and there is some short-term loss because there is so much out 
there.
    So I am a proponent of transition wages, whatever we have 
to do in order to get people the incentive to get back to work. 
It is much more compassionate than having people dependent on 
government. The compassion is letting folks--giving them the 
incentive in order to go out there and care for themselves and 
to be in the workforce contributing. So that is something that 
I will continue to do.
    Mr. Fowke, any other comments that you have? I appreciate 
what you said about supply chain issues and trade. And yet, I 
understand we had a deal with China and other countries. We are 
trying to sort that out. But maybe in this short period of time 
we need to do some things to alleviate that, but--I have got 20 
seconds left.
    Mr. FOWKE. We just have to get people back to work. We have 
an arm of our association, the Homebuilders Institute, we are 
training military veterans that are acing the military back 
into public life. We are trying to train incarcerated people. 
We are trying to get training back into the schools, where it 
should be, so younger people can learn trades that not only 
would teach them how to work in the homebuilding industry but 
it will help them with their lives long range.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Thank you. I am out of time. Again, I 
appreciate your support for our bill.
    Mr. FOWKE. Thank you, sir.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. And now I recognize my colleague from 
Minnesota, Representative Craig, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. CRAIG. Well, good morning. The Small Business Committee 
is well represented by Minnesota certainly each and every day. 
Thank you so much, Chairman Phillips, for yielding, and thank 
you to all of our witnesses today.
    A special thank you and welcome to Mr. O'Brien and Ms. 
Lantinen. It is always nice to hear from fellow Minnesotans 
here on the committee.
    I am really grateful that our subcommittee is holding this 
important hearing today. Every single week I hear from 
different businesses in Minnesota's Second Congressional 
District whose bottom lines are being impacted by disruptions 
to our global supply chains.
    But supply chain shortages aren't only impacting 
businesses. I have also heard from schools in my district who 
struggle to offer balanced lunches because of shipping delays 
and, of course, from customers who are facing higher costs on 
household items.
    A strong and resilient supply chain is absolutely vital to 
keeping our economy moving, which is exactly why I cofounded 
the bipartisan Supply Chain Caucus last Congress, and this was 
before the pandemic. In the months to come, I do hope that this 
bipartisan group can come together and identify commonsense 
solutions to help resolve these ongoing challenges and deliver 
relief to the American people.
    Many of these supply chains, Mr. O'Brien, as you certainly 
know, are really run by the private sector. There is certainly 
a number of contributing factors involved. It is not simple, 
although it is real easy, just to kind of throw a political 
barb back and forth and blame one party or the other or one 
administration or another. We know that these supply chain 
issues are very, very complicated, and it is going to take more 
than a slogan or a political barb in order to solve them.
    So we have certainly, Mr. O'Brien, seen the cost of moving 
products into rural America and, of course, the Midwest 
especially on the rise. You mentioned in your testimony one 
issue you are seeing is a shortage of truck drivers. I am 
really proud to represent Dakota County Technical College, 
which offers a Class-B CDL truck and bus driver training 
program. How could programs like this help bolster our supply 
chain?
    So Mr. O'Brien, you first.
    Mr. O'BRIEN. Thank you, Representative. I think anything 
that we can do to get more drivers into the workforce is 
beneficial. Training is an area of current demand. A lot of the 
training programs and truck driver certifications, you need to 
get a commercial driver's license. A lot of those programs shut 
down during COVID and that led to a delay, and I think anything 
that involves outreach.
    Like I said, it is no secret that it is a challenging job. 
You are away from home, you have other choices. Today you can't 
become a commercial driver for--in trucking until age 21. That 
keeps many potential drivers out of the workforce where they 
find an alternative trade that doesn't keep you on the road for 
most of the time and away from families. So not only do we 
support both cooperation between the private sector and public 
on solving these problems, we particularly see the need for 
additional programs for driver recruitment and training.
    Ms. CRAIG. Thank you so much. I would love to turn now to 
Ms. Lantinen. First of all, thank you so much for your service 
to our country in the U.S. Army and for taking time to appear 
before us today, especially with Halloween so close and the 
holidays quickly approaching. I am sure that Maud Borup is hard 
at work preparing for a busy time this time of year.
    How have you seen supply chain challenges in the food 
supply industry? And, of course, what do you think Congress can 
do to help either do or get out of the way and not do?
    Ms. LANTINEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Craig. We are 
starting to see everything go up. You know, the cost of plastic 
containers, the cost of food. I truly believe a year from now 
everything we buy will be 35 to 40 percent higher. It is going 
to take longer for it to catch up at the register.
    I would say as I have spoken with people in the industry, a 
large part of it is driven by shortages of workers. So we are 
all struggling to either quickly automate to keep up with 
increased demand or do whatever we can do to find people.
    The shortage of people isn't just in the U.S.; it is 
actually a worldwide struggle right now happening. So I feel 
like the U.S. has a really unique opportunity for advancement 
right now as everyone is struggling on a global level.
    What are we doing to tap into our workforce that is here 
and trying to find those pockets of people and how we can get 
them out and working and contributing to society is really key 
right now.
    Ms. CRAIG. Thank you so much, Ms. Lantinen. And, 
unfortunately, I am out of time.
    So, Mr. Chairman, I will yield back.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. The gentlelady yields back. And now I 
recognize Mr. Meuser from Pennsylvania, the Ranking Member on 
the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access.
    Mr. Meuser, you are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. MEUSER. Thank you, Chairman Phillips, very much and 
thank you to the Republican Leader Van Duyne for holding this 
hearing, and thanks to all of you for being here with us. We 
appreciate you taking the time away from your business and your 
homes.
    So small businesses are not happy throughout my district 
and throughout Pennsylvania, and wherever else I speak to 
businesses. I was in business for many years, friends that are 
owning small businesses nationwide, workforce issues as are 
being described here, costs are going up randomly, very 
difficult situation. Container costs, as we are talking about, 
have gone up from $3,000 less than a year ago to $27,000, 
$28,000 with no reliability in delivery. Demand is up, supply 
is low, particularly products made in the U.S.
    So you--on top of all of that, the supply side of your 
business, your industry you have got upset customers, you have 
got cash flow problems because you are trying to buy things--if 
you get a prepaid discount, you are sending those checks in to 
making those payments to try to expedite your deliveries or 
your scheduling has got to be random, all of your scheduled 
services and installations and anything related to building is 
all over the charts. You probably have people showing up to do 
the job, but the parts and everything else aren't there.
    So everybody is pulling their hair out. I mean, businesses 
are breathless, as I put it, because every time I get them on 
the phone, they sound breathless. And that is--we are on the 
Small Business Committee, we got to do what we can here to 
correct things.
    Now, of course, we have the port and part of that was due 
to COVID, a lot of it was due to mismanagement, a lot of it was 
due to government disruption. So--and that is where, perhaps, 
we can come in. And yet as a Christmas present, our--on the 
Democratic side of our Congress wants to tax you more and have 
some unclear vaccine requirements, which I am all for the 
vaccine, but the guidelines, as you all well know, would--are 
not clarified at this point.
    So people don't know if they are going to be laying people 
off come November 8th or not. No matter how many times I ask 
the administration for those guidelines, we don't get them.
    So let's get to some questions from the real world, which 
is where you all work and live. So offer me, offer me, Mr. 
Fowke, the workforce availability. What do you see? You brought 
up a couple of ideas that were well thought out. Relate it to 
workforce, what can federal/state government do to improve the 
workforce climate?
    Mr. FOWKE. Well, if you pay a man to not work, why would he 
work? The headwinds that we see in the near future for the home 
building industry is lack of labor. So it is simple. We need to 
get people back using their hands, showing up to work, helping 
us produce materials, helping us get jobs done in the field. 
And if we have to incentivize people to get them to work, 
whatever we got to do. The supply chain issue is not going to 
resolve itself. It is going to take some effort to get people 
back out to work.
    Mr. MEUSER. You think there is more government necessary 
for more stimulus dollars and more regulations and other 
government involvement or perhaps should government back off 
and allow the open free markets to work?
    Mr. FOWKE. Well, there is certainly always needs for the 
government to help people, but in this case, I think anything 
that continues to happen in the manner it has been happening is 
going to simply delay things and pull the hand brake on our 
economy.
    Mr. MEUSER. So what about the Safe Truck Act. That is a 
specific bill. I will open that up to anyone, maybe Ms. 
Christine Lantinen. You deal with quite a few imports and 
trucking issues. The Safe Truck Act would add to our trucking 
work shortages, workforce shortages allowing those between the 
ages of 18 and 21 to drive on an Interstate basis. That is just 
one legislation that really isn't moving here in the House that 
has got a lot of cosponsors on both sides. That would be 
something I would think would help make a difference.
    Are you folks familiar with that?
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Mr. Meuser, I am sorry. Your time is 
expired.
    Mr. MEUSER. Oh. My apologies.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. We might have time to come back to a 
second round, in which case, we will get back to you. I 
promise.
    Now I recognize the gentleman from Maryland, our Chairman--
our Vice Chair of the Committee and Chairman of the 
Subcommittee on Contracting and Infrastructure, Mr. Mfume, for 
5 minutes.
    Mr. MFUME. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. My thanks to you 
and to the Ranking Member for holding this hearing. I want to 
also add my appreciation and thanks to the witnesses for being 
with us today.
    Mr. Chairman, I heard something earlier that I want to 
actually start with and hopefully end with because it is 
exactly what I think the biggest issue is and the one that we 
have got to figure out how to get our hands around and that is 
the inversion of the supply demand model, which we all grew up 
with which we learned about in our first economics class and 
which is the way we run our households and run our lives.
    I can't ever remember a time in history when that has been 
inverted, where one side dictates to the other in a way that 
has never happened before. So that inversion to me, I believe, 
is the one thing that we have got to come to grips with and 
figure out how we reverse it. Now there are a lot of people who 
hadn't been paying attention to supply demand issues because 
they have got other things, quite frankly, that they are 
dealing with, but when many looked up and saw 100 ships and 
containers off the coast of California because they couldn't 
get unloaded, it started people asking why.
    Here in Baltimore, our ports are backed up also, not to the 
same extent, but it is the same issue. It affects all of us. 
And I think in listening to some of the discussions today and 
some of the questions, probably we do ourselves a service by 
getting away from stereotypes and trying to find a way to get 
to solutions.
    I heard one of my colleagues on the other side talk about 
the way to fix this is to put work requirements on people who 
are receiving welfare. Well, people who are receiving welfare 
were receiving welfare before the pandemic. Most of them don't 
want to be on welfare. Most are White and female and they are 
taking care of families as best they can. So this quick-fix 
notion of let's put some work requirements on these people, I 
think, gets us past where we ought to be. It doesn't give us a 
solution; it gives us a slogan.
    And if we talk about, as I have heard some of the witnesses 
say, they are recognizing the fact that ultimately they will 
continue to have to pass along prices to consumers, I 
understand their pain in that regard because it doesn't help 
them. It reduces the amount of business that they are able to 
do; it doesn't increase it.
    And right now we have heard this morning from some of the 
leading economists in the nation that the average family has a 
cost of $175 more to be able to take care of goods and services 
in their household than they did last year. Those same 
economists are saying that we will be in this inflationary 
trend at least through the first quarter of next year. And if 
that is the case, it cries out for immediate kind of actions.
    I want to commend Representative Chu for her legislation in 
this regard. I think it takes us a long, long way and I am 
hoping that we can pass that soon. And this issue of a lack of 
workers is important. I am listening to the discussion about 
truck drivers, in particular, and I could not agree more that 
we don't have enough and that we have got to find a way to make 
that particular occupation more desirable for the people who 
are in it and the people who are looking at trying to get in 
it.
    And some of the things that we have to do in that regard, 
as someone said earlier, is to look at wages and to look at the 
taxation that we put on those persons. Well, every one of those 
things has an economic consequence, so unless we are prepared 
to go headfirst into this, recognizing that we have to, in some 
instances, spend money in the area of truckers and truck 
driving in order to rehabilitate and to recreate an occupation 
that people want to go into, we are going to be fighting this 
one for a long, long time. We have got to be proactive and 
sometimes proactive means, in fact, investing.
    Now, the issue of incentivizing workers, I would like to go 
to that. I think it was--well, I don't remember who--I think 
Ms. Lantinen who brought it up, is something that has some 
immediacy to it. And when you talk about incentivizing and 
retirees, it has got to be to the extent where those retirees, 
in my opinion, feel like it is in their best interests.
    So that is something, I think, that is very valuable. I 
think it is a great solution. It requires expediency. We have 
got to move on it because this situation continues to languish, 
but even beyond this situation, I have always been an advocate 
of incentivizing retirees to help in whatever particular 
industry or area of expertise they have come out of. And I hope 
that we don't lose that as we talk about trying to find a way 
to get to a solution.
    I know the notion of suspending duties and taxes is 
important, and I can support that. I think that helps us to 
find a way, again, to lower the cost on the respective 
industries, but at the end of the day, we are still grappling 
with this inversion of a supply demand model that I don't think 
we have ever seen before in this nation in a capitalistic 
society. And unless we come to grips with that----
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Mr. Mfume, your time is expired, 
unfortunately. And we are going to try to do a second round, so 
if you can stick with us.
    Mr. MFUME. Well, I will try, Mr. Chair. But I just would 
leave all of you with that thought about this model and how we 
fix it.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Thank you, sir.
    And with that, I recognize Mr. Donalds from Florida for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. DONALDS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. To the witnesses, 
thanks for coming, obviously. Supply chain issues is really the 
core issue, one of the core issues affecting our economy in 
such a disastrous way. Chuck, it is good seeing you. Chuck 
Fowke and I know each other back from Florida. For those who 
don't know, he actually did a lot of work with my mother-in-law 
for many, many years. So I will make sure I tell Gaila that, 
you know, that you said hello and were here testifying today.
    I have heard a lot of different things in this hearing 
already, so I am going to try to cut through some of the 
things, I think, that are important and just ignore some of the 
things that are not. I think it is crystal clear we have a 
staffing problem, an employee problem in the United States. My 
last read on labor participation rate was somewhere between 60 
and 61 percent of Americans are actually working Americans are 
at a labor force.
    Our economy needs a labor participation rate of around 65 
percent to be kind of humming along. We simply are not there. 
Pretty much would assume every witness we have could attest to 
that fact that we have a severe labor shortage issue.
    I do remember back in February when President Biden pushed 
the American Rescue Plan, one of the key provisions for 
extending federal unemployment benefits through September that 
he wanted to do, the minority party said do not do that because 
our economy's ready to start humming along and if you, 
essentially, pay people--extend their federal unemployment 
benefits, you will see labor shortage. That is what has 
happened in the United States.
    But specifically to supply chain, there was actually a 
really good article was on zerohedge.com and the title of the 
article was essentially--I will pull it up right now--``Empty 
Christmas Stockings? Don't Blame COVID; Blame California.''
    And one of the things it talked about was that California 
has actually put through two very interesting pieces of 
legislation that have crippled the trucking industry in 
California, specifically.
    One is AB5, which was targeted at gig workers, to protect 
gig workers by making them employees, but what has been--what 
has actually happened is that in California, the ports were 
actually accessed by owner/operator truckers, but the owner/
operator truckers are essentially in that gig classification. 
So they can't access the ports in California anymore.
    So now you have to go, essentially, with union truckers 
also dealing with the union issues we have at the longshoremen 
as exists right now. So no matter what business you are in, one 
of the reasons you are having issues accessing a lot of product 
is because there are less trucks, actually, accessing the ports 
in California.
    The second California issue was, they passed emission laws 
that they struck a deal with the EPA on where if your truck has 
an engine that is more than 10 years old, that truck is not 
allowed to be licensed and to be registered in the State of 
California, which means that truck cannot access and be driven 
on the roads in California, which means now you have supply 
companies who are taking the newer trucks to the ports, driving 
the newer trucks just to the State lines of California and then 
off-loading the freight from the new trucks to the old trucks 
and is driving the old trucks through the United States.
    I would ask the witnesses and anybody can jump in, Mr. 
O'Brien, Mr. Fowke, anybody, does this make sense in terms of 
how you would maintain the logistics of a supply chain as 
sensitive and as robust as ours in the United States?
    Mr. FOWKE. Congressman Donalds, thank you. And thank you 
for acknowledging our long-time friendship. I think anything 
that any legislation that disrupts the opportunity to transport 
materials right now is bad legislation.
    If they can divert those tankers over to Florida, maybe we 
can help them there unload their cargo and move it, but 
anything that disrupts the flow in the transportation materials 
right now is very disrupted to this issue.
    And the home building industry, we have had our eye on 
supply chain issues for almost over a year now, just remind you 
of that.
    Mr. DONALDS. Mr. O'Brien, if you are still with us, I mean, 
if you care to comment, I would like to hear your opinion 
because you actually bring a lot of valued points to this 
discussion. I would really be interested in your opinion.
    Mr. O'BRIEN. Thank you, Representative Donalds. I would 
just say that outside the current congestion really goes beyond 
any port or any State. It is systemwide. It involves many 
different chokepoints, not just from the ports, but from the 
supply of real estate that is available to transload from rail 
yards to trucking.
    On the issue of AB5, we talked to our carriers. They are 
concerned about it. We don't have--it is not a particular issue 
for us. It doesn't apply to our model as a value-added 
intermediary. But overall, I would just encourage the Committee 
to think about the supply chain as systematic and that it goes 
all the way from the domestic links to the international links 
and from port all the way to delivery.
    And there is a lot of different modes versus any one port 
or State that we need to work on.
    Mr. DONALDS. All right. I am over time. Thank you so much, 
gentlemen.
    I yield back.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. The gentleman yields back.
    And now I recognize the Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on 
Economic Growth, Tax and Capital Access, the gentlelady from 
Kansas, Ms. Davids, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. DAVIDS. Thank you, Chairman. Well, first of all, I am 
glad that we are holding this hearing today on such a critical 
issue that is definitely impacting small businesses and their 
customers in real-time.
    Supply chain delays and shortages have been a concern since 
the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when our stockpile of 
critically needed medical supplies and PPE was depleted and 
demand was growing to protect frontline healthcare workers.
    Amid those early shortages, I heard from businesses in 
Kansas about the impacts of the supply chain breakdown on 
various industries. Their concerns led me to introduce the 
SUPPLIES Act in April of last year to support small 
manufacturers that really stepped up to produce some of those 
desperately needed medical supplies and equipment.
    And today, our small businesses are still faced with these 
extremely high shipping costs and delays that are setting them 
back. And, frankly, this--we heard this earlier too. This has 
been an issue since even before the pandemic and it 
demonstrates that we have been dependent on a pretty precarious 
supply chain for far too long.
    And in today's hearing, I do want to focus on the 
challenges that shipping and freight industries are facing 
right now. You know, the Kansas Third is an extremely busy 
intermodal shipping hub. Our small businesses and the small 
businesses across the country rely on the Kansas City Metro 
area to facilitate the transportation of so many different 
products to their destinations.
    And as the Vice Chair of the Transportation and 
Infrastructure Committee, I have been working to alleviate 
congestion at ports of trade and the issue of shipping 
container shortages, and I am glad that we have freight expert 
here to help us understand the impact on small businesses and 
how we can support them through these shipping challenges, 
especially after they have suffered such devastating impacts 
during the pandemic.
    So Mr. O'Brien, I am really glad that you are able to join 
us today and as a freight company that really focuses on small 
business services, can you kind of speak to the unique 
challenges that small businesses are facing with the current 
state of shipping?
    Mr. O'BRIEN. Yes. Thank you, Representative Davids. So we 
work with companies of all sizes and consistent with my 
testimony, I would say that companies of all sizes are 
struggling. It is especially challenging for small businesses, 
but we are getting calls every day from potentially the largest 
companies in the world that are struggling and sometimes they 
are thousands of containers behind.
    So, like I said, it is not one port, it is not one State, 
or one point of origin; it is just this very unique and 
unprecedented in my 30-year career crunch from a supply chain 
standpoint, from a demand and supply inversion. So we are in 
the foot steps of the small shippers, sometimes quite literally 
on site.
    We represent them. We represent them with the steam ships. 
We do everything that we can. As you know in Kansas City, we 
have our freight quote by Robinson team they and they build 
online tools that were built with and for small shippers to 
give them access to LTL pricing at the rates and size and scale 
of a larger shipper.
    So we focus on anything that we can do and right now within 
this period, our people are working harder than ever on behalf 
of customers of all sizes. We are on their footsteps as one of 
the largest purchasers of transportation services around the 
world.
    So it certainly has been extremely challenging, but we are 
doing everything that we can for companies of all sizes today.
    Ms. DAVIDS. Yeah. And so, you know, mentioning the working 
with LTL and I think of us being able to move quickly and be 
able to pivot, be able to really be agile, and I think we need 
good infrastructure to be able to do that. As we work on this 
bipartisan infrastructure package, I am curious if you can, you 
know, from your perspective, what investments can we be making 
in infrastructure that are going to result in that timely and 
efficient and effective moving of all of those goods?
    Mr. O'BRIEN. I think anything that helps move the flow of 
goods. So expediting at our ports. The American Transportation 
Research Institute is a good place to start. They published a 
list of the largest supply chain chokepoints, and those are 
highways, not ports. Those are most of our major Metro areas. 
We have a challenge with available drivers and congestion is 
not helping them at all. It is making the job more challenging. 
It is delaying revenue for them.
    So I would want the focus to be broad across the supply 
chain because the challenge really is broad. Across every mode, 
there are chokepoints today.
    Ms. DAVIDS. Yeah. Well, thank you for that and thank you, 
again, for everybody participating today.
    And I yield back.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. The gentlelady yields back.
    And now I recognize the gentleman from Wisconsin, Mr. 
Fitzgerald, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. FITZGERALD. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just wanted to 
take it a little bit different direction than just on the 
supply side. Met with a number of developers and this is in 
southeastern Wisconsin about a month ago and there seemed to be 
a level of frustration, and I know this is regional, but 
developers right now and the relationships that they are trying 
to build with municipalities to further, for the most part, 
subdivisions and the creation of subdivisions, there seems to 
be another issue and that is kind of everything that needs to 
happen to support that subdivision, whether it is the 
underground or later on kind of revisiting that site and making 
sure that it is up to snuff and up to code.
    Mr. Fowke, maybe you can comment on this. I mean, you know, 
it is hard to get a municipality to make this type of upfront 
investment not knowing necessarily if they are going to be able 
to recoup this at a later date. And certainly I think what we 
are seeing is not only the disruptions, but also just the labor 
issue and being able to have enough carpenters or masons on the 
job site. I mean, this is becoming far more complicated than it 
has ever been before and I was wondering if you could comment 
on that upfront investment that municipalities have to make?
    Mr. FOWKE. Well, unfortunately, a lot of municipalities 
today are against growth and the challenges with these areas 
being against growth, it puts stress on the old housing stock 
for people to have a place to live. The other thing is the 
regulations that are heaped on our industry continue to 
increase. Right now the effect of regulations on the 
construction of a home today add 30 percent to the cost of the 
home. This is before the house ever starts. This is average 
number throughout the country.
    So unneeded regulations, delays in approvals, and then just 
certain areas that are against growth and they have moratoriums 
on growth. And we need to do a better job of planning for water 
and sewer and the infrastructure that we need to provide 
housing for people because, again, you know, our supply of new 
houses, healthy supply of new houses typically is about 6 
months. We have about a 2 month or less supply now. Own housing 
stocks is the same way.
    We resell houses. Typically, a 6-month inventory is a 
healthy inventory. We are below 2 months now for that. So all 
this does is increases the price and just prohibits the 
opportunity for people to enjoy the American dream.
    Mr. FITZGERALD. Yeah. Mr. Robinson, can you comment on kind 
of this dance that goes on between municipalities and 
developers and often times what results in zero new 
development?
    Mr. Robinson, could you comment on that?
    Oh, Mr. O'Brien, I am sorry.
    Mr. O'Brien.
    Mr. O'BRIEN. Sorry. I wasn't clear on the question. Could 
you repeat that?
    Mr. FITZGERALD. Yeah. I was talking about when development 
is happening and municipalities are making the upfront 
investment and the underground and everything related to that 
project, often times what they recoup on the back end is 
difficult for them at this point. So they are leery or they are 
unwilling to make that investment.
    Mr. O'BRIEN. Yeah. That is not an area that our business is 
very close to. I would say one trend from municipality 
standpoint that we need to be careful on is the trend towards 
banning urban parking. So I have mentioned the need for more 
truck drivers. The long-term trend is, you know, more urban 
residence.
    That is one thing that impedes and it is not talked about 
that much, but a lot of cities are removing urban trucking 
parking spots and that makes it more difficult to attract 
drivers that would have to drive a longer distance to be able 
to get to their truck and does not help the already existing 
capacity crunch.
    Mr. FITZGERALD. Yeah. Thank you. I mean, my comment would 
be in the developers in southeastern Wisconsin, I know it is 
regional, but a lot of the issues, I think, have resulted in 
zero growth in some of my counties. Literally, municipalities 
that have not had one new home built over the last 3 years and 
I think it is becoming not only alarming, but is a very complex 
issue.
    So with that, I would yield back.
    Thank you, Mr. Chair.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. The gentleman yields back.
    And now I recognize the gentlelady from Georgia, Ms. 
Bourdeaux, for 5 minutes.
    Ms. BOURDEAUX. Thank you so much, Chairman Phillips, and 
Ranking Member Van Duyne for holding today's hearing and for 
allowing me to waive on to discuss this critical issue. Supply 
chain issues have become increasingly apparent since the on set 
of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in recent months as our 
economy continues to recover and demand surges.
    In my district, Metcam Metal Fabricators had to temporarily 
shut down production of certain items due to a shortage of 
titanium dioxide, a component almost exclusively available from 
China. This disruption then led Carrier to having to restrict 
its manufacturing processes in its southeastern United States 
facility and this shows how these shocks and disruptions in one 
portion of the supply chain can trickle down and affect many, 
many other components. These issues are not new, however.
    In recent years as our economy has depended on just-in-time 
delivery models and increasingly global supply chains, we 
really haven't matched that change with sufficient government 
review and support for supply chains of critical goods and 
services. This effort requires a whole-of-government approach, 
one that really emphasizes collaboration between the government 
and the private sector to achieve our shared goal of resilient 
economy that can avoid and withstand disruptions and shocks to 
the supply chain.
    Of course, this is not just an economic issue; it is also a 
national security issue and is about our national health as we 
saw during the pandemic when we were very dependent on global 
supply chains that were badly disrupted. This is why I 
introduced the Supply Chain Health and Integrity For the Nation 
Act, the Supply Chain Act with Representatives Kinzinger and 
Kelly 2 weeks ago.
    The Supply Chain Act would create an office of supply chain 
resiliency and crisis response at the Department of Commerce 
which would be responsible for coordinating this approach and 
collaborating with the private sector and labor organizations. 
This office would also be responsible for producing a 
quadrennial national strategic plan for manufacturing and 
industrial innovation, which will guide our nation's efforts to 
secure critical supply chains.
    This question is for Mr. O'Brien. And really ties back to 
that idea of this just-in-time production strategies. We saw 
those really developed over the past couple decades. They have 
helped keep inventories and costs low for businesses and 
customers, but clearly these economic and business strategies 
are also really vulnerable to disruptions.
    Can you talk a little about why this business model was 
adopted and if you think this model is going to change after 
the disruptions around COVID? What are going to be some of the 
changes you are seeing out there or are we just trying to get 
back to business as usual?
    Mr. O'BRIEN. Thank you, Representative Bourdeaux. I would 
like to start by addressing your comments about the public-
private cooperation and I think that is going to be key to a 
solution.
    I was a part of the Minnesota business partnership that 
worked with the State and city and the major employers in 
Minnesota at the initial outbreak of COVID and we volunteered 
our time, as well as many corporate leaders to facilitate the 
flow of PPE into the State of Minnesota and then we passed on 
what we learned to other States.
    So I think that is the way forward. In terms of investment 
in the flow of goods, I would say, as you look about that whole 
supply chain, keep in mind the customs process as that is 
completely in government control. Anything we can do to 
modernize U.S. Customs processing and automate it which has 
been the direction that we have had some success is great.
    Lastly, on your question of just-in-time inventory, just-
in-time inventory has been a long-term trend which is to reduce 
costs and keep safety stocks as low as possible in order to 
pass on those savings to consumers. So it has been a good 
trend. It is obviously in an unprecedented time like this shown 
the weakness side of it in ways that we haven't noticed in the 
past and are probably unlikely to in the future.
    Obviously, companies right now are rethinking that 
strategy. I don't think right now there is enough available 
supply transportation or goods to create anything like a 
bullwhip effect through this, but I do talk to several 
companies that are thinking about re-evaluating, but I don't 
think it is, you know--I don't think we are going to go back to 
a period of trying to build up safety stocks at the level that 
would be necessary to prevent the challenges with something to 
this scale, but I would see some adjustments.
    But overall there is an expense to carrying costs to 
businesses and ultimately to the consumer.
    Ms. BOURDEAUX. Thank you. I think this is going to be an 
ongoing challenge of how we both support those supply chains. 
We want to make sure we are efficient, working in a very 
efficient way, but also how are we going to deal with 
disruptions.
    And I don't know that it is just going to be--things are 
going to be able to go back entirely to normal. I think there 
will be other unforeseen things on the horizon and we need to 
be agile and able to really figure out how we adapt quickly to 
that.
    This next question is for--oops. I think I am out of time. 
So I will hold my next question and thank you so much for 
letting me weigh in here.
    And I yield back.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. The gentlelady yields back.
    And now I recognize my colleague from Minnesota, Mr. 
Stauber, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. STAUBER. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, Ranking Member Van 
Duyne for holding this very--very important that we look at 
this issue and find ways to, you know, secure our supply 
chains.
    And I first want to say that, you know, at the start of 
COVID, there was--the nation wasn't sure what was going to 
happen, but I have to say the trucking industry and those 
related helped carry the goods to the American people. Goods 
that we needed and obviously right now with some of the 
policies coming out of this administration, bear shelves, 
energy policies causing us all to pay more for not only 
gasoline and other fuels, but even groceries.
    I want to thank the witnesses, in particular, from C.H. 
Robinson, Mr. O'Brien, and I know they are not only a national, 
but really a world leader and to have an expert such as Mr. 
O'Brien here, I want to thank my colleague from Minnesota for 
bringing this expertise to this Committee. It is really 
important. And I am going to get right to the point. We know 
that we have--we are paying more, you know.
    Mr. O'Brien, you mentioned that small businesses are going 
to be hurt more just in fuel costs alone, can you tell us the 
devastation it is going to cause small businesses if they have 
to pay additional moneys to find different ways or pay more to 
bring that commodity to their small business?
    Can you tell me what you have heard, how devastating it 
will be to small businesses that don't have the capital to pay 
those high prices right now.
    Mr. O'BRIEN. Thank you, Representative. I would add that 
fuel is one of the things that goes into any shipper's budget 
of any size. Fuel obviously being very high certainly does not 
help. It is one of the input costs. Transportation rates, both 
domestically, we have talked about transportation rates 
globally being up, you know, enormously.
    Transportation rates are up domestically as well. In the 
spot market, we have seen rates 40 to 50 percent increases over 
last year. Contractual rates are up.
    Mr. STAUBER. Mr. O'Brien, rather, what would be the input 
rate right now for cost of fuel?
    Mr. O'BRIEN. I am sorry. Could you clarify the question?
    Mr. STAUBER. What is the input rate today for the cost of 
fuel?
    Mr. O'BRIEN. Do you mean as a percentage of transportation?
    Mr. STAUBER. Yes, percentage.
    Mr. O'BRIEN. Roughly 40 percent.
    Mr. STAUBER. Okay. With the increase of fuel prices, would 
it be more than 40 with the fuel going up? Would that input 
increase?
    Mr. O'BRIEN. I am sorry. Could you clarify the question? It 
really depends on the length of haul of the goods. So----
    Mr. STAUBER. If it is a 500-mile haul, for example, is the 
cost--the input cost for fuel going to be more?
    Mr. O'BRIEN. I don't know exactly what the break point is, 
but if you think about it being 40 percent, you could just do 
the math from there. I would say there is some break point, but 
it is--it is pretty--it is pretty parallel to the cost of line 
haul. The longer you go, the more you are paying for fuel. So I 
would use 40 percent as the right metric and then just multiply 
by the increasing rates of fuel.
    The system and the transportation has a pretty good way of 
dealing with fuel. It is a surge charge tied to an average 
diesel price. So the processing is there and the industry for 
years has dealt with it going up and down, but today it is an 
added expense in an already constrained industry.
    Mr. STAUBER. What I am hearing from the small businesses in 
Minnesota's eighth district, northeastern Minnesota, they can't 
get their supplies, they can't get what the consumer needs, and 
in light of the PPP that was extended to them, many of them are 
on the verge of not making it because they can't--they can't 
get the products to market.
    And I think that one of the things that we must look at and 
we must understand is that, as the experts in the 
transportation industry, we are looking for you for answers and 
help as we go forward. And I think that what you have given out 
today in your testimony is extremely helpful. So we could make 
good decisions to help with this crisis.
    And it is not going to happen overnight, but we have to 
have good legislation that will move forward and allow us to 
get back to where we were to get the goods to the consumers, 
including the small businessmen and women across this nation.
    I see I am over time, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. And with that, we are going to move to a 
second round of questioning, anybody wants to participate in 
another round. I ask you to join me.
    With that, I will start with myself for 5 minutes. Mr. Loe, 
I remember years ago using the STEP program for our business to 
help with trade shows and market our brands overseas. We talked 
about how we need to be a country that fills more of these 
empty containers and sends them overseas, and I really want to 
salute you and your enterprise for being amongst that 1 percent 
of small businesses in the U.S. that actually export their 
products internationally.
    Would love for you to share with this body how the STEP 
program has helped you and the elements that we should continue 
to invest in and support and your overview of how we can be 
more effective?
    Mr. LOE. Thank you, Mr. Phillips, for the question. Really 
appreciate that. Yeah. The STEP program has just been enormous 
for us in being able to use the services. We use services in 
our marketing strategy to access new customers. That is one of 
the biggest things that this program has allowed us to do is to 
do trade shows, be able to use trade offices located across the 
world.
    U.S. Embassies that we use as well too to hold meetings and 
really locate with market research from the different 
universities that we have been teamed up with and partnered 
with, as well as using their offices for boots on the ground 
type of approach to be able to look for new customers of ours.
    When we find new customers of ours, that is when we send 
large containers overseas and we continually build that 
relationship with those customers to then send more containers 
of equipment to them to service, you know, their local market 
with our product. That is done through different programs in 
the STEP program that includes, you know, different trade 
shows.
    We are able to use their--again, their trade offices to 
understand who their end customer is. So not only the potential 
manufacturers that we use, but also the end customers that 
would then use our product that these trade offices help to 
build that business. It is a great partnership that we are able 
to do with those manufacturers to provide those services.
    We don't understand sometimes all the different, you know, 
factors involved with it and that is where the MEDC comes in to 
play to help us with those trade offices to understand what we 
need to do to go into market and to be very, very successful 
with that market.
    We use educational in training with the STEP program as 
well too. I wish I knew everything when it came to 
international trade. I don't and I rely on them to provide that 
training for us to make that happen. The effectiveness of this 
program is really big for small business like ourselves.
    We appreciate all those services that they provide to us 
because it helps us grow our business and in doing so helps 
them out as well too.
    The effectiveness I would say to continue with the STEP 
program, to continue with the government services like Michigan 
Economic Development Committee that continually helps us and 
figures out different ways. We have used internship programs 
with them. We have used lots of different services that they 
continually offer us to make our success in international vital 
to our business.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Love it. Hope you keep filling more 
containers.
    Mr. LOE. We will. We will.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. With that, Ms. Lantinen, like to return 
to you for a moment. You referenced job training incentives as 
two potential solutions to rectify your 100 employee deficiency 
at the moment. I hope you might speak about other potential 
solutions.
    Is immigration reform perhaps one? Is childcare provision, 
especially in Minnesota where we are the third highest cost 
State in the country? Are those areas in which we should spend 
some time and look at improving policy?
    Ms. LANTINEN. Thank you, Congressman Phillips. You know, of 
that 100 million people that are not in the workforce, 10 
percent is an estimate for illegal immigrants. And we have 
turned away many people with fake IDs to the point that our HR 
team has said, if we accepted fake IDs, we would had the 100 
people that you need, Christine.
    So I do think we need to look at that and look at people 
that have been in our country and that have been contributing 
to our society as another potential work pool to pull from that 
is out there and wants to work.
    As far as childcare goes, we are actually looking at 
putting a childcare facility on site at our factory to help 
working moms and to help with the cost of childcare and the 
quality of childcare. So those are important things definitely.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Thank you very much. My time is expired.
    Do any of my colleagues--Ms. Van Duyne? Anybody?
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Chairman?
    Chairman PHILLIPS. I recognize Mr. Hagedorn, my colleague 
from Minnesota, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. HAGEDORN. Thank you for doing this. I want to clean up 
a few things. Talk about the trucking shortage and truckers. A 
lot of the problems in the trucking industry are bad government 
policies or government policies that were well-intended on 
safety and other issues, environment, that have led to big 
problems in the industry.
    The hours of service over the years has limited truck 
drivers, created a lot of inefficiencies driven up the cost of 
transportation. The Tier 4 environmental standards that are 
imposed upon big trucks are driving up the costs of those big 
trucks $20,000 or more.
    If somebody is trying to get in the industry, want to be an 
independent truck driver, that means they got to spend another 
$20,000 to go buy a truck. That is an impediment. That is not a 
good thing. The environmental standards are also ripe for 
failure on these trucks.
    These sensors go off and at any time right now in our 
country the trucking industry people in Minnesota tell me there 
are between a thousand and 10,000 trucks on the side of the 
road who are waiting for sensors to be fixed because these 
things when they go wrong, the trucks have to stop. It is 
$1,000 tow. That is also not very good for the truck driver or 
the industry.
    And before you know it, they can't get the parts and they 
are waiting for technicians. So we have a lot of trucks that 
are just out of service all the time. Again, well-intentioned, 
but did we go too far with Tier 4 requirements that make you go 
from here to here, but it is way more expensive. It is 
something to look at, but that is government. That is bad 
government in many instances.
    Look at the supply chain issues. Nobody today has really 
mentioned China. Let's bring our jobs back from China. We 
should be doing what we can to have less manufacturing in China 
and more manufacturing in the United States or countries that 
are neutral actors with us that we can rely upon more freely. 
One of the things that bothers me about the Democrats' big 
reconciliation bill, massive transfer of dependency to China.
    Just look at energy. They have something in there called 
the Clean Electricity Plan. It is a remake of Obama's Clean 
Power Plan. You are going to decommission natural gas and coal-
fired power plants in the United States and try to supplement 
that with intermittent energy in wind and solar. It is not 
feasible for one. It is going to drive up cost and it is going 
to make it less reliable.
    If you like what is going on in Germany and California 
where they have rolling brownouts where the wind and solar 
weren't cutting it and so they are begging for natural gas 
power and they are spending 50 percent more in California, 
other places. This is what the Democrats want to do to you all 
across the country.
    I think it is a bad idea, but even worse, when you rely on 
wind and solar and electric vehicles, you are dependent upon 
China because they have all the rare Earth materials and 
minerals needed to produce the lithium, the cobalt, all those 
things that go into that.
    I don't know a patriotic American that thinks it is a good 
idea for the United States to depend upon our electricity and 
our vehicles to Communist China. I can't figure that one out, 
but it is something that people have to start wrapping their 
hands around.
    Lastly, Mr. Mfume and others talked about work for welfare. 
Well, you kind of skewed that. When we talk about work for 
welfare or technical trading requirements for people that 
collect welfare in this country, we are talking about able-
bodied people without dependents. We are not talking about 
people taking care of families, we are not talking about people 
that can't go to work.
    And I will just say it for the record, again. I worked on 
this issue back in the 1980s with Congressman Stangler from 
Minnesota. We carried the bill that was a precursor to what 
Gingrich and Clinton and everybody did. It works every time. It 
is fair to the taxpayers. It is the right and compassionate 
thing to do for people who are out of work and to try to 
encourage them to get private sector work.
    Helping people become self-sufficient and less dependent on 
government is absolutely should be our goal. And, you know, 
when the folks on the other side say, oh, you are going to take 
them away from their families. That is not what we are talking 
about. We are talking about able-bodied folks who don't have 
any dependents and 71 percent of them have no income, according 
to the latest statistics.
    So they are certainly capable of getting out there, 
particularly when we have 11 million jobs available and 
everybody in southern Minnesota and across this country every 
business is begging for work.
    With that, I will yield back.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. The gentleman yields back.
    And now I recognize the gentleman from Florida, Mr. 
Donalds, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. DONALDS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I associate myself 
with the comments of my colleague from the great state of 
Minnesota.
    Mr. Loe, I want to come to you. You said in your opening 
statement that you are supportive of the bipartisan 
infrastructure plan. Is that correct?
    Mr. LOE. That is correct, Mr. Congressman.
    Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Loe, do you know what percentage of that 
actual bill actually goes towards infrastructure? Roads, 
bridges, construction, construction materials, do you know what 
percentage of that bill actually goes towards it?
    Mr. LOE. In regards to the 3.5 trillion or the 1 trillion?
    Mr. DONALDS. I am just dealing with the 1.2 trillion. That 
other thing isn't even infrastructure I don't care what they 
say. With respect to the $1.2 trillion bill, you know what 
percentage actually goes towards construction, actual 
construction costs?
    Mr. LOE. I do not.
    Mr. DONALDS. All right. So that is about anywhere between 
depending on what you want to put into the bucket, anywhere 
between 130 billion to $200 billion of the 1.2 trillion. Still 
support it?
    Next question--don't answer that one.
    My next question is, with respect to your business and 
shipping costs--this is really supply chain that we are talking 
about--in that bill there is without a doubt, there are going 
to be tax increases on energy production in the United States. 
That is the life blood of every business. Your colleagues that 
are on this witness panel today to keep the lights on in this 
place all across the country. There are going to be tax 
increases on energy production.
    Since we already know because it was said by Mr. O'Brien 
that 40 percent of the inputs into shipping is energy costs and 
that bill is going to increase energy costs in the United 
States into a framework that is already strained by extended 
costs in the shipping area, is it something, in your opinion, 
that small business owners should be supporting, which are tax 
increases into the energy framework of our economy that will 
also increase the costs on freight and shipping, which are 
already heightened in the United States?
    Is that something, in your opinion, small business owners 
would support?
    Mr. LOE. Thank you for your question, Mr. Donalds. That is 
a great question and I would be happy to get back to you on the 
implications of that. As related to infrastructure with our 
business and our product itself, we build retaining walls and 
in the infrastructure bill, we are looking at building roads, 
building bridges, and retaining walls are huge part of that as 
infrastructure. That is where the support comes from from any 
infrastructure support from our business----
    Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Loe, I got a follow-up question for you 
because I only got 2 minutes and 25 seconds.
    Mr. LOE. Sure.
    Mr. DONALDS. Here is my follow-up question to that. I 
totally understand you as a business owner wanting to make sure 
you have all the necessary revenue and jobs lined up for the 
continuation of your business model, the continuation for your 
employees, the continuation for your owners, shareholders, 
however, your company is formed.
    Is it appropriate--I am going to use this phrase, is it 
fair and is it equitable for your enterprise to be able to get 
additional revenue into your business associated with this 
bill, meanwhile other businesses in our country who would never 
get a construction or infrastructure contract, the costs on 
them associated with freight will precipitously increase 
because the bill you support will increase energy costs in the 
United States which will also increase freight and delivery 
costs in the United States?
    Do you believe it is fair and equitable for all small 
business owners to basically be hamstrung by the bipartisan 
infrastructure bill, even though, in your specific enterprise 
you might seek to benefit from the infrastructure bill? Is it 
fair and equitable?
    Mr. LOE. Thank you for your question and I am not qualified 
to answer that question.
    Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Loe, hold on a second because I have 
missed an introduction page over here. Stay with me, Mr. Loe.
    Mr. Loe, for the record, because I don't have the sheet in 
front of me, what is your title with your company? What is your 
position?
    Mr. LOE. Director of the customer engagement team.
    Mr. DONALDS. So you are director of customer engagement?
    Mr. LOE. That is correct.
    Mr. DONALDS. So you have not had any conversations with the 
owners of your company?
    Mr. LOE. I have had lots of conversations with the owner of 
my company, yeah.
    Mr. DONALDS. They support the infrastructure bill?
    Mr. LOE. We support infrastructure bill to go after roads 
and bridges construction to continually gain the revenue need 
for our 120 independently owned and operated businesses so that 
they can continue to provide great retaining walls for bridges, 
for roads, for municipalities, and for government DOTs----
    Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Loe, I have a question for you--my final 
question for you.
    Mr. LOE. Yes, sir.
    Mr. DONALDS. Do you want to see your electricity prices 
increase for you, not your company, just for you, you and your 
home?
    Mr. LOE. I do not want to see my prices increase.
    Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Loe, why would you support a bill that is 
going to increase the cost of electricity just for your home?
    Don't answer that question, Mr. Loe. Here is what I will 
leave the American people with, Mr. Chairman. Americans like 
the word ``infrastructure.'' I completely understand why, but 
that bill is far more than infrastructure. It will unilaterally 
remake our energy matrix; it will increase the cost on all 
Americans whether you get a government contract or not.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. The gentleman's time has expired.
    Mr. DONALDS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Chairman PHILLIPS. Not seeing any other interests in 
questioning, I will make a closing statement.
    My colleague from Florida asked about the infrastructure 
bill. Let me just read the components of it since the question 
was asked. $110 billion for roads and bridges, $55 billion for 
water infrastructure, $66 billion for railroads, $65 billion 
for broadband, $17 billion for ports, $17 billion for ports. 
Our ports in the United States of America are significantly 
underfunded and pale in comparison to ports around the world, 
$25 billion for airports, $65 billion for the electric grid, 
including another $50 billion to make it more resilient. It is 
a bill that generated 19 Republican senators support including 
the Minority Leader Mr. McConnell. I leave the data and the 
facts as they are.
    I want to thank all our witnesses for being with us today. 
This is tough stuff. We are here to support small businesses. 
Condemnation doesn't go too far, conversation does, and I want 
to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who share my 
interest in identifying the problems, but, most importantly, 
finding solutions. The pandemic has up ended a lot in our 
lives. It has exposed weaknesses, including for small 
businesses, including particularly our supply chain. It is a 
complex system our supply chain. There is no magic solution. I 
was hoping we might come here today and find that magic wand 
that we could just solve this problem.
    The truth is I didn't hear one actionable solution that we 
could implement today to solve the problem. We have to make 
investments. Long-term, strategic, thoughtful, and intentional 
by both Democrats and Republicans. That is the spirit of this 
Committee. That is what I hope we do. It is going to take 
strong leadership.
    We can do a few things. The Biden administration, of 
course, this week announced that they would extend operating 
hours for our major ports to 24 hours, something that 
competitors around the world at their ports are already doing. 
Those are small steps that we can take. I salute the 
administration for doing so.
    With that, we will close this meeting and I would ask for 
unanimous consent that Members have 5 legislative days to 
submit statements and supporting materials for the record.
    Without objection, so ordered.
    And if there is no further business to come before the 
Committee, we are now adjourned.
    Thank you, everybody.
    [Whereupon, at 11:56 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
                            
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