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


               ASSESSING THE STATE OF AMERICA'S SEAPORTS

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

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                            SUBCOMMITTEE ON
                     BORDER SECURITY, FACILITATION,
                             AND OPERATIONS

                                OF THE

                     COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                            JANUARY 19, 2022

                               __________

                           Serial No. 117-39

                               __________

       Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security
                                     

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        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov

                               __________
                               
                  U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
47-192 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
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                     COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY

               Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi, Chairman
Sheila Jackson Lee, Texas            John Katko, New York
James R. Langevin, Rhode Island      Michael T. McCaul, Texas
Donald M. Payne, Jr., New Jersey     Clay Higgins, Louisiana
J. Luis Correa, California           Michael Guest, Mississippi
Elissa Slotkin, Michigan             Dan Bishop, North Carolina
Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri            Jefferson Van Drew, New Jersey
Al Green, Texas                      Ralph Norman, South Carolina
Yvette D. Clarke, New York           Mariannette Miller-Meeks, Iowa
Eric Swalwell, California            Diana Harshbarger, Tennessee
Dina Titus, Nevada                   Andrew S. Clyde, Georgia
Bonnie Watson Coleman, New Jersey    Carlos A. Gimenez, Florida
Kathleen M. Rice, New York           Jake LaTurner, Kansas
Val Butler Demings, Florida          Peter Meijer, Michigan
Nanette Diaz Barragan, California    Kat Cammack, Florida
Josh Gottheimer, New Jersey          August Pfluger, Texas
Elaine G. Luria, Virginia            Andrew R. Garbarino, New York
Tom Malinowski, New Jersey
Ritchie Torres, New York
                       Hope Goins, Staff Director
                 Daniel Kroese, Minority Staff Director
                          Natalie Nixon, Clerk
                              
                              ------                                

     SUBCOMMITTEE ON BORDER SECURITY, FACILITATION, AND OPERATIONS

             Nanette Diaz Barragan, California, Chairwoman
J. Luis Correa, California           Clay Higgins, Louisiana, Ranking 
Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri                Member
Al Green, Texas                      Michael Guest, Mississippi
Yvette D. Clarke, New York           Dan Bishop, North Carolina
Bennie G. Thompson, Mississippi (ex  Andrew S. Clyde, Georgia
    officio)                         John Katko, New York (ex officio)
            Brieana Marticorena, Subcommittee Staff Director
           Natasha Eby, Minority Subcommittee Staff Director
                    Zachary Wood, Subcommittee Clerk
                            
                            
                            C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              
                                                                   Page

                               Statements

The Honorable Nanette Diaz Barragan, a Representative in Congress 
  From the State of California, and Chairwoman, Subcommittee on 
  Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations:
  Oral Statement.................................................     1
  Prepared Statement.............................................     2
The Honorable Clay Higgins, a Representative in Congress From the 
  State of Louisiana, and Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Border 
  Security, Facilitation, and Operations:
  Oral Statement.................................................     3
  Prepared Statement.............................................     4
The Honorable Bennie G. Thompson, a Representative in Congress 
  From the State of Mississippi, and Chairman, Committee on 
  Homeland Security:
  Prepared Statement.............................................     5

                               Witnesses

Mr. Christopher J. Connor, President and Chief Executive Officer, 
  American Association of Port Authorities:
  Oral Statement.................................................     7
  Prepared Statement.............................................     8
Mr. Anthony M. Reardon, National President, National Treasury 
  Employees Union:
  Oral Statement.................................................    11
  Prepared Statement.............................................    12
Mr. Eugene D. Seroka, Executive Director, Port of Los Angeles, 
  City of Los Angeles:
  Oral Statement.................................................    21
  Prepared Statement.............................................    22
Ms. Cathie J. Vick, Chief Development and Government Affairs 
  Officer, Port of Virginia, Virginia Port Authority:
  Oral Statement.................................................    28
  Prepared Statement.............................................    29
Mr. Richert L. Self, Executive Director, Port of Lake Charles:
  Oral Statement.................................................    32
  Prepared Statement.............................................    34

 
               ASSESSING THE STATE OF AMERICA'S SEAPORTS

                              ----------                              


                      Wednesday, January 19, 2022

             U.S. House of Representatives,
                    Committee on Homeland Security,
                          Subcommittee on Border Security, 
                              Facilitation, and Operations,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:07 p.m., via 
Webex, Hon. Nanette Diaz Barragan [Chairwoman of the 
subcommittee] presiding.
    Present: Representatives Barragan, Correa, Green, Clarke, 
Luria, Gottheimer, Higgins, Guest, Bishop, and Clyde.
    Ms. Barragan. The Subcommittee on Border Security, 
Facilitation, and Operations will come to order.
    The purpose of today's hearing is to assess the state of 
our Nation's seaports. Seaports are critical to the movement of 
commerce and thus critical enablers of the U.S. economy, 
especially as the country continues its fight against the 
COVID-19 pandemic.
    As the Chairwoman of the Border Security, Facilitation, and 
Operations Subcommittee and the Member representing the Port of 
Los Angeles, the largest container port in the Nation, I 
understand how important it is that our seaports have the 
resources they need in order to support the safe and timely 
processing of trade and travel. I am encouraged that Secretary 
Walsh and Secretary Buttigieg have traveled to the Port of Los 
Angeles to see the challenges first-hand. The administration's 
attention and investment in our seaports, including the Port of 
Los Angeles, is critical to ensuring that goods coming through 
the ports make it to their final destination without delay.
    The Port of Los Angeles, like seaports across the Nation, 
has continued operations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, 
despite the dangers posed by the virus.
    As people have shifted spending habits toward more consumer 
goods, cargo levels have surged. This makes the issue of 
staffing and protecting staff at our seaports from the virus 
even more important. Our seaports have long been understaffed 
by U.S. Customs and Border Protections Office of Field 
Operations, which is the lead agency responsible for 
facilitating trade and travel at ports of entry. This includes 
our seaports, land ports, and airports. While the decline in 
air travel and cruises during the pandemic initially allowed 
CBP to redirect staff toward seaports to help with surging 
cargo, travel volumes are now rising across all ports of entry. 
In fact, some CBP officers from seaports are being detailed to 
assist with rising travel at land ports of entry. Even with the 
reduced and redirected staff, seaports were paying for 
additional overtime and services through the Reimbursable 
Services Program. As I expect we will hear from our witnesses, 
this Band-Aid approach toward staffing is not sustainable.
    We also need to ensure that CBP and our ports are taking 
appropriate steps to protect the work force during this 
pandemic. These front-line workers continue to facilitate trade 
and travel despite the risk posed by the virus. They have this 
committee's gratitude for their efforts. Seaports have also 
struggled with infrastructure and technology challenges which 
have hampered trade facilitation over the last year. For 
example, at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach a lack of 
storage space and increase in daily ships has contributed to 
congestion at the port. Other smaller ports have also 
experienced high wait times as CBP examination of high-risk 
cargo has at times taken up to 3 weeks to complete. 
Fortunately, those examinations have decreased to under 10 days 
since their peak. However, concerns persist, particularly in 
relation to cybersecurity. Cyber attacks against U.S. maritime 
targets increased 400 percent in 2020. As cyber attacks 
continue to become more dangerous, a successful cyber attack 
against a major seaport could cripple trade and have 
significant implications for the U.S. economy.
    Now, in addition, appropriately resourcing our seaports 
continues to be a challenge. We have heard concerns that CBP 
has at times turned to seaports to fund upgrades to facilities 
and new equipment. CBP has attempted to alleviate long-standing 
challenges through programs like the Reimbursable Services 
Program and the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. 
While these programs help meet short-term needs, we must and we 
need to make sure we are addressing systematic challenges. 
Seaports are also facing significant cyber threats and are 
critical to the American economy. We must look toward fully 
resourcing them as cargo volume shows no sign of decreasing as 
the economy continues to reopen.
    I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today on what 
assistance Congress and my subcommittee can offer to better 
support and resource ports. I am also interested in hearing any 
recommendations from our witnesses on changes that need to 
happen to CBP's public-private partnership program.
    [The statement of Chairwoman Barragan follows:]
             Statement of Chairwoman Nanette Diaz Barragan
                            January 19, 2022
    Seaports are key to the movement of commerce, and thus critical 
enablers of the U.S. economy, especially as the country continues its 
fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Chairwoman of the Border 
Security, Facilitation, and Operations Subcommittee, and the Member 
representing the Port of Los Angeles--the largest container port in the 
Nation, I understand how important it is that our seaports have the 
resources they need in order to support the safe and timely processing 
of trade and travel.
    I am encouraged that Secretary Walsh and Secretary Buttigieg have 
traveled to the Port of Los Angeles to see the challenges first-hand.
    The administration's attention and investment in our seaports, 
including the Port of Los Angeles, is critical to ensuring that goods 
coming through the ports make their final destination without delay.
    The Port of Los Angeles, like seaports across the Nation, has 
continued operations throughout the COVID-19 pandemic despite the 
dangers posed by the virus. As people have shifted spending habits 
toward more consumer goods, cargo levels have surged. This makes the 
issue of staffing, and protecting staff at our seaports from the virus, 
even more important.
    Our seaports have long been understaffed by U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection's (CBP) Office of Field Operations, which is the lead agency 
responsible for facilitating trade and travel at ports of entry. This 
includes our seaports, land ports, and airports. While the decline in 
air travel and cruises during the pandemic initially allowed CBP to 
redirect staff toward seaports to help with surging cargo, travel 
volumes are now rising across all ports of entry. In fact, some CBP 
officers from seaports are being detailed to assist with rising travel 
at land ports of entry. Even with the redirected staff, seaports were 
paying for additional overtime and services through the Reimbursable 
Services Program. As I expect we will hear from our witnesses, this 
Band-Aid approach toward staffing is not sustainable.
    We also need to ensure that CBP, and our ports, are taking 
appropriate steps to protect the workforce during this pandemic. These 
front-line workers continue to facilitate trade and travel despite the 
risks posed by the virus, and they have this committee's gratitude for 
their efforts. Seaports have also struggled with infrastructure and 
technology challenges, which have hampered trade facilitation over the 
last year. For example, at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, a 
lack of storage space and increase in daily ships has contributed to 
congestion at the port. Other, smaller ports have also experienced high 
wait times as CBP examination of high-risk cargo has, at times, taken 
up to 3 weeks to complete. Fortunately, those examinations have 
decreased to under 10 days since their peak.
    However, concerns persist--particularly in relation to 
cybersecurity. Cyber attacks against U.S. maritime targets increased 
400 percent in 2020, as cyber attacks continue to become more 
dangerous. A successful cyber attack against a major seaport could 
cripple trade and have significant implications for the U.S. economy. 
In additions, appropriately resourcing our seaports continues to be a 
challenge. We have heard concerns that CBP has, at times, turned to 
seaports to fund upgrades to facilities and new equipment.
    CBP has attempted to alleviate long-standing challenges through 
programs like the Reimbursable Services Program and the Customs Trade 
Partnership Against Terrorism (CTPAT). While these programs help meet 
short-term needs, we need to make sure we are addressing systematic 
challenges.
    Seaports are also facing significant cyber threats, and are 
critical to the American economy, and we must look at fully resourcing 
them as cargo volume shows no signs of decreasing as the economy 
continues to reopen.
    I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today on what 
assistance Congress and my subcommittee can offer to better support and 
resource ports. I am also interested in hearing any recommendations 
from the witnesses on changes needs to CBP's public-private partnership 
programs.

    Ms. Barragan. So now, as the Chair, I will recognize the 
Ranking Member of the subcommittee, Mr. Higgins of Louisiana, 
for an opening statement.
    Mr. Higgins, are you on?
    Mr. Higgins. I am, good lady, and thank you for the 
technological advice.
    I thank my friend, the Chairwoman, for holding this 
important meeting today and I would also to thank our witnesses 
for joining us, especially Director Self, Richert Self, from 
the Port of Lake Charles in my district.
    In today's global economy maritime trade is a critical 
component of our Nation's daily life. Commerce, the future of 
our Nation, depends upon maritime trade. As many across the 
Nation have seen recently, disruptions in our Nation's ports 
can have disastrous consequences to our Nation's supply chain 
and in our daily lives. While the media and our Government have 
focused heavily on the COVID-related disruptions at ports in 
California and New York, there are ports from around the 
Nation, such as the Port of Lake Charles, the twelfth-busiest 
port in the country and the seventh-fastest growing seaport in 
America, Lake Charles has faced natural disasters and COVID 
head-on. The Port of Lake Charles relies on the Calcasieu Ship 
Channel for access to the Gulf and its main cargo includes 
petroleum, aluminum, forest products, steel, bulk grain, other 
materials. It is an energy port and significant products move 
through it for the betterment and survival of all America.
    The Port of Lake Charles was severely impacted by the two 
major hurricanes that his Southwest Louisiana last year. The 
port and associated businesses suffered over $240 million worth 
of damage between Hurricanes Laura and Delta and only weeks 
apart. That is still being addressed today and the long-term 
recovery is something my office greatly supports. But the 
impact of natural disasters, combined with COVID and work force 
shortages, they affect the lives of every American and we are 
focused on that today in this hearing.
    The primary issue faced by the Port of Lake Charles and my 
district is the slow pace of Federal funding and approvals of 
that funding from agencies like FEMA. It is an unnecessary 
injury on top of injury. Ensuring our ports are fully 
functional and operational from Lake Charles to Los Angeles is 
key to our Nation's recovery. A healthy port system greatly 
contributes to our National and economic security.
    I look forward to hearing from all of our witnesses today 
and I hope we in Congress can work together to solve many of 
the challenges our Nation's seaports face.
    I thank the Chairwoman and I yield.
    [The statement of Ranking Member Higgins follows:]
                Statement of Ranking Member Clay Higgins
    Thank you, Chairwoman Barragan, for holding this important hearing 
today. I would also like to thank our witnesses for joining us, and 
especially to Director Richert Self from the Port of Lake Charles in my 
district.
    In today's global economy, maritime trade is a critical component 
of our Nation's daily life, commerce, and future. As many across the 
Nation have seen recently, disruptions at our Nation's ports can have 
disastrous consequences to our Nation's supply chains and in our daily 
lives.
    While the media and our Government have focused heavily on the 
COVID-related disruptions at ports in California and New York, there 
are ports around the Nation, such as the port of Lake Charles, the 
12th-busiest port district in the country and the seventh-fastest-
growing seaport in America, which has faced natural disasters and COVID 
head-on. The Port of Lake Charles relies on the Calcasieu Ship Channel 
for access to the Gulf, and its main cargo includes petroleum coke, 
aluminum, forest products, steel, bulk grain, and other materials, 
making it an energy port.
    The Port of Lake Charles was severely impacted by the two major 
hurricanes that hit the southwest Louisiana coast last year. The port 
and associated businesses suffered over $240 million worth of damage 
between Hurricanes Laura & Delta that is still being addressed today. 
However, the primary issue faced by the port and my district, is the 
slow pace of Federal funding approvals from agencies like FEMA.
    Ensuring our ports are fully functional and operational from Lake 
Charles to Los Angeles is key to our Nation's recovery. A healthy port 
system greatly contributes to our National and economic security. I 
look forward to hearing from all our witnesses today, and I hope we in 
Congress can work together to solve many of the challenges our Nation's 
seaports face.
    Madam Chairwoman, I yield back.

    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Ranking Member. I want to thank 
the Ranking Member for his opening statements.
    Members are reminded that the subcommittee will operate 
according to the guidelines laid out by the Chairman and 
Ranking Member in their July 8 colloquy. The Chair is looking 
to see if the full committee Chair, the gentleman from 
Mississippi, Mr. Thompson, is on so I can recognize him for an 
opening statement. Let me scroll through my various screens 
here. I don't yet see him on. I don't think I see him here. OK. 
So having not seen him on my screen, I will move on. I also 
don't see the Ranking Member Katko. So I will also move on as 
well.
    Member statements may be submitted for the record.
    [The statement of Chairman Thompson follows:]
                Statement of Chairman Bennie G. Thompson
                            January 19, 2022
    Our seaports are vitally important to trade and commerce, not only 
here in the United States but around the globe. Over the course of the 
COVID-19 pandemic, we have come to rely increasingly on our seaports. 
Critical medical equipment and personal protective gear passed through 
these ports, while consumers have shifted toward buying more goods and 
fewer services. These trends, coupled with the threat of COVID-19--
especially for front-line workers who are unable to work from home--
pose serious challenges for our seaports.
    Some of these challenges exacerbate long-standing issues--like 
chronic understaffing. This staffing shortage hurts workforce morale, 
while slowing trade and commerce and affecting seaport operations.
    Some ports have attempted to mitigate staffing shortages, including 
through the use of CBP's Reimbursable Services Program, or RSP. Through 
RSP, ports can reimburse CBP for additional customs, immigration, or 
agricultural services at ports of entry. However, this program is meant 
to be a temporary solution for short-term needs--it should not become a 
Band-Aid for systematic issues.
    CBP also offers the voluntary Customs Trade Partnership Against 
Terrorism (C-TPAT) program to the trade community. This program helps 
expedite trade while securing the supply chain, benefiting CBP and 
participants. However, there may be a need to expand and improve this 
program.
    I am also concerned about the cybersecurity of our seaports.
    Ports around the world have been the victim of cyber attacks during 
the pandemic--including Houston last summer. While the Port of Houston 
was able to defend against that attack, attacks on the maritime and 
logistics industry are increasing. A successful cyber attack on a major 
seaport could have devastating implications. I understand that 
witnesses here today have taken action to protect against this threat, 
and I look forward to hearing their perspectives on how the Federal 
Government can support these efforts.
    I am also eager to hear from our witness today on their suggestion 
for addressing the staffing, security, and congestion challenges facing 
our seaports today amidst the pandemic, as well as into the future.

    Ms. Barragan. With that--you know, they can join us later 
on--I want take the opportunity to welcome our panel of our 
witnesses. Mr. Christopher Connor is the president and chief 
executive officer at the American Association of Port 
Authorities. His Association is comprised of 78 public port 
authorities along the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf Coast, the 
Great Lakes, and in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the 
U.S. Virgin Islands.
    Our next witness, Mr. Anthony Reardon, is the national 
president of the National Treasury Employee Union. He 
represents over 29,000 Customs and Border Protection Office of 
Field Operations employees stationed at 320 air, sea, and land 
ports of entry across the United States and 16 Preclearance 
stations at airports abroad.
    Mr. Gene Seroka is executive director at the Port of Los 
Angeles. Mr. Seroka oversees the busiest seaport in the Western 
Hemisphere and has over 33 years of maritime shipping 
experience in the United States and abroad. I am proud to work 
very closely with Gene. So I welcome Mr. Seroka with us.
    I now want to recognize Congressman Luria to introduce our 
witness from the Port of Virginia.
    Ms. Luria. Well, thank you, Madam Chair and Ranking Member 
for letting me join your subcommittee today. Although I am a 
Member of the Homeland Security Committee, I am not formally on 
the subcommittee. But I had to take the opportunity to join and 
introduce Cathy Vick from the Port of Virginia. If you will 
indulge me for just a second I can brag a little bit on the 
Port of Virginia.
    We are the third-largest port on the East Coast and had a 
record year in 2021. So while some other ports across the 
country faced some challenges, I think the port has some unique 
attributes that allowed them to not only keep up with the 
increased volume throughout the year--and hopefully Cathy will 
be able to highlight some of those in her remarks--as well as 
the great news today that we received from the bipartisan 
infrastructure package, that the Port of Virginia has received 
$70 million as well for our continuation of the Federal--
dredging project, which will bring us to be the deepest port on 
the East Coast at 55 feet.
    But without further ado, Cathy Vick is the chief 
development and public affairs officer for the Virginia Port 
Authority. She oversees economic development, government, and 
community relations, sustainability, and environmental, and the 
Maritime Incident Emergency Response Teams. She kind-of does it 
all. You can't go to the port without seeing Cathy and seeing 
her great work. So we are really excited to have her speaking 
to the Homeland Security Committee today and bringing some 
lessons and some recommendations from the Port of Virginia.
    So thank you again and I yield back.
    Ms. Barragan. Well, thank you, Rep Luria. It is great to be 
able to have our Members come up here and introduce folks in 
their districts and to brag about our ports. We all love to do 
that.
    With that, I now want to recognize Ranking Member Higgins 
to introduce our witness from the Port of Lake Charles.
    Mr. Higgins.
    Mr. Higgins. I thank the Chairwoman.
    I am proud to introduce to the committee one of Lake 
Charles' finest citizens. Director Self currently serves as the 
executive director of the Port of Lake Charles in Louisiana. He 
has been with the port since 2003 as the director of 
administration and finance. He was promoted to deputy executive 
director in 2017 and was hired as the executive director in 
2020. He is a native of Lake Charles. He holds a bachelors of 
science in business from McNeese State University, a masters of 
business administration from the University of New Orleans, and 
he is a certified public accountant.
    In 2016 Director Self was appointed to the Louisiana Board 
of International Commerce by our Governor, John Bel Edwards. 
The Louisiana Board of International Commerce serves as the 
authority on behalf of the State to advance the Louisiana State 
international commerce economic sector.
    I am honored to host Director Self today and we look 
forward to hearing his opening statement and his response to 
some questions.
    I yield Madam Chair.
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Higgins, for that introduction 
of your invited witness today.
    Without objection, the witnesses' full statements will be 
inserted in the record.
    I now will ask each witness to summarize his or her 
statement for 5 minutes, beginning with Mr. Connor.

    STATEMENT OF CHRISTOPHER J. CONNOR, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF 
  EXECUTIVE OFFICER, AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PORT AUTHORITIES

    Mr. Connor. Chairwoman Barragan, Ranking Member Higgins, 
Members of the subcommittee, good afternoon.
    I would like to thank to thank the Subcommittee on Border 
Security, Facilitation, and Operations for your recognition of 
the critical role seaports play in our National security and 
the challenges they face, particularly as ports have dealt with 
the unprecedented demands of the global pandemic.
    In view of my already-submitted written testimony, and to 
respect the time constraints and leave ample time for the 
impressive group of panelists gathered here today, I will focus 
my brief remarks on the three issues. No. 1, screening staff 
shortages at CBP; No. 2, screening facility upgrades, and, No. 
3, maritime security.
    As a preamble to my remarks, it is important to note that 
while ports have a vested interest in secured cargo and 
passenger movement, it is the duty of the Federal Government to 
fund and staff customs inspection facilities. The brave men and 
women of our law enforcement agencies are vital partners in 
port security. We are grateful to them for their commitment 
throughout the challenges of this pandemic and we continue to 
advocate that they have the resources they need to carry out 
their missions.
    Screen staff shortages. Even before the pandemic shortages 
of CBP officers and agricultural specialists were a chronic 
problem at seaports. CBP's own workplace staffing model shows a 
deficit of 1,700 officers. As a result, ports are concerned 
about processing capacity. During this crisis, some shippers 
have looked to smaller ports as a relief valve of sorts and 
these ports have reported difficulties getting officer coverage 
when they need it most.
    CBP has allowed ports to enter into reimbursable service 
agreements to pay for officer overtime. This was intended to be 
a temporary fix but is becoming the norm at more and more ports 
around the country. Last year one medium-sized port in 
California paid over $1 million in overtime out of a budget of 
roughly $20 million. These overtime expenses represent a 
significant portion of our ports' already tight budgets and 
limit their ability to make long-term capital investments. We 
ask Congress to fully staff CBP to ensure an effective work 
force and efficient cargo movement.
    With regard to screening facility upgrades, CBP also faces 
funding shortages for the facilities and ports of entry. To 
close that gap, CBP has in recent years turned to ports to pay 
for major upgrades in new facilities. This represents an 
attempt to shift the burden of financing their inspection 
mission from the Federal Government onto ports. This is both 
unsustainable and outside the authority of CBP. Our 
Association's initial research into the legal basis for these 
demands shows no statutory authority that allows CBP to require 
non-Federal entities to contribute to their inspection mission. 
In fact, over the years legislative changes, including 
amendments to the Immigration and Naturalization Act, have 
restricted the ability of CBP to push off the burden of 
maintaining its minimal operational requirements. Other 
authorities cited by CBP merely entitle them to the use of a 
room, literally a floor, to conduct inspections. Over the years 
this has been expanded to include office space, IT, recreation 
areas and gyms, parking, gun lockers, kitchens, and more. These 
demands are excessive and well beyond the original intention of 
the Free Space Agreements.
    The financial burden of these requirements also wreaks 
havoc on port budgets. Seaports are public entities with 
limited resources. Particularly at a time when we desperately 
need infrastructure upgrades to ensure our country's long-term 
competitiveness, adding these expenses hampers a port's ability 
to make outlays for their future.
    As mentioned, ports work in partnership with CBP and our 
members rely on the courageous efforts of CBP officers to keep 
our gateways safe, but ports are unable to bear the burden of 
the financial demands. Congress must act to provide CBP with 
the resources they need to effectively carry out their 
important mission.
    Finally, with regard to maritime security, the Port 
Security Grant Program was created in the wake of 9/11 and is 
the main method by which ports can make large-scale security 
upgrades. In recent years funding for this program has fallen 
sharply, even as threats have increased and taken on new forms. 
We ask Congress to return the Port Security Grant Program to 
its highest level and ensure that ports are the main recipient 
of Port Security Grant funds.
    In conclusion, I appreciate the opportunity to give you an 
update on our country's ports and their security needs going 
forward. While the past 2 years have presented unprecedented 
challenges to the supply chain, we should all be proud that 
U.S. ports have remained open and safe. The pandemic has shown 
us where we have problems and where was can make improvements. 
As we continue to recover, ports are looking forward to 
continuing their roles as gateways to commerce and the first 
lines of defense against potential threats.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Connor follows:]
              Prepared Statement of Christopher J. Connor
                            January 19, 2022
    Good afternoon, Chairwoman Barragan, Ranking Member Higgins, and 
Members of the subcommittee.
    My name is Chris Connor, and I am the president and CEO of the 
American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA). I would like to thank 
the Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations for 
your recognition of the critical role seaports play in our National 
security and the challenges they face, particularly as they dealt with 
the unprecedented demands of a global pandemic. I appreciate the 
opportunity to discuss our maritime transportation systems security 
challenges and needs. I also appreciate the subcommittee's commitment 
to holding this hearing and I think it demonstrates the critical role 
seaports play in our economy and National security.
    AAPA is the unified voice of the seaport industry in the Americas, 
and my testimony is given on behalf of State and local public agencies 
located along the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts, the Great Lakes, 
and in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. 
For more than a century, AAPA membership has empowered port authorities 
to serve global customers and create economic and social value for 
their communities. Today, AAPA represents ports in our Nation's Capital 
on urgent and pressing issues facing our industry, promotes the common 
interests of the port community, and provides critical industry 
leadership on security, trade, transportation, infrastructure, 
environmental, and other issues related to port development and 
operations.
    AAPA's members remain committed to the continued safe and efficient 
flow of freight and goods to markets across the Nation and across the 
globe. As the title of this hearing suggests, I am here today to give 
an update on the state of America's seaports, including the impacts 
that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on seaport security and what our 
industry needs to continue to facilitate the secure movement of vital 
goods into and out of this country.
           seaports are hubs of cargo and passenger activity
    Ports are hubs of commerce. As such, a wide range of activities 
converge on the port. Ships arrive and depart, cargo is loaded and off-
loaded, passengers embark and disembark, trains and trucks move goods 
around the port and to and from destinations outside. All these 
elements must work together, or our supply chain will falter, putting 
millions of jobs and trillions of dollars of economic activity at risk. 
Because of this, ports are natural targets for those who wish to 
disrupt our way of life.
    Over the past 2 years, as people shifted their spending from travel 
and dining out to ecommerce, the importance of a well-functioning 
supply chain was made even more evident. Between an explosion in 
Lebanon, a ship stuck in the Suez Canal, and cargo congestion here at 
home, the maritime transportation system has been in the news 
frequently and the world has seen the consequences of a breakdown in 
that system. The global pandemic not only highlighted the importance of 
our supply chain, but it also exposed the vulnerabilities and 
exacerbated existing problems. I am proud to say, however, that 
throughout the pandemic America's seaports never closed and today they 
are moving more cargo than ever before. As we grapple with new, fast-
spreading variants, we must continue to prioritize critical 
infrastructure--like ports--to make sure that issues like testing 
shortages don't impact our ability to move goods.
    As waterborne trade continues to grow, ports are eager to make the 
necessary upgrades to their facilities to alleviate some of our current 
challenges and make investments in the future. While traditional 
infrastructure is dominating the headlines, the importance of improving 
security at our maritime gateways must also be a focus of this 
Congress.
    It is important to note that while ports have a vested interest in 
secure cargo and passenger movement, it is the duty of the Federal 
Government to fund and staff customs inspection facilities. The brave 
men and women of our law enforcement agencies are vital partners in 
port security. We are grateful to them for their commitment throughout 
the challenges of this pandemic and we continue to advocate that they 
have the resources they need to carry out their missions.
                       screening staff shortages
    Even before the pandemic, shortages of Customs and Border (CBP) 
officers and agriculture specialists was a chronic problem at seaports 
of entry. CBP's own Workplace Staffing Model shows a deficit of 1,700 
officers. This deficit can have a significant impact on processing 
times, adding an additional bottleneck to already overloaded ports, and 
limiting our ability to keep up with long-term growth in trade and 
travel.
    As with everything else, the pandemic added another layer of 
complexity to cargo screening. Social distancing rules meant that only 
a limited number of officers could work in each processing facility at 
one time while quarantine protocols restricted swaths of officers from 
working if they had been exposed to the virus. CBP was also not immune 
from the pandemic's deadly effects and, tragically, over 30 CBP 
officers lost their lives.
    To help alleviate some of the screening congestion, officers were 
reassigned from cruise and airport screenings but with the resumption 
of cruising and foreign travel, coupled with increased levels of trade, 
we are concerned about processing capacity. With our major gateway 
ports full, shippers have looked to smaller ports as a ``relief valve'' 
of sorts. These ports have reported difficulties getting officer 
coverage when they need it most.
    CBP also allowed ports to enter into reimbursable services 
agreements to pay for officer overtime. This was intended to be a 
temporary fix but is becoming the norm at more and more ports around 
the country. Last year one medium-sized port in California paid over $1 
million for overtime out of a budget of roughly $20 million. These 
overtime expenses represent a significant portion of our ports' already 
tight budgets and limit their ability to make long-term capital 
investments. This also puts a strain on CBP officers. As you can 
imagine, consistently working 12-16-hour shifts leads to fatigue and 
increases in human error which leave our ports of entry more exposed to 
bad actors.
    We ask Congress to fully staff CBP to ensure an effective workforce 
and efficient cargo movement.
                     screening facilities upgrades
    CBP also faces funding shortages for their facilities at ports of 
entry. To close that gap in recent years, CBP has turned to ports to 
pay for major upgrades and new facilities. This represents an attempt 
to shift the burden of financing their inspection mission from the 
Federal Government onto ports. This is both unsustainable and outside 
the authority of CBP.
    One of this Government's original functions was to collect customs 
duties on imported goods. For hundreds of years, the Federal Government 
paid for the facilities and resources required to carry out that 
function. In the last few years, however, local CBP offices have come 
to ports with demands for upgrades. These demands are often coupled 
with threats to slow down cargo processing or disallow the opening of 
new terminals.
    Our association's initial research into the legal basis for these 
demands shows no statutory authority that allows CBP to require non-
Federal entities to contribute to their inspection mission. In fact, 
over the years, legislative changes--including amendments to the 
Immigration and Naturalization Act--have restricted the ability of CBP 
to push off the burden of maintaining its minimum operational 
requirements. Other authorities cited by CBP merely entitle them to the 
use of a room--literally a floor--to conduct inspections. Over the 
ensuing years this has been expanded to include office space, IT, 
recreation areas and gyms, parking, gun lockers, kitchens, and more. 
These demands are excessive and well beyond the original intention of 
the free space agreements.
    The financial burden of these requirements would also wreak havoc 
on port budgets. Seaports are public entities with limited resources. 
Particularly at a time when we desperately need infrastructure upgrades 
to ensure our country's long-term competitiveness, adding these 
expenses would hamper ports' ability to make outlays for their future.
    Ports feel that they have little recourse to remedy this problem 
without jeopardizing their operations. Our members have worked in good 
faith with their local CBP offices as well as CBP headquarters to 
address concerns, but CBP is unwilling or unable to make concessions.
    As mentioned, ports work in partnership with CBP, and our members 
rely on the courageous efforts of CBP officers to keep our gateways 
safe. But ports are unable to bear the burden of their demands. 
Congress must act to provide CBP with the resources they need to 
effectively carry out their important mission.
                         maritime cybersecurity
    Another vulnerability compounded during the pandemic has been 
maritime cybersecurity. Cyber attacks against maritime targets in the 
United States has increased a staggering 400 percent over the past 
year. As port staff shifted to working from their home networks, and 
cargo backups and a stalled cruise industry meant that ship systems 
remained on port networks for much longer than usual, opportunities 
grew. At the same time, our country relied even more heavily on the 
maritime supply and crippling strikes laid bare the efficacy of 
attacking critical infrastructure, providing even greater incentives to 
bad actors.
    The pandemic revealed what was already a growing problem. The 4 
largest shipping companies in the world have been hit by ransomware in 
the last 4 years. Through the proliferation of the industrial internet 
of things, more and more ship and port systems are connected to each 
other or the internet. A critical attack on any of these systems could 
have devastating economic consequences or even lead to the loss of 
life. The maritime transportation system needs resources to harden 
their IT systems to prevent attacks and to respond appropriately when 
an attack does occur.
    The Port Security Grant Program (PSGP) is the main method by which 
ports and related groups can make large-scale security upgrades. PSGP 
was created shortly after 9/11 as Congress realized that ports--as 
critical infrastructure--were vulnerable to threats. In the ensuing 
years, PSGP funding has dwindled to a fourth of its highest 
appropriated amount and much of that funding does not go to public port 
authorities, as originally intended. While the nature of threats has 
changed since 2001 the magnitude of those threats has not. We ask 
Congress to return PSGP to its highest level and ensure that ports are 
the main recipient of PSGP awards.
                               conclusion
    I appreciate the opportunity to give you an update on our country's 
ports and their security needs going forward. While the past 2 years 
have presented unprecedented challenges to the supply chain, we should 
all be proud that U.S. ports have remained open and safe. The pandemic 
has shown us where we have problems and where we can make improvements. 
As we continue to recover, ports are looking forward to continuing 
their roles as gateways to commerce and the first lines of defense 
against potential threats.
    Investments in our law enforcement agencies and our security 
infrastructure will allow us to keep the country safe while expanding 
global trade and protect our ports against new and evolving hazards.
    Once again, I thank the Members of the subcommittee for this 
opportunity to share our industry's thoughts and concerns. I hope you 
will consider the information presented here and that you will call on 
me if I can be of any assistance to the subcommittee.

    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Connor, for your testimony.
    I now recognize Mr. Reardon to summarize your statement for 
5 minutes.

 STATEMENT OF ANTHONY M. REARDON, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, NATIONAL 
                    TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION

    Mr. Reardon. Thank you, Chairwoman Barragan, and Ranking 
Member Higgins. Members of the subcommittee, I thank you for 
the opportunity to testify on behalf of over 29,000 front-line 
CBP officers, agricultural specialists, trade enforcement 
specialists, and support staff at our Nation's 328 air, sea, 
and land ports of entry and at Preclearance operations 
overseas.
    These employees ensure the efficient processing of 
legitimate trade and travel and stop illicit trafficking of 
people, drugs, weapons, and money. Improving security, trade, 
and travel and ensuring the safest possible working environment 
for CBP personnel at all ports of entry are of paramount 
importance to our members, especially during the recent COVID-
19 crisis. To date, the CBP front-line work force has had over 
13,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases according to CBP-wide figures, 
and 59 line-of-duty deaths due to the virus. NTEU mourns these 
losses with family and friends of these workers and greatly 
appreciates their service to our country.
    The international ports of entry are an economic driver of 
the U.S. economy, contributing $74 billion in revenue in 2020. 
In addition, CBP officers' drug interdiction success is 
indisputable, with seizure of fentanyl at the ports of entry up 
over 300 percent. Another example is in 2019 CBP seized 17 tons 
of cocaine with a street value of over $1 billion from a cargo 
ship at the Philadelphia seaport. However, there is no greater 
roadblock to the Nation's economic and border security than the 
lack of sufficient CBP staff at the ports. Unfortunately, as I 
have testified in the past, the ports of entry continue to be 
chronically understaffed. Despite the decrease in international 
trade and travel volume, primarily at air and land ports due to 
the pandemic, according to CBP's own staffing models, there 
continues to be a staffing shortage of 900 CBP officers, 200 
CBP agriculture specialists, and 200 CBP non-uniformed trade 
specialists.
    The pandemic has affected trade volume at the seaports to a 
much lesser effect as water-borne vessels continue to be the 
leading mode of transportation for international freight. For 
example, despite the pandemic, in 2020 there was a 6 percent 
increase in activity at the L.A. and Long Beach seaports that 
has been felt by CBP personnel. And the significant increase of 
container vessels and the L.A. and Long Beach seaports, and 
other major seaports, as the world has begun to reopen, can be 
seen at the docks and sitting out in the water as container 
vessels wait to enter commerce.
    The average 2019 dwell time of container vessels at the top 
25 U.S. container ports was estimated at 28.2 hours, up from 
27.3 hours in 2018. This was before the full effect of the 
pandemic impacted seaport operations. While neither DHS nor the 
transportation department tracked how CBP OFO staffing 
allocations and CBP officer staffing shortages affect vessel 
dwell time at the Nation's seaports, NTEU believes it does have 
a negative effect.
    In 2021, understaffed Southwest Border land ports 
necessitated the deployment of up to 850 CBP OFO employees from 
airports and seaports to temporary duty assignments to those 
ports. The lifting of the nonessential travel ban has been at 
the Northern and Southwest Border ports last November has 
further exacerbated CBP port staffing shortages.
    Now, there is an additional pandemic-related issue that I 
want to mention that threatens to disrupt our economic 
recovery. The reduction in user fees collected due to the 
drastic drop in international commercial travel, and to a 
lesser extent, trade volume since March 2020. These user fees 
fund 40 percent of CBP personnel budgeted at the port, 
including 8,000 CBP officer positions. That is roughly one-
third of the entire CBP work force at the ports of entry. To 
address the on-going issue Congress has provided appropriated 
dollars to bridge these user fee shortfalls in the CR and 
appropriators have assured NTEU that the final fiscal year 2022 
deal will continue this funding. If Congress is unable to come 
to a final deal and there is a full year CR, NTEU urges 
Congress to ensure that there is no disruption of this funding 
and furloughs will continue to be avoided. It is vital that 
Congress continue to authorize and fund additional staffing to 
ensure CBP employees at the ports of entry can continue to 
succeed in their important work.
    I thank you and I am happy to answer any questions you may 
have.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Reardon follows:]
                Prepared Statement of Anthony M. Reardon
                            January 19, 2022
    Chairwoman Barragan, Ranking Member Higgins, and distinguished 
Members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify 
before you today. As national president of the National Treasury 
Employees Union (NTEU), I have the honor of leading a union that 
represents over 29,000 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Office of 
Field Operations (OFO) employees, including CBP officers, agriculture 
specialists, trade enforcement personnel, and support staff stationed 
at the 328 air, sea, and land ports of entry across the United States 
(U.S.) and 16 Preclearance stations at airports in Ireland, the 
Caribbean, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates.
    CBP OFO employees are responsible for border security at U.S. ports 
of entry, including anti-terrorism, immigration, anti-smuggling, trade 
compliance, and agriculture protection. CBP's OFO pursues a dual 
mission of safeguarding American ports by protecting the public from 
dangerous people and materials, while enhancing the Nation's global and 
economic competitiveness by enabling legitimate trade and travel. In 
addition to CBP's trade and travel security, processing, and 
facilitation missions, CBP OFO employees at the ports of entry are the 
second-largest source of revenue collection for the U.S. Government. In 
2020, CBP processed more than $2.4 trillion in total import value of 
goods and collected approximately $74 billion in customs duties and 
fees.
    As with every workplace, the COVID-19 pandemic remains one of the 
most significant on-going challenges facing CBP employees at the ports 
of entry. The pursuit of the safest possible working environment for 
CBP employees at all ports of entry, trade, enterprise services and 
operations support facilities has been NTEU's paramount concern during 
the COVID-19 crisis. Throughout the pandemic, many international air, 
sea, and land ports of entry remained open and staffed by CBP OFO 
employees 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days of the year.
    Despite best efforts to protect essential front-line CBP employees, 
over 13,000 CBP employees have tested positive for COVID-19 and 
tragically at least 59 CBP employees have died as a result of the 
virus.
    I want to take a moment to honor the NTEU CBP members by name: CBPO 
Genaro Guerrero--San Ysidro, CBPO Crispin San Jose--Cross Border 
Xpress, CBP Technician Van Dong and CBPO Monica Riola--Los Angeles 
International Airport, CBPO Alfonso Murrieta--Tucson International 
Airport, CBPO Richard McCoy--Fort Lauderdale/Port Everglades Port of 
Entry, CBPO Richard Rios--Area Port of Ysleta Commercial Facility, 
CBPOs Troy Adkins, Rodolfo Morales, Jr., and Richard Rios--Port of El 
Paso, CBPO Jose Santana--Laredo Port of Entry, CBPO Roel De La Fuente--
Port of Hidalgo, CBPO Domingo Jasso--Progreso Port of Entry, CBPO 
Carlos Mendoza--Pharr Cargo Facility, CBP Agriculture Specialist Juan 
Ollervidez--Hidalgo Port of Entry, CBP Field Technology Officer James 
Taylor--JFK International Airport, CBPO Omar Palmer--JFK International 
Airport, CBPO Ching Kok (C.K.) Yan--JFK International Airport, CBPO 
Andrew Bouchard--Houston Seaport, CBPO Cesar Sibonga--Kenneth G. Ward 
Port of Entry, CBPO Lucas Saucedo--Eagle Pass Port of Entry, CBPOs 
Yokemia Conyers, David Saavadra, Eric J. Skelton, and CBP Technician 
Francisco Tomas--Miami Port of Entry, CBPO Bruce Eckhoff--Port of San 
Francisco/Oakland, CBPO Victor Donate--Atlanta Airport, and CBPO Brian 
Vogel--Port of Sault Ste. Marie.
    I am happy to report that since the vaccine became available to 
essential Federal employees, NTEU has worked with CBP to encourage and 
assist our members in getting the vaccine. According to our most recent 
briefing, nearly 90 percent of CBP OFO employees are fully vaccinated 
as required by the mandate. We all understand Federal workers' anxiety 
about their own and their family's safety during this pandemic as they 
work to keep our country safe. NTEU continues to call for all those 
coming through the ports of entry to be vaccinated. As leaders, it is 
important that we continue to do everything we can to mitigate the 
risks they face, and we need to encourage them to do so on an 
individual basis, for their own safety as well as the safety of their 
coworkers and families.
    NTEU strongly supports hazard pay for front-line Federal employees. 
In addition to pushing for hazard pay in earlier COVID relief bills, 
NTEU supports the Hazardous Duty Pay for Frontline Federal Workers Act 
(H.R. 2744), introduced by Representative Donald Payne (D-NJ), which 
would temporarily provide hazard pay for employees who are exposed to 
an individual who has (or has been exposed to) COVID-19. We have also 
been working with Members of Congress to craft legislation to provide 
hazard pay specifically for CBP employees. It is hoped that this bill, 
which should be retroactive, will be introduced early this year.
    Along with ensuring protection from the pandemic, the most 
important resource that Congress needs to provide for the successful 
reopening of the economic driver that is our international ports of 
entry, including seaports, is funding to address on-going CBP OFO port 
staffing shortages.
    CBP Staffing at the Ports of Entry.--For years, NTEU has advocated 
for the hiring of thousands of new CBP officers and hundreds of new 
agriculture specialists and non-uniformed trade operations personnel 
that are needed based on the agency's own Workload Staffing Model 
(WSM), Agriculture Resource Allocation Model (AgRAM) and Resource 
Optimization Model for Trade Revenue (Trade ROM).
    Pursuant to these models, the final fiscal year 2020 funding 
agreement provided $104 million to fund the hiring of 800 new OFO 
positions, including 610 CBP officer and CBP agriculture specialist new 
hires. Unfortunately, Congress did not continue to fund to the models 
in fiscal year 2021. While House Appropriators approved $171 million 
for 1,150 new CBP OFO positions including $91 million for 850 CBP 
officers, $10 million for 100 support personnel and $30 million for 200 
agriculture specialists, the final fiscal year 2021 funding agreement 
did not include any funding to increase staffing for CBP OFO.
    CBP's staffing models are dynamic and reflect the impact of the 
pandemic on CBP OFO staffing needs. Despite the decrease in 
international trade and travel in the past year due to the pandemic, 
CBP's most recent staffing models show a staffing gap of over 900 CBP 
officers, 214 agriculture specialists, and 200 non-uniformed trade 
specialists. However, there has been no additional funding provided for 
needed CBP new hires at the ports of entry since fiscal year 2020. 
Staffing shortages have been exacerbated by the lifting of the travel 
ban on November 8, 2020, ending more than 18 months of restrictions, 
allowing in non-essential tourists who had proof of their coronavirus 
vaccination and proper documentation to legally enter the United 
States.
    To address the OFO staffing gap, NTEU has requested that House and 
Senate Appropriators include funding for CBP OFO new hires up to levels 
required by the CBP's dynamic workplace staffing models for CBP 
officers, agriculture specialists and trade specialists in their fiscal 
year 2022 DHS appropriations bills. NTEU is asking Appropriators to 
provide at minimum $160 million in direct appropriated funding for CBP 
``Operations and Support'' in fiscal year 2022 to fund the hiring of at 
least 800 CBP officers, 200 CBP agriculture specialists, 200 CBP 
agriculture technicians, 20 agriculture canine teams and 50 non-
uniformed trade enforcement specialists and associated operational 
support personnel.
    To further support this staffing request, NTEU joined a coalition 
of 22 port stakeholders, including the American Association of Port 
Authorities, Airports Council International--North America, and the 
U.S. Travel Association on a letter dated November 15, 2021, to the 
House and Senate Appropriations Committee urging funding for new 
officers as the agency prepares for an influx of passengers and cargo 
at the ports-of-entry once the Omicron surge subsides. (See exhibit A.) 
As the letter states, ensuring CBP staffing is an economic driver for 
the U.S. economy and an additional 800 CBP officers would not only 
reduce wait times at ports of entry, but also provide new economic 
opportunities across the United States. ``While the volume of commerce 
crossing our borders has more than tripled in the past 25 years, CBP 
staffing has not kept pace with demand'' the coalition wrote. ``Long 
wait times at our ports-of-entry lead to travel delays and uncertainty, 
which can increase supply chain costs and cause passengers to miss 
their connections. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, border 
delays result in losses to output, wages, jobs, and tax revenue due to 
decreases in spending by companies, suppliers, and consumers.''
    CBP OFO Staffing at the Seaports.--Due to the pandemic, supply 
chain and private-sector seaport staffing issues have overwhelmed U.S. 
seaports. There are several witnesses testifying today that will speak 
to these issues. NTEU is here today to outline staffing concerns of 
NTEU CBP members at the seaports. According to the Port Performance 
Freight Statistics Program's 2020 Annual Report to Congress, which was 
released on January 15, 2021, waterborne vessels are the leading 
transportation mode for international freight, moving 41 percent of 
freight value in 2019--over $1.7 trillion. Nearly $1.1 trillion of this 
amount was containerized, which is the primary means for moving 
intermodal cargo. Of the top 25 U.S. international freight gateways 
(airports, land border crossings, and maritime ports) by value, 10 were 
maritime ports, including the Ports of New York and New Jersey, Los 
Angeles, Long Beach, Houston, Savannah, Virginia, Charleston, 
Baltimore, Oakland, and Tacoma. Ports are measured by: (1) Overall 
cargo tonnage, (2) dry bulk cargo tonnage, or (3) by 20-foot equivalent 
unit (TEU) of containerized cargo.
    In 2019, the top 25 tonnage ports handled a total of 1.82 billion 
tons of cargo, accounting for 77 percent of the total tons in 2019. The 
highest tonnage figures are associated with ports like the Ports of 
Houston and South Louisiana which handle large quantities of both 
liquid bulk cargo (e.g., petroleum or chemicals) and dry bulk cargo 
(e.g., coal or grain). The top 25 dry bulk ports handled a total of 
667.7 million tons of cargo in 2019, accounting for 28 percent of the 
total tons in 2019. The Port of South Louisiana remained in the top 
spot and handled by far the greatest volume of dry bulk cargo.
    The highest TEU volumes are associated with coastal container 
ports, such as the Ports of Long Beach, Los Angeles, and New York and 
New Jersey. The Port of Los Angeles facilitated $259 billion in trade 
during 2020 and is North America's leading seaport by container volume 
and cargo value. The 10 U.S. ports with the most container activity 
account for 80 percent of all U.S. container port activity. New data 
shows that the Port of Long Beach had a 6 percent increase in activity 
in 2020 as compared with 2019.
    Nationally, container and tanker vessel dwell times were stable in 
2019, with little variation from 2018. The average 2019 dwell time of 
container vessels at the top 25 U.S. container ports was estimated at 
28.2 hours, up from 27.3 hours in 2018. In 2020 and 2021, Vessel dwell 
times have been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Unfortunately, the Department of Transportation does not track how CBP 
OFO staffing allocations at the ports of entry and CBP officer staffing 
shortages impact vessel dwell times at the Nation's seaports.
    NTEU leaders at the Los Angeles/Long Beach (LA/LB) seaports note 
that the CBP workforce there felt that 6 percent increase in activity 
in 2020. In addition, there has been significant increase of container 
vessels at the LA/LB Seaports as the world has begun to re-open that 
can be seen sitting at the docks and out in the water as container 
vessels wait to enter the port. Multiple news reports (both National 
and local), comment about the backlog of cargo. At LA/LB, Fines 
Penalties and Forfeitures continue to be short-staffed while the volume 
of trade operations work keeps growing. Seized Property is experiencing 
the same problem. These CBP staffing shortages at the seaports will 
only be further exacerbated as cruise lines resume full operations when 
pandemic-related travel restrictions ease.
    In addition to CBP OFO staffing shortages, CBP vehicle shortages 
are a problem at the LA/LB, Norfolk and other seaports, requiring 3 to 
4 CBO officers to share a vehicle as they work. This number of CBP 
officers in one vehicle is of particular concern during the pandemic, 
but the lack of official vehicles for CBP employees to do their job has 
been an on-going problem. CBP employees are also requesting larger 
vehicles to accommodate the equipment they are required to carry to get 
the job done. There is also a shortage of laptops available for use, 
especially by trade enforcement employees at the ports' Centers for 
Excellence and Expertise.
    Temporary Duty Assignments.--Acknowledging the on-going CBP officer 
staffing shortage at the ports, CBP again has found it necessary to 
solicit CBP officers for temporary duty assignment (TDY) to San Ysidro, 
Otay Mesa, and Calexico land ports of entry, which began in May and ran 
through the fourth quarter of 2021. According to CBP, the TDY was 
necessary to support the workload and operational challenges facing the 
San Diego Field Office, such as wait times in excess of 4 hours. These 
TDYs were filled by CBP officers currently assigned to air and seaport 
locations, further exacerbating any staffing issues at seaports.
    To end the need for TDYs, it is up to Congress to address the on-
going port staffing deficit by authorizing and funding CBP OFO new 
hires in fiscal year 2022 and subsequent years until the staffing gap 
identified in the workload staffing models are met. Without addressing 
the on-going CBP officer staffing shortages, allocating adequate 
staffing at all ports will remain a challenge.
    Unfortunately, the fiscal year 2022 President's DHS budget request 
is essentially flat and includes no increase in funding for CBP OFO new 
hires. NTEU greatly appreciates the President for providing a pay raise 
for Federal employees for 2022 and for including in his budget request 
new CBP funding to address the annualization of the 2021 and 2022 pay 
raises, the associated FERS contribution increase and funding for 
certain port modernization projects. The House Appropriations Committee 
approved its fiscal year 2022 Homeland Security funding bill in mid-
June, but that bill has no funding for CBP OFO new hires. As you know, 
Congress has been unable to complete action on fiscal year 2022 
appropriations and Federal agencies are operating under a Continuing 
Resolution through February 18, 2022.
    Last Congress, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs Committee favorably reported out S. 1004, the Safeguarding 
American Ports Act, stand-alone legislation that would authorize the 
hiring of 600 additional CBP officers annually until the staffing gaps 
in CBP's WSM is met. NTEU strongly supports the introduction of this 
stand-alone CBP officer staffing authorization bill in both the House 
and Senate this Congress.
    CBP Agriculture Specialist Staffing.--Currently, there is a 
shortage of approximately 214 agriculture specialists Nation-wide 
according to CBP's own data-driven and vetted Workload Staffing Model. 
Last year, Congress approved Pub. L. 116-122, the Protecting America's 
Food and Agriculture Act of 2019. The new law authorizes CBP to hire 
240 CBP agriculture specialists, 200 CBP agriculture technicians and 20 
agriculture canine teams per year until the staffing shortage that 
threatens the U.S. agriculture sector is met. NTEU's appropriations 
request includes funding to hire the first wave of CBP agriculture 
quarantine inspection (AQI) personnel authorized by the newly-enacted 
statute.
    For example, there is an on-going CBP agriculture specialist 
staffing shortage at Port Hueneme that predates the pandemic. CBP 
continues to try to fill agriculture specialist positions at both Port 
Hueneme and at the LA/LB Seaports, but there is a shortage of this 
position Nation-wide. CBP agriculture specialists and officers without 
AQI training are being sent from LA/LB to help Port Hueneme leaving 
those ports short-staffed. NTEU leaders at the Port of Norfolk also 
report an on-going shortage of agriculture specialists.
    CBP Trade Operations Staffing.--In addition to safeguarding our 
Nation's borders and ports, CBP is tasked with regulating and 
facilitating international trade. CBP employees at the ports of entry 
are critical for protecting our Nation's economic growth and security 
and are the second-largest source of revenue collection for the U.S. 
Government--$74 billion in 2020. For every dollar invested in CBP trade 
personnel, $87 is returned to the U.S. economy, either through lowering 
the costs of trade, ensuring a level playing field for domestic 
industry or protecting innovative intellectual property. Since CBP was 
established in March 2003, however, there has been no increase in non-
uniformed CBP trade enforcement and compliance personnel. Additionally, 
CBP trade operations staffing has fallen below the statutory floor set 
forth in the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and stipulated in the fiscal 
year 2019 CBP Trade ROM. To maintain CBP's trade enforcement mission, 
NTEU requests that Congress provides funding in fiscal year 2022 for 50 
additional CBP non-uniformed trade personnel.
    User Fee Shortfalls.--One of the most critical pandemic-related 
issues facing CBP OFO is the reduction of user fee funding that is 
threatening the Nation's economic recovery as international trade and 
travel struggles to return to normal. This funding shortfall is a 
result of the reduction in customs and immigration user fees collected 
due to the drastic drop in international commercial travel, and to a 
lesser extent, trade volume since March 2020.
    As you know, CBP collects fees under the Consolidated Omnibus 
Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) and immigration inspection 
user fees to recover certain costs incurred for processing air and sea 
passengers and various private and commercial land, sea, air, and rail 
carriers and shipments. The source of these user fees are commercial 
vessels, commercial vehicles, rail cars, private aircraft, private 
vessels, air passengers, sea passengers, cruise vessel passengers, 
dutiable mail, customs brokers, and barge/bulk carriers. International 
air travel contributes 94 percent of COBRA and immigration user fees. 
COBRA and immigration user fees together fund 40 percent of CBP's OFO 
budget, including 8,000 CBPO positions. That is roughly one-third of 
the entire CBP workforce at the ports of entry. Agriculture Quality 
Inspection (AQI) user fees currently fund up to 2,400 agriculture 
specialists, currently 100 percent of the CBP agriculture specialists 
workforce.
    Due to the pandemic's continued disruption of fee-generating 
international travel and commerce, user fee collections have fallen 
precipitously which has necessitated the need for emergency funding to 
prevent furloughing CBP OFO personnel at a time when international 
trade and travel volume is beginning to return to pre-pandemic levels. 
To address the user fee shortfall, we were pleased that Congress 
provided $840 million in fiscal year 2021 emergency appropriations to 
maintain current staffing of CBP officers. Projected CBP trade and 
travel volume data shows an estimated user fee shortfall of up to $1.4 
billion through the first quarter of fiscal year 2022.
    To address the on-going user fee shortfall, Congress has provided 
appropriated dollars to bridge this shortfall in the Continuing 
Resolution and has given NTEU assurances that the final fiscal year 
2022 deal will continue this funding. In the case that Congress is 
unable to come to a final deal and there is a full-year CR, NTEU is 
working to ensure that there is no disruption of this funding and 
furloughs will continue to be avoided. Congress also provided up to 
$635 million through the end of fiscal year 2022 in supplemental 
funding to USDA to cover the user funding shortfall that funds CBP 
agriculture specialists staffing.
    U.S. businesses rely on the safe and efficient movement of goods 
and people across our borders and are all working to safely resume 
international travel and travel. Keeping current CBP officer staffing 
levels will be necessary to successfully transition into a more robust, 
safe, and delay-free travel environment and improve cargo movement. 
Losing the hiring and staffing advances that CBP finally started to 
gain after years of effort and much appreciated funding support by 
Congress will negatively impact cross-border travel, passenger 
processing, and trade facilitation in future years as the economy 
returns to normal.
    The critical issues that American businesses are facing to recover 
from this pandemic require quick, decisive action so that our 
Government can best facilitate the flow of travel and trade as the 
economy recovers. Without Congress again providing supplemental funding 
or reprogramming existing funds to support these CBP officers between 
now and the end of fiscal year 2022, we are gravely concerned that this 
loss of user fee funding will result in furloughs at a time when this 
workforce is most needed to facilitate the flow of legitimate travel 
and trade as the economy recovers.
    NTEU requests that the committee seek from appropriators either 
through reprogramming, a supplemental funding bill, or in its final 
fiscal year 2022 DHS appropriations bill, funding to replace user fee 
shortfalls for CBP OFO salaries and expenses and to mitigate dependence 
on user fees to fund salaries and expenses of CBP OFO personnel. This 
CBP OFO funding request will help to ensure that current CBP officer 
staffing levels are maintained as trade and traffic volumes increase. 
NTEU implores you to seek additional funding now so that CBP officers 
can stay on the job during the economic recovery. CBP employees at the 
ports of entry already face many challenges in the course of their work 
and concerns about their health and safety or of being furloughed as 
the country reopens for business should not be among them.
    NTEU also strongly opposes any diversion of COBRA user fees. Any 
increases to the user fee account should be properly used for much-
needed CBP staffing and not diverted to unrelated projects. In 2015, 
the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act indexed COBRA 
user fees to inflation. However, the Act diverted this increase in the 
user fee from CBP to pay for unrelated infrastructure projects. 
Indexing the COBRA user fee to inflation is projected to raise $1.4 
billion over 10 years--a potential $140 million per year funding stream 
to help pay for the hiring of additional CBP officers to perform CBP's 
border security, law enforcement, and trade and travel facilitation 
missions. Diverting these funds has resulted in CBP not receiving this 
user fee funding to hire over 900 new CBP officers per year since the 
FAST Act went into effect. These new hires would have significantly 
alleviated the current CBP officer staffing shortage.
    CBP Officer Overtime.--Prior to the pandemic, on-going staffing 
shortages resulted in CBP officers being required to work excessive 
overtime hours to maintain basic port staffing. CBP officer overtime 
pay is entirely funded through user fees and is statutorily capped at 
$45,000 per year. All CBP officers are aware that overtime assignments 
are an aspect of their jobs. However, long periods of overtime hours 
can severely disrupt an officer's family life, morale, and ultimately 
their job performance protecting our Nation. CBP officers can be 
required to regularly work overtime hours and many individual officers 
have hit the overtime cap very early in the fiscal year. This leaves no 
overtime funding available for peak season travel, resulting in 
critical staffing shortages in the third and fourth quarter that 
coincides with holiday travel at the ports.
    To address this issue prior to the pandemic, CBP granted overtime 
cap exemptions to over one-half of the workforce to allow managers to 
assign overtime to officers that have already reached the statutory 
overtime cap, but cap waivers only force CBP officers already working 
long daily shifts to continue working these shifts for more days. As 
the trade and travel volume recovers, CBP officers may once again be 
required to come in hours before their regular shifts, to stay an 
indeterminate number of hours after their shifts (on the same day) and 
compelled to come in for more overtime hours on their regular days off. 
Involuntary overtime resulting in 12- to 16-hour shifts, day after day, 
for months on end significantly disrupts CBP officers' family life and 
erodes morale. As NTEU has repeatedly stated, extensive overtime is not 
a long-term solution for staffing shortages at the ports and we need 
Congress' support to end this practice by funding OFO new hires as 
international trade and travel volume continues to rally.
    Reimbursable Service Program.--In order to find alternative sources 
of funding to address serious staffing shortages, CBP received 
authorization for and has entered into Reimbursable Service Agreements 
(RSAs) with the private sector, as well as with State and local 
governmental entities. These stakeholders, who are already paying COBRA 
and immigration user fees for CBP OFO employee positions and overtime, 
reimburse CBP for additional inspection services, including overtime 
pay and the hiring of new CBP officer and agriculture specialist 
personnel that in the past have been paid for entirely by user fees or 
appropriated funding. Since the program began in 2013, CBP has entered 
into agreements with over 236 stakeholders providing more than 793,000 
additional processing hours for incoming commercial and cargo traffic 
(see GAO-20-255R and GAO-21-234R).
    NTEU believes that the RSA program is a Band-Aid approach and 
cannot replace the need for Congress to either appropriate new funding 
or authorize an increase in customs and immigration user fees to 
adequately address CBP staffing needs at the ports. RSAs simply cannot 
replace the need for an increase in CBP appropriated or user fee 
funding--and they make CBP a ``pay to play'' agency. NTEU also remains 
concerned with CBP's new Preclearance expansion program that also 
relies heavily on ``pay to play.'' Further, NTEU believes that the use 
of RSAs to fund CBP staffing shortages raises significant equity issues 
between larger and/or wealthier ports and smaller ports.
    Illegal Narcotics Interdiction.--CBP OFO is the premier DHS 
component tasked with stemming the Nation's opioid epidemic--a crisis 
that continues to get worse. On a typical day, the agency makes over 
900 arrests and seizes more than 9,000 pounds of illegal drugs.
    According to a May 2018 report released by the Senate Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Minority titled Combatting 
the Opioid Epidemic: Intercepting Illicit Opioids at Ports of Entry, 
``between 2013 and 2017, approximately 25,405 pounds, or 88 percent of 
all opioids seized by CBP, were seized at ports of entry. The amount of 
fentanyl seized at the ports of entry increased by 159 percent from 459 
pounds in 2016 to 1,189 pounds in 2017.'' CBP officials recently 
testified that seizures of fentanyl at the ports of entry ``increased 
from 2,579 pounds in fiscal year 2019 to 3,967 pounds in fiscal year 
2020, an increase of 54 percent. For the comparative time frame of 
fiscal year 2020 and 2021 (October to March for both years) the amounts 
seized were 1,079 and 5,048. This is over a 300 percent increase with a 
half year to go.''
    In June 2019, 17 tons of cocaine, with a street value of over $1 
billion, was seized from a cargo ship at the Port of Philadelphia. This 
amount of cocaine could kill millions of people. The drug seizure is 
the latest in a series of large cocaine busts at East Coast seaports. 
In an earlier March 2019 bust at the Philadelphia seaport, drug dogs 
sniffed out 1,185 pounds of cocaine worth about $38 million--at that 
time, the city's largest seizure of the drug in more than 2 decades. 
And in February 2019, CBP officers seized 3,200 pounds at the Port of 
New York and New Jersey with a street value estimated at $77 million. 
That was the largest cocaine bust at the seaport since 1994. NTEU's 
fiscal year 2022 funding request supports the CBP officer new hires, 
but also additional CBP canine teams on the front line.
    On-going Morale Issues at DHS.--Adequate staffing at CBP ports of 
entry is critical to our Nation's economic vitality. In order to 
attract talented applicants, however, Federal agencies must also 
recognize the importance of employee engagement and fair treatment in 
their workplace. Unfortunately, low morale has been a consistent 
challenge at CBP that is reflected in CBP's ranking in the Partnership 
for Public Service (PPS) Best Places to Work in the Federal Government. 
In 2020, PPS ranked CBP as 328th out of 411 component agencies 
surveyed.
    The Best Places to Work results raise serious questions about the 
CBP's ability to recruit and retain the top-notch personnel necessary 
to accomplish the critical missions that keep our country safe. If the 
agency's goal is to build a workforce that feels both valued and 
respected, these results show that the agency needs to make major 
changes in its treatment of employees.
    Of particular concern to NTEU is the increase in suicides as the 
reported cause of death of Federal employees. Last year, the U.S. 
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released data that shows that Federal 
employee suicides were at their highest level in at least 15 years, 
with suicides accounting for 28 percent of the 124 Federal employee 
job-related deaths in 2018. Since 2011, the number of self-inflicted 
intentional fatalities among Federal workers has more than doubled to 
35, although the Federal workforce has remained approximately the same 
size.
    Most suicides continue to involve Federal employees in work related 
to law enforcement, such as CBP. In 2016, 15 of the 16 reported 
suicides were by Federal workers employed at a National security-
related agency. At CBP, more than 100 employees died by suicide between 
2007 and 2018, according to the agency. NTEU applauds CBP for seeking 
additional funding for their Employee Assistance Program (EAP). In 
response to many conversations and concerns regarding the adequacy of 
CBP's programs to assist employees who are experiencing mental health 
issues. At NTEU's insistence CBP also agreed to bargain over the 
establishment of a union/management Suicide Prevention and Resiliency 
workgroup. The purpose of the workgroup is to collaborate on new and 
innovative ways to promote and improve current resiliency and suicide 
prevention programs within CBP.
    NTEU also applauds the President for including in fiscal year 2022 
budget request an increase of $2.1 million to fund onsite clinicians to 
support CBP employee resiliency and suicide prevention programs.
    NTEU also strongly supports H.R. 490, the DHS Morale, Recognition, 
Learning and Engagement Act or the DHS MORALE Act. The MORALE Act was 
approved by the House on April 20, 2021 and is awaiting action by the 
Senate. The bill directs the Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO) to 
analyze Government-wide Federal workforce satisfaction surveys to 
inform efforts to improve morale, maintain a catalogue of available 
employee development opportunities and authorize the designation of a 
Chief Learning and Engagement Officer to assist the CHCO on employee 
development.
    H.R. 490 also authorizes the establishment of an Employee 
Engagement Steering Committee comprised of representatives from across 
the Department, as well as individuals from employee labor 
organizations that represent DHS employees. Last, the bill authorizes 
the Secretary to establish an annual employee awards program to 
recognize non-supervisory DHS employees who have made a significant 
contribution to the Department. In our collective bargaining agreement 
with CBP, NTEU negotiated an extremely popular employee joint awards 
program. The Agency retains the discretion to determine how much of its 
budget will be allocated for awards, but 85 percent of the total awards 
budgeted are recommended by a joint union/management awards committee 
to be distributed proportionately among bargaining unit employees. NTEU 
recommends that DHS look at the negotiated CBP joint awards program as 
a model for an agency-wide program.
    While a major factor contributing to low morale at CBP is 
insufficient staffing and resources at the ports of entry, the 
provisions in the DHS MORALE Act will help to address non-staffing 
issues that affect employee morale by improving front-line employee 
engagement and establishing a statutory annual employee award program. 
NTEU commends the House for approving the DHS MORALE Act and will 
continue to urge the Senate to expeditiously do the same.
    NTEU Recommendations.--To address CBP's workforce challenges and to 
improve security, trade, and travel at our Nation's ports of entry, 
Congress must first address CBP OFO on-going staffing shortages. It is 
clearly in the Nation's economic and security interest for Congress to 
authorize and fund an increase in the number of CBP officers, CBP 
agriculture specialists, and other CBP employees at the air, sea, and 
land ports of entry.
    In order to achieve the long-term goal of securing the proper 
staffing of CBP staffing at the seaports and end disruptive TDYs and 
excessive involuntary overtime shifts at all ports of entry, NTEU 
recommends that Congress take the following actions:
   Enact a stand-alone bill to authorize funding for CBP 
        officer new hires to the level identified in the workload 
        staffing model,
   Support funding for CBP officers new hires in fiscal year 
        2022 DHS Appropriations,
   Support fiscal year 2022 funding for new CBP agriculture 
        inspection personnel, as authorized by Pub. L. 116-122,
   Support funding for needed trade operations specialists and 
        other OFO support staff,
   Support the Hazardous Duty Pay for Frontline Federal Workers 
        Act (H.R. 2744), and any new legislation that temporarily 
        provides hazard pay for CBP employees exposed to the public at 
        work during the COVID-19 pandemic, and
   Oppose any legislation to divert customs user fees to other 
        uses, projects, or programs that are collected to fund a 
        portion of salaries, benefits, and overtime for CBP officers.
    The CBP employees that NTEU represents work hard and care deeply 
about their jobs and their country. These men and women are deserving 
of more staffing and resources to perform their jobs better and more 
efficiently. Authorizing funding for CBP OFO new hires will start to 
relieve the stress of excessive overtime and temporary reassignments 
that are a strain on CBP employees and their families.
    Thank you for the opportunity to testify before the subcommittee.
                             NTEU Exhibit A
                                 November 15, 2021.
The Honorable Rosa DeLauro,
Chair, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of Representatives, 
        Washington, DC 20515.
The Honorable Kay Granger,
Ranking Member, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. House of 
        Representatives, Washington, DC 20515.
The Honorable Patrick Leahy,
Chair, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510.
The Honorable Richard Shelby,
Vice Chair, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 
        20510.
    Dear Chair DeLauro, Ranking Member Granger, Chair Leahy, and Vice 
Chair Shelby: As stakeholders interested in the security and 
facilitation activities of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at air, 
sea, and land ports-of-entry around the world, we remain greatly 
affected by the on-going COVID-19 global pandemic and its impact on the 
processing of passengers and cargo. As the U.S. economy recovers and 
international trade and travel begin to reach pre-pandemic levels, we 
are increasingly concerned that CBP staffing may not be sufficient to 
address these increased volumes.
    While we are appreciative that both the House and Senate DHS 
Appropriations bills maintain funding for current CBP officer staffing 
levels, we are disappointed that neither bill included additional 
resources for CBP to hire new officers. With our air, sea, and land 
ports reopened to international travelers that are fully vaccinated on 
November 8 and cruise ships resuming full operations on January 15th, 
we are seeing a surge in travelers that will need to be processed by 
CBP officers. Couple that with the identified need of 1,785 new 
officers in CBP's most recent workload staffing model, finalized when 
COVID-related international travel restrictions were in place, it is 
clear that the agency needs additional officers to smoothly process 
travelers and cargo without long delays at our ports of entry and to 
facilitate new economic opportunities in communities throughout the 
United States. That is why we respectively reiterate our original 
request and are asking you to consider during conference negotiations 
funding for 800 additional CBP officers--half the identified need--in 
the final fiscal year 2022 DHS appropriations bill.
    Also, we should recognize CBP's continued shortfall in user fees 
collections that support 8,000 CBP officers at our ports of entry and 
preclearance operations at foreign airports as a result of the 
precipitous decrease in travel during the COVID pandemic. We greatly 
appreciate Congress providing supplemental resources last year to 
ensure that the agency maintains its staffing levels and continues to 
on-board new officers during the pandemic. We also are appreciative of 
the language included in the current continuing resolution that 
prevents the agency from furloughing staff due to pandemic-related loss 
of user fee funding. We believe additional emergency funding will be 
needed in the final fiscal year 2022 DHS appropriation agreement to 
sustain CBP officers as user fees have not yet returned to pre-pandemic 
levels and urge this funding be included in the final agreement.
    Increasing CBP officer staffing is an economic driver for the U.S. 
economy. While the volume of commerce crossing our borders has more 
than tripled in the past 25 years, CBP staffing has not kept pace with 
demand. Long wait times at our ports-of-entry lead to travel delays and 
uncertainty, which can increase supply chain costs and cause passengers 
to miss their connections. According to the U.S. Department of 
Commerce, border delays result in losses to output, wages, jobs, and 
tax revenue due to decreases in spending by companies, suppliers, and 
consumers. The travel industry estimates long CBP wait times have 
discouraged international visitors, who spend an average of $4,200 per 
visit, from traveling to the United States.
    We share your commitment to ensuring that America's borders remain 
safe, secure, and efficient for all users while enhancing our global 
competitiveness through the facilitation of legitimate travel and 
trade. We greatly appreciate your efforts to continue building on 
staffing advances made in recent years, and we urge you to include 
fiscal year 2022 funding to sustain the current CBP officers, provide 
funding to hire new ones, and make up for the user fee funding 
shortfall.
            Sincerely,
              Airports Council International--North America
                          National Treasury Employees Union
                 American Association of Airport Executives
                   American Association of Port Authorities
                                  Airforwarders Association
                        American Society of Travel Advisors
                                      Border Trade Alliance
                                  Cargo Airline Association
                                   City of Douglas, Arizona
                                  City of San Luis, Arizona
                   Douglas Industrial Development Authority
                       Douglas International Port Authority
          Douglas Regional Economic Development Corporation
                  Fresh Produce Association of the Americas
                         Global Business Travel Association
           Greater Nogales Santa Cruz County Port Authority
                                Greater Yuma Port Authority
               National Association of Waterfront Employers
                       National Maritime Safety Association
                    Texas International Produce Association
                                    The Borderplex Alliance
                                     US Travel Association.

    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Reardon, for your testimony.
    I would now like to recognize Mr. Seroka to summarize his 
statement for 5 minutes.

STATEMENT OF EUGENE D. SEROKA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PORT OF LOS 
                  ANGELES, CITY OF LOS ANGELES

    Mr. Seroka. Thank you and good afternoon, Chairwoman 
Barragan, Ranking Member Higgins, and other distinguished 
Members of Congress.
    My name is Eugene D. Seroka. I am the executive director of 
the Port of Los Angeles and the city of Los Angles' chief 
logistics officer. Thank you for inviting me to participate 
today. It's a very important hearing given the supply chain 
challenges we have witnessed over the last 18 months and 
progress you have made, making Federal resources available to 
our Nation's ports.
    The Port of Los Angeles, with our neighboring port in Long 
Beach, comprise the San Pedro Bay Port Complex, which handles 
nearly 40 percent of all containerized imports and 30 percent 
of all exports in the container for the United States. Cargo 
moving through this complex flows to and from 160 countries 
across the globe and reaches every Congressional district in 
the United States.
    Our volume reflects changes in consumer behavior, trade 
patterns, and manufacturing supply chains. Overall, trade in 
the third quarter rose more than 6.7 percent, year over year, 
from $73 billion quarter 3 of 2020 to nearly $78 billion in 
quarter 3 in 2021. We average more than 900,000 container units 
per month since July 2020, even exceeding 1 million monthly 20-
foot equivalent units in May 2021. Handling this amount of 
cargo is by any measure an amazing accomplishment for our 
marine terminal operators as well as our longshore work force. 
Before the pandemic we averaged 10 ships calling per day. Here 
at the Port of Los Angeles during the surge, we have averaged 
more than 15 ships a day.
    The cargo surge has affected every node within the supply 
chain. Warehouses have reached capacity, container and chassis 
availability has been limited. And, as a result, our terminals 
are full. We put out a daily operational report on our 
website's hero page made available to the public every day. As 
of this morning, the situation at America's port is as follows: 
18 container vessels at berth, 98 vessels have either left Asia 
or are on their way into this port complex. Container dwell 
times are at 6 days on dock, down from a peak of 11 days. On 
dock rail dwell is at 3 days, down from a peak of nearly 13\1/
2\. But street dwell of containers and chassis stands at 11 
days, nearly triple the normal street dwell time.
    With the assistance of the White House, we began joint port 
action meetings 3 times a week with port envoy John Porcari and 
all stakeholders across the supply chain to discuss the 
operational challenges we face here in the San Pedro Bay and 
recommended actions. Through this effort we continue to work 
directly with cargo owners to expedite the movement of their 
goods out of the marine terminals using expanded gate hours and 
additional work efforts. This was dubbed as ``Accelerate Cargo 
Los Angeles'' .
    The address of the lack of available chassis, we then 
opened up cargo support facilities to accept empty containers 
right near our docks and free up chassis to pick up loaded 
imports, triangulating that activity. We also continued to 
expand our port community system, the Port Optimizer, the 
Nation's first and only port information sharing system, with 
additional modules, including the signal, control signal, 
control tower, and the horizon, the first ever 6-month 
forecasting tool. These new modules provide our supply chain 
partners with greater visibility and action based factual data.
    Last, our board has adopted a container excess dwell fee 
back in the month of October, which is a surcharge to ocean 
carriers for import containers that dwell on marine terminals 9 
days or more. That fee has never been implemented. We have not 
collected a dime, but incredible progress has been made to move 
cargo off our docks where this morning we reported to the White 
House a 61 percent reduction in aging containers.
    With the recent passage of the Infrastructure Investment 
and Jobs Act we have focused on applying the lessons learned 
over the past year-and-a-half to strategic investments made in 
our Nation's ports and goods movement system. We believe there 
are four critical areas in need of attention.
    First, to ensure an adequate supply of trained workers 
across the supply chain. We are working with industry partners 
to develop the Nation's first work force training campus right 
here in Los Angeles. Next we need investment at facilities that 
allow our system to flex, to scale to the needs of the goods 
movement system. Here at the port we are pursuing permanent 
activation of an 80-acre site on Terminal Island to serve just 
that purpose. Third, a consistent message we have heard is the 
need for timely and uniform information sharing, building on 
that Port Optimizer and investing in this critical technology 
across the country. And, fourth, the Optimizer digitizes 
maritime supply chain data, protects the owners of that data, 
and provides stakeholders with improved system efficiency. And, 
last, supply chain disruption and inefficiency lead to higher 
emissions of greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants. We need 
to invest in cleaner technology to reduce emissions that harm 
surrounding communities, and that is why the Climate Smart 
Ports Act is so important.
    We are developing a first-in-the-Nation program to deploy 
zero emission trucks in the near-term to handle cargo movement 
to destinations within 25 miles of our port. This will 
accelerate the development of wide-spread adoption, but also 
look to funding streams to help bridge that gap between the 
truck owner's needs and what major manufacturers are producing. 
We intend to support this program with port funds, but will 
need Federal partnership in a sustainable market maker effort.
    Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify today 
and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Seroka follows:]
                 Prepared Statement of Eugene D. Seroka
                            January 19, 2022
                              introduction
    Good morning Chairman Thompson, Chairwoman Barragan, Ranking Member 
Katko, Ranking Member Higgins, Members of the House Subcommittee on 
Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations, and other distinguished 
Members of Congress. Thank you for the invitation to participate in 
this important hearing.
    I am Eugene D. Seroka, executive director at the Port of Los 
Angeles. I concurrently serve on the board of directors for the 
California Association of Port Authorities and the American Association 
of Port Authorities. Also, I have been honored to serve on four Federal 
committees to enhance the speed and efficiency of cargo movement and 
supply chain optimization, including the U.S. Department of Commerce 
Advisory Committee on Supply Chain Competitiveness, U.S. Maritime 
Administration Marine Transportation System National Advisory 
Committee, Federal Maritime Commission Supply Chain Innovation Team, 
and U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation's former 
Port Performance Freight Statistics Working Group. In addition to 
spending the last 8 years at the Port of Los Angeles, I have more than 
33 years of experience in the maritime shipping industry, both in the 
United States and abroad. Our industry is very much a relationship-
based business and, throughout my career, I have been privileged to 
engage with every link of our global supply chain.
    I greatly appreciate the purpose of today's hearing because I 
believe an open dialog is needed on lessons learned from the current 
cargo surge, its effect on our supply chain, and how the Federal 
Government can assist the maritime industry going forward. Today, the 
ports and goods movement sector overall is experiencing unprecedented 
disruption, especially at major trade gateways around the world. As the 
Federal Government seeks to identify long-term solutions, now is the 
time to discuss what we have learned and how we can be better prepared 
in the future.
                        the port of los angeles
    The Port of Los Angeles is the busiest container port in the Nation 
and the primary gateway to the Pacific Rim. While December 2021 volume 
is still being confirmed, we estimate that for calendar year 2021 the 
port handled approximately 10.7 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units, 
the standard measure of container cargo), about 13 percent more than 
its previous record set in 2018, and the first time a U.S. port has 
moved more than 10 million container units in a calendar year. This 
achievement is a credit to the women and men across the supply chain--
from the waterfront to warehouses. It is also attributable to the 
immense operational scale of the Port of Los Angeles: 27 terminals, 270 
berths, roughly 200,000 unique shippers, 1,654 annual ship calls, 100 
daily trains, and 60,000 daily truck moves. We also operate cruise, 
liquid bulk, and automobile business lines; however, container cargo is 
the largest share of our business.
    Together with our neighboring port in Long Beach, we comprise the 
San Pedro Bay Port Complex, which handles nearly 40 percent of all 
containerized imports and 30 percent of all containerized exports for 
the United States. Cargo through this complex flows to and from 160 
countries across the globe and reaches every Congressional district 
across the Nation. In fact, only one-third of the cargo handled at the 
port is destined for the Los Angeles region, while fully two-thirds of 
our cargo is destined for the National market. As a result, changes in 
consumer behavior, trading patterns, and manufacturing supply chains 
show up in our volumes.
                              volume surge
    Early in the pandemic, the port was initially down 20 percent in 
cargo volumes, our marine terminals had ample space, and there was a 
large number of canceled sailings. As the pandemic progressed and 
consumer spending shifted, our cargo volume increased rapidly averaging 
900,000 containers per month since July 2020. Comparing the first 11 
months of 2021 to previous years, they are 18.7 percent higher than 
2020 volumes. In cargo value, overall trade in the third quarter rose 
more than 6.7 percent year over year, from $72.8 billion in Q3 of 2020, 
to $77.7 billion in 2021. This pandemic-induced surge is the main 
reason the Port of Los Angeles became the first port in the Western 
Hemisphere to process 10 million container units in a 12-month period. 
Additionally, the port processed 1,012,248 TEUs in May 2021, a leap of 
74 percent compared to May 2020. It was the busiest month ever in the 
port's 114-year history, the first time a Western Hemisphere port has 
handled more than 1 million TEUs in a month.


                   supply chain impacts and response
    Handling this amount of cargo is, by any measure, an amazing 
accomplishment for our terminal operators as well as our longshore 
workforce. Productivity at the port has never been higher. Before the 
pandemic, we averaged 10 ships a day; during this surge, we have 
averaged 16 to 17 ships a day.
    The cargo surge has affected every node within the supply chain; 
our terminals are full, warehouses have reached capacity, containers 
and chassis are scarce, and ships await at berth, lining up outside the 
breakwaters for days.
    The surge in volumes has placed strain on the system:
   Warehouses.--Despite nearly 2 billion square feet of 
        warehouses in our region, these facilities filled up and 
        resorted to using containers as temporary storage. The amount 
        of time it takes for a container and chassis to cycle back to 
        the port--what we call ``street dwell''--went from an average 
        of 3 days to 9.6 days.
   Marine Terminals.--Shippers need to continue to pick up 
        their boxes here at the port, as the terminals continue to fill 
        up with containers. The duration of time a container remains in 
        a terminal before it is moved, is currently 6 days, an increase 
        from 5.1 days previously recorded, and 4 days pre-pandemic. 
        Marine terminal utilization remains elevated with terminal 
        tarmacs 95 percent utilized (80 percent is considered 
        ``full'').
   Turn Times.--When terminal tarmacs are stacked with 
        containers, it takes longer for trucks to pick up the boxes, so 
        ``truck turn times'' increase. Ships also take longer to 
        process, causing incoming ships to be directed to anchor.
   Ships at Anchor.--Typically, ships arrive and are assigned a 
        berth for unloading and loading of cargo; however, in a 
        congestion scenario, ships are directed to anchor off the coast 
        of California. In the Fall of 2021, we averaged more than 100 
        ships that were loitering/drifting/slow steaming heading to the 
        San Pedro Bay. Of those, the Port of Los Angeles has 
        consistently expected between 40-50 vessels, with an average 
        anchorage time of 20 days. On November 16, the industry moved 
        to a modified queuing system for safety and environmental 
        purposes. This has significantly reduce the number of ship 
        anchor within 40 nautical miles.
   Rail.--The time that containers sit, waiting to be loaded on 
        to a train--what we call ``rail dwell time''--increased from 2 
        to 11.8 days. At peak, rail dwell was at 13.2 days in March 
        2021. Currently, thanks to the work of the Class I railroads, 
        our on-dock rail time to load is now 3 days.
    To gain a better handle on the cargo congestion we are 
experiencing, we have launched several initiatives to deal with the 
unprecedent volumes, such as:
   Accelerate Cargo LA.--In September 2021, after consultation 
        with multiple supply chain stakeholders and the U.S. Department 
        of Transportation, we announced expanded weekend operating gate 
        hours. Dubbed ``Accelerate Cargo LA,'' the Port of Los Angeles' 
        program operates on a pilot basis to ensure that gate 
        availability meets cargo demands and provides greater 
        transparency to improve efficiency. We have called on marine 
        terminal operators to incentivize the use of all available gate 
        hours, especially night gates, to reduce congestion and 
        maximize cargo throughput capacity.
   Cargo Support Facilities.--Additionally, we have sought 
        cargo support facilities to address the physical space 
        limitations on our marine terminals. The Port of Los Angeles is 
        identifying properties within the port complex that can serve 
        as flex capacity, which will assist with operational challenges 
        such as empty container returns, staging for loaded import 
        containers, and other marine terminal support functions.
   Port Community System.--The Port of Los Angeles is the only 
        port in the United States to operate a Port Community System 
        (PCS). While this is a common practice at ports across Asia and 
        Europe, the United States has lagged in its investments in 
        digital infrastructure. A PCS can optimize, manage, and 
        aggregate logistics data allowing for advanced planning and 
        better asset utilization.
    Our system, the Port Optimizer, which is a cloud-based platform, 
        collects data from more than 70 sources on vessel arrivals, 
        container availability, marine terminal operating conditions, 
        gate fluidity, and other logistical factors. It provides a 
        single window through which beneficial cargo owners (BCOs), 
        non-vessel owning common carriers (NVOs), and truckers can 
        schedule appointments to take delivery of containers given 
        real-time conditions at the terminals. Additionally, it already 
        shares shipment data provided by carriers to some Federal 
        agencies, such as Customs and Border Protection.
    This system is a unique approach to demonstrate the benefits of 
        digitizing maritime shipping data and making it available to 
        cargo owners and supply chain stakeholders through secure, 
        channeled access. Within the last year, we have enhanced the 
        Port Optimizer with several new features:
     The Signal.--Includes a dashboard view of the total number 
            of shipments expected to arrive in Los Angeles over the 
            following 3 weeks. The data is broken down by container 
            type and includes details on the mode of transportation, 
            whether rail or truck, once it arrives at the port. This 
            planning tool enables stakeholders to have forward 
            visibility and allow them to better utilize their assets 
            and plan for labor, especially during volume surges like we 
            are currently experiencing.
     The Return Signal.--A data tool that assists the trucking 
            community to know when and where to return empty containers 
            to cargo terminals throughout the San Pedro Bay Port 
            Complex. The system is user-friendly by simplifying the 
            search feature, providing a filter, and making it 
            customizable for the stakeholder. This can enhance the 
            probability of dual transactions since its data is updated 
            every 5 minutes. Dual transactions occur when a truck 
            driver returns a container or dropping off an export load 
            and picking up a container (either an import or an empty 
            for export load) in one trip.
     The Control Tower.--A service and digital tool that 
            provides real-time views of truck turn times at all the 
            port's cargo terminals, as well as other truck capacity 
            management information, to help cargo owners, truckers, and 
            other supply chain stakeholders better predict and plan 
            cargo flows. The information is updated continuously with 
            GeoStamp data and broken down by historical daily and 
            monthly averages. It also provides recent and future 
            trending volume data, as well as volumes and trends dating 
            back to 2017, segmented by mode.
     POLA Horizon.--The newest addition to the Port Optimizer 
            is a long-term predictive data tool. The new module offers 
            stakeholders the capability to gauge movement of 
            containers--imports, exports, and empties--at the port up 
            to 6 months in advance. Its forecasting technology uses an 
            algorithm based on historical and trending volume data 
            collected by the Port Optimizer. Continually taking into 
            account changing conditions at the port, the algorithm 
            constantly updates cargo volumes, allowing the Horizon to 
            improve forecasting over time and issue 6-month-ahead 
            volume updates every month.
    Each of these enhancements provides the supply chain with greater 
        fluidity and resilience, which is critical when confronting 
        disruptions.
   Container Dwell Time Fees and Empty Container Fees.--To 
        improve cargo movement amid congestion and record volume, the 
        Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach announced that it would 
        consider assessing a surcharge to ocean carriers for import 
        containers that dwell on marine terminals, known as the 
        ``Container Dwell Time Fee.'' The ports would charge ocean 
        carriers for each loaded import container that dwells 9 days or 
        more. After weekly evaluations, the fee has not yet been 
        implemented due to the incredible progress made by cargo owners 
        retrieving their goods. As of January 19, 2022, we have yet to 
        collect $1 from the fee and the two ports have seen a combined 
        decline of 45 percent in aging cargo on the docks since the 
        program was announced on October 25, 2021. The Port of Los 
        Angeles has delayed enacting the fee on the import containers 
        because import containers dwelling more than 9 days has been 
        reduced by 60 percent since October 24, 2021.
        
        
    Due to the success of removing older containers from the docks 
        since the Container Dwell Time Fee was announced, there has 
        been an increase of empty containers being returned to 
        terminals and occupying additional space which should be used 
        for moving cargo off newly-arrived vessels. To address this 
        challenge, the port is considering adopting an ``Empty 
        Container Fee.'' The overall concept was presented to our Board 
        on January 13 and the port continues to work with industry 
        stakeholders to refine the concept so as to avoid unintended 
        consequences.
                            lessons learned
    The coronavirus pandemic, and the subsequent cargo surge, has 
underscored the importance of a strong, fluid, efficient, and resilient 
supply chain. Breakdowns and delays can have catastrophic effects. 
Consequently, it is imperative that we engage in dialog, like that of 
this hearing, to learn from our experience. There are three major 
lessons I would like to share with the subcommittee:
   Supply chain disruptions are global.--Since the start of the 
        pandemic, countries around the world have faced similar 
        disruptions we are experiencing here in the United States.
   Federal support for supply chains must be developed with a 
        solutions-oriented approach and with representation from all 
        stakeholders.--For instance, the Biden-Harris administration 
        launched the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, which 
        included a focus on transportation and logistics bottlenecks to 
        the U.S. economic recovery. After meeting with local government 
        leaders and companies to diagnose the problems and identify 
        solutions, Port Envoy John Porcari was appointed in August to 
        help drive coordination between several key stakeholders. 
        Today, the administration continues to convene with business 
        leaders, port leaders, and union leaders three times a week to 
        discuss the challenges we face across the country. As a result, 
        we have found solutions that are addressing major concerns such 
        as extended gate hours, container dwell time fees, etc.
   Invest in System Resiliency and Adaptability.--The recently-
        passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) represents 
        an opportunity to build resiliency and adaptability into our 
        goods movement system. Based on our recent experience with 
        supply chain disruption, we have identified the following key 
        investment areas:
     Workforce Resiliency.--Supply chain workers are essential 
            workers. Ensuring an adequate supply of trained workers 
            across the goods movement system is fundamental to system 
            resiliency. Therefore, we have requested support for a 
            Goods Movement Workforce Training Campus on Port of Los 
            Angeles land. With a project cost of approximately $150 
            million, the facility will be the first training campus in 
            the United States dedicated to the goods movement industry. 
            It is designed to attract new workers, address skill 
            shortages, and provide opportunities for workforce up-
            skilling or re-skilling to help alleviate the workforce 
            shortages contributing to the current supply chain 
            disruption as well as address the rapidly-changing needs of 
            the industry. It will also be built with an eye toward a 
            greener future and will be a resource for workers in the 
            industry to train on zero emission (ZE) technologies.
     System Resiliency.--Cargo support facilities are necessary 
            to assist with operational challenges facing our marine 
            terminals. Over the long term, we recommend permanent 
            activation of an 80-acre site on Terminal Island to serve 
            this purpose. To that end, we have requested support for a 
            grade separation project with an estimated project cost of 
            $50 million that will provide unimpeded access to an 80-
            acres site on Terminal Island. Currently, the site is 
            enclosed by a loop of active and heavily-used rail tracks 
            limiting accessibility by truck or other equipment. Grade 
            separation will open unimpeded access to this site and 
            enable its use as a flex capacity space to assist with 
            future cargo surges.
     Reducing Environmental Impacts on Surrounding 
            Communities.--Supply chain disruption and inefficiency lead 
            to higher emissions of greenhouse gases and criteria 
            pollutants, which is why solutions found in the Climate 
            Smart Ports Act are important. Under our Clean Air Action 
            Plan (CAAP), we have set a goal of achieving a 100 percent 
            ZE trucks by 2035 and 100 percent ZE cargo handling 
            equipment by 2030. Currently, we are developing a first-in-
            the-Nation program to deploy ZE trucks in the near-term to 
            handle cargo movement to destinations within a 25-mile 
            radius. This will accelerate development and wide-spread 
            adoption of ZE port trucks and concentrate air quality 
            benefits in those impacted communities along major freight 
            routes. We intend to support this program with port funds 
            and ask you to consider partnering with us to fund ZE truck 
            deployment and supporting infrastructure.
     Visibility and Supply Chain Optimization.--As we continue 
            to meet with supply chain users and service providers, one 
            consistent message is the need for timely and uniform 
            sharing of information across the supply chain. Ports in 
            the United States remain behind their international peers 
            in this regard. We support continued implementation of 
            supply chain digitalization and interoperability. At the 
            Port of Los Angeles, we are investing in this critical 
            technology through our Port Optimizer system. The Port 
            Optimizer digitizes maritime shipping data for cargo owners 
            and supply chain stakeholders to improve system efficiency. 
            It helps cargo owners bring their goods to market in a more 
            predictable and timely manner. Expanding the use of the 
            Port Optimizer within the Port of Los Angeles--and 
            elsewhere--will provide real-time visibility and 
            information to supply chain stakeholders as they seek to 
            address the current backlogs.
     Cyber Security Enhancement.--Greater reliance on digital 
            infrastructure mandates that we enhance cybersecurity. Our 
            objective is to move cargo uninterrupted and efficiently as 
            possible. Recent events have underscored that our Nation is 
            susceptible to crippling cyber attacks on our critical 
            infrastructure. As the subcommittee knows through its 
            oversight work, the Port of Los Angeles has launched its 
            own Cyber Resilience Center (CRC). Developed in 
            collaboration with our industry stakeholders, the CRC will 
            enable port community cyber defense and serve as an 
            information resource to assist in restoring operations 
            following an attack. This center will allow for limited but 
            vital information sharing for terminal stakeholders and is 
            something that the port believes will be instrumental to 
            remain operational as cyber attacks become more prevalent 
            on global supply chain infrastructure.
    With that, I will conclude my remarks and I would be happy to 
address any questions. Thanks again for this opportunity.

    Ms. Barragan. Fantastic. Thank you so much for your 
testimony and for everybody's indulgence on--I will try to give 
equal time to everybody.
    I would now like to recognize Ms. Vick to summarize your 
statement for 5 minutes.

 STATEMENT OF CATHIE J. VICK, CHIEF DEVELOPMENT AND GOVERNMENT 
   AFFAIRS OFFICER, PORT OF VIRGINIA, VIRGINIA PORT AUTHORITY

    Ms. Vick. Good afternoon. Thank you, Chairwoman Barragan, 
and Ranking Member Higgins, and other esteemed colleagues and 
Members of the subcommittee and committee. Thank you, 
Representative Luria, for the kind introduction, not just of 
me, Cathy Vick, the chief development and public affairs 
officers, but of the Port of Virginia, which is the fifth-
largest and one of the fastest-growing ports in our country, 
extending our reach all the way into the Ohio Valley and 
Midwest, really being a gateway of international trade with the 
largest rail volumes on the East Coast, serving farmers and 
manufacturers throughout our heartland.
    Twenty-twenty-one was certainly our most productive year as 
the supply chain congestion has shown. We are moving more cargo 
than ever before. We processed 3.5 million TEUs last year, 
which is a 25 percent increase over 2020. The increased volume 
represented all categories, including loaded exports, and we 
handled these record volumes without congestion at our berth 
our our gates. We have no ships waiting at anchor and our truck 
turn times have remained consistently under 50 minutes.
    Over the last 5 years we have invested more than $800 
million to add 1 million containers of annual capacity to our 
terminals, which certainly help us be prepared for this surge 
in cargo. We have also, in partnership with the Army Corps of 
Engineers, started dredging a deepening and widening of our 
navigation channels. As mentioned by Representative Luria, the 
Federal Government is partnering with us and had an 
announcement today related to that.
    In addition we have the advantage of what we call the 
``Virginia model'' where we have one single terminal operator 
and owner that keeps us agile and flexible in the way that we 
can show measurable results to our cargo owners and our ocean 
carriers when they are facing delays or challenges. We are not 
beholden to any particular economic interest or level of profit 
and we can be flexible in our operations to accommodate our 
customers as needed.
    The past 2 years haven't been without our challenges 
though. As mentioned by the other colleagues, COVID-19 has 
certainly affected our work force, but we have been able to 
overcome those challenges and keep our focus on delivering 
best-in-class performance with solid efficiency, customer 
service, and that record amount of cargo. What the pandemic has 
revealed to us, as we saw the cascade across the global supply 
chain, is that we really need to keep a focused laser focus on 
supply chain and how essential it is to the Nation's economic 
success and security, making it a key Federal policy and 
funding priority with the ports at the keystone of that supply 
chain. We appreciate the efforts that you all have done, 
especially with the passage of the Infrastructure Act. I think 
we will continue to see the fruits of that as we move forward.
    Looking at cybersecurity, as you can imagine, as we have 
introduced more technology and more efficiencies, cybersecurity 
becomes even more of a threat and one of our highest 
priorities. We are the most technologically advanced port in 
the United States and it allows us to maximize our land use 
efficiency and better handle these surges of cargo that we have 
been seeing. It also allows us to plan our operations in 
advance and move containers to the optimal position within the 
yard to facilitate the exchanges to and from the vessels, the 
rail, and the trucks. Given our reliance on technology, we do a 
lot to protect ourselves. We participate in a number of advance 
cybersecurity programs and have close working relationships 
with the United States Coast Guard, CBP, and the FBI. 
Collaboration among Federal agencies and industry helps us all 
fulfill our mission and stay safe.
    Shifting to CBP staffing and facilities, we share a lot of 
the same concerns as touched on by Mr. Connor. We have 
participated in the 559 Reimbursable Services Program. 
Originally in 2015 we were paying $1.5 million annually. It was 
supposed to be on a temporary basis. Nearly 7 years later we 
are still continuing to pay $750,000 annually with no end in 
sight.
    When it comes to facilities, again those same concerns as 
Mr. Connor. Specifically, we have been presented with demands 
not only for space, but for equipment, system upgrades, and 
then maintenance costs for those system upgrades, a lot of 
times without advance notice and with a threat that there will 
be service disruptions and degradation if we do not do it, even 
though there was no input and no capital planning during our 
budgeting process.
    So thank you again for the opportunity to testify and share 
our perspective. Happy to answer any questions that you all 
have from the committee. Again, really appreciate your support 
and the opportunity to share with you the challenges that we 
are facing and how we can work together to solve them.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Vick follows:]
                  Prepared Statement of Cathie J. Vick
                            January 19, 2022
                              introduction
    Good afternoon Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Katko, Chairwoman 
Barragan, Ranking Member Higgins, and Members of the subcommittee. 
Thank you for the invitation to testify at this hearing.
    I am Cathie Vick, chief development and public affairs officer of 
The Port of Virginia. The Port of Virginia is fifth-largest and one of 
the fastest-growing ports in the country. Annually, The Port of 
Virginia is responsible for more than 400,000 jobs and $100 billion in 
spending across Virginia and contributes more than $47 billion to the 
Commonwealth's Gross State Product. The port's reach also extends 
throughout the Mid-Atlantic and into the Ohio Valley and Midwest, 
handling the largest rail volume on the East Coast and serving American 
farmers and manufacturers throughout the heartland of our Nation. Of 
equal importance, Virginia is one of the Nation's 17 strategic ports, 
handles more military support cargo than any port in the United States, 
and is home to the U.S. Navy's Atlantic fleet--the only nuclear-
carrier-capable port facility on the East Coast.
                        supply chain performance
    Last week we announced that 2021 was our most productive calendar 
year on record having processed more than 3.5 million TEUs (20-foot 
equivalent units). This represents a 25 percent increase over 2020, 
making Virginia the fastest-growing major container port in the 
country. The increased volume was represented across all categories 
including loaded exports, and we handled these record volumes without 
congestion at our berths or gates. We have no ships waiting at anchor, 
and our truck turn times have remained consistently under 50 minutes.
    Over the last 5 years, more than $800 million has been invested at 
the port to add 1 million containers of annual capacity to our 
terminals. At the same time, in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers, dredging is under way to deepen and widen our navigation 
channel to allow two-way flow of ultra-large container vessels, 
unrestricted by tide or channel width. Upon completion, we will have 
the deepest channels on the U.S. East Coast at 55 feet deep and 
eliminate navigation restrictions on both commercial and military 
vessels.
    In addition, the advantage of the Virginia Model--where we have a 
single terminal owner and operator across our 4 deep-water, multi-
purpose cargo terminals and 2 inland terminals--keeps the port agile 
and provides measurable results to ocean carriers and cargo owners that 
are facing congestion and delays elsewhere. We own the terminals, and 
our operating company runs them. This is an important advantage because 
we are not beholden to multiple economic interests, especially when we 
need to be flexible in our operations to accommodate our customers and 
growing cargo volumes. The Hampton Roads Chassis Pool (HRCPII) is a 
great example of the advantages of being an owner-operator. We own and 
operate HRCP [II] and as a result, we can make decisions and take quick 
action to ensure we have an ample supply of chassis.
                                covid-19
    The past 2 years have not been without challenges, however we kept 
our focus and delivered a best-in-class performance with solid 
efficiency, customer service, and a record amount of cargo. It was 
truly collaborative effort between our entire team and all of our 
partners--including Federal agencies and of specific relevance to this 
committee the United States Coast Guard (USCG), Customs and Border 
Protection (CBP), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
    Early in the pandemic, we established the COVID-19 Critical Cargo 
Initiative to identify critical import cargo needed in the effort to 
fight COVID-19 (including personal protective equipment (PPE) for the 
medical industry [face shields, gowns, gloves], test kits, virus-
critical shipments like hand sanitizer, and raw materials going into 
PPE production) moving through Virginia, and allocated the equipment 
and personnel needed to get the container moving to its destination as 
fast as possible (often times in less than 1 hour after the ship 
docked).
    The pandemic has revealed what those of us in the industry already 
knew: That supply chains are essential to our Nation's economic success 
and security. Protection of our supply chains must necessarily be a key 
Federal policy and funding priority, and ports are the keystone to the 
supply chain.
    We are grateful for the $4.4 million in reimbursements FEMA has 
approved to date as we have implemented robust measures to keep our 
colleagues, labor partners, motor carriers, and customers safe and 
healthy while we remained open throughout this pandemic.
                             cybersecurity
    Beyond the pandemic, cybersecurity remains a constant threat and 
one of our highest priorities. The Port of Virginia is the most 
technologically advanced port in the United States. This technology 
allows us to maximize our land use efficiency--20 to 30 percent better 
usage than a conventional container terminal--and better handle surges 
in cargo volumes. Our technology also allows us to plan operations in 
advance and move containers to an optimal position to facilitate 
exchanges to and from vessels, rail, and trucks. We have implemented 
this technology in partnership with the International Longshoremen's 
Association (ILA). We have had no net loss of jobs; as positions have 
been eliminated those individuals have been retrained into new and 
better jobs. This has also resulted in a safer and more comfortable 
working environment.
    Given our reliance on technology, we do a lot to protect ourselves. 
In addition to our internal efforts, we have participated in a number 
of advanced cybersecurity programs and have close working relationships 
with the USCG, CBP, and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). These 
include being the maritime test case for the Principles-based 
Assessment for Cybersecurity Toolkit (PACT) project conducted by Naval 
Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and Indiana University Center for Applied 
Cybersecurity and supporting maritime sector technology exchanges with 
key Government groups like the National Security Agency (NSA) and U.S. 
Cyber Command. Collaboration amongst Federal agencies and industry will 
help those agencies fulfill their missions and keep us all safer.
    But we know more can be done. Ports are critical infrastructure, 
yet Federal agencies are slow to share information and actionable 
intelligence with us directly or through industry sharing and analysis 
groups in a timely manner. We need our Federal partners to actively 
engage and provide two-way communication in order to allow us to 
prepare for and respond to threats and prevent any compromise of our 
systems.
    We recently received a FEMA Port Security Grant to establish a 
Cyber Security Operations Center. The design and implementation are 
being done in a manner so as to make it a template for other ports and 
provide working space for other Government agencies to occupy in case 
of an event. Despite our success with this grant, Federal funding often 
does not seem to recognize the nature of technology dependence and 
rather allocates money based on criteria other than risk and need.
                              cbp staffing
    Traditional threats remain as well, and CBP is on the front line of 
protecting our Nation's trade and economic prosperity. Ensuring that 
the hiring and allocation of CBP officers and agricultural specialists 
keeps up with the growth in trade is essential to avoiding unnecessary 
delays to our supply chain. In Virginia we have benefited from two 
initiatives to alleviate staffing shortages: Veterans Hiring and 559 
Reimbursable Services.
    The Veterans Hiring program has allowed our local CBP Area Office 
to hire qualified, transitioning military members through an expedited 
process and keep those officers in the local area where they have 
already established roots. This is a win-win for the agency and the 
officer by recruiting from a well-qualified talent pool, maintaining 
local CBP staffing ahead of the rate of attrition, and allowing 
officers to remain in an area they know and enjoy.
    The 559 Reimbursable Services program additionally has allowed us 
to pay for CBP officers' overtime at our facilities. We originally 
entered into the 559 agreement in 2015 prior to the expansion at our 
facilities when volumes dictated that we operate extended gate hours--
as long as 21 hours per day. At its peak, we were paying $1.5 million 
annually. However, nearly 7 years later, we continue to pay more than 
$750,000 annually, and it remains unclear when or how what was designed 
to be a temporary supplement becomes established as part of the 
baseline workload for CBP and incorporated into their staff and 
allocation model.
    American businesses already pay Customs duties and fees in 
conjunction with these services, and while we are fortunate to have the 
financial wherewithal to absorb these costs, others are not as 
fortunate, creating disparity and inequity, and the supply chain 
suffers. This is not a sustainable model for ports or for CBP officers 
where the additional hours risk burn-out.
    Ensuring the consistent use of best practices nationally--like 
remote and on-site inspections--could also increase efficiency and 
alleviate some of the staffing pressures.
                             cbp facilities
    CBP also needs adequate facilities and equipment to perform its 
mission. While CBP's authority to require free space from ports is 
clear, in recent years, CBP's demands in this area have increased 
significantly. Specifically, we have been presented with demands not 
only for space but to pay for CBP equipment and systems. These demands 
often exceed 6 figures and come without notice or discretion. We do not 
have the opportunity to review or negotiate the need; the demands are 
not coordinated with our capital budget timing or processes; and we 
have no discretion in how to fulfill the needs. We do not begrudge CBP 
for the equipment and systems requirements, but these need to be 
addressed within the agency's budget and not foisted upon industry. We 
encourage this committee and Congress as a whole to exercise oversight 
in this area to ensure CBP operates within its authority; to clarify 
that authority if necessary; to properly identify the facilities, 
equipment, and systems required for CBP to perform its mission; and to 
provide the resources for those needs through the annual Appropriations 
process.
                               conclusion
    Thank you again for the opportunity to testify and share The Port 
of Virginia's perspective as you assess the state of America's ports. I 
appreciate the work of this committee to ensure the continued 
protection of our ports and supply chains and look forward to working 
with you, your colleagues, and our Federal agency partners to continue 
to deliver--and exceed--the service our customers and cargo owners 
expect and deserve. Safe, secure, and fluid ports are essential to our 
Nation's economic success and security.

    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Ms. Vick, for your testimony.
    I now recognize Mr. Self to summarize your statement for 5 
minutes.
    Mr. Self.

STATEMENT OF RICHERT L. SELF, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PORT OF LAKE 
                            CHARLES

    Mr. Self. Good afternoon, Chair Barragan, Ranking Member 
Higgins, and distinguished Members of the subcommittee. Thank 
you for this opportunity to speak to you today regarding the 
current state of the Port of Lake Charles, including impacts 
since 2020 from COVID-19 to two devastating hurricanes here in 
southwest Louisiana.
    As Ranking Member Higgins said, I am the executive director 
of the Port of Lake Charles. I was born and raised here in Lake 
Charles, and except for about a 4-year stint where I attended 
graduate school in New Orleans, I have lived here my entire 
life. I joined the port in 2003 as director of administration 
and finance and was promoted to deputy executive director in 
2017. Just before the hurricanes hit, in 2020 I was hired as 
executive director.
    We are the 14th-busiest port district in America. Twenty-
twenty-two marks the 95th year of the Calcasieu Ship Channel as 
a global shipping destination. America depends on Lake Charles, 
Louisiana more than it realizes. The Port of Lake Charles and 
the Calcasieu Ship Channel that connects to the Gulf of Mexico, 
are referred to as ``America's energy corridor''. Our port and 
our city support energy in three ways.
    First, our region is a National leader in oil and gas, 
exploration, drilling, and refining gasoline to creating other 
petroleum products. The Port of Lake Charles supports the full 
spectrum of the industry. Second, southwest Louisiana is a 
leader in moving liquefied natural gas all over the gas. LNG 
terminals operate at world-class levels here and the sector 
continues to grow. Those terminals are built on land leased 
from the port and they rely on the services provided by the 
port and our private-sector partners. Finally, our port is an 
emerging natural pathway for wind energy components. In just 2 
years we have moved more than 1,500 wind components. We unload 
them from vessels and rail and to wind farms across America. We 
are also pursuing offshore wind initiatives as a potential 
manufacturer of the components and to provide a terminal to 
marshal the components onto vessels to be installed in the Gulf 
and along the East Coast. In doing this we will meet the 
growing need for green energy choices.
    As you can see, the Port of Lake Charles serves everything 
from traditional fossil fuels to the newest in renewable energy 
technological. That is what makes us American's energy corridor 
and that is why the Nation depends on us. What we do affects 
the pocketbooks of your constituents. What they pay at the pump 
for gasoline, the cost for their supply of lumber for home 
improvement, whether it is for, you know, home improvement 
Nation-wide or disaster repairs along the Gulf Coast.
    The past 2 years have brought unprecedented challenge to 
our area. The effects of COVID-19 severely impacted our tonnage 
and related revenues. Our operating revenues declined by more 
than $5 million during COVID-19 in 2020 and the impacts 
actually continue to be felt in 2022.
    These issues were compounded by the strongest hurricane in 
our region's recorded history. Hurricane Laura hit in August 
2020 and 2 months later we were hit by Hurricane Delta, leaving 
our port in southwest Louisiana with unprecedented damage. 
Entire portions of our complex were decimated. The damage to 
the port is estimated at $241 million dollars and counting. We 
lost three custom ship loaders and two custom ship unloaders. 
Not only are they very expensive, but they require a long lead 
time. We are able to load ships using ships gear and a mobile 
harbor crane, but the operating costs were significantly higher 
than pre-hurricane levels.
    We also lost 85 percent of our covered storage and are 
utilizing temporary tension fabric buildings to fill that void. 
Without these facilities becoming operational, cargo owners 
will occur additional costs, the port will potentially lose the 
cargo, and area industries, local labor, and the farming 
community will be devastated.
    What has truly hampered our recovery though is the lack of 
Federal disaster relief. Beyond FEMA assistance and Federal 
COVID relief, although we received funding from various COVID 
relief bills, it has not nearly been enough related to the 
devastation from the hurricanes. Although Congress did pass a 
supplemental bill in September to finally address some of the 
pressing needs from the hurricanes and other disasters from 
2020, it has not been enough.
    Please help southwest Louisiana. We need your help by 
providing additional disaster recovery funds.
    I appreciate the opportunity you have given me to explain 
our port and southwest Louisiana's industrial complex as a 
whole and the fact that we are an economic background of 
America. We are not just some place that is far away that had a 
bad year that needs money. We are doing America's heavy 
lifting. America needs us, your constituents need us. Please 
help us convince your colleagues on Capitol Hill of the 
immediate and overdue need and help we need.
    Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Self follows:]
                 Prepared Statement of Richert L. Self
                            January 19, 2022
    Good morning Chair Barragan, Ranking Member Higgins, and 
distinguished Members of the subcommittee, thank you for this 
opportunity to speak with you today regarding the current state of the 
Port of Lake Charles, including impacts since 2020 from COVID to 
devastating hurricanes.
    I am the executive director of the Port of Lake Charles in 
Louisiana. I was born and raised in Lake Charles and, except for a 4-
year stint of working and going to graduate school in New Orleans, I 
have lived here my whole life. I have a Master's in Business 
Administration, I am a certified public accountant and am a 
professional port manager. I joined the port in 2003 as the director of 
administration and finance, was promoted to deputy executive director 
in 2017 and was hired as the executive director in 2020.
    We are the 14th-busiest port district in America. 2022 marks the 
95th anniversary of the Calcasieu Ship Channel as a global shipping 
destination.
    America depends on Lake Charles, Louisiana more than it realizes. 
The Port of Lake Charles, and the Calcasieu Ship Channel that connects 
to the Gulf of Mexico, are referred to as ``America's Energy 
Corridor.''
    Our port, and our city, support energy in three ways:
   First, our region is a National leader in oil and gas. From 
        exploration, drilling, and refining gasoline to creating other 
        petrochemical products. The Port of Lake Charles supports the 
        full spectrum of the industry.
   Second, the Lake Charles area is a leader in moving LNG all 
        over the globe. Liquified natural gas terminals operate at 
        world-class levels here, and the sector is growing. Those 
        terminals are built on land leased from our port, and they rely 
        on the services provided by the port and our private-sector 
        partners.
   Finally, our port is an emerging National pathway for wind 
        power components. In just 2 years, we have moved more than 
        1,500 wind components. We unload them from vessels and rail 
        them to wind farms across America.
    We are also pursuing gulf offshore wind initiatives as a potential 
manufacturer of the components and to provide a terminal to marshal the 
components onto vessels to be installed in the Gulf. In doing this, we 
will meet the growing need for green energy choices.
    As you can see, the Port of Lake Charles serves everything from 
traditional fossil fuels to the newest in renewable-energy 
technologies.
    That's what makes us America's Energy Corridor.
    And that's why the Nation depends on us.
    What we do affects the pocketbooks of your own constituents:
   The price they pay at the pump for gasoline,
   Their supply of lumber--for the home improvement Nation-
        wide, and for disaster repairs and reconstruction along the 
        Gulf Coast.
    The past 2 years have brought unprecedented challenges.
    The effects of COVID-19 severely impacted our tonnage and related 
revenues. Our operating revenues declined by nearly $5 million due to 
COVID in 2020 and the impacts continued to be felt in 2021. These 
issues were compounded by the strongest hurricane in our region's 
recorded history--Hurricane Laura, in August 2020 and 2 months later 
Hurricane Delta hit--leaving our port, and our region, with 
unprecedented damage. Entire portions of our complex were decimated. 
The damage to the port is estimated at $241 million . . . and counting. 
We lost 3 custom ship loaders and 2 custom ship unloaders. Not only are 
they very expensive, but they require a long lead time. We are able to 
load ships and unload using ships' gear and a mobile harbor crane, but 
the operating costs are significantly higher than pre-hurricane levels. 
We also lost 85 percent of our covered storage at City Docks and will 
be utilizing temporary tension fabric buildings for storage to fill the 
void until we able to replace the damaged structures.
    Without these facilities becoming operational, cargo owners will 
incur additional costs, the port will potentially lose the cargoes and 
area industries, local labor, and the local farming community will be 
devastated.
    What has truly hampered our recovery, however, is this:
    The lack of Federal disaster relief, beyond FEMA assistance and 
Federal COVID relief. Although we received funding from the various 
COVID relief bills, it has not nearly been enough to deal with the 
devastation from the hurricanes. Although Congress did pass a 
supplemental bill in September to finally address some of the pressing 
needs from the hurricanes and other disasters from 2020, it is simply 
not enough. Please help SWLA, we need your help by providing additional 
disaster recovery funding.
    I appreciate the opportunity you've given me to explain why our 
port, and the Lake Charles industrial complex as a whole, are an 
economic backbone of America.
    We are not just some place that's far away, that had a bad year, 
that needs money.
    We do America's heavy lifting. America needs us. Your constituents 
need us.
    Please help convince your colleagues on Capitol Hill of the 
immediate and overdue help we need.
    Thank you.

    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Self. I want to thank all the 
witnesses for their testimony.
    I will remind the subcommittee that we will each have 5 
minutes to question the panel.
    Without objection, Members not on the subcommittee shall be 
permitted to sit and question the witnesses.
    I will now recognize myself for 5 minutes.
    This question is for everybody who represents a port. For 
nearly 2 years our country has been battling the COVID-19 
pandemic, which has affected all parts of our lives. Workers at 
seaports have continued to show up and work in person despite 
the risk.
    I would appreciate hearing from each of the seaports on the 
actions they have taken to protect these front-line workers 
from COVID-19 and if additional support is needed from the 
Federal Government in this effort.
    Why don't we start with you, Mr. Seroka?
    Mr. Seroka. Thank you, Chairwoman.
    Beginning early last year Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti, 
appointed me concurrently with my job as port director to 
become the city's first-ever chief logistics officer here in 
Los Angeles. Since that beginning, we have ushered more than 
10.5 million units of personal protective equipment to more 
than 250 Los Angeles area hospitals, health care facilities, 
and labor ranging from the folks that work on our docks at 
longshore, to truckers, warehouse workers, and farmers through 
the central valley in California. We quickly thereafter, under 
the direction of Mayor Garcetti and California Governor Gavin 
Newsom, set up testing at our longshore hall and other 
locations, including the international cruise facility in Los 
Angeles, for longshore dock workers, truckers, and others, 
including families and community members. We then jumped into 
action as early as February 2021 with vaccinations, and 
combined with our neighbors in Long Beach and the Long Beach 
Health Department, have vaccinated more than 5,000 land-based 
workers. And the International Seafarers Association has gone 
on-board vessels to vaccinate crew members from across the 
world.
    There is much more work to do, as evidenced by Long Beach 
and Los Angeles again this week partnering to ramp up testing 
at our longshore dispatch hall 5 days per week with the Omicron 
variant continuing to permeate our work force.
    Again, a lot ahead of us. Very proud of what we have done. 
More work to do in combination with the Federal, State, and 
local authorities.
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you.
    Ms. Vick, how about you? Then we will go to Mr. Self.
    Ms. Vick. Thank you, Chairwoman Barragan.
    Similarly to Mr. Seroka, we were able to gain access to 
early vaccinations through our local health department. 
Although the State classified our workers to come much later, 
the local health department set up dedicated vaccine sites for 
our workers, which we were also able to extend to our CBP and 
MARAD partners that are in this area.
    In addition to some of the other things that Mr. Seroka 
talked about, we also put in enhanced cleanings at all of our 
facilities, we rented additional equipment so that each person 
was able to be in their own dedicated equipment, not ride with 
another colleague or use the same equipment as someone else in 
the shift before. We also were able to reduce the capacity of 
all of our conference rooms, let some of our admin folks 
telework as needed. Because of our technology, you know, a lot 
of our operators are actually inside because we are semi-
automated, so the operators are remote. We were able to space 
their work stations so that they were more than 6 feet apart by 
using conference rooms as dedicated work spaces instead of 
having them so close together, particularly our checkers. So it 
extended to our ILA partners and our management.
    We really are appreciative of FEMA for the reimbursement 
program. We have been able to receive Federal assistance in 
just over $4 million to help with some of these measures.
    So thank you very much.
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you.
    Anybody else want to chime in? Mr. Self, did you want to 
say anything?
    Mr. Self. Oh, sure. I will just point out that similar to 
my colleagues, the Port of Lake Charles continued to operate 
throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. We utilized enhanced 
screening methods, we wore masks, we did telework when 
necessary, and we had employees that worked inside their 
offices with closed doors.
    Ms. Barragan. Great. Thank you.
    I am going to go onto the next question because I have 
about 30 seconds left.
    Mr. Seroka, I understand the Port of Los Angeles has a 
dedicated operations center that is dedicated to combatting 
cyber threats to cargo flow. How has this operation been 
beneficial to the port? Do you recommend that ports establish 
similar cyber operations centers? How would they do that?
    Mr. Seroka. Yes, there are two areas here, Chairwoman. No. 
1 is we created the Nation's first cybersecurity operations 
center at the Port of Los Angeles in September 2014 with a 
dedicated grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Just 
last December, to up our game and bring the private sector into 
play on cyber protection, we created one of the first cyber 
resilience centers. Having more now than 40 members in both the 
public and private sector, it is an FBI-driven neighborhood 
cyberhood watch program to again protect us, defense, and share 
information under a cloak of anonymity so no one is put into a 
bad position commercially.
    Ms. Barragan. Well, thank you.
    My time has expired and I will now yield to Mr. Higgins, 
our Ranking Member, for your 5 minutes.
    Mr. Higgins. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Director Self, I am going to have a couple of yes or no 
questions for you, sir, and then I am going to ask you to 
expound upon an inquiry that I would like you to share with 
America.
    First, for all that you do on behalf of the Port of Lake 
Charles, I thank you, sir. The port is just an incredibly 
significant hub of economic prosperity and growth. I have been 
there many times. I fully support the work you do. The men and 
women there are amazing. Thank you for your dedication.
    As a representative of the Lake Charles Port, a significant 
energy exporting port, including traditional oil and gas 
products, liquefied natural gas, and wind energy components, 
would you agree that the Lake Charles Port supports an all-of-
the-above American produced energy policy?
    Mr. Self. Yes, I would.
    Mr. Higgins. Thank you.
    Would you agree that having your port fully operational 
allows the United States to be more self-sufficient, which 
bolsters our National security while at the same time provides 
robust economic opportunity for businesses across Louisiana and 
indeed the Nation? Would you concur with that?
    Mr. Self. Absolutely.
    Mr. Higgins. OK. So let us talk about getting the Port of 
Lake Charles fully operational. The port and the Calcasieu Ship 
Channel $39 billion to the United States' gross domestic 
product and two-thirds of the GDP of Calcasieu and Cameron 
Parishes. However, a non-operational or damaged port can 
certainly hurt a community and greatly restrict our National 
supply chain. The Port of Lake Charles and southwest Louisiana 
as a whole were devastated by two hurricanes in 2020. Well over 
a year later you are still waiting on disaster reimbursements 
through FEMA.
    Would you concur with what I just stated?
    Mr. Self. Yes, I would. Thank you.
    Mr. Higgins. OK. My office has written countless letters, 
we have urged within the parameters of Congressional 
gentlemanly constraint, and we have also done some door-kicking 
and had some very animated conversations with our colleagues 
over at FEMA encouraging them to act upon the existing 
applications that the Port of Lake Charles and other of our 
constituents that have been impacted by the storms of the 2020 
hurricane season that still languish, just to have their 
applications processed.
    Can you provide for my office and for this committee, so 
that I can share with my colleagues across the aisle, who care 
deeply by the way, that we fix this thing. Both sides of the 
aisle, Republicans and Democrats, we want the Federal 
Government to perform, especially when it comes to disaster 
recovery. We are all subject to it, we stand shoulder to 
shoulder as just solid American citizens to overcome the 
bureaucratic intractable tendencies that we sometimes face.
    So can you provide specific examples of Federal resources 
that have been held up and delayed by FEMA?
    Mr. Self. Sure, Congressman Higgins.
    I mean we have spent so far over $25 million in hurricane-
related FEMA projects from Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta. 
To date, we have received right at $1.1 million of the FEMA 
portion of that. So obviously, you know, we are not--you know, 
we are not the biggest port in the United States, so we are 
funding that out of our cash reserves, which we----
    Mr. Higgins. All right, let me just--in the interest of 
time, let me just ask you to clarify for America watching and 
for my colleagues on the committee here, the Port of Lake 
Charles is very squared away. My interactions, you guys are 
professional. So would you--your assessment of your 
applications for those reimbursement fundings, $25 million, 
would you say that you have done your part and you are waiting 
on----
    Mr. Self. Absolutely.
    Mr. Higgins [continuing]. Federal Government and FEMA to 
comply and perform?
    Mr. Self. Absolutely.
    Mr. Higgins. Well, I ask the good Chairwoman, who is a 
leader that I admire and fully support, madam, I ask that we 
take this under advisement and look at these examples that 
Director Self will provide and let us try and let us kick a 
door together over at FEMA, shall we?
    I yield. Thank you, madam.
    Ms. Barragan. I am happy to work with you in taking a look 
at it and seeing what can be done. Thank you, Mr. Ranking 
Member, and thank you, Mr. Self, for your testimony.
    I am going to continue to recognize Members for questions 
under the 5-minute rule. I will alternate between the Majority 
and the Minority staff. Staff has given me an order of the 
Members. If there is time, a second round of questions may 
occur once all Members have had the opportunity to question the 
witnesses.
    With that, our next Member up is Representative Lou Correa 
from California. You are now recognized for your 5 minutes.
    Mr. Correa. Thank you, Madam Chair Barragan, for holding 
this very critical hearing. Mr. Higgins, listening to your 
comments, I agree with you, this is not a Democrat or 
Republican issue, this is an issue of National security and of 
National interest.
    I only have 5 minutes so I am going to try to be quick 
here.
    Mr. Seroka, first of all, thank you for hosting myself and 
Congress Members as we have toured your port there to make sure 
we could work, we could make sure that you were up and running. 
My question to you is of course related to National security. 
We saw the Suez Canal and what happened there in late March. An 
accident that really just bottled up that whole area of the 
world. Texas Colonial Pipeline, that was essentially a cyber 
attack. As we say, a chain is only strong as the weakest link. 
Have you done enough, have we done enough to make sure your 
partners, private and public, are up to scruff, are essentially 
employing the best practices to make sure their cybersecurity 
is the best it can be?
    Mr. Seroka. Thank you, Congressman. Good to see you.
    It is an on-going process led by our head of public safety, 
Port Police Chief Tom Gazsi, across Federal, State, and local 
allied agencies. But I will say this, that the cybersecurity 
operations center installed here at the Port of Los Angeles in 
September 2014 is now thwarting and stopping 40 million cyber 
intrusion attempts per month. That is double the success rate 
of where we were before COVID-19 doubled the activity. The 
introduction of the CRC, or Cyber Resilience Center, is another 
move in that direction. We still have a long way to go. We 
perform table-top exercises on a regular basis with private and 
public sector allies alike. We know that we are only as good as 
the information we share across these industry verticals and 
sectors to make sure that we understand what is coming, what 
has been seen, and how we can protect ourselves. We need to 
keep this front and center every day. We will not rest until we 
continue to see progress. Very important area of our----
    Mr. Correa. Sir, another question. Mr. Seroka, the Port of 
Long Beach and Los Angeles account for 40 percent of U.S.-bound 
imports. You said that. Last you had both of these ports 
announce a container dwelling fee to hold retailers accountable 
and make sure that they picked up and returned cargo containers 
at sea. The Port of Los Angeles saw a 50 percent decline in 
these containers since announcing the new surcharge in October, 
yet the fee has been extended. Is this fee policy working? Is 
it not? Help me out. Myself--saw those containers stacked up to 
the heavens when we were there a couple of months ago. Tell me.
    Mr. Seroka. Yes, it is working, Congressman, for a number 
of reasons.
    No. 1 are the data insights we get from this Nation's first 
port community system. Being able to see around corners, 
bottlenecks before they start, and how we can address them. We 
noticed early on that with the confluence of cargo coming in 
seasonally, perishables as well as retail cargo being pulled 
forward for the year-end holidays, we were hit with so much 
product coming in at one time that it was no longer ordered 
just in time, it was ordered just in case. The entire supply 
chain is off-kilter and remains that way based mainly on the 
strength of the American consumer buying patterns and they are 
helping us get to the other side of COVID-19 economically.
    So we have to continue to flex. What we saw was cargo 
piling up on our docks, some advantageous contracts that 
allowed for that extra storage time. What we attempted to do 
was not point fingers or publicly shame anybody, but if you 
didn't need your product to market, move it aside for right 
now. The threat of a penalty was enacted but never collected. 
Those aging containers have been depleted by 61 percent as of 
this morning.
    It allowed us to get key medical products to market when 
they needed to, parts and components to U.S. factories as they 
continued to increase output and holiday goods to markets----
    Mr. Correa. Let me interrupt you, sir. Bottlenecks. We are 
trying to fix it, we are trying to get those bottlenecks, you 
know, cleared up from our ports. Our partners overseas--right 
now very few of our cargo containers are actually inspected. 
You have got good partners overseas. Can we continue to count 
on them to make sure that only good stuff arrives at our U.S. 
ports and we don't have to turn around and implement some, you 
know, policies that would slow down commerce in the United 
States?
    Mr. Seroka. When I was in the private sector, Congressman, 
as you remember, my company was part of the founding group of 
the Customs Trade Partnership Against Terrorism. It has been 
extremely effective since the tragic events of 9/11. We need to 
continue to expand and go upstream with the evaluation of 
supply chain partners to make sure that they are truly vetted 
and we understand what is coming across the seas on our vessel.
    The Port Optimizer does just that with our great 
partnership with CBP to make sure that we are applying the 24-
hour manifest rule and knowing, seeing, and having visible the 
cargo that are on those ships.
    Mr. Correa. So, Mr. Seroka, I just want to make sure that 
you state for the public watching this hearing today, and for 
us policy makers, that your partnership, private and public 
sector, CBP, and others are working and are being effective to 
make sure that nothing but good stuff is coming into our ports 
of the United States.
    Mr. Seroka. That is absolutely correct. When it is not, we 
jump into action immediately.
    Mr. Correa. Thank you very much.
    Madam Chair, I yield the rest of my time, if there is any 
left.
    Thank you very much.
    Ms. Barragan. There was no time, but thank you for yielding 
back, Mr. Correa, from California.
    Next I will move to Representative Guest, the gentleman 
from Mississippi. You are next for your 5 minutes.
    Mr. Guest. Thank you, Madam Chairman.
    Mr. Reardon, in your written testimony, on page 9, you 
talked about CBP's Office of Field Operations. That it is the 
premier DHS component tasked with stemming the Nation's opioid 
epidemic, a crisis that continues to get worse. You go on to 
say on a typical day the agency makes over 900 arrests and 
seizes more than 9,000 pounds of illegal drugs. You talked 
about statistics. You say CBP's officials recently testified 
that seizures of fentanyl at the port of entry increased from 
2,579 pounds in fiscal year 2019 to 3,967 pounds in fiscal year 
2020, an increase of 54 percent. You go onto say that for the 
comparative time frame of physical year 2020 and 2021, October 
to March for both years, that the amount seized were 1,079 
pounds in 2020 and 5,048 in 2021, an increase of over 300 
percent.
    Then you go on in the next paragraph to talk about some of 
the significant narcotic seizures that we have seen over the 
last several years at some of our seaports. You talked about 
February 2019 in New York and New Jersey, the seizure of 3,200 
pounds of cocaine. You talk about in March 2019 in the Port of 
Philadelphia, the seizure of 1,185 pounds of cocaine. Then you 
mention that in June 2019, again in the Port of Philadelphia, a 
seizing of an astonishing 17 tons of cocaine having the street 
value of over $1 billion.
    A recent report from the United States Coast Guard, which 
also falls under the jurisdiction of this committee, press 
release talks about the Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton returning 
to port in Florida with over 2,600 pounds of cocaine and 3,700 
pounds of marijuana, a street value of over $500 million.
    So, Mr. Reardon, I would like to ask you, if you could, 
could you speak in more detail on the use that our seaports and 
our sea routes, how those are being used by drug cartels to 
move their illegal products into the United States?
    Mr. Reardon. Congressman, thank you.
    What I will say at the outset is that I am certainly no 
expert on, you know, the methods that are used by drug cartels 
or any of that sort of thing. What I can tell you, as the union 
representative, the national president, for CBP employees and 
the Office of Field Operations, is that we continue to see an 
increase, as the numbers you just mentioned illustrate. That 
there is a rising in the number of seizures that are happening 
in this country.
    So one of the things that I would mention to you is that, 
you know, I think CBP does an outstanding job in interdicting 
those drugs and catching folks, but I also think that CBP could 
do an even better job if we fully staffed the Office of Field 
Operations with the appropriate number of CBP officers, as 
called for in CBP's workload staffing model.
    Mr. Guest. Well, and this is an issue that is particularly 
important to me. You are right, the staggering figures that we 
see, particularly I mean you look at in one seizure there in 
the Port of Philadelphia, a single seizure resulted in the 
seizure of 17 tons of cocaine, a street value of over $1 
billion. So I would agree with you that this is an area that 
this committee needs to look at for us to be able to increase 
our policing presence at our seaports. I believe that with that 
increased presence of personnel, with staff, with additional 
training, that what we are going to see is that is going to 
have an increased impact on our ability to fight the flow of 
these illegal drugs coming into the country.
    Mr. Guest. So let me ask you, in addition to the increase 
in staffing and increase in training, are there any other 
things that we as a committee need to be looking at as to how 
we can better improve policing in our seaports, again with the 
main intent to stop the flow of illegal narcotics from coming 
into the country?
    Mr. Reardon. Well, I certainly think you touched on one 
thing, which is training. So I think that needs to be focused 
on. I think the other thing that I would mention is there are--
I mentioned in my testimony and I believe in my 5 minutes that 
we had last year 850 CBP officers that had to be moved from 
various airports and seaports around the country to the 
Southwest Border for temporary duty assignments. So I think we 
always have to remember because that is required, and I 
understand that needed to happen, but what it does is it 
removes those CBP officers from other ports around the country 
and that really takes away from the security, the drug 
interdiction, and everything else that CBP officers do in their 
home ports.
    So I think that is something that we have got to make sure 
that we are paying attention to as well.
    Mr. Guest. Thank you very much.
    Madam Chairman, I yield back.
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Guest, and thank you to our 
witness.
    I would now like to recognize the gentlewoman from New 
York, Ms. Clarke, for your 5 minutes.
    Ms. Clarke. I thank you, Madam Chair, and I thank our 
Ranking Member, Mr. Higgins.
    I would like to start my question with Mr. Reardon, because 
I think staffing is at the heart of a number of our challenges. 
You know, were we to create enough activity, the personnel to 
make sure that that activity runs smoothly is questionable.
    So I understand that our seaports have been understaffed 
since well before the pandemic. Can you describe how the lack 
of full staffing has impacted your members? How would it change 
if CBP were able to hire the additional officers needed for 
ports of entry?
    Mr. Reardon. Absolutely, Congresswoman. Thank you very much 
for your question.
    You know, I just described one of the impacts, and that is 
around the issue of temporary duty assignments. If CBP were 
fully staffed, those TDY assignments in all likelihood would 
not be necessary, or at least not at the level that they have 
been necessary over the last several years. You know, I think 
that the--in terms of staffing, one of the things--when I talk 
to my members--and I just actually met with a large number of 
our CBP leaders last week--and, you know, one of the things 
that they often talk to me about is that, Tony, at the core of 
nearly all of our problems is the issue of staffing.
    So let me point to one for you. It is around the issue of 
morale. If you look at the FEVS, Federal Employee Viewpoint 
Survey, scores, CBP is the somewhere on the order of 341st out 
of just over 400. So they are way, way, way down the line. You 
know, so I think that is an issue. I think that we need to 
continue to look at in CBP the issue of hiring. It takes too 
long to get somebody from the point at which they fill out an 
application to the point that they are actually brought on-
board. So what happens is, look, when people apply for a job, 
they need a job, right. They need money to pay for rent and 
everything else. What happens is when it takes that long they 
decide to go to work for a sheriff's office or they decide to 
go to work at some other place. So I think the hiring has to be 
fixed. I know there has been a lot done that has improved, but 
I think it still is in need of more fixing.
    Ms. Clarke. Mr. Reardon, can you tell us how do you think 
that Congress can assist in meeting the staffing needs? I 
think--I am not certain whether it was you or one of our other 
panelists, but clearly the fact that we have been operating on 
CRs has not been helpful. What are some of the suggestions that 
you can see, particularly in dealing with the staffing needs?
    Mr. Reardon. Well, I think one is that you could--Congress 
could enact a stand-alone bill to authorize funding for CBP 
officers for new hires to the level that is identified in the 
workload staffing model, which right now during a pandemic is 
900 CBPOs and then other staff as well. I think that Congress 
could support fiscal year 2022 funding for agriculture 
inspection personnel, support funding for trade operation 
specialists.
    I think another thing that would be really helpful for the 
employees who are already on-board is support hazardous duty 
pay for CBP officers who have from the first day of this 
pandemic showed up at work. They have had to be at work 
protecting our ports of entry and protecting this country.
    Ms. Clarke. Thank you very much, Mr. Reardon. That is very 
important, the points that we have raised around staffing.
    I want to ask in the limited time that I have to all of our 
port leadership, I am the chairperson of the Subcommittee on 
Cybersecurity, so I am really concerned about, you know, the 
posture in our ports with regard to cybersecurity. Can you 
describe what actions your port has taken to mitigate the 
chances of a cyber attack? I know that is huge and I only have 
a little bit of time, but I am going to yield to you and, Madam 
Chair, yield back once they have completed their responses.
    Mr. Seroka. Congresswoman, Gene Seroka from Los Angeles.
    As I mentioned to your colleague from California, Mr. 
Correa, the Port of Los Angeles was the first to implement a 
cybersecurity operations center here in September 2014 partly 
funded by the Department of Homeland Security. Today that 
center stops 40 million cyber intrusion attempts per month, 
double what it was before COVID-19. Following that, the 
learnings that we have taken, we have also seen the NotPetya 
attack in Eastern Europe that impacted the largest shipping 
company in the world, Maersk, and their associated terminal 
operator, APMT. We have seen liner shipping company CGM be 
attacked and marine terminal in Long Beach and the Long Beach 
container terminal.
    Following those episodes we have instituted the CRC, the 
Cyber Resilience Center, which now brings in the private-sector 
partners in and around the port.
    As I have stated in testimony, there is much more work to 
do. I am proud of the efforts we have made so far, but we need 
this to be an entire community effort, from the Federal, State, 
and local level, as well as our private-sector partners.
    Ms. Clarke. Thank you.
    Madam Chair, I am going to yield back. I don't think we 
have any further responses. Perhaps we can do a joint hearing 
at some point to just hone in on this subject matter.
    I yield back, Madam Chair.
    Ms. Barragan. OK. Fantastic. Thank you so much.
    I now will recognize the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. 
Bishop. You are recognized for your 5 minutes.
    Mr. Bishop. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I don't think I will 
take all of them.
    Mr. Seroka, I was listening and it sounds like you have got 
a story of considerable improvement in the situation that we 
have read about in the media, but I was furnished a statistic. 
I am not sure it is right, so I just want to ask you. I am 
sorry, I could not hear all of your testimony. I was distracted 
by some things.
    But I have got a stat that says as of last week there were 
a record 105 container ships waiting at California ports. Is 
that accurate or is that incorrect information? If it is 
correct, if it is a record, why--it seems to run contrary to 
the general tenor I detected from your testimony that things 
were improving.
    Mr. Seroka. Sir, with all due respect, that is a 
misinterpretation of the number.
    Back in the middle of November--November 17 to be 
specific--the private-sector employers association, ship 
owners, marine exchange in southern California decided to redo 
their queuing system of arrivals. We now count ships the moment 
they leave Asia until they reach the breakwater right outside 
the Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach as they count those 105 
ships that you refer to. If we did a like-for-like comparison, 
prior to that on October 13 we had 89 ships that had just 
departed Asia and are awaiting to move in just outside the 
breakwater.
    These are ships representative of early lunar new year, 
where we are really hustling cargo out of Asia ahead of their 
holiday, which will begin on the evening at midnight on January 
31. As I have shared, there is much more work to do in the 
supply chain across both the private- and public-sector 
partners that we engage, but this is not terribly worse than it 
was before this new private-sector queuing system went into 
place.
    We need to move more cargo out efficiently or dwell times. 
The amount of time a container sits on our docks has basically 
been cut in half since we have instituted some of our policies. 
We need to further reduce that and get into a position where 
cargo is flowing through these ports safely and securely.
    Another area of work that we have done, as I mentioned, is 
that we have seen major retailers, importers alike, begin to 
order as much as they can just in case. They didn't want to be 
the paper goods retailers of what we saw at the beginning of 
COVID-19. So stocking up inventories has been key because our 
inventory sales ration Nation-wide is the lowest it has been in 
a decade. Trying to match up with this unbelievable consumer 
demand that is fueling our economy is really why you see so 
much cargo coming across the Pacific.
    Mr. Bishop. Yes. I got that point pretty clearly.
    But just to clarify, the queuing of ships--and, you know, 
it is hard for me to discern or be an instant expert on what 
the different methodologies are for queuing--but we have 
heard--the media stories have been plentiful about ships 
waiting in an unusual circumstance. Can you compare on an 
apples-to-apples basis and tell me has the problems of ships 
waiting offshore to come in worsened or improved, and how 
markedly?
    Mr. Seroka. Improved. Three reasons why the private sector 
changed their queuing system to begin measuring from departure 
in Asia until we can visibly see those ships here outside our 
breakwater, which sits 2 miles offshore from the Ports of Los 
Angeles and Long Beach: No. 1 were the emissions that were 
hitting our local residential communities by all these ships 
stacked up within visible distance of our shoreline. At peak, 
sir, they reached more than 80. Second, the safety and security 
of our----
    Mr. Bishop. The number now--Mr. Seroka, as compared to 
reaching a peak of 80, what is the number now?
    Mr. Seroka. Right outside our breakwater it is in single 
digit fashion as of this morning. I believe the number was 9.
    Mr. Bishop. Have ships been required to wait farther 
offshore in order to avoid that breakwater--you know, the--
evidenced from--that you can see from shore?
    Mr. Seroka. Yes, they have. You have more ships at the 180-
mile marker, which is also measured as we leave Asia. Again, 
three reasons why the private sector did this. No. 1, reduce 
emissions right at our coastal residential communities with 
these vessels sitting 2 miles offshore. Second, the safety and 
security of the crews. As we experienced high wind events, 
Santa Ana winds, coming across and into the basin of the port 
complex, these ships started to sway. They were parked very 
close to each other at what we call anchorage. Making sure that 
we had more distance for the safety of those crews was of 
paramount importance in this decision. Third, according to the 
employers association, the ship and vessel operator could not 
request its labor fulfillment until they reached that 40-mile 
marker closer. So allowing the vessel operator to institute 
their request for labor upon departure from Asia also allowed 
us to spread out these ships and allow for a port call 
optimization model that doesn't stack them all up at one time 
by racing across the Pacific.
    Mr. Bishop. Thank you, sir.
    Madam Chairman, I saved less time than I thought. I yield 
back.
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you for that.
    I would like to now recognize the gentleman from New 
Jersey, Mr. Gottheimer, for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Gottheimer. Thank you, Chairwoman, for holding this 
timely and important hearing.
    Seaports are seeing record numbers of cargo volume, as we 
just talked about, which as we all know is adding to port 
congestion and ships have been stalled in terminals for too 
long these last months and obviously having an impact on our 
supply chain. I strongly encouraged the activation of the 
National Guard to help move critical goods, including COVID-19-
related pharmaceutical ingredients and other urgent needs that 
are stuck at our ports, and the administration to create--I 
have asked them to create a strategic shipping reserve to 
utilize the United States Transportation Command Fleet or non-
combattant vessels to put them to work, which can--they carry 
thousands of containers for our critical supplies. Many of 
these ships are sitting idle or moving goods back and forth 
from Europe and Asia, having excess capacity. I think utilizing 
this strategic shipping reserve would further ease supply chain 
disruptions at our ports and across our country.
    Mr. Connor, if I can ask you, what other options are you 
and your team advocating for to decrease disruption to critical 
industries and supplies at our seaports, as well as anything 
else you think we should be doing that we are not doing?
    Mr. Connor. Congressman, thanks for that question. I think 
there is already some pretty creative things happening. 
Probably the most formidable and notable is what happened right 
out in the San Pedro Bay Complex where hours of operation went 
from, you know, 16 hours a day to 24 hours a day or potentially 
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The other thing you have seen 
happen really over the last 4 to 6 weeks is the creation of 
something called pop-up container facilities. This is off-
terminal, off-marine property container yards where cargo can 
flow right off the ship and be staged for pick-up there and 
helping to eliminate the congestion on the marine terminal 
facility.
    As you know, Congressman, ports were not set up to be----
    Mr. Gottheimer. Sorry, sir. I was going to say there was 
money in the infrastructure package for some of these pop-up 
facilities, right?
    Mr. Connor. There was actually some residual from the PIDP 
program that was able to be allocated for the pop-up program. 
You know, that the heart of is that ports were never designed 
to be storage compounds, they are designed to be transit 
points, you know, on the journey of cargo from where it is 
manufactured to where it is consumed. So I think opening the 
terminal, making the terminals open longer hours, and getting 
it--creating these pop-up facilities to get it away from the 
marine compound are two examples that have definitely helped 
ease some of the pain we have been feeling.
    Of course we are super enthusiastic about the 
infrastructure money that is headed our way, but as you can 
appreciate, it is going to be 18 months or so before we start 
to see the fruits of that money come through in efficiency.
    Ms. Barragan. I think we are waiting on Mr. Gottheimer. May 
have a--are you back with us? There you are.
    Mr. Gottheimer. Is that better? Is that better? Sorry about 
that.
    Ms. Barragan. You are good.
    Mr. Gottheimer. Thanks. Global demand for U.S. exports, 
primarily agriculture and forest products, remains strong even 
with growing competition, but the discriminatory practices of 
foreign flag ocean carriers continue to upend global markets. 
Today the total number of containers leaving the United States 
we know is an all-time high, but the number of these containers 
loaded with export cargo is lower than at any time since 2015.
    Mr. Seroka and Ms. Vick, I would love to hear your 
thoughts, your perspective from the Port of Los Angeles and 
Virginia, are you experiencing this type of challenge with 
these foreign flag carriers?
    Mr. Seroka. Like many parts of the supply chain, it is just 
not one lever you can pull.
    No. 1 policy, we need to look at the Phase One trade deal 
with China that has created non-compensatory pricing for the 
American farmer from the moment product is harvested. Again, 
taking a look--I understand folks don't share our same ideals 
across a variety of issues, but this is very important. Second, 
our Nation needs a National export policy. We need to bring 
people back into this sector. Work on round-trip economics and 
see what we can do from training, reskilling, and upskilling to 
get more productivity out of both agriculture and 
manufacturing. Reconnecting our American exporters with their 
partners overseas. Third, while the strength of the U.S. dollar 
helps our economy in so many other areas, it disadvantages some 
exporters in the Asia-Pacific theater. One classic example is 
Brazil's soy beans compared to those of ours from the Midwest 
to the United States.
    We are working very closely with the International Dairy 
Farmers Association, the Agricultural Transportation Coalition, 
American Manufacturers Association to find ways to bring more 
exports into the flow. We have got a lot of empty containers. 
The idea is work from the coast inward to try to bring that 
cargo up. But on average, dairy products moving through the 
Port of Los Angeles have doubled year over year. Ag products 
are up by percentage points, but we have much more work to do.
    Mr. Gottheimer. Ms. Vick please.
    Ms. Vick. Yes, thank you, Representative.
    Similarly we have seen some issues with the match back of 
containers and availability of containers because of some of 
the upstream constraints. What we have done is focused with a 
lot of our agricultural partners on transload facilities and 
being able to move that cargo more efficiently. So we will 
continue to work with them along with their partners to try to 
facilitate that match back and the quicker movement of the 
agricultural goods.
    Mr. Gottheimer. If I could just ask about that. But you are 
not concerned at all by----
    Ms. Barragan. Mr. Gottheimer, your time is expired.
    Mr. Gottheimer. Sorry. OK.
    Ms. Barragan. I have gone a little over and----
    Mr. Gottheimer. Thank you so much. Thank you.
    Ms. Barragan [continuing]. We wanted to do a second round 
if you want to stay for a second round.
    Mr. Gottheimer. Thank you so much. I yield back. Thank you 
so much.
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Gottheimer.
    With that I would like to recognize the gentleman from 
Georgia, Mr. Clyde. You are recognized for 5 minutes.
    Mr. Clyde. Thank you. Thank you very much Chairwoman 
Barragan.
    I will tell you that I wish we had a representative of the 
Port of Savannah here at this hearing and potentially the 
inland Port of Gainesville as well, but we don't. I guess we 
can't have every port here. There would be a whole lot of 
witnesses if we did.
    But these questions are for Mr. Richert Self and Mr. Seroka 
and Ms. Vick. As port directors and having specific ports, we 
have been hearing over the past year about the increased 
quantity of cargo going through our seaports of entry. Seaports 
are the gateways for the transport of these goods and services. 
The volume of both inbound and outbound commercial vessels 
serves to me as a reasonably reliable litmus test for the 
health of the overall economy. So can you provide the committee 
with insight into the overall volume of cargo vessels coming 
through the port currently and how that compares to pre-
pandemic levels, say this time January 2019 or January 2020, 
before everything hit the fan in March 2020?
    Mr. Self, if you would go first and then Mr. Seroka and Ms. 
Vick, in that order please.
    Mr. Self. Sure. Thank you.
    Currently the port handles about right at 15 million tons 
of cargo. Pre-pandemic it was actually slightly lower than 
that. The only reason there has been a shift is some of the LNG 
projects that were under construction completed construction in 
2020. So it is a little bit--it is kind of an anomaly because 
while some of the cargoes on the petroleum products decline on 
the refining side, the LNG exports greatly increased. That is 
going to be a growing trend for our port. We anticipate that to 
continue. There are several projects that will be making their 
final investment decision in the next 12 months and we 
anticipate that number to continue to grow for the Calcasieu 
Ship Channel.
    Mr. Clyde. All right. Thank you, sir. I appreciate that.
    Mr. Seroka.
    Mr. Seroka. Cargo volume year over year is up 16 percent at 
the Port of Los Angeles and compared to our best year ever, 
Congressman, in 2018 we are up 13 percent. On average the 
number of container vessels that come to the Port of Los 
Angeles is approximately 1,800. That is represented by about 10 
major international carriers headquartered in Asia and Europe.
    This year alone we saw 10 new entrants to the trade. Think 
of those inter-Asia and long-haul inter-Asia Middle East 
carriers that have shifted their vessel assets to the 
Transpacific in an effort to try to help support the rising 
demand of American imports. We have also seen one way charter 
hires by major American retailers that have come in. In the 
end, when all the vessels are counted, we are probably going to 
be up about 12 to 14 percent on individual vessel calls. But 
that is not the whole story.
    Most of those new entrants to the trade, charter vessels, 
and one way hires were of a smaller variety of ship, many of 
which left Asia loaded with containers without reservations at 
our port's marine terminals. They would call us on the way 
traversing the Pacific to see if we had space to accommodate 
their ships and work them with our long shore labor. Part of 
that really gummed up the works. Better planning, better 
information flow, better notification would help tremendously.
    But, again, all in an effort to satisfy us as U.S. 
consumers is why you saw a number of new players come into the 
mix this past 12 to 15 months.
    Mr. Clyde. All right. Thank you. That is very good 
information.
    Ms. Vick, could you comment on the Port of Virginia?
    Ms. Vick. Yes. Thank you, Representative Clyde.
    We also have seen a tremendous amount of growth. During the 
beginning of the pandemic we saw a 7 percent dip for about 5 
months. Now we have recovered and last year we saw a 17 percent 
increase over that prior year and this year we are up 25 
percent.
    The biggest shift that we have seen is really in the 
balance of imports and exports. Traditionally we have been like 
48 percent-52 percent. Now the growth is 11 percent in experts 
but 27 percent in loaded imports. We are seeing that mostly 
because of a shift in consumer behavior, where you are seeing a 
lot more e-commerce rather than going to the traditional retail 
store. So instead of it coming in and going to a distribution 
center, we are seeing more developers want to come in in close 
proximity to the port and put in cross-dock facilities where 
they can very quickly shift to domestic containers and get out 
to the consumers.
    So it will be interesting to see how long, you know, this 
occurs. We have an economist on staff that doesn't really see 
an end in sight yet. You know, there are a number of economic 
factors and potentially community factors, such as how many 
more of these variants and shutdowns overseas at facilities and 
things like that, but also inflation and some of the pressure 
that folks are feeling.
    So thank you for the question.
    Mr. Clyde. All right. Well, thank you for the answer. So I 
am seeing a significant--fairly significant increase across the 
board.
    Now, for Mr. Anthony Reardon, I have got a question for 
you, sir. In your testimony you say that according to our most 
recent briefing----
    Ms. Barragan. Mr. Clyde.
    Mr. Clyde [continuing]. Nearly 90 percent of CBP employees 
are fully vaccinated as required by the mandate. Are you 
concerned about the CBP's ability----
    Ms. Barragan. Mr. Clyde? Your time has expired.
    Mr. Clyde [continuing]. To fully staff with 10 percent not 
vaccinated? I mean what is going to happen with those 10 
percent?
    Ms. Barragan. Mr. Clyde, your time has expired. I am going 
to let the witness answer the question if he heard it. But we 
are going to move to a second round.
    Mr. Clyde. OK. Thank you.
    Ms. Barragan. Does the witness have a short answer?
    Mr. Reardon. Well, the short answer is that as I understand 
it, there are--I think it is 97 percent are in compliance, 
which means they have either gotten the vaccine or they are 
in--they have requested an exemption.
    Mr. Clyde. OK.
    Mr. Reardon. So I think it is about 97 percent. In terms of 
what happens to folks that either don't get the--you know, 
don't get the exemption or just refuse altogether, my 
understanding is that they will be terminated.
    Are you getting exemptions?
    Mr. Reardon. We have not gotten in CBP, so far as I know 
anyway. Decisions have not been made yet on the requested 
exemptions.
    Mr. Clyde. So the Executive branch has not granted any 
exemptions yet?
    Mr. Reardon. In CBP I am not aware that they have granted 
any yet, but, you know, it is certainly possible that they 
could have that I am just not aware of it.
    Mr. Clyde. OK. Is there a percentage that you know of?
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Clyde. We are going to go to 
the second round of questions. You are welcome to stay. We will 
see if we can get a second round of questions in here and I am 
going to go ahead and start. If our witnesses have to leave, I 
understand, but we are hoping to get just a few more questions 
in.
    I will start by recognizing myself for 5 minutes and then 
we will alternate sides with any Members that are remaining 
that want a follow-up question.
    My question is if FEMA's Port Security Grant Program has 
provided funding to State, local, and private-sector partners 
to improve port infrastructure and security plans that deter 
terrorists and other emerging threats, can you describe how 
this important program has helped to improve your port security 
and how you believe this program could be improved?
    We will start with Mr. Seroka at the Port of Los Angeles 
and then we will go around for any other responses.
    Mr. Seroka. Thank you, Chairwoman.
    A number of areas where this has been very successful. The 
Port of Los Angeles has more than 450 CCTV cameras throughout 
the complex. It has also helped us stand up the Threat 
Detection Center, which manages those cameras in conjunction 
with our marine terminal operations and other private-sector 
partners. The aforementioned cybersecurity initiatives around 
the CSOC, Cybersecurity Operations Center, and the Cyber 
Resilience Center are also part of that.
    The Port Security Grants have also funded the mobile assets 
on ground and water that we have across the Port of Los Angeles 
that are led by, again, head of public safety and Port Police 
Chief Tom Gazsi and the 200 sworn and civilian peace officers 
here at the port.
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you.
    Mr. Self.
    Mr. Self. Yes. Just to echo what Mr. Seroka said, we have 
utilized some of the Port Security Grants for both camera 
systems that we operate along with systems that are utilized by 
our harbor police department.
    Ms. Barragan. Great.
    Ms. Vick. I think you are on mute, Ms. Vick.
    Ms. Vick. Thank you. Sorry about that.
    We too have used Port Security Grants to establish a 
cybersecurity operations center here in our port. We also have 
camera systems that have been funded. Then we work with a 
maritime incident response team of our other Government 
agencies, local governments, for assets for their use as well 
for radar detection, search and rescue equipment, vessels, 
things like that.
    Ms. Barragan. Great. Thank you.
    Is AAPA on? Do they want to comment? I don't think I see 
him here.
    Mr. Connor. Yes, I am on, but I think the guys on the 
ground covered it well.
    Ms. Barragan. OK. Sounds good.
    I have another question I want to get to while I have a 
couple of minutes left here. I want to start with Mr. Connor on 
this next question. Public-private partnerships, such as CBP's 
Reimbursable Services Program have left ports to fill staffing 
and infrastructure gaps, to offer additional customs, 
immigration, and agricultural services. For example, CBP 
informed the committee that overtime pay under the Reimbursable 
Services Program has accounted for the processing of 2.5 
million travelers and 1 million inspections.
    What challenges, if any, have your organizations 
experienced in utilizing the Reimbursable Services Program and 
can you share any recommendations you have to improve the 
program?
    I think you are on mute, sir.
    Mr. Connor. Yes, thank you.
    I think our overarching recommendation would be, you know, 
that we staff, even as Mr. Reardon himself as said, staff CBP 
at a level where we don't have to rely on overtime. It creates 
obviously financial concerns for the ports themselves, but it 
also opens up a fatigue and burnout situation for the officers 
and employees of CBP.
    So as I listened to Mr. Reardon's comments throughout, I 
think one thing is very consistent between the port community 
and CBP, that we are asking really for the same thing, is to 
have a robust staffing and funding of CBP so that we can 
protect and serve the mission of CBP and the role of ports in 
this country.
    Ms. Barragan. Right. Thank you.
    Anybody want to comment next? Mr. Seroka, Ms. Vick, Mr. 
Self. Anybody else?
    Mr. Seroka. Well-covered.
    Ms. Barragan. OK. OK. Hearing nothing further on this, I 
will go ahead and end my questions. I do want to thank you, Mr. 
Seroka, for mentioning the Climate Smarts Ports bill, something 
that I have been working on in getting to zero emissions in 
ports. This bill is part of Build Back Better and basically 
what it would do is provide a funding for ports across the 
country to be able to invest in zero emissions technology with 
the hope of eventually getting to zero emissions and helping 
communities that live in the surrounding areas and the health 
impacts they are having from ports. So everybody here should be 
able to benefit from that should we get it across the finish 
line.
    I know that Mr. Higgins, that you have also another round 
of questions, so I yield to the gentleman, the Ranking Member, 
Mr. Higgins.
    You are recognized for your 5 minutes.
    Mr. Higgins. I thank the good lady, my friend, the 
Chairwoman.
    Ma'am, I would just like to present to my colleagues on 
both of the aisle a bill that is currently within the committee 
for consideration. We have spoken a lot about CBP staffing and 
the needs there. I have a bill within committee that is being 
considered for mark-up. Minority staff is working with the 
Majority staff. I ask for your kind consideration, Madam Chair. 
It is a CBP Workload Staffing Model Act, H.R. 4138. It would 
solve some problems we believe. It's the sort of bipartisan 
bill that the Homeland Security Committee is known for passing. 
I just respectfully ask it to be heightened on your own radar 
so that perhaps we can work together and offer some solutions 
through a mark-up in the near future for staffing issues with 
CBP.
    I thank our witnesses for being here today and I yield.
    Ms. Barragan. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member Higgins. Happy 
to work with you. I thought I saw another Member with their 
hand raised, but it looks like the Member is gone.
    So I will take this opportunity as well to thank the 
witnesses for their valuable testimony and the Members for 
their questions. The Members of the subcommittee may have 
additional questions for the witnesses and we ask that you 
respond as soon as you can in writing.
    Without objection, the committee record shall be kept open 
for 10 days.
    Again, thank you, everybody, for your work, for being on 
the front lines of the movement of our goods, the impact that 
you have on our economy and jobs and everybody is so greatly 
important.
    With that, we will wrap. Hearing no further business, the 
subcommittee stands adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 3:47 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]

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