[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 192 (Tuesday, November 2, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H6077-H6078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       DECONGEST AMERICA'S PORTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Kansas (Mr. Mann) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to offer a solution to decongest 
America's ports, revive America's supply chain, and get Americans back 
to work.
  In the past few months, we have learned the hard way that congested 
ports create a real interstate commerce and supply chain problem. 
Families are waiting 6 months for working refrigerators, farmers are 
waiting 2 months or more for a simple part to fix their equipment, and 
manufacturing companies are waiting 5 to 6 times longer for electronic 
components.
  Well, people are tired of watching their paid-for, necessary goods 
sit on our ships off our coasts. The Biden administration is not doing 
anything about it.
  Today, I introduced the Truckers Responding at National Shipping 
Ports Overcoming Retail Turmoil Act, requiring the Secretary of 
Transportation to establish a grant program for motor carriers and 
motor private carriers to relieve congested ports during a national 
state of emergency or when ports are congested at 50 percent or more.
  My bill would empower the Secretary of Transportation to issue 
Federal grants from unused relief dollars to truckers or distributors 
to transport goods from a port of entry to a destination point.

[[Page H6078]]

  Additionally, my bill would temporarily waive State-operating 
standards, should those standards be more stringent than the Federal 
standard. For example, my bill would allow Kansas farmers and truckers 
to operate their U.S. Department of Transportation compliant trucks in 
California, a State that otherwise restricts trucks older than 2011 
from entering the State, to help relieve the ports and transport goods 
across this country.
  Temporarily waiving State requirements is a small price to pay for a 
strong supply chain, fully stocked shelves in grocery stores, and 
employed transportation workers.
  Congested ports have far-reaching implications beyond the States in 
which they exist, and it is unconscionable to let the American people 
suffer because of the unwillingness to solve a problem that impacts us 
all.

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