U.S. House passes the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, with Biden set to sign it into law
June 14, 2022
Following its passage by the U.S. Senate in late March, the U.S. House of Representatives last night followed suit, passing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA) of 2022 by a 369-42 margin. The bill is now headed to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law, and will represent the first revamping of U.S. ocean shipping laws going back to 1998.
Industry associations call on Congress to bring Ocean Shipping Reform Act to conference
April 27, 2022
An April 20 letter penned to a quartet of House and Senate members of Congress, from a whole host of companies and trade associations that represent U.S. importers, exporters, freight transportation providers, and other industry stakeholders, called on Congress to get to work in conference the differences in the House and Senate versions of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA), with OSRA passing in both chambers recently, and the letter’s authors saying that they believe the differences between the...
U.S. Senate approves Ocean Shipping Reform Act, bill to head to conference
April 4, 2022
The Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA) took another step on its course to being signed into law, with the United States Senate late last week unanimously voted to sign off on it on a voice vote. The bill will head back to the House of Representatives, with the expectation it will head to President Biden’s desk to be signed into law, following conferencing between the House and Senate on differences that need to be hammered out between the chambers.
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation approves Ocean Shipping Reform Act
March 24, 2022
This follows OSRA being passed in December 2021 by the United States House of Representatives by a convincing 364-40 vote and its subsequent introduction into the Senate in February by Senator Amy Klochubar (D-Minn.) and Senator John Thune (R-S.D.). To advance, the bill now needs full Senate approval.
Klochubar and Thune introduce Ocean Shipping Reform Act in the Senate
February 4, 2022
The main objectives of the bill, according to Klochubar and Thune, are to update federal regulations for the global shipping industry, adding that the bill “would level the playing field for American exporters by making it harder for ocean carriers to unreasonably refuse goods ready to export at ports, and it would give the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) greater rulemaking authority to regulate harmful practices by carriers.”
