Ocean Shipping Reform Act

In late August, the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) announced that its Board of Directors announced that, effective October 1, Cary Davis will become its new President and CEO. Davis joined AAPA in November 2019 and has played key public policy roles for the organization in his roles as VP of Government Relations, General Counsel and Board Secretary.

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.

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...

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.

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.

Logistics Management (LM) Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Port of Oakland Executive Director Danny Wan. Wan provided LM’s Berman with a wide overview of various efforts the Port of Oakland is focused on, including: port operations; the import and export outlook, emissions reductions efforts, and port labor, among others.

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.”