Introduction of the Ocean Shipping Competition Enforcement Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, today I introduce the ``Ocean Shipping Competition Enforcement Act,'' which would allow the Federal Maritime Commission to block any agreements among ocean carriers and marine terminal operators determined to be unreasonably anticompetitive without having to first obtain a federal court order.

Current federal law requires the Commission, which is an independent federal regulatory agency, to review proposed agreements to ensure they are not unreasonably anticompetitive. However, the Commission cannot block anticompetitive agreements without first obtaining a federal court order concurring with the Commission's internal determination that the proposed agreement would unduly reduce ocean shipping service to ports or substantially increase shipping rates. If the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia fails to act in time, then the agreement takes effect automatically, allowing ocean liners and marine terminals to collude openly. To the best of my knowledge, no other independent federal regulatory agency is required to obtain court orders to enforce similar regulations.

The ocean shipping industry was the last transportation sector deregulated by Congress in 1984 and again with the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-258). Before the Shipping Act of 1984 (Public Law 98-237), the Commission could block anticompetitive agreements among ocean carriers and marine terminal operators without a federal court order. In December 2022, Federal Maritime Commissioners Max Vekich and Carl W. Bentzel requested that the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, on which I serve, make this critical change in federal law.

The ocean shipping industry is now dominated by nine foreign-flagged ocean liners that collude openly under three carrier alliances, handling some 80 percent of cargo globally. Last June, President Biden signed my bicameral, bipartisan Ocean Shipping Reform Act (Public Law 117-146) updating our nation's laws for the ocean cargo market for the first time in nearly a quarter century. Congress must now finish the job by restoring the Federal Maritime Commission's ability to ensure competitive ocean shipping markets by blocking illegal agreements to collude. We must ensure that the Commission can do its job and fully enforce the law.

Mr. Speaker, I have been working over the past two years to reform the ocean shipping industry to better protect American businesses and consumers from price gouging by foreign-flagged ocean liners. I urge all Members of the House to join me in cosponsoring the ``Ocean Shipping Competition Enforcement Act.'' As the top Democrat on the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation from 2013 to 2018, I plan to make this new bill a top priority in my ongoing work to help fix the global supply chain crunch.

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