President Biden Signs Garamendi’s Ocean Shipping Reform Act Into Law

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA) joined President Joe Biden, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Senator John Thune (R-SD), and Representative Dusty Johnson (R-SD) at the White House as President Biden signed Garamendi's Ocean Shipping Reform Act into law.

In August 2021, Garamendi introduced the "Ocean Shipping Reform Act" with Congressman Dusty Johnson (R-SD) to provide the Federal Maritime Commission with the regulatory power to support American exporters, protect consumers, and establish reciprocal trade opportunities to reduce our nation's longstanding trade imbalance with countries like China.

U.S. Senators Amy J. Klobuchar (D-MN) and John R. Thune (R-SD) sponsored the companion legislation in the Senate.

"Today is the culmination of over a year of hard work to crack down on longstanding inequities for American exporters and shippers in the international ocean shipping industry. It shows that Republicans and Democrats can come together to solve critically important problems. American families and small businesses are facing shortages and rising prices during the COVID-19 pandemic and Putin's war in Ukraine. Our bipartisan Ocean Shipping Reform Act will protect American businesses and consumers from unfair trade practices and price gouging by foreign-flagged ocean liners and address our nation's longstanding trade imbalance with countries like China. I am thrilled to join President Biden, Senators Klobuchar and Thune, and Representative Johnson to sign this critically important bill into law, and I thank them all for their work to get this done for working families and American exporters," said Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA).

The Ocean Shipping Reform Act will:

• Require ocean carriers to certify that late fees —known in maritime parlance as "detention and demurrage" charges—comply with federal regulations or face penalties;
• Shift burden of proof regarding the reasonableness of "detention or demurrage" charges from the invoiced party to the ocean carrier;
• Require ocean common carriers to report to the FMC each calendar quarter on total import/export tonnage and 20-foot equivalent units (loaded/empty) per vessel that makes port in the United States;
• Authorize the FMC to self-initiate investigations of ocean common carrier's business practices and apply enforcement measures, as appropriate; and
• Establish a new authority for the FMC to register shipping exchanges.