Source:Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 5/21/15


The U.S. Senate has introduced a bill aimed at identifying port disruptions before they cause economic damage.
The Port Performance Act would require the federal government to collect port data and report export declines to measure productivity at major U.S. ports and help signal productivity slowdowns resulting from labor disputes.

The legislation comes in the wake of the recent nine-month labor dispute that shut down 29 West Coast container ports and cost the meat industry a reported $85 million per week and the entire U.S. economy an estimated $2.5 billion per day.
“This bill will help shine a light on what’s happening at our nation’s ports before a labor dispute erupts and threatens our economy,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said in a news release. He and Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) introduced the bill.

Half of all containerized imports enter the U.S. through West Coast ports, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

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