Ensuring Continued Operations and No Other Major Incidents, Closures, or Slowdowns

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. NEWHOUSE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce my legislation,
the Ensuring Continued Operations and No Other Major Incidents,
Closures, or Slowdowns (ECONOMICS) Act of 2015. From late 2014 through
February 2015, a dispute between the Pacific Maritime Association and
the International Longshore and Warehouse Union drastically slowed
import and export traffic at our 29 West Coast ports, paralyzing supply
chains and the economy west of the Mississippi River. This dispute had
severe and devastating economic impacts on Washington's 4th
Congressional District, the Pacific Northwest, and the country--as
agricultural producers, retailers, manufacturers, and countless other
businesses and consumers were unable to get their goods through the
ports and to foreign as well as domestic markets.

This legislation would create new economic safeguards and triggers
that mandate a legal mediation process in an employer-labor dispute at
our nation's ports, in order to prevent future disputes and slowdowns.
The measure would require the Administration to investigate a dispute
and prevent unnecessary economic harm by mandating that a Board of
Inquiry be convened within 10 days of any of the safeguards being
triggered and then report its recommendations to the President and the
public on whether there should be a judicial injunction.

Mr. Speaker, it is imperative that Congress provide additional tools
to keep supply chains operating and the economy running during times of
severe economic hardship and this legislation does just that. This
commonsense and straightforward bill takes an important first step in
mitigating the negative impacts of future labor disputes at our
nation's ports, which will help protect the economy, as well as
families, businesses, and agricultural producers, many of whom are
still recovering from the most recent slowdown at our West Coast ports.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source