The House passed the Ocean Shipping Reform Act to try and solve some of the challenges in the U.S. supply chain. Shane Frederick with the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance says they have been supporting legislative efforts to fix the logjam and shortage of shipping containers.

He says the shipping issues are nothing new for specialty growers as they’ve been dealing with the inability to move their product to market for over a year now.

In recent months, ocean liners from China and other countries have been returning to their home ports empty after delivering to the U.S., making it hard for U.S. agriculture to export commodities.

Among the many functions of the legislation, it would prohibit ocean carriers from unreasonably declining opportunities, as determined by the Federal Maritime Commission in new required federal rulemaking.

The U.S. Dairy Export Council, the National Milk Producers Federation, and other ag groups also support the bill.