WASHINGTON—The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation Monday to improve oversight of ocean shipping, which supporters say will help curb inflation and ease export backlogs.
The bill was approved 369–42 and will head to the White House for President Joe Biden’s signature. Biden said in a statement he looked forward to signing it into law.
The bill would boost the investigatory authority of the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), the U.S. agency that oversees ocean shipping, and increase industry transparency.
It would allow FMC to launch probes of ocean common carriers’ business practices and to apply enforcement measures, require ocean common carriers to report to the FMC “total import/export tonnage” each calendar quarter, and would bar ocean carriers from unreasonably declining opportunities for U.S. exports under new rules to be determined by the FMC….