{"id":3393,"date":"2022-01-06T12:20:30","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T18:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/?p=3393"},"modified":"2022-02-10T12:16:44","modified_gmt":"2022-02-10T18:16:44","slug":"update-on-ongoing-aapa-advocacy-efforts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/2022\/01\/06\/update-on-ongoing-aapa-advocacy-efforts\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on Ongoing AAPA Advocacy Efforts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Last week, to drive positive narratives to Capitol Hill surrounding seaports\u2019 needs and role in handling supply chain challenges, AAPA President and CEO Chris Connor published an op-ed in <em>The Hill<\/em> titled \u201cOn the Supply Chain and Freight Fluidity: Enforcement, Not Reformation.\u201d In this piece, Connor argues new regulations curtailing freight fluidity charges do not serve the public interest and that a strengthened FMC will effectively regulate the U.S. international ocean transportation system for the benefit of U.S. exporters, importers, and consumers. He also discusses the supplemental appropriations in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), formerly known as (and sometimes still called) the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and how these appropriations will both aid freight movement and be used to create a more fluid and resilient port system, including improvements to intermodal connectivity. Importantly, the piece praises decisions in the past year ports have made to ensure capacity and speed are increased. <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/congress-blog\/politics\/587404-on-the-supply-chain-and-freight-fluidity-enforcement-not?rl=1\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">Read the piece here<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0 Despite all reports to the contrary over several months, the National Retail Federation published an article where they called 2021 \u201cthe best holiday season ever,\u201d with holiday sales rising 11.5% above 2020. AAPA President and CEO Chris Connor, who was <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/speeches-remarks\/2021\/12\/22\/remarks-by-president-biden-in-meeting-with-the-supply-chain-disruptions-task-force\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">invited by President Biden<\/span><\/a> to attend the Supply Chain Task Force and CEOs meeting with the President two weeks ago, reiterated this and updated President Biden on the extraordinary efforts by the nation\u2019s ports to keep freight moving and ease congestion while handling record container volume leading up to the holiday season. Connor gave a recap of the supply chain progress in an interview with Fox and Friends ahead of Christmas. <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/6288316486001#sp=show-clips\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">View the interview here<\/span><\/a>. \u00a0 On December 23, the Department of Transportation Maritime Administration (MARAD) announced $241 million in grant awards for the FY2021 Port Infrastructure Development Program (PIDP). The awards will fund 25 projects in 19 states and one territory. View MARAD&#8217;s <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.maritime.dot.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/us-transportation-secretary-pete-buttigieg-announces-over-241-million\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">press release here<\/span><\/a> and the full list of <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.maritime.dot.gov\/sites\/marad.dot.gov\/files\/2021-12\/2021_%20PIDP%20Grant%20Awards%20-%20Combined%20Project%20Descriptions.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">project awards here<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, to drive positive narratives to Capitol Hill surrounding seaports\u2019 needs and role in handling supply chain challenges, AAPA President and CEO Chris Connor published an op-ed in The Hill titled \u201cOn the Supply Chain and Freight Fluidity: Enforcement, Not Reformation.\u201d In this piece, Connor argues new regulations curtailing freight fluidity charges do not &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":3368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advocacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}