Early last month, the Biden-Harris administration announced that the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal passed into law this fall will help to improve supply chain shipments to and from American ports.

The legislation, the largest single federal investment in U. S. ports in our country’s history, dedicates $17 billion in federal funds to shore up infrastructure at coastal and inland ports and waterways, as well as ports of entry along U. S. borders.

According to an announcement by the administration, the funding and resulting resources will provide near-term assistance and make long-term investments to strengthen supply-chain operations. This infrastructure investment will also create American jobs, the report said.

Impending measures include:

• Support for solutions to current supply chain disruptions by allowing flexibility in port grants. The U.S. Department of Transportation will allow port authorities across the country to redirect project cost savings toward tackling supply-chain challenges.

• Alleviating congestion at the Port of Savannah by funding the Georgia Port Authority pop-up container yards project. The Port of Savannah leads the nation in containerized agricultural exports.

• Launching programs to modernize ports and marine highways with more than $240 million in grant funding.

• Identifying projects for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers construction at coastal ports and inland waterways. This plan will provide a roadmap for more than $4 billion in funding to repair outdated infrastructure and to deepen harbors for larger cargo ships.

• Prioritizing key ports of entry for modernization and expansion. This plan will identify $3.4 billion in investments to upgrade inspection facilities and facilitate international trade through U. S. northern and southern borders.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal will also invest in construction projects that revitalize elements of America’s transportation infrastructure and supply chains. This includes an additional $110 billion to repair roads and bridges and other transformational infrastructure projects.

“The infrastructure package and the investment it is poised to make in our nation’s roads, waterways, and ports will have a massive impact on the supply chain, by simply allowing freight to move more efficiently and be subject to fewer delays,” Chad Tokowicz, government relations manager with the Marine Retailers Association of the Americas, told Trade Only Today.

“Furthermore, the bill also established the Office of Multimodal Freight and Infrastructure Policy within the Department of Transportation. This office is charged with assisting cities and states in developing freight mobility and supply chain expertise, administering and overseeing DOT multimodal freight grants and much more,” Tokowicz added.

In a statement last month, U. S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said President Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package will help improve port congestion and lay the groundwork for better flows of goods coming out of the pandemic.

“We are definitely seeing some immediate impacts of the . . . (supply chain) steps that we have taken, but the honest answer I can give you, as long as the pandemic continues, there will be disruptions,” Buttigieg said.

Next up? Awaiting passage of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA 2021), a bipartisan bill sponsored by Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) and Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), which will help alleviate supply chain and port disruption issues and support overall post-pandemic economic recovery.

As the National Marine Manufacturers Association reported recently, members of the marine industry can visit Boating United to urge Congress to pass OSRA 2021.

“The Federal Maritime Commission authorities have not been updated in over 20 years [since 1998]. Basically, what this bill does is it goes through what their authorities are, modernizes all the MCF’s tools to make sure that our shipping regulations are applicable and conducive to the environment that we’re working in today,” Callie Hoyt, NMMA’s director of federal government relations, told Trade Only Today.