According to an agency official, the Federal Maritime Commission may not have enough employees to fully execute the maritime shipping changes adopted in June.
“We are currently resource-constrained,” said FMC Commissioner Carl Bentzel on Monday during a webinar on the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA) and its impact on global supply chains.
According to FMC Commissioner Carl Bentzel Bentzel, the FMC has six investigators overseeing $6 trillion in containerized cargo value, associated intermodal services, and economic activity – one investigator for every trillion dollars of commerce. In comparison, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has 150 investigators for every trillion dollars in securities and financial instruments that it oversees, he claims.
While the OSRA granted higher FMC funds to assist with staffing ($32.9 million in 2022 to $49.2 million in 2025), hiring takes time.
“We have substantial rulemakings that will begin in the near future, but we have very few personnel to complete the work, so we’re dealing with that,” Bentzel said during a Capital Link webinar. “How we move through the legislation will have to be prioritized.”
Despite analysts’ predictions of a recession, Bentzel claims that “when I go to the ocean transport businesses about their volumes, they’re not informing me about any recession.” I expect [container] volumes to remain strong for the rest of the year, and they may even rise as we approach the regular high-volume [fall peak] season. It’s difficult to predict a recession while people continue to buy.”
Butler stated that the media attention paid to supply chain disruptions over the last two years has resulted in the general people becoming more aware of where items come from and how they get here.
Furthermore, he wondered, “Are we as a community willing to pay for a system that can handle any surge, no matter how large or long?” To some extent, I believe we have already seen the answer since investment in warehouses has peaked and then declined. So, while we discuss policy, people must ask themselves, “What do I actually need, and what am I ready to pay for?”
