Letter to Department of Transportation on Supply Chain Issue and Solutions
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides you with a unique opportunity to directly confront the supply-chain challenges that are adversely impacting the U.S. economy and the daily lives of all Americans. We urge you to dedicate as much as allowable by law in discretionary grants for FY 2022 to support projects that will facilitate and ease the movement of goods. Over the past two years, the supply chain has endured extreme slowdowns due to pandemic-related pressures. IHS Markit, a data research firm that constantly surveys businesses on their supply delivery times, found that, after a decade of constant or slightly declining delivery times, their index, starting in 2020, has signaled a substantial and widespread slowdown of the supply chain. Pandemic-induced record cargo volumes have put pressure on the supply chain leading to abnormally long loading and unloading times at seaports, inland ports, and throughout all modes of transportation when, prior to the pandemic, the system functioned smoothly.