New CDC Guidelines Relaxing Masking and Other COVID-19 Protocols

U.S. health officials dialed back their threshold for Covid-19 masking recommendations, a signal that the federal government is shifting into a new phase of its pandemic response that prioritizes protecting hospitals and vulnerable people over broadly preventing infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday, February 25, 2022, introduced a new three-tiered system for classifying local Covid-19 risks. In areas where the risks from the virus are low, officials said that most people can go without masks in indoor public places such as restaurants or shopping malls. In medium-risk areas where the virus is having some impact on the health-care system, people who are at potential increased risk of severe Covid-19 should talk with their doctor about masking, according to the new guidelines. Less than a third of the population is in high-risk areas where masks should be required in indoor public spaces, compared with 82% under the earlier regime. The recommendations also apply to schools -- the first update to school guidance since July. While the CDC earlier recommended masks for schools regardless of community risk level, the updated recommendation is for a requirement only in high-risk areas. The new guidelines are going into place as the U.S. comes out of a spike and rapid descent in Covid-19 infections caused by the fast-spreading omicron variant. With cases quickly ebbing, many states have already relaxed masking guidelines, and the CDC has come under criticism for not acting more quickly to set a new baseline for mitigation steps across the country. 

Read the new guidance HERE.

FSIS Issues Updated Mask Guidance in Accordance with Current CDC Recommendations

As of March 1, 2022, FSIS-regulated establishments are no longer subject to suspension or withdrawal of inspection services for failure to require their employees to wear masks when FSIS inspection program personnel are present. FSIS will reinstate inspection services immediately to any FSIS-regulated establishments that are currently the subject of a suspension action pursuant to FSIS Notice 34-21. FSIS continues to recommend that FSIS-regulated establishments follow CDC guidance on the use of masks to reduce the risk of infection with COVID-19; in particular, CDC recommends use of masks indoors in areas with high COVID-19 community levels. FSIS employees must continue to wear masks at this time as set out in the USDA workplace safety plan. 

Biden Administration Taking Steps to Leveling the Playing Field in Ocean Shipping

On Tuesday, March 1, 2022, during his State of the Union, President Biden announced a new joint initiative between Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and Department of Justice (DOJ) to make sure that large ocean freight companies cannot take advantage of U.S. businesses and consumers. Right now, three global alliances, made up entirely of foreign companies, control almost all of ocean freight shipping, giving them power to raise prices for American businesses and consumers, while threatening our national security and economic competitiveness. Under the new initiative, DOJ will provide the FMC with the support of attorneys and economists from the Antitrust Division for enforcement of violations of the Shipping Act and related laws. The FMC will provide the Antitrust Division with support and maritime industry expertise for Sherman Act and Clayton Act enforcement actions. The agencies’ announcement explains that competition in the maritime industry is integral to lowering prices, improving quality of service, and strengthening the resilience of supply chains. This initiative grew out of the “whole of government” approach to competition established by the President’s July Executive Order on Promoting Competition. The FMC and the DOJ are both part of the White House Competition Council established by the Order. Their partnership builds on an information-sharing Memorandum of Understanding that the agencies entered into in July.

In addition, GCCA recently joined 48 other association in sending a letter to the White House urging the Administration for “early and persistent” engagement in the impending contract negotiations between the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). Negotiations have yet to formally begin ahead of the contract’s July 1^st expiration and uncertainty is already disrupting freight strategies and operations in U.S. West Coast Ports.

Read that letter HERE.

Read the more about the FMC and DOJ initiative HERE.

Biden Taps Ketanji Brown Jackson to High Court

On Friday, February 25, 2022, President Joe Biden introduced federal appeals court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as his nominee to be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court, saying he was looking for “a brilliant legal mind with the utmost character and integrity.” Jackson, 51, would be the sixth female justice in the court’s history, the third African American and the first to have once been a federal public defender. She would succeed the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, 83, for whom she once worked as a law clerk. The nomination won’t alter the court’s conservative tilt, but it would add a fresh voice to the three-member liberal wing.