GCCA Conducts Advocacy Priorities Survey

As we look back on the policy successes of 2021, GCCA wants your feedback to ensure we are prioritizing issues that are most important to your business. Please take a few minutes to complete this ten-question survey. All survey data is anonymous and only shared in aggregate. 

Find the survey HERE.

USDA Announces Partnership to Ease Port Congestion and Restore Disrupted Shipping Services to U.S. Grown Agricultural Commodities

On Monday, January 31, 2022, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced plans to increase capacity at the Port of Oakland in Oakland, California and improve service for shippers of U.S. grown agricultural commodities. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is partnering with the Port of Oakland to set up a new 25-acre “pop-up” site to make it easier for agricultural companies to fill empty shipping containers with commodities. Fewer containers have been made available for U.S. agricultural commodities, as ocean carriers have circumvented traditional marketing channels and rushed containers back to be exported empty and as a result, many of these carriers have suspended service to the Port of Oakland. USDA is now taking action to reduce these shipping disruptions that have prevented U.S. agricultural products from reaching their markets. The site will provide space to prepare empty containers beginning in early March. Agricultural companies and cooperatives will have easier access to these containers, which they will fill with commodities, restoring shipping services to agricultural products while relieving congestion. The new site will also have a dedicated gate with the ability to pre-cool refrigerated shipping containers to receive perishable commodities, all while avoiding bottlenecks that would have resulted from entering the main area of the Port. GCCA has already begun to engage with the Administration to help identify additional ports that could duplicate this approach.

Read more about that announcement HERE.

Manchin Wants Clean Slate for Reconciliation

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) told reporters Tuesday, February 1, 2022, that the roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better spending package is “dead” in its current form and any negotiations on revamped legislation must start from scratch. Progress on the tax and social spending package has been stalled since Manchin said he wouldn’t support the bill in December, citing concerns about inflation, deficit spending, and the use of temporary programs to lower the cost on paper. Manchin said Tuesday he hasn’t had any direct discussions with the White House since December, but indicated a willingness to engage on a more targeted economic package. “Whatever we are going to come up with, anything you want to be put on the table we can talk about,” Manchin said. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki did not say during her Tuesday briefing whether the White House had been in contact with Manchin. But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said he had spoken with Manchin recently and that they two were convinced there could be an agreement reached on the climate change-focused tax credits. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had little to give in the way of updates Tuesday, saying that work was ongoing but that there was no timetable.

DOL Promotes 90-Day Trucking Apprenticeship Challenge

Launched on December 16, 2021, this Department of Labor (DOL) 90-day challenge is a national effort to recruit employers interested in developing new Registered Apprenticeship programs and expanding existing programs to help put more well-trained drivers on the road in good trucking jobs. Registered Apprenticeship is workforce training that provides paid, on-the-job learning, and today there are more than 10,000 apprentices in the trucking industry. For employers ready to step up, DOL and national partners will help accelerate new program development in as little as two days.

Learn more about this opportunity HERE.

Virginia Could Kill Its First-in-U.S. Workplace Covid-19 Measure

Virginia officials may rescind the state’s first-in-the-nation standard for protecting workers from Covid-19 infections. The possible withdrawal of the rule has been called for by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who, immediately upon taking office on Jan. 15, set out to reverse measures approved by the prior Democratic administration. Virginia is one of 21 states federally approved to enact protections for workers at private employers and state and local governments. Youngkin’s issuance of a first-day executive order downgrading a public school mask-wearing mandate to merely an option drew instant opposition and then a seven school system state court lawsuit. On that same first day, Youngkin ordered the state panel that oversees the writing of state occupational safety and health rules to review the workplace measure as well.  If the state’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration measure is repealed, many Virginia employers would no longer have to require those who work indoors to mask up, even in areas of substantial or high community transmission, or to social distance, provide employee training, improve ventilation systems to filter out the coronavirus, or tell the Virginia Department of Health of outbreaks. The regulator, however, could continue to cite employers by enforcing other rules such as federal OSHA mandates for use of respirators or providing a workplace free of known fatal hazards that can be mitigated. Virginia was at the vanguard of extending state Covid-19 worker protections. After it enacted its standard, a few other states with Democratic governors approved similar measures or issued executive orders, including California, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.