When you go home, take off all your clothes, go through all the labels on them, and realize that “almost 95 percent of them come to these shores by boat.”
That’s what Rep. Elijah Cummings said he tells his 7th District constituents so they can see the importance of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Coast Guard and marine transportation subcommittee he chairs.
The Baltimore Democrat didn’t need to remind his audience of trade and shipping professionals from around the country at the Containerization and Intermodal Institute’s conference on the Federal Maritime Commission that he had significant legislative oversight of their business.
The message of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11 was “We will interrupt your commerce,” Cummings said. If any major U.S. port was shut down — particularly the largest, the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where he held a hearing last week — “we’d be in big trouble,” he added.
The conference was much more interested in Cummings’ views on the future of the Federal Maritime Commission. His subcommittee held hearings on the commission in April and June, focusing on the internal problems at an agency that has been without a chairman for 19 months due to Senate inaction.
The first hearing found that the commissioners “were frankly not working together effectively,” Cummings said. It may have also lead Commissioner Paul Anderson, who had been nominated as chairman but was not often in the office, to resign before the second hearing.
“If the Maritime Commission is not functioning effectively, it cannot respond appropriately to the many changes in the maritime industry,” Cummings said. He has asked for a follow-up report in September.
“We look forward to working with Chairman Cummings,” said Commissioner Harold Creel, the longest-serving member and a former chairman. “I think the next hearing will be more substantive.” The lack of a chairman to administer the agency will continue to be a problem, Creel said, and that may not be resolved till next year.
Helen Delich Bentley, the former congresswoman who once headed the commission, said, “I’m glad that Cummings took them on.” But she blamed the problem on the Senate, saying, “Washington needs to stop playing chess.”
Joe Cervenak, a York, Pa., shipping consultant who is president of the Containerization and Intermodal Institute, said Cummings has been “reasonably objective” in dealing with the problems at the Maritime Commission.
