FMC Employees To Be Furloughed Due to Sequestration, Commission Chairman Says
Sequestration will force the Federal Maritime Commission to furlough employees for about 10-14 days due to sequestration, which, when combined with other sequestration-induced budget squeezes, limits the commission’s ability to oversee the shipping industry and ensure compliance, Chairman Mario Cordero told the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation April 16.
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As a small agency with an “extremely lean budget” options to reduce costs without furloughing staff are limited, Cordero said in written testimony. The specific number of furlough days remains in flux, he said, and is dependent on whether additional savings can be found. Sequestration cut the Commission’s budget by about $1.2 million, Cordero said. President Obama’s 2014 budget request includes $25 million for the Commission; an increase of $900,000 over enacted Fiscal Year 2013 appropriations. To cope with sequestration, the Commission has already reduced travel and training expenses and imposed hiring restrictions, Cordero said. The agency also allowed certain contracts to expire, including ones for electronic scanning services for records of formal proceedings and investigative matters, and shipping data that enables the Commission to analyze trade conditions.
At the hearing, Cordero also reported on the state of U.S. liner trades. U.S. container volumes and transpacific container trade increased in 2012, but at small levels. The former increased 3 percent to reach 29.8 million twenty-foot equivalent units, Cordero said. U.S. ports similarly saw positive, though small, growth. Total container volumes at New York-New Jersey, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Oakland, Savannah, and Seattle, increased less than two percent each, he said. Container volumes at each of the secondary ports at Tacoma, Hampton Roads, Philadelphia, and Charleston, grew nearly 10 percent.
Transpacific trade continued to be the largest of the U.S. liner trades in 2012; trade with Asian nations accounted for almost 62 percent of U.S. containerized imports and exports, with China leading the pack, Cordero said. Containerized exports to Latin America grew 55 percent from 2002 to 2012; total volume in trade with the region made up 13.3 percent of total U.S. liner trade, he said.