White House Clarifies: Biden Not Considering Using National Guard To Support L.A. Port Cargo Operations
Meanwhile, Gov. DeSantis says Florida ports are open for business and have the capacity needed!
A few days ago, Biden announced that the Port of Los Angeles will double its hours and go to 24/7 operations to help alleviate the cargo ship backlog and the supply chain crisis.
In a development that should surprise no one, the move hasn’t helped. So now Team Biden indicates that it may use the National Guard could help with the cargo ship bottleneck at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
A White House administration official confirmed to CNN Wednesday that it is considering all its options, including deploying the National Guard.
When asked specifically about whether President Joe Biden would consider ordering the National Guard or Navy to help unload cargo stacked up at ports or drive trucks, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday, “I’m not here to take options off the table,” according to CNN.
The White House later clarified that the use of the National Guard is up to the state and its governor:
The White House then clarified that if the National Guard does step in to help mitigate supply chain issues, it will be a decision made by individual states.
“Requesting the use of the National Guard at the state level is under the purview of governors, and we are not actively pursuing the use of the National Guard on a federal level,” the White House said in a statement.
Governors in some states are considering or have called in the National Guard to ease labor shortages. In September, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker sent some 250 Guard members to take driving duties in school districts that were reporting severe shortages of school bus drivers, in part due to the state’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public employees.
The new route options have caused trouble for residents in neighborhoods near the port.
Valerie Contreras, a board member of the Wilmington, California, Neighborhood Council, told “Fox & Friends First” Thursday that the dangerous situation can’t continue.
“The shipping industry is spilling over into our community and we cannot sustain it any longer,” Contreras said.
“We have had these truckers going through our community. Our residential streets are backed up and we cannot handle the overflow of what’s happening at the port. And it’s quite dangerous.”
One car was photographed being crushed by a container in the harbor area of Los Angeles.
“This particular container of the driver pulled around the corner,” Contreras said. “It disconnected from his fifth wheel and fell completely and crushed this car.”
Union Pacific representatives indicated that expanding the hours is not going to quickly fix the cargo ship backlog, either.
Union Pacific executives and other logistics experts say that a shortage of available warehouse space and port and long-haul truckers are stymieing efforts to keep up with the surge in cargo to the United States – where the world’s most avid consumers have been buying more goods than ever due to pandemic-related curbs on travel and entertainment.
In response to the developing issues that are arising from the “solutions”, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to provide more container storage options.
The executive order directs state agencies to find state, federal and private land for short-term container storage while identifying freight routes for trucks so the state can temporarily exempt weight limits on the road.
Alternatively, companies that rely on shipping for product transport may consider diverting to Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis indicates the state’s ports are open for business.
“Our ports operate 24/7, I mean, that should be happening anyway,” the governor said. “We in Florida have the ability to help alleviate these logjams and help to ameliorate the problems with the supply chain.”
“We’re here, we have capacity,” he emphasized.
The governor said JAXPORT and other Florida seaports are further offering incentive packages to businesses that want to send cargo through the facilities, noting that companies in other parts of the globe have already begun rerouting shipments from logjammed ports to Florida.
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NEWS FLASH
WHITE HOUSE CLARIFIES —
>> . SOMETMES THE PRESIDENT TALKS OUT OF HIS ASS
SOMETMES corrected to ALWAYS
I was talking with someone who supports the ports in question. He says that the White House has done absolutely nothing. They are not involved. They have no initiatives.
It was just something they said on TV.
Goo thing we have restore competence to the White House.
At least we don’t have those Tweets that tell us facts and truths that we just do not want to hear. Oh, and sometimes opinions that don’t reflect the mainstream media narrative.
Typo Alert — “Good” — not “Goo”
I just naturally thought that you were writing in “Bidenese!”
“The adults are back in charge!”
All alumni of the Foggy Bottom Home for Mentally Deficient Adults.
LOL!
Biden is actually shuffling around the Whites thinking he is president. This just wont do. Some one is going to have to do something about this.
My understanding was that it was a shortage of trucks meeting Kalifornia’s new emissions standards, not drivers, that was causing the bottlenecks. Was I mistaken? If that’s the case, it should only take Newsom pulling an Obama with his magic pen to solve the problem. At least until they need something else to scare and control the people with.
Owner/drivers are also forbidden.
I haven’t verified this for myself, but, I heard from a recently-escaped Californian that “authorities” are now dictating tire types, for fuel savings or something.
They’re busy this week making it illegal for homeowners and groundskeepers to buy any more internal combustion lawn mowers, weed wackers, or hedge trimmers.
Fortunately, Bic lighters and bear urine are still freely available.
Is bear urine flammable?
No, but you can take out entire forests trying to boil it.
(If you haven’t seen the bear urine story here on LI, use the search function.)
California’s restrictions on the use of older trucks and the work of independent owner/operators is interfering with interstate commerce. If the Biden administration had any guts, they would put a restraining order on California laws. In any case, other states, as well as corporations and consumers, should sue California into bankruptcy.
The main problem is the unions. They have prevented automation and modernizing of cargo handling in order to hold the shippers up for more money. And they use that money to buy politicians. No California (or even Washington) politician with enough influence to do anything is willing to annoy the unions and endanger all those nice political contributions.
I have to give Governor DeSantis props for having the intestinal fortitude to keep the unions in check.
The same California law that made all UBER/LIFT drivers employees instead of Contractors also eliminated all owner/operator truck drivers who were the majority of truck drivers taking containers from the ports. All the owner/operators in CA are retired or have left the state.
AND, as you noted CARB act will not allow any Tractor Trailer older than 2011 to enter the state. Further incentivizing Owner Operators never to return, because then new trucks are dramatically more expensive because of emissions controls; they break down easily, and all the replacement parts and chips are stuck in the containers which can’t be delivered.
Seeing no way to abolish those 2 laws… it is not going to get better.
Drive away the Truckers and see what happens. At the Very Least those containers that are being shipped are incurring $3000 more in freight charges.
Usually when California does something imbecilic, it only hurts people in California and we laugh at them. This time they are hurting the entire country.
And to think we thought we would have to expend all the effort to force a trucker strike to Blue America. While we were sitting on our asses doing nothing about it, Blue America did it all by themselves.
.
Gee, says the friendly grizzly, wistfully. He remembers his younger years when foreign goods were a rarity, not the rule.
That’s because in those days picnic baskets rarely contained imported goods. Nowadays a bear has to learn to read the labels.
I’m so old, my Christmas stocking sometimes contained an orange.
My reading is it’s by engine model year and assumes a 2011 truck will have a 2010 model year engine so you could run an older truck as long as it has a 2010 or newer engine. But that takes affect 12/31/2021. Right now as old as 2007 are allowed so yes it could get worse.
2022.
Owners of Drayage Trucks with Engine Model Year 2007 or newer are fully compliant until December 31, 2022 for ports and rail yards in California. Simply register with the DTR for port or rail yard entry. Starting January 1, 2023, trucks must have 2010 Model Year or newer engine to continue entering ports and rail yards.
If the “White House” says it, I believe it! I know they would not lie to me.
Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott are have a grand time making “Biden and The Feds” look like fools. Not that they need to help – “Biden and The Feds” are doing rather well by themselves.
Has anybody located Pete Buttgig lately? Does anybody want to?
.
He’s doing whirlwind product analysis on Amazon to settle on just the right automatic pet-food dispenser so he and his husband can get back to their real jobs.
You could just shut down commifornia’s independant regulations as an infringement on interstate commerce and outside of their purview. That would clear the logjam.
They only reserve those regulations for people who grow their own wheat for their own purposes, with no intention of moving it across state lines.
You beat me by less than two hours. I was thinking the very same thing.
Interstate commerce rules applying to California went away when they were permitted to develop their own auto pollution standards.
Just nationalize their ports. As card-carrying commies, they won’t have a leg to stand on.
People are being trained to wait for corrections from handlers – the President no longer speaks for the US. Handlers hold the office.
Soon it will seem natural.
We had a lot of that when The Wizzard of Uhhs was in office.
WH — This is a ‘high class’ shortage problem. Let them eat cake.
I wonder. Is there an issue with getting exports out to other countries? Or is the problem just with imports?
About the only thing of significance being exported from the west coast these days can fly out under its on power. The plants making them are no longer in California.
IIRC, we still export a great deal of food.
Like to China.
Let’s also recognize that sending the National Guard to operate the ports is a really dumb idea. The Guard doesn’t have the collective skill set needed to do so, and no access to the records of where all the containers are and where their final destination is.
What would the plan be? National Guard moves in, people who have records access leave, then ???
Surely the appropriate first step always involves chain link and concertina wire.
Not just Florida, there are ports along the Gulf, Mobile being a prime example. Located along interstate 10 E/W and interstate 65 Northbound with convenient rail access and airport access. The State of Alabama invested roughly a $ billion into dredging deeper/wider channels and modern technology to increase capacity, speed and ease of operation. The State Docks in Mobile are a logistical dream scenario.
We have a lot of red docks. Problem is, they’re on the wrong ocean.
I used to sit on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll in.
Normally maybe. Now, with container ships backed up? Those smaller ships able to transit the Panama Canal are looking more appealing.
Maybe the ports with full yards and no trucks to move the containers should be subjected to a reality show mentality; storage wars. 30 days to get your container off site and out of the way otherwise auctioned off.
All but the vary largest container ships can pass through the canal, and there aren’t too many of them yet. And they’re not all on Asia-US West Coast routes.
But they haven’t told Joe yet. He still thinks the NG is involved.
Pregnant male fighter jet pilots, in their brand new suits.
Driving 18-wheelers into California.
For lumber companies.
Snacking on corn pop.
They could hire some young female armorers with lots of experience who formerly worked on movie sets seperating live rounds from blanks.
Hm, let’s see. California put dramatic supply restrictions on trucks and truck drivers, and now a massive shortage of trucks and truck drivers is causing the LA ports to be overloaded.
Wonder if there’s a connection? Dems don’t see it.
They voted Newsom back in. Way past time to be asking about their vision.
Way, way, way, way past time!
“Biden not considering…”
That’s because his alzheimers is at the stage where he can no longer think clearly, consider or make decisions. Good ol’ Kamala is chomping at the bit.
Maybe a few pirates-for-hire would clear things up?
What are labor and environmental arbitrage, poorly dictated mandates, and Hotel California.
Way I read it between California screwing the pooch by limiting trucks, who can drive them, hours of operation that’s most of the jam up.
Their RV tourism is scheduled to crater come 2023, as well.
All the tourists walk to California these days coming up from the southern border, looking this way and that, to see what they can see.
Anecdotally, there have also been complaints from the union that the ports aren’t requesting enough workers to handle the backlog, and from truckers that the union workers at the ports are deliberately slowing down loading containers onto trucks (maybe to force the ports to request more?). Looks like there’s plenty of blame to go around.
Union featherbedding? In a DEMOCRAT state? Say it ain’t so, Joe!
Here is a possible endgame: CA legislators will agree to temporarily pause CA’s truck engine restrictions if Congress passes Biden’s 3 gillion $ “infrastructure” deal. It would be a Socialist win-win.