IN-DEPTH: Baltimore Disaster Adds Urgency to Calls for US Maritime Policy Reform, Port Investment

Growing chorus say Biden’s $20 billion ports plan needs big boost to reverse decades of infrastructure neglect that now imperils commerce, national security.

Ships wait to enter the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Oct. 14, 2021, a month before the United States' largest port was overwhelmed with cargo it could not unload and get out of the port for weeks.John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

President Joe Biden, in an executive order this February, directed $20 billion in allocations from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill (BIL) into a five-year grant program dedicated to modernizing America’s 361 commercial ports.

The money is welcome but not nearly enough to overcome decades of neglect in comprehensive federal port investment and a half-century absence—some say abdication—by successive administrations and Congresses in sustaining a cohesive national maritime policy, a growing chorus of critics contend.