ICYMI: Davids Leads Congressional Trip to Port of Long Beach to See How Securing Supply Chains, Seizing Fentanyl Affects Kansans

Last week, Representative Sharice Davids led a group of New Democrat Coalition (New Dems) members on a visit to the Port of Long Beach, one of the biggest and busiest ports in the country. The group saw how the port’s efforts to clear COVID-19 backlogs have improved supply chains nationwide and helped lower costs for hardworking families and small businesses. Davids serves as a Vice Chair for the New Dems, one of the largest caucuses in the House of Representatives dedicated to advancing innovative, inclusive, and forward-looking policies through bipartisan collaboration.

“As Vice Chair of the New Dems, I led a group of my colleagues on a visit to the Port of Long Beach to learn how the flow of goods there influences prices back home and to understand their efforts to address the fentanyl crisis,” said Davids. “I’m grateful to port leadership, Customs and Border Patrol, and the longshoreman for showing us how they swiftly recovered from the effects of the pandemic and continue to strengthen our economy and national security. There’s still more work needed to bring down costs and keep Kansans safe, so I’m going to leverage what I learned at the port to make life more affordable, bolster our local workforce, and restore order at the border.”

On the visit, Davids met with Port of Long Beach leadership, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents, and the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU). The group discussed the recovery of national supply chains since the COVID-19 pandemic, how the port uses state-of-the-art technologies to get goods to market faster and prevent harmful substances — like fentanyl — from entering the country illegally, and how union workers have remained skilled and adaptable to strengthen supply chains.

As the nation's third-largest port, the Port of Long Beach's influence touches local economies nationwide. This visit will help Davids address the challenges faced by hardworking families in Kansas, with the insights gained guiding future efforts to lower costs and enhance economic opportunities at home. During the pandemic, the port saw massive logjams of container vessels due to climbing consumer sales, worker shortages, lack of truck drivers, and a slowdown of transportation hubs. Supply chains have strengthened as the amount of units moving through the port have begun to return to normal, easing economic pressures nationwide and helping to lower inflation.

Davids also met with CBP agents to discuss security at the port and their efforts to halt the illegal smuggling of fentanyl at our borders by utilizing new state-of-the-art technologies. Davids and her colleagues identified what is going right at the port and how those strategies can be used at the southern border. Davids, a member of the bipartisan Fentanyl Prevention Caucus, has been a vocal advocate around fentanyl and opioid death prevention. She has hosted multiple summits with law enforcement, health care workers, and education professionals on combatting the fentanyl epidemic and has taken a number of legislative actions based on the specific needs of the Kansas Third District.