HR4183-119

What This Bill Does

The Federal Maritime Commission Reauthorization Act of 2025 authorizes $49.2 million for the Federal Maritime Commission for fiscal year 2026 and $49.2 million for fiscal year 2027. It updates title 46 purposes so the ocean-shipping statutes focus on common carriage of goods by water in foreign commerce and on supporting, rather than promoting, U.S. exports. It broadens the controlled-carrier concept to include ocean carriers tied to corporations based in, headquartered in, or significantly linked to nonmarket economies or countries identified through U.S. Trade Representative priority-watch or monitoring processes.

The bill creates a process for people to submit information to the FMC about alleged shipping-exchange market manipulation or anticompetitive practices. If the Commission believes an incident occurred, it must investigate and report to the House Transportation and Senate Commerce committees. Shipping exchanges must update their FMC registration if registration information changes. The bill also limits duplicative FMC data collection when similar data is already required by the Army Corps of Engineers, Customs and Border Protection, or Commerce Department import-export monitoring programs.

For investigations, the bill makes FMC-developed information and documents confidential unless a Commission majority votes that disclosure is relevant and necessary. It restructures national advisory committees by establishing a National Port Advisory Committee with marine terminal operators, port authorities, and longshore or maritime labor representatives, and a National Ocean Carrier Advisory Committee with ocean carriers and at least three ocean transportation intermediaries. Those committees advise on competitiveness, reliability, and efficiency of the international ocean freight delivery system. The bill expands annual-report disclosures on trade imbalances and vessel-operating-common-carrier audit findings, and it requires an advance notice within one year and a final rule within three years on data acquisition, use, and protection for containerized ocean freight price indexes maintained by shipping exchanges.

Who Benefits and How

Federal Maritime Commission program offices, U.S. exporters, U.S. importers, shippers using containerized ocean freight, marine terminal operators, port authorities, longshore labor unions, maritime labor unions, ocean carriers, ocean transportation intermediaries, shipping exchange users, House Transportation Committee staff, and Senate Commerce Committee staff benefit from clearer statutory authority, renewed appropriations, complaint pathways, advisory seats, trade-imbalance disclosures, audit disclosures, and freight-index data rules.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Federal Maritime Commission, FMC enforcement staff, FMC data-collection staff, shipping exchanges, nonmarket-economy-linked ocean carriers, controlled carriers, ocean carriers subject to audit disclosures, marine terminal operators seeking advisory representation, port authorities seeking advisory representation, longshore labor representatives, ocean transportation intermediaries, the Army Corps of Engineers, Customs and Border Protection, and Commerce Department trade-data programs must comply with registration updates, investigations, confidentiality votes, committee administration, duplicative-data limits, annual disclosures, and containerized freight-index rulemaking.

Key Provisions

• Authorizes $49.2 million for the Federal Maritime Commission for fiscal year 2026 and $49.2 million for fiscal year 2027.
• Amends ocean-shipping purposes and controlled-carrier definitions for carriers tied to nonmarket economies or USTR watch-list countries.
• Creates complaint, investigation, and congressional-reporting procedures for shipping-exchange market manipulation or anticompetitive practices.
• Requires shipping exchanges to update FMC registrations when registration information changes.
• Limits duplicative FMC data collection when similar data is already reported to the Army Corps, CBP, or Commerce Department.
• Restricts disclosure of FMC investigation materials unless a Commission majority approves disclosure as relevant and necessary.
• Creates National Port and National Ocean Carrier advisory committees with specified industry and labor representation.
• Requires annual-report trade-imbalance and ocean-carrier audit disclosures.
• Directs FMC rulemaking on data acquisition, use, and protection for containerized ocean freight price indexes.