November 9, 2021
So what’s in this new White House “action plan?”
The white house *first* points to the $17 billion dollars specifically earmarked in the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill to improve infrastructure at coastal ports, inland ports, waterways and land ports of entry along the border. But the truth is – that money is going to take a while to start flowing.
In the meantime – the White House announced the following:
- $243 million in grant funding within the next 45-days for port infrastructure improvements
- Within 60 days identify $4 billion in construction projects at costal ports and inland waterways for the Army Corp of Engineers to tackle
- Identify $3.4 billion in investment to upgrade obsolete inspection facilities at key ports of entry within 90 days
- Begin the Department of Transportation competition for the first round of grant money for port and waterway infrastructure projects within 90 days.
Here’s the other issue – the ports, trucks, terminals and trains as a whole that make up the nation’s “goods pipeline” are operated mostly by private companies.
It’s important to understand supply chain issues have been building for years and Covid19 fall out isn’t helping. Couple that with the fact that the nation’s ports, trucks and trains are handling a record volume of goods because of consumer demand. But this chronic congestion and soaring freight costs are driving prices higher for goods and services throughout the country for all of us. And it doesn’t seem to be getting better. In fact -the Bureau of Labor Statistics says in October — wholesale prices were almost 9% higher than one year ago.
So whether any of this “action plan” will help fix the supply chain problem – we’ll have to wait and see.
Read the White House “action plan” here.
PLUS
A lot of you were asking me about how the OSHA rule for vaccines being paused by the Appeals Court impacts other employment vaccine mandates.
So let me clear it up.
There are three separate federal Covid19 vaccine orders that impact three separate groups of workers in this country and may impact your employment.
There’s the OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard, the Executive Order for all federal workers and contractors and the so-called CMS vaccine mandate for health care facilities and workers who get money from Medicare and Medicaid. All three of these mandates include the option of medical or religious exemptions…but they may not be granted. These are all separate!
The *only* one that’s on pause is the OSHA emergency temporary standard that says workers at all u-s companies with more than 100 employees must either be fully vaccinated or submit to regular testing by January 4th. This is the one that is making its way through the Appellate Court system as I explained in detail in this video. And the status of this osha rule in the courts has *nothing* to do with the other two vaccine orders I’m about to explain.
The second vaccine order is the President’s Executive Order dated September 9th for all federal workers and contractors to be vaccinated with *no testing option. Federal workers currently have until November 22nd to be fully vaccinated and contractors have until January 4th. For the record – the federal government worker’s union is asking the president to push back the deadline for federal workers to January 4th to match the contractor deadline. No word yet, if the white house will agree. I’m watching that.
The last is so called centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services accine mandate. You probably know it as the CMS mandate. This mandate impacts about 17 million workers and says all eligible staff at health care facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid programs be fully vaccinated by January 4th there is no testing option.
Now if the OSHA rule for some reason gets permanently put on hold – that has no impact on the other two rules. At this point they both stand. Also — your employer — completely separate from all of this — may still issue a vaccine or testing mandate as a term of your employment. That can still happen.
Read the OSHA FAQ here.
Read the White House federal workers Executive Order here.
Read the CMS rule here.
Read the White House fact sheet for the new deadline to January 4 here.
