In the first six months of President Trump’s term in office, he has fulfilled his promise to cancel foreign agreements that hurt American businesses. Now he needs to push Congress to revamp maritime laws that provide unfair advantages to international shipping companies. One such legislation is the Shipping Act, a century-old law that provides antitrust immunity to ocean carriers who work together to negotiate service terms.

While the Shipping Act was initially designed to protect American ocean carriers, today there are no U.S. companies within the three big shipping alliances. In order to rectify this imbalance, lawmakers need to give the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) more power under the Shipping Act so they can challenge anti-competitive practices and monitor the broader effects of collusion by foreign alliances.

Read more about this antiquated law and several solutions to fix it in the Washington Examiner article I authored here.

President Trump has sent the names of four new nominees to the Senate this week. Those nominations included Anna Maria Farias for Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Marvin Kaplan for Member of the National Labor Relations Board, Patrick Pizzella for Deputy Secretary of Labor, and Lance Allen Robertson for Assistant Secretary for Aging, Department of Health and Human Services.

Read the official White House press release here.

Kyle Fortson, United States Senate Labor Committee Policy Director, has been nominated to the National Mediation Board by President Trump. Read Chairman Lamar Alexander’s press release regarding Ms. Fortson here.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has submitted a proposal to rescind the Obama-era “persuader rule,” which required consultants to disclose any work they do for employers regarding union organization efforts. A Texas federal judge granted a permanent injunction to the rule in November 2016, calling it unconstitutional. Read the full DOL proposal here.

The US Department of Labor issued a statement on June 7 announcing that Alexander Acosta, the US Secretary of Labor, has withdrawn the department’s informal guidance on joint labor and independent contractors. This withdrawal does not remove the legal responsibilities of employers  in regards to the Fair Labor Standards Act and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act. Read the full press release here.

Kendall Fells, the lead organizer for the “Fight for $15” campaign, has claimed that he is not paid for his part in organizing protests. Recent reports hint otherwise. According to documents filed with the Department of Labor, Fells is on the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) payroll. He is listed as their “deputy organizing director” and receives an annual salary of $146,000. Fox Business recently reported that Fells is “on loan” to the “Fight for $15” campaign by SEIU. Read more about it here.