McCarthy: No One Wins In Port Shutdown

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Kevin McCarthy today joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers to call for an end to the current labor dispute that is shutting down West Coast ports.

Excerpts of McCarthy’s remarks are below, or watch them online here.

“Well, thank you. As you see, what stands behind me is a microcosm of America. From the furthest area of America Samoa to Washington, to California, from Ohio, Minnesota, and in between. When you listen to Congresswoman Hahn (CA-44), you realize how much comes through these ports.  And one thing I want you to take away from this is nobody wins by the current situation. But looking behind everybody, everyone loses in this country because of what’s going on. This is something that cannot continue.

“We need to come together just as you find Republicans and Democrats here coming together. And it’s not about a large corporation, it’s about the American economy. Every person here has a story from their district, no matter how far apart they are, of the effects this is causing.

…

“I’m from California. I just flew into Los Angeles on Sunday and you know what I saw? Usually you see a beautiful ocean out there.

“I saw many ships loaded, just sitting. Not even into the harbor to be unloaded.  I come from an area that’s devastated because of water, its agriculture. They’re taking trees out, unemployment is much higher—some places it’s thirty percent in some parts of the Central Valley. But now the produce that they’re able to produce, with what little water they have, is perishable and rotting on these docks. They’re losing millions of dollars a day, because of the fight that’s going on. This is a time that we put people before politics, we put the American economy first, and we make sure we’re able to grow and get these two individual sides together to solve this problem.”