Members of Congress in Washington and Oregon introduce a bill to keep labor disputes from hobbling the flow of goods through U.S. ports and hindering the economy.

A bill aimed at preventing future work disruptions at U.S. ports has been introduced in the U.S. House by Reps. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., and Kurt Schrader, D-Ore.

The bill sets up automatic triggers to start the Taft-Hartley Act process in the event of future labor or management actions disrupting U.S. ports.

The Ensuring Continued Operations and No Other Major Incidents, Closures or Slowdowns — the acronym is ECONOMICS — Act, HR 3932, was introduced Nov. 5. It is in response to a May 2014 through February 2015 slowdown of container cargo through 29 West Coast ports. The slowdown cost up to $2.5 billion per day and contributed to an anemic 0.2 percent annual growth in the first quarter of 2015, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., has said. Thune introduced a bill last May that would set up an early warning system of abnormal port operations.

“We must take the lesson of the most recent ports slowdown to heart: that two parties cannot hold hostage the nation’s economy,” Newhouse said in introducing the bill with Schrader.

“The crisis cost Oregon jobs, millions of dollars in economic growth and productivity and, eventually, the loss of its largest container shipper, Hanjin, from the Port of Portland — a hit that we will not know the full magnitude of for a few years,” Schrader said.

Newhouse expects the bill will be referred to the House Education and Workforce Committee but it also could go to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said Will Boyington, Newhouse’s communications director.

In announcing a draft of the legislation a month ago, Newhouse expressed optimism it could be passed and signed by the president before the end of next year.

“I’m hopeful we will have enough people on both sides of the aisle that it will be seen as a positive step forward to prevent economic losses. So I would hope the administration would look on it positively,” Newhouse said.

The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash.; Greg Walden, R-Ore.; Dave Reichert, R-Wash.; Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif.; Tom Cole, R-Okla.; Steve Stivers, R-Ohio; and Fred Upton, R-Mich.

“The success of American agriculture is tied to our ability to dependably export our farm and ranch goods to overseas buyers,” said Bob Stallman, American Farm Bureau Federation president, in backing the bill.

The bill would require a board of inquiry be convened to determine whether to recommend a court injunction to end a dispute when four or more ports are involved, when 6,000 or more port workers are impacted or when U.S. exports or imports drop 20 percent or more in one month.

The bill broadens the definition of strike throughout U.S. labor law to clarify the president can start boards of inquiry for strikes, slowdowns, lockouts or threatened strikes or lockouts. That change also applies to the triggers requiring the convening of a board.

The bill directs the federal secretary of transportation to divide the ports into four regions: West Coast, East Coast, Gulf Coast and Great Lakes. The director of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics is directed to develop additional conditions for appointing a board of inquiry.

The bill is meant to complement HR 3398, the Protecting Orderly and Responsible Transit of Shipment (PORTS) Act, sponsored by Newhouse, Reichert and representatives from Colorado and American Samoa. The PORTS Act, and a companion measure in the Senate, would allow governors of seaport states and territories to invoke the Taft-Hartley Act to order dock workers to work.