{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://case.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2228", "Case Introduces Measure To Ban Discriminatory Treatment And Pricing Of Shipping Of Goods To U.S. Locations Outside Of Continent", "2023-07-24", "2023", "2023-07", "Democrat", "House", "HI", "Ed Case", "C001055", "case.house.gov", "case", "https://case.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27&Page=12", "scraper", "(Washington, DC) \u2013 Congressman Ed Case\u2019s (HI-01) today announced the introduction of a bill in the U.S. House to end what he called in remarks in the Congressional Record \u201cthe exclusionary and discriminatory practices of private shipping services to Hawai\u2018i and the other non-contiguous parts of our country.\u201d\n\nCase said Hawai\u2018i, located almost 2,500 miles off the West Coast, and like other non-48 states parts of our country, \u201cdepends on shipping more than many other locations in our country, importing well over 90 percent of our life necessities, yet people living in Hawai\u2018i have encountered three unfair shipping practices.\u201d\n\n\u201cFirst, when ordering essentials online, we often learn that a particular online store or item doesn\u2019t even ship to Hawai\u2018i at all. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reviewed this issue and confirmed that \u2018some companies . . . are unwilling to ship products to Alaska, Hawai\u2018i, Puerto Rico, and the other territories\u2019,\u201d said Case.\n\nHe said this exclusion prevents millions of Americans in the non-contiguous states from obtaining key products that should be available to them the same as any others.\n\n\u201cSecond, as many of my constituents know, those who live in Hawai\u2018i are often denied free shipping options from online retailers. It is so painful when a website advertises free shipping and you fill up your shopping cart and input your address only for a red error message to pop up with the news that Hawai\u2018i, Alaska, Guam and elsewhere are not included in the free shipping deal.\n\n\u201cThird, even when companies do ship to Hawai\u2018i, the prices bear no reasonable relationship to the distances involved. The cost to ship to and from anywhere in the United States depends on several factors, including the weight and size of your package and service class. However, according to the FTC, private shipping companies\u2019 delivery options may cost considerably more for a destination in Alaska, Hawai\u2018i, Puerto Rico and the other U.S. territories than for the contiguous states.\u201d\n\n\u201cI'd like to thank my colleague, Congressman Ed Case for introducing the Fair Shipping for Non-Contiguous Areas Act of 2023, said Congressman James Moylan of Guam. \u201cI'm a proud co-sponsor of this bill, as it seeks to directly address shipping inequities in both of our districts.\n\n\u201cDue to our location, Guamanians are all too familiar with being denied online essentials or paying outrageous fees for them. It is my hope that this bill will be passed into law.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe residents of the Northern Mariana Islands rely on imports to provide many of life\u2019s necessities, making us particularly vulnerable to the cost of shipping,\u201d said Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan of the Northern Mariana Islands.\n\n\u201cToday\u2019s bill requires fair pricing and service to all U.S. locations to ensure that consumers in the Marianas and other remote locations are not penalized because of where they live. I look forward to working with Rep. Case to advance this legislation through Congress.\u201d\n\nCase said his \u201cFair Shipping for Non-Contiguous Areas Act of 2023\u201d includes prohibitions to address the unfair shipping practices:\n\n1. No private shipping service may exceed the shipping charge for the same product to and from a location in the contiguous United States as charged to a consumer product or producer good to the non-contiguous area of the United States; and\n\n2. No private shipping service may exclude a non-contiguous area of the United States from its shipping policies; or a non-contiguous area of the United States from shipping to its location.\n\nCase cited the example of a 2-pound package sent from Los Angeles to Hawai\u2018i, which costs $45.33, but the same shipment from Los Angeles to New York, essentially the same distance, is just $14.28. He said this outrageous price is from a private shipping company that categorizes shipping to Hawai\u2018i as an international shipment.\n\n\u201cIt is hard to believe that over 60 years after becoming a state and over 120 years after becoming part of America, Hawai\u2018i is still treated as a foreign country,\u201d said Case.\n\nAttachments:\n\n1. Text of Fair Shipping for Non-Contiguous Areas Act of 2023\n\n2. Case remarks on the measure\n\n3. Federal Trade Commission Report To Congress March 2020\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T00:18:03Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://case.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2228"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7355809211730957, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}