A Bill Proposed By California Congressman to Handle Cargo Theft

U.S. Rep. David G. Valadao, R-Calif., introduced the Safeguarding our Supply Chains Act, a few days ago with a mission to avert “the unbridled theft within our nation’s supply chains.”

Valadao got an appreciation from the American Trucking Associations last month for his significant contribution to leading Homeland Security Investigations for generating a $2 million supply chain fraud and theft task force.

The 2025 Department of Homeland Security funding bill states that the task force will dedicatedly work with Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Immigration, the FBI, and various other agencies.

Valadao shared his thoughts with FreightWaves that he is extremely hopeful that sharing the right information will definitely apprehend the thieves.

A recent survey has been conducted by the National Insurance Crime Bureau and it shows an exponential rise in cargo theft. The figures vary between $15 -30 billion on a yearly basis.

Valadao stated that there has been a massive increase in Class I railroad theft and the figures in the past years such as 2021 to 2022 vary from $13.8-33.7 million.

As per the latest report, there has been a significant rise of 46% in cargo theft in the first three months of 2024 in comparison to the last year.

Valadao stated that they think there’s more to this than random theft going on. He hopes that the bill will be useful for the growing issue and its cost is passed on to consumers.

The new bill will build a Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center within HSI and impact the task force’s work. According to the bill, the task force will issue a report within 6 months following ratification about the initiative’s effectiveness.   

Utmost Benefits of the New Bill:

Boost law enforcement collaboration.

Keep track of theft trends.

Build relationships with the affected ones in the private sector.

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