THE US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed legislation that would upend how the United States regulates the container shipping industry.

The bill now goes to the Senate, which will consider whether to force container lines to prioritise exports over empty containers and certify that container storage fees meet shipping law, reports IHS Media.

The House voted 364-60 in favour of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act (OSRA), which if passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden would herald the first rewriting of US shipping law since 1998.

Amid the largest disruption since the advent of containerisation in the late 1950s, exporters have complained of container lines prioritising high-paying imports over exports, pushing shipper frustration with how carriers and marine terminals levy storage fees to a boiling point.

The vote came months ahead of when sources just a few weeks ago were saying it would likely move forward, reflecting a high sense of urgency among legislators to address larger supply chain issues.

"We've all been impacted by the backlog in the supply chain and shipping delays," Dusty Johnson, a South Dakota Republican and co-sponsor of the bill said in a statement.

"China and the foreign-flagged ocean carriers aren't playing fair, and accountability is long overdue. If you want to do business with American ports, you need to play by our basic rules."

But the World Shipping Council, which represents major carriers, has warned that the legislation will not fix congestion throughout the supply chain, and argues government overreach would make congestion and service disruptions worse.

Shipper groups such as the National Retail Federation (NRF) and the Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC) celebrated the passage of the bill, which would shift the burden of proof of the reasonableness of detention and demurrage to the carriers.