WASHINGTON — Port association and border group leaders testified on Capitol Hill Wednesday, calling for investments in ports to facilitate the free flow of goods across borders and within the U.S.

“Delays at our ports result in an overall loss of commerce,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chair of the Senate Subcommittee on International Trade, Customs and Global Competitiveness, said during the hearing. “We must fund the ports that make trade possible in the first place.”

Panelists outlined three major resources needed at ports across the nation: Personnel, technology and infrastructure. The need for those resources is universal, at land and seaports, on riverways, the U.S.-Mexico border and the coasts.

Infrastructure in particular has come into the spotlight, with Donald Trump promising trillions of dollars in infrastructure spending while on the campaign trail, although no plan has passed since he assumed office.

As e-commerce and shipments grow, ports are increasingly desperate for the funding needed to modernize and update their infrastructure. At the hearing, Kurt Nagle, president and CEO of the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA), said the seaport industry will need $66 billion over the next 10 years.

In a report issued in June, AAPA projected a need for a $20 billioninvestment in multimodal and rail access projects in the next decade, due to growing populations and increased shipping volumes.

While the FAST Act, signed into law under by President Obama, authorizes billions for freight spending, it limits spending on multimodal projects, Nagle said at the hearing.

Port have made it clear that investment in multimodal projects are a top priority. The association advocated for raising the cap on multimodal funding under the FAST Act.

​”The waterways always end somewhere,” Mary Ann Bucci, executive director of the Port of Pittsburgh Commission, told the Senate subcommittee. Bucci said in Pittsburgh, each waterway and port offers connections to rail, truck or both, allowing goods to reach their final destination. “We’re just one of three pieces.”

For ports of entry on land borders with Mexico, infrastructure is severely outdated, with ports averaging 40 years old. As a result, the layout and construction of the ports aren’t suited for the enormous volumes of trucks passing through the border each day.

While infrastructure is critically important, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Land border ports of entry require sound trade relations and customs processes to keep goods moving.

Relations between the U.S. and Mexico have soured recently as a result of numerous political moves, from talks of building a wall to tariffs imposed on steel and aluminum imports.

Negotiators hit pause on NAFTA negotiations as participating nations go through elections, but Mexico now hopes to ink a deal by the end of August.

Panelists called for swift modernization and approval of NAFTA. “Our three nations’ supply chains are deeply integrated, which has created a highly efficient, just-in-time manufacturing environment,” Sergio Contreras, vice chairman of the Border Trade Alliance, said in his testimony.

Without a free trade agreement, Contreras, along with Laredo, Texas, Mayor Pete Saenz, said shipments between the two nations could be at risk. In Laredo, Saenz said about 16,000 trucks cross the border each day.

“There’s a tremendous flow of commerce,” he said. “It begins in Mexico, and we need to coordinate the flow of goods into Mexico. This is why its important to maintain good relationships with the Mexican counterparts.”

It’s unknown how Mexico’s newly elected president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will handle NAFTA negotiations.

“Now [the Trump administration] knows who’s going to be in charge and hopefully provides better condition to consummate that quickly,” Cornyn said. “Legitimate trade is the lifeblood of that region — and of our country’s economy.”

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Employers Embracing Health, Productivity Benefits

Of the Pentagon’s many secrets, one of the most surprising may be that yoga classes are offered at this military fortress on a regular basis. Jess Pierno, formerly a Department of Defense (DoD) employee, was one of the instructors during her time at the Pentagon, teaching a weekly lunchtime meditation and yoga class.

“These people who are dealing with huge stressful issues take an hour for themselves, hit the reset button on their brains, and then go back out and deal with everything. They loved it,” said Pierno, who last year left DoD and opened Yoga Heights in the Petworth area of D.C.

Many businesses in the D.C. area are taking advantage of yoga’s restorative powers, as they take a vested interest in how wellness classes can improve employee health, morale, productivity and relations.

Supporting Good Health

The physical benefits of yoga are numerous. Among them, the American Osteopathic Association says, are improvements to circulatory health, metabolism, sleep and endurance.

Yoga can also help to reverse some of the side effects of the modern workplace. “Staring at a computer all day, I think we naturally tend to hunch over, rounding [our] spine, instead of sitting up straight,” said Nanci Dodson, D.C./Maryland area manager of CorePower Yoga,  a company with yoga studios nationwide. She said yoga practitioners become more aware of their posture, making a conscious effort to sit up straight throughout the workday.

Seeing the potential benefits of yoga for office workers, many companies are hiring yoga studios to lead classes at the office, free of charge for employees. Angela Proudfoot, human resources director at the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board in Alexandria, Va., established a corporate yoga program there.  The hour and 15 minute classes meet weekly at her office after working hours.

Proudfoot herself first tried yoga four years ago, after determining that physical therapy was not improving a serious foot injury sustained while skydiving. Her injury will never heal entirely, but she said practicing yoga has drastically improved her balance, flexibility and mobility. She is even able to skydive and run long distances again.

Aqeel Yaseen also found the benefits of yoga to be life-changing. When he first tried it, he was suffering from depression and weighed more than 300 pounds. Over the course of five years, yoga  “helped me change my habits, and I lost close to 200 pounds,” he said.

Bringing Yoga to Employees

Following this transformative experience, Yaseen got his yoga teacher certification and now teaches 18 classes each week. He teaches studio classes at Yoga District, and corporate classes at several area law firms and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“More and more companies are showing a dedication to their employees’ health and wellness, which is incredible,” said Catherine Zack, wellness director and senior manager at Flow Yoga Center in D.C.’s Logan Circle neighborhood.

Corporate yoga programs are also in place at the International Monetary Fund, the Kennedy Center, the Department of Justice and many more offices, Pierno said.

The Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services recently started a corporate yoga program through Yoga Heights. “The director came the first day and took class with everybody,” Pierno said. “He really led by example. He took off his shoes, rolled out his mat and participated with everybody.”

Building Bonds & Focus

The example of that director is reflective of how yoga can lower barriers between executives and staff. “Sometimes a manager and someone reporting to them are practicing right next to each other, and it changes the dynamic of their relationship,” Yaseen said.

Proudfoot agreed that the classes at her office feel like a “team-building exercise.” She added, “The people who come to that class on a regular basis really get to know each other on a completely different level.”

She also said that her colleagues reported better concentration and productivity at work. Studies conducted at the universities of Illinois, California and Pennsylvania all found cognitive functioning improved after just one yoga class, helping to boost focus and memory.

“A lot of times, we spend our time dwelling on something,” Zack said. “What yoga and meditation really helps us do is to stay focused inside the moment.”

Proudfoot can relate. “I would go into stressful situations, and I would just breathe and remember some of the mantras that my teachers would recite at the end of classes,” she said. “That for me was a complete 180.”

A meditative state doesn’t come easily to everyone, though. Yaseen said every corporate class he has taught contains its fair share of skeptics.  Yoga classes typically end with a 10-minute “savasana” (corpse pose) in which students lie on their backs with eyes closed in a state of deep relaxation.

“It’s very difficult for them to let go for 10 minutes,” Yaseen said, “because they think maybe they’re wasting their time.”

Getting Yoga on the Schedule

Time is of essence in the corporate world, and many executives complain they don’t have enough to spare for daily yoga practice. However, given the benefits, it could be worthwhile to fit yoga in, even if it’s in small increments.

Zack said lunchtime classes bring out the executives at Flow Yoga Center. She added that the studio is working actively to expand its corporate programs even further.

As an alternative to office classes, some companies offer corporate yoga memberships. These partnerships provide employees with discounted rates on classes at a yoga studio. At CorePower, a number of executives use their corporate memberships to attend classes before and after work, Dodson said.

When going to a studio class isn’t feasible, home practice is always an option. Yoga videos for every level of practice are easy to find online. “Just start by taking five minutes every morning,” Pierno advised. “You’ll notice the changes, and you’ll notice an increase in energy. And before you know it, you’ll want to practice longer.”