Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo on Thursday announced that supply chain congestion fell by 50% in the last month, saying, "It's really smooth sailing, and Santa will arrive on time," in an interview.
"The gifts will be on the shelves; your packages will be arriving on time in the mail; and it's really a fantastic story," Raimondo told CNN host John Berman. "So the congestion is down by 50% since you and I last spoke. So it's really smooth sailing and Santa will arrive on time."
When asked if the omicron variant will disrupt supply chains, Raimondo said that it's a possibility and called on people to get vaccinated against COVID-19, but also said that the country is improving.
"We've been living with this now for a couple of years," she said, noting that manufacturing heads have expressed confidence in their ability to deal with the variant.
"It's certainly a factor. There will be some disruption, but we're all a lot smarter now about how to run our businesses and run our lives with COVID than we were a year ago. And so I am hopeful that it won't be massively disruptive," Raimondo continued.
The secretary credited the Biden administration's efforts to alleviate the congestion, including opening ports 24 hours a day, seven days per week.
"Earlier this fall, we heard a lot of dire warnings about supply chain problems leading to a crisis around the holidays. So we acted," President Joe Biden said on Wednesday. "And the much-predicted crisis didn't occur. Packages are moving, gifts are being delivered, shelves are not empty."
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.