By Seafarers International Union.
America’s freight cabotage law – a crucial part of national, economic and homeland security for more than a century – recently received strong backing from several prominent sources.
During a March 5 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gen. Randall Reed, USAF, commander of the United States Transportation Command (TRANSCOM), expressed his clear support of the law.
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) asked the general to briefly explain why the Jones Act is important to TRANSCOM and to national security.
He replied, “The Jones Act allows us to actually have shipping resources…. Because of that Act, we have a way to make sure that we can build ships here in the United States; that we can sail those ships to maintain commerce; that we can produce the crews that sail those ships, so that we have a core of [mariners]…. At the same time, if the nation needs folks to go to sea, we can call on that force to sail. We will be more secure in that way.”
One day later, leaders from a key House committee and subcommittee voiced bipartisan support for the Jones Act. In a joint statement, legislators noted, “The bipartisan leadership of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee raised significant concerns about European Union efforts to undermine the Jones Act, a law important to the U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry, the stability of the U.S. supply chain, and America’s national and economic security.”
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Missouri), Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Ranking Member Rick Larsen (D-Washington), Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Chairman Mike Ezell (R-Mississippi), and Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee Ranking Member Salud Carbajal (D-California) expressed their alarm in a letter to E.U. Ambassador to the United States Jovita Neliupšienė.
“The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (Committee) has serious concerns regarding the recent Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) filing on behalf of the European Union (E.U.), which describes E.U. efforts to lobby United States lawmakers and policy officials in an effort to secure modifications to the Jones Act (46 U.S.C. § 55102), an important American national and economic security law,” they collectively stated.
Read More: Congress Challenges EU Over Anti-Jones Act Influence Campaign
In a joint news release, the congressmen pointed out “that the FARA filing was required by the E.U.’s financing of a U.S. firm to create ‘one or two funny but informative’ TikTok-like videos to criticize the Jones Act. The filing described the videos as part of a larger E.U. lobbying and public relations campaign to challenge the Jones Act. However, it appears that the E.U. lobbying document was removed from the FARA filing shortly after its existence was publicly disclosed.”
The letter states, “The activities described in the attached lobbying campaign document go far beyond trade negotiations. Rather it appears, that the E.U. is seeking to influence United States policy on the Jones Act not through diplomatic means, but instead through an advocacy campaign, including collaboration with previously undisclosed United States organizations and social media influencers.”
As further noted in the news release, “The Jones Act underpins the U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry and requires any vessel participating in coastwise trade to be United States-owned, United States-crewed, and United States-built. Jones Act-driven business supports domestic shipbuilding capacity and prevents the nation from losing an important strategic capability.”
One week earlier, a statement by the Navy League of the United States emphasized the numerous benefits of America’s freight cabotage law.
As part of a much longer statement covering various components of the U.S. maritime industry, the Navy League asserted, “Without the Jones Act, the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection would face the new burden of ensuring foreign mariners are properly vetted, including work permits, at hundreds of inland waterway locations to preclude homeland security incidents. The Jones Act keeps American shipping companies, shipyards, mariners, and thousands of people working.”
The organization also recommended “maintaining and defending the Jones Act. Weakening the law would negatively impact national and economic security by diminishing the seafaring and shipbuilding industrial bases.”
Finally, in early March, Capt. Richard A. Balzano, USN Ret., who previously served as Deputy U.S. Maritime Administrator during President Trump’s first term, wrote an editorial that comprehensively detailed the Jones Act’s many benefits.
Although Balzano was addressing recent discussions about the law specific to New Hampshire, he included some broader points.
“The Jones Act is a series of laws that ensure that America controls its own critical supply lines,” he wrote. “The Act ensures our most important commodities – like heating oil and other fuels, critical petrochemicals, agricultural products, construction materials, and other cargos – are safely transported within America by Americans on safe American-built equipment. In the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s escalating global maritime ambitions and shipbuilding dominance, the Jones Act is our nation’s last line of defense. It is critical to growing our maritime sector, maintaining our reserve of U.S. mariners to support our deployed forces defending our nation, securing our borders, and protecting us from undue dependence on foreign governments.”
Balzano continued, “Foreign adversaries and companies want unrestricted access and control of the U.S. market, and their lobbyists push false narratives that a Jones Act repeal would save money when it simply will put more profits and control in hands of foreign companies and countries, some of whom are our adversaries. It is worth pointing out that these are the very same companies and countries that flag their ships in countries that have tax, labor, and safety cost advantages and use labor from depressed countries so that they can pay fractions of what is fair to their crews.”
He concluded, “If we want to compete with China and secure our borders, then we must keep the Jones Act.”
This piece originally appeared on seafarers.org on March 26, 2025.
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