Repeal the Jones Act of 1920

Economy
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The Jones Act of 1920 requires that in order to operate a ship in domestic US trade, the ship must be 100% US built, US owned, and US crewed. In practice this policy has effectively prevented the US from utilizing its extensive waterways network to bring down domestic shipping costs. With a platform of reshoring US domestic production, repealing the Jones Act would bring down domestic shipping costs tremendously.

Skeptics of repealing the Jones Act fairly point out national security concerns. Perhaps a background check system similar to the TWIC system would alleviate those concerns?

The Mississippi river delta and its tributaries alone contain more domestic navigable waterways than the rest of the world combined. The Jones Act, however is an antiquated handicap preventing the US from utilizing this incredible resource to its fullest potential.

8 Likes
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I agree this would not only benefit the economy but also the consumer, allowing for lower prices across the board.

1 Like
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The Jones Act protects a very small number of American ship building/operating companies at the expense of thousands of other businesses that cannot ship their products or bring in parts competitively.

Far from protecting American shipbuilders, the Jones Act guarantees that the ships we need simply won’t be available. That’s in how bad a shape American shipbuilding is even with the Jones Act.

Consider - New England imports natural gas and oil from Trinidad (and occasionally Russia in the past) because the ships that can legally transport it from the Gulf Coast literally do not exist.

Consider - Puerto Rico has a cost of living a fraction of Alabama. Why isn’t it a low cost manufacturing hub? Because it has US ports that fall under the Jones Act, meaning shipping in or out is prohibitively expensive.

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The Jones act literally ensures the jobs and careers of 10s of thousands of Americans. To repeal it is to say you want to take away Americans’ jobs and give them to foreign nationals. Take the money out of our community and give it to other countries. Yes you may bring down cost of operation for companies, but they would be giving that money out of our country continuously. Hurting us in the long run

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At the very least, exempt the state of HAWAII. The Jones Act makes everything needlessly expensive.

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This is simply not true. The Jones Act is a relic that needs to end. It’s killing the citizens of Hawaii.