The Trump administration acted quickly after the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz, temporarily waiving the Jones Act in hopes of easing pressure on American fuel markets. That was an emergency decision. The question now is whether the facts still justify it.
They do not.
The current waiver expires Aug. 16, and the administration is considering extending it again. But after nearly five months and almost 200 foreign vessel voyages, there is no public evidence that the waiver has delivered any savings at the gasoline pump. President Donald Trump has criticized Big Oil for making “too much money” while people pay higher fuel prices, even urging the companies to return some of those profits to consumers. Refiners have benefited from global market conditions, exports have remained robust, arbitrage opportunities have flourished, and major refiners have reported near record quarterly earnings. The waiver has benefited them, but it has not produced demonstrated savings for drivers.
The waiver has allowed foreign ships and crews to move cargo between American ports. That work is reserved for American-built, American-owned, American-crewed, and American-flagged vessels.
Foreign operators are also operating under the tax exemptions offered by Section 883 of the Internal Revenue Code, even though the waiver has allowed them to enter the domestic trade. American vessel operators pay federal and state taxes, employ American mariners, and comply with American labor and safety requirements. The waiver has therefore created an uneven playing field in America’s own domestic commerce.
The national security implications are just as troubling. The waiver has allowed a Chinese-owned, Chinese-operated, Chinese-built, and Chinese-crewed vessel to carry cargo between Baltimore and Mississippi. It has also allowed a Russian crewed vessel to operate between Florida and Louisiana.
That is difficult to reconcile with an America First economic and national security agenda.
The broader damage will be measured not only in cargoes lost today, but also in ships never built tomorrow. Investors, lenders, and vessel operators will not commit billions of dollars to American shipyards if they believe the federal government will suspend the Jones Act whenever an international crisis disrupts global markets, even when the disruption has no connection to the availability or capacity of the domestic maritime industry.
Uncertainty in federal policy can freeze long-term investment. Markets respond to clear rules. So do shipbuilders, vessel operators, lenders, and the skilled workers they employ.
Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, has long been one of the Jones Act’s most consistent critics. Before returning to the administration, he argued against the law in his book The Drift and in opinion columns. More recently, he defended the blanket waiver on CNBC as a way to reduce the effect of high energy prices on consumers.
But the waiver should be judged by results, not theory. The promised consumer benefit has not been demonstrated. Foreign operators have gained domestic cargoes. American mariners have lost work. And uncertainty is discouraging investment in the maritime industrial base that Trump has pledged to rebuild.
These results are also inconsistent with Trump’s Maritime Action Plan. The plan calls for rebuilding shipyards, expanding the U.S.-flagged fleet, and strengthening the nation’s maritime workforce. Those goals cannot be achieved while federal policy transfers domestic cargo to foreign ships and discourages investment in American vessels.
Fortunately, the administration does not have to choose between national security flexibility and maritime jobs. Congress already provided a narrower alternative.
Under 46 U.S.C. § 501(b), the administration may issue a waiver for a specific vessel when the president determines that it is necessary in the interest of national defense and the Maritime Administration determines that qualified U.S. vessel capacity is unavailable. The government can respond to a genuine emergency without turning an exceptional waiver into a standing invitation for foreign operators to enter routine domestic commerce.
TRUMP’S JONES ACT WAIVER FAILED TO DELIVER. IT’S TIME TO END IT
Trump’s goal of restoring America’s maritime industrial base cannot succeed if investors believe blanket Jones Act waivers may become the new normal. Allowing the current waiver to expire, while relying on the targeted authority Congress provided for genuine needs, would send a powerful signal. Emergency powers remain available when truly necessary, but America’s domestic commerce belongs to American ships, American companies, and American mariners.
That is what America First should look like.
William P. Doyle is a former U.S. federal maritime commissioner, and former chief executive of the Port of Baltimore, an officer in the U.S. Merchant Marine, and is the CEO for the Dredging Contractors of America.