We recently learned that you will be meeting tomorrow with certain chief executive officers from the oil and gas industry and that some of those officials may ask you to waive the Jones Act. We write to strongly oppose any Jones Act waiver.
The American domestic maritime industry produces 650,000 jobs nationwide that have been designated by the Department of Homeland Security as part of the essential critical infrastructure workforce. Americans have radically cut back on driving and flying, reducing demand for petroleum products, which reduces the need to ship petroleum products in our domestic markets. As a result, there is a more-than-ample supply of U.S. vessel capacity available to transport oil within the United States. A Jones Act waiver in these circumstances – replacing American mariners and American ships with foreign mariners and foreign ships in our home waters – is unnecessary and contrary to our collective need to come together as a nation to fight this virus.
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