Larsen presses Trump admin to end Jones Act waivers

||| FROM THE OFFICE OF U.S. REP. RICK LARSEN |||

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02), top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, released the following statement:

“Trump’s waiver of the Jones Act has done nothing to lower prices. Instead, it has halted investment in U.S. shipbuilding, stolen jobs from American mariners and threatened the entire U.S. maritime industry.

“The Administration must reverse course to protect our maritime workforce in Northwest Washington and across the United States. I will keep pressing for answers until the Administration stops waiving the Jones Act and threatening local jobs in the maritime industry.”

Today, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a roundtable with officials from the Coast Guard on maritime safety. A video clip of Rep. Larsen advocating for the end of Jones Act waivers at the roundtable can be found here, and the recording of the entire roundtable can be found here.

In March, the Trump administration temporarily rolled back the Jones Act, a law that requiring all goods traveling between U.S. ports to be moved on American-made and American-crewed ships, in an effort to mitigate disruptions to the global oil market that President Trump’s war in Iran caused.

Larsen Fights to End Jones Act Waivers, Save American Maritime Jobs

Rep Larsen has long supported the Jones Act and its creation of American maritime jobs in Northwest Washington. As the top Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has oversight authority of the U.S. Coast Guard, he criticized the Trump administration’s waiver of the Jones Act in March and has kept speaking out about the importance of the Jones Act to the U.S. maritime economy.

In May, Rep. Larsen and Rep. Salud Carbajal sent a letter to President Trump expressing concerns that the Jones Act waiver is a direct threat to the American maritime industry.