The Jones Act Is Driving Up Prices and Making Crises Worse

After a recent hurricane, Puerto Ricans desperately needed fuel.

Fortunately, an oil tanker was right offshore.

Unfortunately, the United States government forbade it to come ashore!

Why?

Because of a stupid law with a stupid name: The Jones Act.

The Jones Act forbids shipping anything between American ports in ships that are not U.S. built and crewed. This makes goods cost more (the average Hawaii family must pay $1,800 more a year) and sometimes, as happened in Puerto Rico, makes a crisis worse.

Yet America’s shipping lobby claims this law is a good thing.

“The Jones Act ensures reliable, dedicated service,” says American Maritime Partnership’s Jennifer Carpenter in my new video. Her group lobbies for shipowners and labor unions.

“Your rules really hurt people!” I push back obnoxiously, flatly accusing her of sleazy manipulation. “You give money to politicians; they ban your competition.”

She smiles and says, “The Jones Act is a time-tested American security law, so we are not at the mercy of foreign powers.”

That’s nonsense. The act has nothing to do with American security.

Foreign ships deliver goods to America from foreign powers all the time. That includes ships from China and Russia. Dozens of foreign vessels are in American harbors right now.

It’s only within America that foreign shipping is banned. Only American ships and crews are allowed to move goods from Los Angeles to Hawaii, or from Miami to Puerto Rico.

The Jones Act is just another a special deal that one industry has scammed out of Congress.

Banning foreign ships didn’t