Defenders of the Jones Act claim the law protects American workers, consumers, and national security. But the recent waiver of this outdated law has underscored what the evidence has long shown: the Jones Act raises costs, limits shipping options, and prevents American products from reaching American consumers. Now the law’s defenders are recycling familiar myths to protect a system that has failed America’s shipping industry and burdened American families.
Myth: The Jones Act is necessary to protect U.S. national security.
Fact: If the Jones Act were truly indispensable to U.S. national security, Washington would not repeatedly waive it whenever energy supply, disaster response, or military logistics come under strain. The federal government issues Jones Act waivers under national-defense authorities precisely because strict compliance leaves the United States without enough suitable, available, or affordable vessels to meet urgent needs during crises.
Myth: The Jones Act is needed to protect America’s commercial shipping industry.
Fact: If the Jones Act was meant to protect American shipping, it has failed spectacularly. Instead of preserving a strong merchant fleet or competitive shipbuilding base, it has shielded a small, aging, high-cost domestic fleet from competition. The Jones Act fleet has fallen from roughly 400 ships in 1950 to only 93 eligible vessels today. Meanwhile, the United States accounts for only about 0.1% of global commercial shipbuilding, while China’s largest state-owned shipbuilder has built more commercial vessels by tonnage than the entire U.S. shipbuilding industry has built since World War II. Rather than saving American shipping, the Jones Act has turned it into a protected relic.
Myth: The Jones Act waiver puts America last by allowing foreign operators and mariners to take American business and jobs.
Fact: The Jones Act fleet was fully employed during the waiver period, meaning waiver voyages were not replacing idle American ships. They were supplementing capacity gaps and meeting latent demand that the protected Jones Act fleet either could not meet or made too expensive to serve. In the waiver’s first 50 days, diesel-product shipments from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast, Hawaii, and Alaska were roughly four times higher than all of last year. Puerto Rico also received more U.S. propane from the mainland than in the previous six years combined. Allowing American energy to reach American consumers is not “putting America last.”
Myth: The Jones Act waiver failed because gas prices remain high
Fact: A temporary shipping waiver was never going to reverse a wartime energy shock. The Jones Act functions as a chronic tax on the American economy that makes it harder and more expensive to move American goods between American ports. Because Jones Act-compliant vessels are too few and too costly, shipping fuel domestically is often several times more expensive – and in some cases up to ten times more expensive – than using foreign-flagged vessels. Those inflated costs push coastal states to rely on foreign imports instead of buying American.
Myth: Waiving the Jones Act benefited China
Fact: Through the first two months of the waiver, the data showed zero Chinese- or Russian-flagged or owned vessels participating. The vast majority of vessels using the waiver were flagged or operated by American allies and partners. While one Chinese-flagged vessel delivered asphalt to Connecticut on May 29, the answer is not to indefinitely impose a law that makes domestic shipping more expensive. If China is the concern, policymakers could exclude Chinese vessels while still allowing U.S. shippers to use allied and non-adversarial vessels when American capacity is unavailable or commercially unviable.
Myth: American Vessels Were Available for 90% of the Shipments Delivered by Foreign-flagged Tankers
Fact: The Jones Act-eligible oceangoing fleet consists of only 93 vessels, heavily concentrated in oil tankers, with no dry bulk vessels, no liquefied petroleum gas capacity, and only one large LNG carrier, which is a French-built, 1994 relic operating through a narrow Puerto Rico loophole. A vessel is not “available” simply because it appears somewhere in broker data. It must be in the right place, at the right time, compatible with the cargo, and priced at a commercially viable rate. The waiver data show that shippers used foreign-flagged vessels because the Jones Act fleet was too small, too specialized, too costly, or simply missing the vessel types needed to move American goods efficiently.
Matthew MacKenzie is a Foreign Policy & Trade Policy Analyst at Americans for Prosperity.
