McCain Amendment Could Scuttle U.S. Maritime Industry

[Panich52]

While many lawmakers are focusing on creating, maintaining and even bringing back jobs to the United States, Sen. John McCain (R- Ariz.) is pushing legislation that threatens 400,000 U.S. shipbuilding, seafaring and supply chain jobs in the maritime industry.

McCain has offered an amendment to the Keystone XL pipeline bill to repeal the Jones Act, which requires that goods shipped between U.S. ports are carried by U.S.-built, flagged, crewed and owned ships.

Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) says McCain’s amendment “would undermine our domestic maritime industry and threaten the more than 400,000 jobs it supports nationwide.”

(snip)

Along with the economic damage, McCain’s amendment threatens national security, according to U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Paul Zukunft.

That for me is a real consequence…it will put our entire U.S. [merchant] fleet in jeopardy…and then in time of crisis who are we going to get to carry out or logistics….Very difficult if we don’t have U.S.-flagged ships.

More here:

http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/McCain-Amendment-Could-Scuttle-U.S.-Maritime-Industry

[Renew Deal]

1. Republican policy seems to be "no job left behind"

Proposals like this make you wonder whose side McCain is on.

[gladium et scutum]

2. I do not see

why Senator McCain offered up this amendment. If it were to pass and become law, within a few years American flagged commercial shipping would disappear for the worlds oceans. A majority of American ship building is naval vessels. The shipyards in Bath ME, Groton, CT, Newport News, VA, Pascagoula MS, and Avondale, LA rely on Navy construction to stay in business. I think Aker in Philadelphia and NASSCO in San Diego are the last remaining ship yards that build any numbers of large commercial vessels. These are almost exclusively oil tankers thanks to the oil boom and laws requiring double bottom tankers to ply the American coast routes. Once the demand for double bottom medium size tankers is met, or the oil business goes bust, I do not see these yards lasting very long afterwards.

[davidpdx]

3. I did a research paper on the Jones Act

As for the amendment, I'd guess he did it because he knew Keystone XL was going down anyway and was trying to be a show off. We are talking about John McCain for christsakes.

[world wide wally]

4. He is also the guy that wants to sell sacred Native American land to an Austrian mining company.

He is such a great American hero.

[Godhumor]

5. I posted this on another thread about the subject. I work in a Jones Act industry

McCain has been trying to remove the Jones Act since he got into congress.


That said, the shipbuilding part of the act is problematic. On the Great Lakes, a new freighter entirely built in the US can run up to 100 million dollars...a number not a single GL fleet can afford. Only two new vessels have been introduced onto the lakes since 2000. And, frankly, the fleets are aging. The last great building wave was in the 1970s when the government heavily subsidized the building of boats. It will be interesting to see how it will respond as vessels start being scrapped without replacements lined up.