Nine words. That’s all it took for President Bush to bring his administration’s support of the domestic fleet into national focus.
Speaking at the SIU’s affiliated training facility on Labor Day, the president stated, “It’s important for presidents to embrace the Jones Act.”
He also pledged to continue backing the Jones Act, a law that requires cargo moving between domestic ports to be carried on ships that are crewed, built, owned and flagged American.
No one who worked in our industry in the mid-1990s would take such statements lightly. Back then, the Jones Act was under severe attack from foreign-flag interests who were out to sink the domestic American-flag fleet. Those foreign entities and their U.S. front men were vicious, but they also were slick. They launched an expensive campaign of disinformation which unfortunately gained footing among some members of Congress.
The threat was quite real and very significant. Bills were introduced to weaken or wipe out the Jones Act, which has served our nation’s best interests since its enactment in 1920 as part of the U.S. Merchant Marine Act. Some of those bills picked up more than a few cosponsors, as did related proposed legislation also designed to cripple the American-flag fleet.
Our industry responded in part by forming the Maritime Cabotage Task Force or MCTF, a group described as the most broad-based coalition the American maritime industry has ever put together to promote laws guarding our nation’s right to control the maritime traffic within our borders. The SIU proudly signed on as a charter member and today remains one of the MCTF’s more than 350 members—a group including the Maritime Trades Department, other maritime unions, vessel owners and operators, shipyards, trade associations, pro-defense groups and many others.
With the truth on our side, we set the record straight on what the Jones Act and other cabotage laws mean to America’s national and economic security. We produced trustworthy studies that demonstrated how America’s Jones Act fleet is the foundation of the world’s safest and most efficient transportation system. By 1997, a majority of House members once again publicly endorsed the Jones Act, and the threat from that particular era had been extinguished.
Today, support for our cabotage regulations is strong, both in the administration and in Congress. For proof, look no further than the president’s Labor Day statements and the current orders for new U.S.-flag tankers in Philadelphia and San Diego—at least 19 ships in all. Businesses simply don’t make those kinds of investments unless they’re confident. In this case, they are confident in America’s ability to build good ships, provide safe crews and uphold the laws that help preserve our U.S. Merchant Marine at a dangerous period in history when our nation simply cannot afford to be without one.
Of course, the attacks haven’t completely gone away. Pro-maritime political candidates in Hawaii are fighting off pesky attempts to diminish the time-tested laws that help maintain a pool of well-trained, loyal, U.S. citizen crews. Other salvos are fired from time to time, normally on a small scale but always with the threat that even a small weakening of the Jones Act ultimately could lead to disaster.
It’s also worth mentioning that last year around this time, the MCTF effectively let the federal government know that the Jones Act fleet unquestionably can meet our nation’s domestic maritime transportation needs, both during routine times and in crises like the ones right after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The coalition approached a delicate and difficult situation and turned it into a positive for our industry, from the standpoint of educating legislators and others about the sometimes underestimated capacity of the domestic fleet.
Even with that relatively brief bit of background, you can see why President Bush’s words about the Jones Act last month mean so much. His statements are a testament to the importance and effectiveness of the Jones Act as well as the reliability of the crew members and ship operators and others who keep the domestic fleet afloat.
To the rank-and-file members and retirees of our union, I thank all of you—because you are a big part of the reason why the President of the United States can stand up for the U.S.-flag merchant fleet.
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