[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 172 (Thursday, October 19, 2023)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E996]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                CLOSE AGENCY LOOPHOLES TO THE JONES ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN GARAMENDI

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 19, 2023

  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker Pro Tempore, today I reintroduce the 
``Close Agency Loopholes to the Jones Act of 2023,'' which would close 
nearly 50 years of anti-Jones Act decisions--known as ``letter 
rulings''--by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
  As chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and 
having served as ranking member of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and 
Maritime Transportation from 2013 to 2018, I am committed to rebuilding 
the U.S.-flagged fleet including international and Jones Act vessels. 
For decades, Congress has stood idly by while federal regulators 
chipped away at the Jones Act, allowing foreign vessels paying poverty 
wages to take jobs from Americans working in our maritime industry. 
That must stop.
  In December 2020, Congress enacted my amendment to the Outer 
Continental Shelf Lands Act as section 9503 of the William M. (Mac) 
Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 
(Public Law 116-283) affirming that the application of the 
Constitution, laws, and civil and political jurisdiction of the United 
States to the Outer Continental Shelf also applies to non-mineral 
energy resources and exploring for, developing, producing, 
transporting, or transmitting such resources. As I stated in my remarks 
on September 24, 2020 (Congressional Record, Vol. 166, No. 166), 
Congress always intended U.S. law to apply to any form of exploration, 
development, production, transportation, and transmission of energy 
resources under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953.
  On January 25, 2021, President Biden's first executive order (no. 
14005) directed federal agencies to maximize the use of American 
mariners, American-built ships, and U.S.-flagged vessels under the 
Jones Act. In response to my amendment enacted in the FY21 NOAA, U.S. 
CBP issued a headquarters ruling letter ``HQ H309186'' on January 27, 
2021, correctly holding that the transportation of ``scour protection'' 
materials from the Port of Providence, Rhode Island to a wind project 
on the Outer Continental Shelf off the southeast shore of Martha's 
Vineyard is a coastwise activity under the Jones Act.
  On March 17, 2021, the national trade association for the offshore 
wind industry sent a letter to the Commissioner of CBP requesting that 
the agency withdraw HQ H309186. In this letter, the offshore wind 
industry mischaracterized my September 2020 remarks from the 
Congressional Record as somehow supporting its request that CBP 
withdraw the January 27, 2021, letter ruling. On March 25, 2021, CBP 
issued a revised headquarters ruling letter (HQ H317289) contradicting 
its January 2021 letter ruling and the President's stated policy, 
allowing foreign vessels to construct energy projects on the Outer 
Continental Shelf.
  To be clear, my September 2020 remarks in the Congressional Record 
stated that my amendment to Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act simply 
clarified that all forms of offshore energy development are indeed 
subject to the same U.S. laws that apply to the offshore oil and gas 
industry. That does not mean that I accept the validity of the many 
administrative loopholes to the Jones Act created by decades of bad 
letter rulings and poor enforcement by CBP. Rather, I have long held 
that many of the activities regulators have incorrectly allowed the 
offshore oil and gas industry to engage in using foreign-flagged 
vessels are clear violations of the plain text of the Jones Act and 
original Congressional intent.
  It is now clear to me that the regulators at CBP are unwilling to 
fully implement the Jones Act, as directed by President Biden's 
Executive Order 14005. My `Closing Agency Loopholes to the Jones Act' 
would finally force federal regulators to enforce the law as Congress 
intended in 1920, maximizing job opportunities for American mariners, 
U.S.-flagged vessels, and domestic shipyard workers. In effect, my 
legislation would also compel CBP to implement the President's stated 
policy by fully enforcing the Jones Act.
  On April 26, 2023, the House Committee on Transportation and 
Infrastructure passed two key sections from my bill in the ``Coast 
Guard Authorization Act of 2023'' (H.R. 2741 ). Sections 8 and 9 from 
my bill are now incorporated as Section 312 (Notification) and Section 
313 (Publication of Fines and Penalties) of H.R. 2741.
  Section 312 requires foreign-flagged vessels purporting to operate 
under a Jones Act exemption to notify CBP and post online its legal 
basis for operating on the Outer Continental Shelf. Currently, CBP uses 
an honor system for foreign vessels operating on the Outer Continental 
Shelf and their legal basis for doing, which undermines the agency's' 
ability to enforce the Jones Act properly and enables outright fraud. 
Section 313 requires CBP to publish online any penalties against 
foreign-flagged vessels operating illegally on the Outer Continental 
Shelf, including for failing to notify the agency of the purported 
Jones Act exemption in advance.
  For this Congress, I also require in my bill that offshore energy 
developers on the Outer Continental Shelf pay a prevailing wage. Under 
current law, project developers operating in the United States' 
Exclusive Economic Zone at sea can pay poverty wages, exploiting 
foreign workers and undermining American mariners' ability to compete 
for this work. After decades of failed promises, we are finally 
building the clean energy economy of the future. American mariners are 
ready, willing, and able to work in the burgeoning offshore wind 
industry. But they cannot be expected to compete against foreign-flag 
vessels paying poverty wages to workers with no legally guaranteed 
collective bargaining rights or labor standards.
  Mr. Speaker Pro Tempore, I encourage all members of the House to 
cosponsor this critical and long overdue legislation.

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