Senate Bill Seeks to Suspend Jones Act Due to DWH Event - Comments Sought

Shorebased Admiralty Law
1

Dear All -

It appears that Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson [TX-R], John Cornyn [TX-R] and George LeMieux [FL-R] introduced Bill Number 3512 on June 18, 2010.

It is caller the Water Assistance from International Vessels and Emergency Response Act [WAIVER].

The wording of the bill is:
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Water Assistance from International Vessels for Emergency Response Act’’.
SEC. 2. WAIVERS.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, section 12112 and chapter 551 of title 46, United States Code, shall not apply to any vessel documented under the laws of a foreign country while that vessel is engaged in containment, remediation, or associated activities in the Gulf of Mexico in connection with the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

This Bill is self-explanatory. The questions I have are:
(1) Exactly what types of vessels are they that cannot be found in the US?
(2) If there are vessels that absolutely must be utilized that do not meet the Jones Act cabotage requirements, will they be required to be manned with U.S. seamen? As of right now, if the Bill passed as is, there would be no such requirement.
(3) The Bill has no effective ending date. Someday the BP well will stop spewing oil and the needs for high tech skimmers will be gone. Why can’t they have an ending date to the Bill that is for some certain time period tied to when the well stops leaking. It should have some ending event and not stay as it is now. We all know that, after Katrina, the Gulf of Mexico began to see an influx of foreign flagged vessels and, even though the need for them eventually disappeared, we all know the foreign made, foreign flagged and foreign crewed vessels stayed around.

I would like to hear your comments to this Bill.

2

It figures. Look at the sponsors. Two Texas senators and a Florida senator that loves the big oil boys. I see there’s no time limit on this “waiver”. They using a disaster created by foreign owned corporations to ask for even more foreign corporations in US waters, permanently.
I’m always amazed at the hypocrisy of these people. Anti-immigrant as long as it’s some poor guy trying to cross the border and take someone’s job picking vegetables. But if it’s a major foreign corporation with big bucks paying campaign contributions [bribes] taking jobs from US citizens is just fine.
Follow the money to see who’s behind this move. Check out who their major contributors are.

3

The Jones Act has long outlived its usefulness . It is nothing more than protectionism and hurts the competitiveness of the US. Eliminate the Jones Act for good and go with free enterprise.

4

Suspension, with “end in site” ,and while we rescue, our GOM,and way of life, there can be improvements made to the ‘‘jones act’’…WE HAVE TO ACT NOW!! Limit time of argument to 1 -2 days, and not drag it out, and allow “lip service” for ambiitous politicians. This should have been addressed by now. Poor potty training, gentlemen.

5

Senator John McCain Pushes to Repeal the Jones Act