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THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW - July 5, 2010
GOP's False Talking Point: Jones Act Blocks Gulf Help
by: William Douglas
McClatchy Newspapers|Report
Washington - From former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to Arizona
Sen. John McCain to junior members of the House of
Representatives, conservative Republicans have accused
President Barack Obama of failing to do all he can to help
clean up the Gulf of Mexico oil spill because he hasn't
waived a U.S. maritime law called the Jones Act.
That statute, established in 1920, requires that all goods
transported between U.S. ports be carried on U.S.-flagged,
U.S.-built and U.S.-owned ships crewed by U.S. citizens or
permanent residents. Critics say that's needlessly excluded
foreign-flagged vessels that could have helped.
"It's a little shocking to me that a president that has
such a multinational orientation as this president didn't
immediately see the benefits of waiving the Jones Act and
allowing all of these resources to come in," former House
Majority Leader Richard Armey, R-Texas, said in remarks to
Newsmax.com, a conservative website.
Armey and the other Republican critics are wrong. Maritime
law experts, government officials and independent research-
ers say that the claim is false. The Jones Act isn't an
impediment at all, they say, and it hasn't blocked any-
thing.
"Totally not true," said Mark Ruge, counsel to the Maritime
Cabotage Task Force, a coalition of U.S. shipbuilders,
operators and labor unions. "It is simply an urban myth
that the Jones Act is the problem."
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In a news briefing last week, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen
said he'd received "no requests for Jones Act waivers"
from foreign vessels or countries. "If the vessels are
operating outside state waters, which is three miles and
beyond, they don't require a waiver," he said.
On Tuesday the State Department announced that new offers
of aid would be accepted from 12 foreign countries and
international organizations, but spokesman P.J. Crowley
noted that booms donated by Mexico, Norway and Brazil had
been in use since May 11,and that 24 foreign vessels from
nine foreign countries already have been helping with the
cleanup.
FactCheck.org, a nonprofit website operated by the
University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy
Center, analyzed claims that failure to waive the Jones
Act is blocking foreign-flagged vessels from assisting in
the Gulf. It concluded last week that "In reality, the
Jones Act has yet to be an issue in the response efforts."
The Deepwater Horizon response team reported in a news
release June 15 that 15 foreign-flagged ships were
participating in the oil spill cleanup, FactCheck.org
said. "None of them needed a waiver because the Jones
Act does not apply," it said.
That hasn't stopped conservatives from making the act
a talking point to criticize Obama. Joseph Carafano, a
foreign policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation, a
conservative policy-research center, suggested on Fox
News that labor unions are pressuring the Obama
administration not to waive the act.
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"They hate it when the Jones Act gets waived, and they
pound politicians when they do that," Carafano said. "So
is this a question of we're giving in to unions and not
doing everything we can or is there some kind of impediment
we don't know about?"
Michael Sacco, the president of the 80,000-member Seafarers
International Union, called claims of organized-labor
interference in the cleanup efforts "ridiculous."
"It is offensive for anyone to suggest that American
maritime labor would hinder cleanup operations in the
Gulf, in any way, shape or form," Sacco said in a statement
on the union's website. "Speaking with one voice, U.S
maritime labor and management have said that we wouldn't
try to stand in the way of using foreign-flag assistance
if no qualified, viable American-flag tonnage was
available."
Some Democrats and union officials say that Republicans are
trying to use the Gulf spill to kill what conservatives
consider a protectionist law that hurts businesses. McCain
introduced a bill last week to repeal the Jones Act, noting
the emergency in the Gulf. He also touted the economic
benefits of doing away with the act.
"The best course of action is to permanently repeal the
Jones Act in order to boost the economy, saving consumers
hundreds of millions of dollars," McCain said. "I hope my
colleagues will join me in this effort to repeal this
unnecessary, antiquated legislation in order to spur job
creation and promote free trade."
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