American Maritime Partnership's Statement Regarding Administration's Decision to Prioritize Foreign Workers

The American Maritime Partnership (AMP) recently released a statement regarding the Administration's decision to prioritize foreign workes over American workers and waive the coastwise laws for transportation of petroleum from the strategic petroleum reserve.  

“We are dumbfounded by President Obama’s decision to disregard the American maritime industry, which has sufficient capacity to complete this work.  At a time when a record number of Americans are unemployed, it is disappointing that the Administration has chosen to prioritize foreign workers when our nation’s workers are perfectly able and willing to do the job.”  

American Maritime Partnership is the voice of the U.S. domestic maritime industry, a pillar of our nation‘s economic, national, and homeland security. More than 40,000 American vessels built in American shipyards, crewed by American mariners, and owned by American companies, ply our waters 24/7, and this commerce sustains nearly 500,000 jobs, $29 billion in labor compensation, and more than $100 billion in annual economic output according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the Transportation Institute. So efficient are these vessels that they carry a quarter of the nation‘s cargo for only 2 percent of the national freight bill, and being American owned, built and crewed helps make America more secure.