Op-Ed: New Hampshire's Legislature Should Leave Jones Act Alone

 

There has been a lot of discussion in New Hampshire lately about the effectiveness of a pro-American law that has been providing national and economic security for the United States for many years. I want to provide some stakeholder’s perspective and perhaps add some context as to how this issue relates to New Hampshire.

The Jones Act is a series of laws that ensure that America controls its own critical supply lines. The Act ensures our most important commodities – like heating oil and other fuels, critical petrochemicals, agricultural products, construction materials, and other cargos – are safely transported within America by Americans on safe American-built equipment. In the face of the Chinese Communist Party’s escalating global maritime ambitions and shipbuilding dominance, the Jones Act is our nation’s last line of defense. It is critical to growing our maritime sector, maintaining our reserve of U.S. mariners to support our deployed forces defending our nation, securing our borders, and protecting us from undue dependence on foreign governments.

Since the pandemic and the supply chain disruptions that followed, Americans have learned valuable lessons about relying upon our adversaries for our essential goods and services. Experiencing delays and rates elevated over 1,000 percent during the pandemic, leaders in both parties woke up to our dependence on China in particular, for everything from medicine to minerals to manufacturing, and began to work to re-shore (or near-shore) our most critical needs and revitalize our shipbuilding and maritime industrial base. Fortunately, the Jones Act meant this reshoring was already in place for U.S. maritime interests.

New Hampshire is a maritime state. New Hampshire’s $236 million maritime industry provides so much for communities across the state, including more than 1,200 jobs and $73 million in wages. Without a strong Jones Act today, New Hampshire would end up relying on Chinese shipping tomorrow–and you better believe the economic benefits will go back to China, not stay here in America.  There are challenges in U.S. maritime, but we know what they are and how to fix them. It makes no sense to concede this important market to any foreign entity.

Weakening the Jones Act under the guise of “reforming” it would set the stage for giving many of New Hampshire’s and the nation’s maritime workforce a pink slip, making us even more vulnerable in wartime.  It would lead to offshore hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs to foreign workers, shut down our critical maritime academies and devastate our commercial shipbuilding industry.

Whether or not the General Court passes the resolution, the federal government is highly unlikely to do anything that would compromise the Jones Act because it is widely supported in Congress and within the Trump administration. President Donald Trump himself recently shared a strongly pro-Jones Act op-ed on social media, signaling his support for the Jones Act, and during his Address to Congress he announced a shipbuilding executive order to grow the fleet. Our new Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy also voiced support for the law during his confirmation hearing. At a time when agreement across the aisle is rare, there is a strong bipartisan consensus in support of the Jones Act. The SHIPS for America Act was recently introduced in both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives. The Act, sponsored by Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Miss.), and Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), addresses critical gaps in shipbuilding and the maritime workforce and has strong bipartisan and bicameral support.

But it’s not hard to figure out why this effort in the General Court is happening. Foreign adversaries and companies want unrestricted access and control of the U.S. market, and their lobbyists push false narratives that a Jones Act repeal would save money when it simply will put more profits and control in hands of foreign companies and countries, some of whom are our adversaries. It is worth pointing out that these are the very same companies and countries that flag their ships in countries that have tax, labor, and safety cost advantages and use labor from depressed countries so that they can pay fractions of what is fair to their crews.

Rather than seek to weaken the Jones Act, New Hampshire legislators should join with Congress and the Trump administration in supporting and strengthening America’s domestic shipbuilding and shipping industries. If we want to compete with China and secure our borders, then we must keep the Jones Act.

As a former New Hampshire resident and mariner who served onboard the iconic tugs in Portsmouth Harbor; as a three-tour combat veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, and retired U.S. Navy captain; and as the former Deputy Maritime Administrator appointed by President Trump, I hope this added perspective helps New Hampshire legislators make a better, more-informed decision.

Capt. Richard A. Balzano, USN Ret., is a former New Hampshire mariner and previously served as Deputy U.S. Maritime Administrator during President Trump’s first term. He wrote this for NHJournal.com / Inside Sources.