The Jones Act and Why Foreign Cleanup Ships are Not in the Gulf

By John Ballard

Congressman Gene Taylor, a Democrat, was on Washington Journal this morning. With twenty years in the House his seat from Mississippi's Fourth District must be fairly secure. He came across as someone well informed about technical and logistical details of the catastrophe in the Gulf, starting with a detailed map and making several excellent points.

• We can take a human into space but cannot yet safely take a human to ocean depths and return safely.


• For whatever reason, the technology of booms and skimmers has not changed over the last forty years. 


• He favors an all-nuclear Navy and points out that for security reasons the US should not be dependent on oil. Our military is oil-driven.

Unlike the guest who followed, a Republican whose only purpose was to malign the Affordable Care Act, this man was able to explain his positions clearly and persuasively. I have no idea if he is a Blue Dog (hard to imagine a Democrat from the South as anything else) but his constituents have reason to be proud of him.

His reply to a question about why foreign assistance has not been accepted was excellent. The Jones Act has been cited as the reason for disallowing foreign ships and/or crew into the cleanup efforts. Unfortunately, in the case of deep water drilling the Jones Act has a loophole big enough to accommodate a British platform and Swiss drilling crew using Korean-made equipment. Here is a link to the whole segment, about forty minutes. Listen to this brief clip.

The Jones Act is described here.

The cornerstone of the U.S. merchant mariner�s rights is the Jones Act. It was named
for Senator Wesley Jones during the administration of President Woodrow Wilson,
and is otherwise known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920. The Jones Act
addresses the construction and manning of vessels as well as legal remedies for
injured seamen. Essentially, the Jones Act took the remedies available to railroad
workers under the Federal Employers� Liability Act (FELA) and extended them to
merchant seamen.

�

The Jones Act requires that commerce between U.S. ports on the inland and
intracoastal waterways be reserved for vessels that are:

? U.S. Built

? U.S. Owned

? Registered under U.S. Law

? U.S. Manned

The architects of the Jones Act recognized that a strong merchant marine was good
for the economy and national security. The legislative intent was that U.S. shipyards
would enjoy construction contracts, the treasury would enjoy tax revenues, U.S.
merchant mariners would enjoy employment, and U.S. ships would operate under
high standards of safety and crew competency.

In addition to governing the construction and operation of ships within the United
States, the Jones Act codified the remedies of individual merchant mariners in the
event of an injury. As an Act of Congress, the Jones Act gives rise to a Federal cause
of action, indicating that its planners wished for the application of a uniform standard
of liability throughout United States Courts.