S. 4090 creates a waiver process for the Jones Act's coastwise shipping requirements, which mandate that goods transported between U.S. ports must be carried on U.S.-built and U.S.-owned vessels. The bill allows federal agencies to temporarily waive these requirements when companies can demonstrate that no qualifying cargo ships are available and they made a good faith effort to find one. Agencies must decide on waiver requests within 60 days, or the request is automatically approved for 30 days; waivers can be extended in 15-day increments if circumstances haven't changed. The law requires agencies to notify Congress within 48 hours of receiving any waiver request and again when issuing it, along with detailed justification for why the waiver is necessary. This legislation aims to give American businesses greater flexibility when domestic shipping capacity is insufficient to meet their needs.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.