Some 32 bipartisan representatives of the United States Congress sent a letter to Senate leaders asking for rejection of Senator John McCain’s amendment to The Jones Act.
The letter, addressed to Senator McConnell and Senator Reid, says that the amendment would have a detrimental effect to domestic shipbuilding and repair industry which is sustaining more than 400,000 jobs in all 50 states.
“ We urge the rejection of this misguided proposal, and look forward to working with you to continue to grow a robust and vibrant domestic shipbuilding industry, ” the Congress members stressed.
This repeal of the Jones Act would especially be a bad move having in mind that domestic commercial shipbuilding sector is seeing a surge in new vessel construction, the letter added.
The US shipbuilders are in charge of construction, repair, maintainenace and modernization of the country’s Navy and Coast Guard fleet spanning approximately 40,000 commercial vessels.
“According to a recent study by the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration, America’s shipbuilding industry supports more than 400,000 jobs in all 50 states, which boost our economy by almost $60 billion every year. Each direct job in the shipbuilding and repairing industry leads to another 2.7 jobs nationally, and each dollar of direct labor income leads to another $2.03 in labor income in other parts of the economy ,”the letter said.