When Hurricane Fiona hit Puerto Rico, leaders of domestic maritime industry companies were furious when President Joe Biden's administration gave a single foreign ship laden with diesel oil a waiver to bypass federal regulations and dock in Puerto Rico to help the island's recovery efforts.
The Jones Act (technically the Merchant Marine Act of 1920) requires that all ships that deliver goods between U.S. ports be built within the United States, owned and operated by U.S. companies, and crewed by U.S. citizens. It's a protectionist, anti-competitive law that shields domestic shipping companies from foreign competition.
