Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., is putting pressure on Puerto Rico to abandon a tentative recommendation that it be exempted from the Jones Act in a bid to make it less expensive to ship goods from the mainland U.S. to its island territory.
The Jones Act requires that all goods moved between U.S. ports must be moved on U.S.-manned and U.S.-flagged ships.
A draft report from Puerto Rico’s Central Recovery and Reconstruction Office released this month said a Jones Act exemption could reduce the cost of shipping goods, and thus help the island recover from two devastating hurricanes.
But the draft drew an immediate complaint from Hunter, who chairs the House Transportation Committee’s subcommittee on maritime transportation. In a July 18 letter to the CCRO, Hunter asked that office to eliminate that recommendation entirely.
“I urge you to remove your recommendation regarding the Jones Act from the final report,” Hunter wrote.
He noted that the draft report says the Jones Act “may” lead to higher prices in Puerto Rico, but also argued that the draft doesn’t offer any support for that conclusion.
Hunter warned that Congress will be less likely to take the final product seriously if it isn’t based on “facts, data, and the reality of the circumstances there.”
Hunter also asked the CCRO for the name of the group that prepared the draft report, and provided a link to a study from the American Maritime Partnership that said the Jones Act has no bearing on the price of landed goods in Puerto Rico.
