American Maritime Partnership: About Us

About Us

America's domestic maritime policy is based on three time-tested requirements: vessels transporting goods or passengers between two points in the United States or engaging in certain activities in U.S. waters must be U.S.-owned, U.S.-built, and U.S.-crewed. The Jones Act governs cargo. Other laws cover the movement of passengers, dredging, towing, and salvage.

AMP is the most broad-based coalition ever assembled to represent the domestic maritime industry. Its 450-plus members span the country and its territories and include vessel owners and operators, shipboard and shoreside unions, shipbuilders and repair yards, equipment manufacturers and vendors, dredging and marine construction contractors, trade associations, other coalitions, pro-defense groups, and companies and organizations in other modes of domestic transportation. These diverse but allied interests all recognize that a strong domestic maritime industry is critical for America's economic, national, and homeland security, and is best supported by maintaining the Jones Act as the foundation of America's domestic maritime policy.

AMP: Built on MCTF's Foundation

AMP was officially launched on February 22, 2011. However, the coalition traces its roots back to September 27, 1995, when a number of companies and trade associations representing the domestic maritime industry founded Maritime Cabotage Task Force ("MCTF") to refute a well-financed disinformation campaign aimed at eliminating America's most venerable maritime laws, including the Jones Act. Under MCTF's leadership, the record was set straight, and by 1998, a majority of the House of Representatives had enthusiastically signed H.Con.Res. 65, a bi-partisan, pro-Jones Act resolution. Within a year the opposition had disbanded and a leading critic of U.S. maritime policy was conceding that MCTF was probably the "best organized and broadest coalition of interests in Washington."

As the 2000s began, MCTF worked to close a loophole in the lease financing regulations that threatened the integrity of the U.S. ownership requirement in the Jones Act. The loophole was formally closed with signing of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2004.

In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities. In an ill-advised response to the crisis, the Bush Administration twice waived the Jones Act. MCTF quickly proved that the waivers were unnecessary - sufficient U.S.-flag capacity was at the ready to meet the nation's energy needs. As a result, a system is now in place whereby any future request for a waiver will be considered only after the U.S. Maritime Administration determines no U.S.-flag vessels are available. (Severe storms again disrupted Gulf oil production in 2008, but no waiver was needed or issued.)

In 2007, MCTF updated its landmark study on the size and scope of the domestic maritime industry with a new report titled State of the Jones Act Fleet. Once again this cataloging illustrated that by every measure the domestic maritime industry was growing in size and efficiency.

The tragic explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon in 2010 sadly was used by some critics of our nation's domestic maritime policy as a platform for questioning the very need for such laws. They claimed the Jones Act was impeding clean-up of the spill. The government officials in charge of the clean-up effort repeatedly rejected this claim. A January 2011 report by the non-partisan National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling affirmed the Jones Act did not hinder the clean-up effort.

Now AMP takes the helm. MCTF set a very high standard, but we are pledged to maintaining a proper lookout and ensuring that America's domestic maritime industry and the Jones Act remain a key component of our economic, national, and homeland security.