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American Maritime Leaders Applaud Biden Administration for Prioritizing Support of the Jones Act in “Buy American” Executive Order
The American Maritime Partnership (AMP), the voice of the nation’s domestic maritime industry, today applauds the new Executive Order to be signed by President Biden on January 25, 2021, “Strengthening ‘Buy American’ Provisions, Ensuring [the] Future of America is Made in America by All of America’s Workers.” Signaled as a priority, the Executive Order formally confirms the Biden Administration’s policy to strongly support American Maritime workers and businesses serving domestic trades under the Jones Act.
Maritime Activity Reports, Inc. January 26, 2021
President Joe Biden signs the Strengthening Buy American Provisions, Ensuring Future of America is Made in America by All of America’s Workers executive order (Photo: The White House)
President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order aiming to use government spending to strengthen domestic manufacturing and create markets for new technologies, in a move widely praised by America s maritime industry.
The executive order, titled Strengthening Buy American Provisions, Ensuring Future of America is Made in America by All of America’s Workers , calls for increasing the amount of U.S. content that must be in a product for it to be considered made in America under existing Buy American requirements. It also makes procurement more transparent, and creates a senior White House role to oversee the process.
Forging Ahead
There’s no doubt that the barge industry has experienced its share of effects not only from the virus directly, but from the demand drops for various commodities. But as Jennifer Carpenter, CEO of The American Waterways Operators, told
The Waterways Journal, “We largely stayed on track despite COVID.” Large, multi-vessel barge companies are complying with Subchapter M certification deadlines despite difficulties; some smaller, single-vessel companies are a bit behind. “Subchapter M continues to be an important focus of our industry. We are working hard to make sure that all vessels are certificated,” she said.
On mariner credentialing, which has been made slower and more difficult by COVID-19, “The Coast Guard has been very proactive,” Carpenter said, in working with mariners and extending deadlines to ensure that mariners are not penalized or forced to quit working because of COVID-related delays at processing centers.
December 31, 2020 By Frank McCormack
While COVID-19 proved the dominant newsmaker for much of 2020, a steady stream of dredging and waterway announcements during the year will, hopefully, have a much more enduring and endearing impact on the maritime industry.
The waterway deepening news started early in the year, with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ 2020 work plan, released February 10. The work plan, remarkably, included both funding for the first phase of deepening the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge, La., to the Gulf of Mexico to 50 feet and more than $274 million to fully fund the construction of the Mobile Harbor channel deepening project in Alabama, which will also bring that channel to 50 feet.