Today, the New Jersey State Senate voted to pass SCR-31 (Pou/ Cruz-Perez/ Ruiz) by a vote of 24-7. The resolution urges Congress and the President to permanently exempt Puerto Rico from the Jones Act.
The New Jersey State AFL-CIO, Seafarers International Union (SIU) and the New York / New Jersey Maritime Port Council opposed this resolution and testified against it in the Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee on October 13, 2022, due to the negative impacts exempting Puerto Rico from the Jones Act would have on the American maritime workforce.
We would like to thank the bipartisan group of Senators who opposed this resolution: Beach (D-06), Connors (R-09), Doherty (R-23), Durr (R-03), Holzapfel (R-10), Schepisi (R-39), and Testa (R-01). To view the full vote, click here.
The SIU represents tens of thousands of mariners in the United States. The Jones Act requires cargo being transported between two points in the United States be carried by American ships, built in America and owned and crewed by Americans. It supports thousands of good paying middle class jobs in New Jersey alone. It also supports national and homeland security by providing a mariner pool of American citizens needed to crew our merchant marine ships in times of national emergency.
If Congress amends the law and includes the recommendation of SCR-31, American jobs will be outsourced to foreign cargo ship operators and a host of other worker protections will be ended for seafarers serving Puerto Rico.
The resolution still needs to pass the General Assembly before it is sent to Congress.
Linked here is a brief position paper further addressing this issue.