# Letter to the Editor: Jones Act Waiver Has Benefited Americans 

Rather than returning to the status quo, Congress and the administration should treat this episode as evidence of the gains that durable and long-overdue reform could offer.

July 30, 2026 • Commentary 

By [Colin Grabow](https://www.cato.org/people/colin-grabow) 

This article appeared in [*Richmond Times-Dispatch*](https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=c147c2ce106a9040ccad2e7e217014829a1592e386adf8e5a147f3935124295cJmltdHM9MTc4NjA2MDgwMA&ptn=3&ver=2&hsh=4&fclid=13ba31e3-72ea-6239-22a7-268373246354&psq=Richmond+Times-Dispatch&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9yaWNobW9uZC5jb20v) on July 30, 2026.

Michael Purzycki argues in an op-ed printed July 26 that the Jones Act waiver is harming America, but the evidence suggests something different. Since March, the Jones Act fleet has remained fully employed, while foreign vessels have expanded domestic shipping to levels not seen in decades. The country is seeing substantial benefits.

More jet fuel, for example, has moved from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast during the waiver than in the previous 36 years combined. Propane shipments to Puerto Rico have more than doubled the total of the prior 22 years. And nearly 8 million barrels of crude have moved from Texas to East Coast refineries, replacing imports with American oil.

The waiver, in other words, didn’t displace the Jones Act fleet. It supplemented it, making it easier for Americans to buy American energy from other Americans at a scale and price that fleet could never match.

Notably, Trump invoked the law’s own national security waiver authority to make this possible. A law justified on national security grounds that must be waived to serve national security is undermining its own rationale.

Rather than returning to the status quo, Congress and the administration should treat this episode as evidence of the gains that durable and long-overdue reform could offer.

##### About the Author 

[![Colin Grabow](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/Colin%20Grabow.jpg?itok=pNkGPWw4)](/people/colin-grabow) 

##### [Colin Grabow](/people/colin-grabow)

Associate Director, Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies

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](https://x.com/cpgrabow)