I'm no fan of the Jones Act, I think it should be repealed in its entirety. However, there is a political reality that several special interests are united in k

I'm no fan of the Jones Act, I think it should be repealed in its entirety. However, there is a political reality that several special interests are united in keeping the law on the books. I think a better solution would be to amend the Jones Act to remove the American built requirement. I'm fine with American flagged and crewed ships if we want to ensure that we have available merchant marines. (which we don't have now) However, there is no such thing as an "American built" ship anymore. The ships we "build" in the USA have had their design and critical components outsourced. The only thing we do is assembly, and that is the easiest part of shipbuilding to ramp up in a war. You can sell this plan to the defense department by stating that you will actually have ships and crew members if you need them. Right now almost the entire fleet of Jones Act ships is reaching their end of life and there is a point which we will reach soon where they will go extinct.