The Open America's Waters Act repeals outdated restrictions on which vessels can operate in U.S. coastwise trade while mandating the Coast Guard to establish new safety and security regulations for these vessels.
Mike Lee
Senator
UT
The Open America's Waters Act aims to modernize U.S. maritime law by repealing outdated restrictions on which vessels can engage in coastwise trade. This legislation simplifies the requirements for obtaining coastwise endorsements for vessels operating in U.S. waters. The Coast Guard is mandated to issue new regulations within 90 days to ensure all newly eligible vessels meet current safety and security standards. Overall, the Act cleans up numerous specific references and repeals the section detailing the loss of trade privileges.
New 'Open America's Waters Act' Streamlines Shipping Rules, But Repeals Key Enforcement Mechanism
The Open America's Waters Act is a major shakeup of maritime law, mostly focused on who gets to ship goods along U.S. coasts. Essentially, it tears down a bunch of old rules that restricted which vessels could operate in the domestic shipping market—what the industry calls "coastwise trade." The bill makes it easier for a vessel to get a coastwise endorsement, provided it generally qualifies under U.S. laws (Section 2).
This isn't just bureaucratic cleanup; it’s about opening up the U.S. shipping lanes. For people who rely on goods shipped domestically—which is pretty much everyone, from the small business owner waiting on parts to the grocery store receiving produce—this could mean increased competition and potentially lower shipping costs down the line. The bill also simplifies or removes several specific, outdated rules related to vessel construction and trade privileges for tankers and small passenger vessels, aiming to streamline the entire regulatory landscape.
The Fine Print: Trade-Offs for Trade
While the goal is regulatory efficiency and market access, the bill makes one change that demands attention: it completely repeals Section 12132 of title 46, U.S. Code. That section dealt with the loss of coastwise trade privileges. Think of it this way: the old law had a mechanism to yank a vessel’s license to operate domestically if it violated certain rules. This bill removes that mechanism entirely (Section 2).
This means the door to domestic shipping is now wider, but the enforcement hammer is gone. If a vessel owner is non-compliant, the government loses a major statutory tool for penalizing them by revoking their operating rights. For those who worry about environmental protection or safety standards, this is a significant trade-off—you get deregulation, but you lose a key piece of oversight.
The Safety Catch: The 90-Day Clock
To balance this deregulation, the bill mandates a critical safety measure: the Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard must issue new regulations within 90 days of the law taking effect. These new rules must ensure that every vessel now eligible for coastwise trade meets all necessary safety and security standards (Section 2). This is a tight deadline for the Coast Guard to write comprehensive rules that cover potentially hundreds of newly eligible vessels.
If the Coast Guard struggles to meet this 90-day deadline, or if the new rules are insufficient, we could see a temporary gap where vessels that previously didn't meet the stricter regulations are now operating in U.S. waters without clear, updated safety oversight. This is where the rubber meets the road: the success of this legislation hinges entirely on the Coast Guard’s ability to quickly implement robust safety protocols to replace the statutory restrictions that were just eliminated. Until those new rules are ironed out, the increased access comes with increased risk.