“This bill could have unintended consequences”
We’ve tried this before, at least a variation of it, called The Magnuson Act.
This act called for US flag ships to have US crews and captains on them.
What happened?
Cost of shipping stuff on US flag vessels went up. People preferred shipping on ‘flag of convenience’ ships due to the lower costs.
Result - US shipping industry nearly disappeared.
This new act of repeated historical ignorance, if they choose to repeat it, will simply kill what shipping industry remains.
I guess we won’t need American Bureau of Shipping any more. All those retired Coasties can go to work for DNV instead (or Lloyds).
Congress should stop trying to participate in markets. See Amendment number 10 of the Constitution.
Unintended consequences scare me too. But our manufacturing base has been sent overseas. When we need cargo ships, say in a war with China, and all the cargo ships have been made in China, we are probably going to have some issues.
I don’t see this as economic as much as I do a security issue. Like making cars and trucks. Some things a nation has to be able to do, damn the costs.
parsy, who may be all wrong on this