Solano Sun

WASHINGTON, DC—Representative John Garamendi (D-CA), a senior member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the former Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, secured key provisions in the “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2023” (H.R.2741) to support domestic shipbuilding, hire more skilled American workers, and strengthen America’s maritime and offshore wind industries.

Garamendi is a leading advocate in Congress for Make it in America policies like the Jones Act, which ensures that American goods shipped between U.S. ports are done so on American-built, owned, flagged, and crewed ships.

This week, Garamendi successfully included his bipartisan “American Offshore Worker Fairness Act” (H.R.6728) with Representatives Garret Graves (R-LA) and U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) to the “Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2023” during a Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing. This bill strengthens Jones Act enforcement to incentivize offshore energy developers to hire more American vessels and mariners. The bill also strengthens the US. Coast Guard’s oversight of foreign-flagged vessels and mariners working under specialized visas.

“I’m thrilled that my legislation to support the U.S. maritime industry and provide robust Make it in America standards was included in this legislation,” Garamendi said.

“I agree wholeheartedly with President Biden that our tax dollars should be used to strengthen local economies and create new middle-class jobs, not supporting foreign energy companies undercutting American workers and US-flagged ships,” Garamendi continued. “My legislation supports President Biden’s ambitious Make it in America and renewable energy goals by ensuring that offshore energy projects create new, good-paying American jobs.

“Now that our legislation has been included in the ‘Coast Guard Authorization Act’ and passed overwhelmingly by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, I will work tirelessly to ensure becomes law,” Garamendi concluded.

In December 2020, Garamendi secured a landmark change in federal law ensuring full enforcement of the Jones Act and other federal laws in offshore wind development to support American workers and domestic shipbuilding. Specifically, Garamendi's 2020 amendment clarified that the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act—the 1953 law governing all offshore mineral and energy development— applied federal labor, environmental, and antitrust regulations to non-fossil fuel energy sources such as wind power. Those laws have always applied to the offshore oil and gas industry, but federal regulators failed to apply them to offshore wind before the 2020 Garamendi amendment.

On January 25, 2021, President Biden issued his first executive order entitled “Ensuring the Future Is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers” (Executive Order 14005), which directs all federal agencies to maximize the use of American workers and the Jones Act for major projects, including renewable energy projects in U.S. waters.

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