John Garamendi: “I strongly support the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2022, and I would like to thank the chairman and the ranking…”

“I strongly support the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2022, and I would like to thank the chairman and the ranking member, also Mr. Carbajal and the minority team for putting together a good piece of legislation. This bipartisan legislation authorizes the U.S. Coast Guard, our fifth national military service branch, for fiscal years 2022 and 2023. We know the Coast Guard is critically important. We just heard that here. This bill also goes beyond just the Coast Guard. It deals with the Jones Act and something I have worked on for 13 years here, which is Make It In America and how we can do that in our maritime industry. In this bill, there are policies and proposals that include long overdue language to close some egregious loopholes to the Jones Act that would allow foreign vessels to undercut American-flagged vessels operating in America's offshore environment and the intercontinental shelf. This amendment, H.R. 6728, which is included in this bill, would close that loophole so that those foreign-flagged vessels are held to the very same high standards that American vessels have to hold to in those same offshore waters. A lot of this comes down to the new offshore wind industry that is flourishing in the northeast and soon will be found in many other parts of this Nation. Do you want those to be American jobs or do you want those to be foreign jobs? The question is pretty simple.…”