Guest opinion: The Jones Act is critical to Alabama and America

It is a visitor opinion column

Our nation has been by loads lately, navigating a world pandemic and grappling with provide chain and power crises which have challenged all of us. But by all of it, the women and men of the American maritime workforce have rolled up their sleeves and gotten the job executed, working day and evening on tugboats and towboats by all method of climate to ship the commodities that construct our infrastructure, energy our vehicles, houses and companies, and maintain our high quality of life. Now greater than ever, our lawmakers must do proper by these People and make sure that our provide chain stays resilient. With the legislature’s latest passage of Senate Joint Decision 32, our leaders in Montgomery have executed so.

The Jones Act is the foundational legislation for the American home maritime trade, requiring vessels transferring cargo between U.S. ports to be constructed, owned, and crewed by People. Led by State Senator Gerald Allen and State Consultant Mike Jones, Jr., SJR32 rightfully places Alabama on report as strongly supportive of the Jones Act and highlights the legislation’s many necessary financial and safety contributions to our state and our nation.

Our provide chain will depend on the marine transportation system – from the tugboats guiding container ships into our coastal ports to the towboats pushing barges on our rivers, and the shipyards constructing and repairing these vessels. With out the Jones Act, the important accountability of transferring this cargo on our home waters can be outsourced to international vessels with international crews. That may make our maritime commerce captive to international pursuits, placing in danger the dependable supply of fuels and chemical substances, meals and farm merchandise, development supplies and different necessities to communities in Alabama and throughout the nation.

The Jones Act has a sizeable financial impression, including $2.8 billion to our nice state’s economic system and supporting 13,000 jobs proper right here in Alabama, together with family-wage jobs within the tugboat, towboat and barge trade, in addition to our necessary shipyards, that enable folks to work their approach up an financial ladder of success. A mariner can begin as a deckhand proper out of highschool or army service and work their approach as much as captain in lower than a decade, incomes a six-figure wage with no school debt. All of this might be in jeopardy with out the Jones Act.

On high of the Jones Act’s provide chain and financial impression, U.S. army leaders have famous the legislation’s important function in our nationwide safety, highlighting it as key to making sure a maritime protection industrial base and the supply of skilled mariners to assist sealift capabilities. Mariners within the Jones Act fleet additionally assist our homeland safety, serving as eyes and ears on our nation’s waterways and dealing alongside the Coast Guard to maintain our rivers, waterways and coasts secure.

I’m proud to work alongside my colleagues at Parker Towing as a part of the tugboat, towboat and barge trade in Alabama. All through my profession on this trade, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing the talent and resilience of Alabama’s maritime workforce firsthand. When People want us, we’re there, and the Jones Act is the muse for the important contributions we’re proud to make daily.

From a world pandemic to battle in Europe, at this time’s headlines underscore the significance of the U.S. maritime trade to our nation’s financial, homeland, and nationwide safety. I commend the Alabama legislature for recognizing the significance of the Jones Act to our state and to our nation.

Tim Parker, Jr. serves as Chairman of the Board at Parker Towing, primarily based in Tuscaloosa, and beforehand served three phrases as a member of the Alabama State Legislature.