NEW ORLEANS — Aug. 10, 2026 — The Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) is responding to the Trump administration's decision to extend the current Jones Act waiver despite clear evidence it has failed to lower fuel prices while continuing to undermine American maritime jobs, investment, and national security.
"The administration extended a waiver that has already failed," said Aaron Smith, President and CEO of OMSA. "Months in, Americans still aren't seeing a dime of relief at the pump. Meanwhile, American mariners, vessel operators, and shipyards keep paying the price for a policy that was never going to work and has never worked. Every extra day this waiver stays in place is another day of work shipped overseas and another day of uncertainty for the U.S. maritime industry."
The extension marks the third time the administration has renewed the waiver since it was first issued on March 17, keeping the Jones Act suspended into mid-November for a total of more than 240 days.
"We've been here before in the offshore industry, we have faced ongoing bureaucratic waivers of the Jones Act for the last 50 years and from this experience know the effects are felt long after the waiver ends. Foreign vessels that don't employ American mariners, don't pay American taxes, and aren't held to the same standards are replacing U.S.-flag ships, all for a policy that has delivered nothing for American consumers."
Aaron Smith, President and CEO of OMSA
OMSA emphasized that Congress created the Jones Act's waiver authority to address genuine national security needs, not to serve as a standing commercial policy tool. The offshore sector has already been impacted by a quieter mechanism: for decades, U.S. Customs and Border Protection letter rulings carved out exceptions to the Jones Act. They were never called waivers and never voted on by Congress, but they had the same effect. Foreign vessels took American work, investment left the sector, and the fleet shrank. The current waiver now does openly what those rulings did quietly.
"Under the law, this waiver was supposed to be about national security, however, not a single ounce of cargo transported under the waiver is military grade" Smith said. If the administration is serious about national security, American energy security, resilient supply chains, and a strong maritime industrial base, it should end this failed experiment and recommit to American vessels, American mariners, and American jobs."
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The Offshore Marine Service Association (OMSA) OMSA is the advocate for the offshore marine transportation service industry in the United States. The Association represents 170-member companies and their 12,000 U.S. employees based throughout the U.S.
Media Contact
Kristen Crutchley
omsa@ascentcomms.com