Here is the full petition text, followed by the Update #1 template to post immediately after it goes live:

🇺🇸 American Ships. American Crews. American Security. 🇺🇸

You are an American.

That means something. It means the ports on your coastline, the ships on your waterways, and the workers who crew them belong to you — to all of us. It means that for over 100 years, a simple but powerful law has guaranteed that American cargo moves on American ships, built in American yards, crewed by American hands.

That law is called the Jones Act.

And right now, while most Americans aren’t watching, it is being quietly dismantled — one waiver at a time, and one bill at a time.

MEET THE PEOPLE THEY’RE NOT TALKING ABOUT

Picture a merchant mariner. She’s been sailing American waters for twenty years — one of a growing number of women who have earned their place on the water through skill, grit, and credentials no one handed them. Or picture him: the deckhand, the engineer, the tankerman who built a career the same way, one watch at a time.

Together — men and women both — they are among the hundreds of thousands of Americans whose livelihoods, according to industry estimates, depend on the Jones Act being enforced.

They don’t have a lobbyist. They don’t have a PAC. They have their skills, their union cards, and the belief that their government won’t sell them out for 3 cents off a gallon of gas.

Right now, that belief is being tested — in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

WHAT IS HAPPENING

In February 2026, U.S. and Israeli military forces commenced Operation Epic Fury against Iran, effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz — the waterway through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG supply moves. The disruption was real. The administration’s response was to issue a Jones Act waiver, allowing foreign-flagged vessels to move certain domestic cargo while American supply chains adjusted.

We understand why an emergency waiver was issued. We do not accept what that waiver became.

The administration issued the broadest blanket Jones Act waiver in modern American history. It covers 659 categories of cargo — crude oil, natural gas, coal, fertilizers, and industrial materials far beyond what a Hormuz disruption would logically require. It has already been extended once. It now runs through mid-August 2026. Nothing is stopping another extension. And another. And another.

The stated justification — stabilizing energy markets during an active conflict — does not explain why 659 product categories require waiver. It does not explain why industrial materials unrelated to the Strait of Hormuz are covered. It does not explain the scale. No public, category-by-category accounting of why each commodity was included has ever been submitted for congressional review.

A targeted emergency waiver, narrowly scoped and time-limited, is a legitimate tool. What has been issued goes far beyond that — and the difference matters enormously.

Each extension is a brick pulled from the foundation. Each extension tells foreign shipping companies that American domestic routes are open for business. Each extension makes it less likely that a single new American ship gets built, a single American shipyard stays open, or a single American mariner has a career to return to.

And here is the truth that should terrify every American regardless of party:

When an American shipyard closes, it does not reopen.

The equipment gets sold for scrap. The master craftsmen retire or move on. The institutional knowledge — the kind that takes decades to build — evaporates. You cannot Google your way back to a functional shipyard in a national emergency. You cannot train a credentialed merchant mariner in a crisis.

Once it is gone, it is gone. Forever.

THIS IS NOT JUST ABOUT SHIPPING. THIS IS ABOUT WAR.

U.S. Transportation Command and Military Sealift Command have stated it plainly: without a viable domestic maritime industry, America cannot meet 90 to 95 percent of its military sealift requirements in wartime. Troops. Fuel. Ammunition. Vehicles. Equipment. Nearly all of it moves by water.

Here is the bitter irony: the administration justified this waiver on national security grounds — a military conflict in the Persian Gulf. And yet the waiver itself undermines the very industrial base that national security depends on.

If we surrender our domestic maritime industry to foreign operators, we surrender our ability to supply our own military when it matters most. We are not talking about an inconvenience. We are talking about the difference between winning and losing — between projecting strength and begging foreign governments to move our cargo during a war.

Three to ten cents off a gallon of gas. That is what we are trading for this risk. Less than a dime. For our national security.

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE — AND WHO CAN STOP IT

This fight runs through three pressure points.

The White House issued this waiver. The stated justification does not account for the full scope of 659 product categories. Congress has not received a public, line-by-line explanation of why each category was included — and that silence is unacceptable regardless of the underlying emergency that prompted the original action.

The House Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Mike Ezell (R-MS) — who has himself called the Jones Act “quite literally the bedrock and foundation of our nation’s shipbuilding industrial base” — holds formal congressional jurisdiction over this law. This subcommittee has the power to investigate every waiver, demand public justification from the administration for its full scope, and block any legislation that weakens the Act. We are calling on Chairman Ezell and every member of this subcommittee to exercise that oversight authority — now, not after the damage is done.

Your own U.S. Representative has a vote on the Open America’s Waters Act and any future Jones Act rollback legislation. They need to hear from you. Sign this petition, then check our first update for a ready-to-send message you can take directly to your Representative today.

THIS IS NOT LEFT OR RIGHT. THIS IS AMERICAN.

Democratic Senator Mark Kelly — a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy graduate — has stood publicly against these waivers and written in defense of this law. Conservative defense institutions and Republican lawmakers have warned that gutting the Jones Act weakens American maritime power and hands strategic advantage to our adversaries. Every major maritime labor union in America, representing workers of every background and every political belief, stands united.

When the left and the right agree, when dockworkers and defense secretaries agree, when unions and conservative think tanks agree — that is not a political debate. That is a warning.

THE MOMENT YOU SIGN THIS, YOU ARE PART OF THE RESISTANCE TO IT

History will record whether Americans spoke up when it still mattered — or stayed silent while a century of maritime strength was quietly auctioned off to the lowest foreign bidder.

The men and women who built this industry cannot fight this alone. They are on the water. They are in the yards. They are doing the work while others make decisions that will destroy everything they built.

You are their voice right now.

Signing this petition sends a direct message to the White House and to every member of Congress: We see what you are doing. We know what is at stake. And we will not let you do it without a fight.

WE DEMAND:

— A public, category-by-category justification for every product included in the current waiver, submitted to the House Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee for review

— Full subcommittee oversight and public hearings on the waiver’s scope and duration

— That any future waiver be narrowly scoped, time-limited, and tied to a specific verified national emergency — not used as a broad instrument of trade policy

— Opposition by the Subcommittee to the Open America’s Waters Act and any similar legislation

— Every U.S. Representative on record opposing any bill that weakens, guts, or repeals the Jones Act

 

— A public commitment to preserving and strengthening the American domestic maritime industry

 

BY SIGNING, YOU ARE SAYING:

 

“I am an American. I believe American cargo belongs on American ships, crewed by American workers — men and women — built in American yards. I understand that genuine emergencies may require targeted, limited waivers. I oppose the current waiver’s unjustified scope. I oppose the Open America’s Waters Act. I am calling on the House Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee to investigate, and on Congress to act. And I am watching what every one of them does next.”

 

Sign. Share. Then check the first update below for how to contact your Representative directly.

This is the last watch. Don’t let it end on our generation.

 

American ships. 🇺🇸

American crews. 🇺🇸

American security. 🇺🇸