Q&A: Jennifer Carpenter on the Jones Act and America’s workforce

Jennifer Carpenter

More than 1,250 students graduated from the nation’s seven U.S. maritime academies this year, entering the workforce at a time when the domestic maritime industry is emphasizing the need for more qualified American mariners. At the same time, ongoing debate over Jones Act waivers has renewed questions about the long-term impact such policies could have on U.S.-flag operators, workforce development, and national security. Marine Log spoke with Jennifer Carpenter, president of the American Maritime Partnership, about the opportunities facing this year’s graduates, the role of the Jones Act in sustaining the maritime workforce, and why she believes current waiver policies could have lasting consequences for the industry’s future.

Marine Log (ML): More than 1,250 students graduated from the U.S. maritime academies this year. What opportunities should these graduates expect to find in the domestic maritime industry, and how could Jones Act waivers affect those prospects? 

Jennifer Carpenter (JC): This is one of the largest graduating classes and these young men and women have spent years preparing to crew American vessels. They should be walking into an industry that has real demand for their skills—shipping companies, barge and towing vessel operators, Lakers, the inland waterways, all of it. Both the Trump Administration and Congress have agreed it’s important to our national and economic security that we grow more American mariners.

But when a broad Jones Act waiver is granted, it sidelines American mariners by sending cargo, jobs, and investment to foreign vessels and foreign crews. That’s a direct hit to the career ladder these graduates are stepping onto. Fewer voyages on U.S.-flagged ships means fewer opportunities to advance. We trained this workforce for a reason, and the Administration should end the waiver now so we can put them to work.

ML: Supporters of Jones Act waivers often cite short-term operational needs or economic pressures. How do you balance those concerns against the long-term impacts on the U.S. maritime workforce? 

JC: Policymakers sometimes reach for a waiver—of all kinds of laws—when there’s a natural disaster or other potential supply disruption. They want to show the public they’re taking action. What we’ve seen over the last three months is a broad waiver with dubious national security justification that didn’t produce benefits for U.S. consumers in the short run and stands to harm the American maritime industry badly in the long run. Independent analysis concludes that the recent waiver moved the needle on gas prices by a mere $0.000157 per gallon—a fraction of a cent—and the fuel volume involved was a small fraction of national consumption. So we’re taking on a real, lasting cost to the maritime workforce and industrial base in exchange for a benefit that’s effectively a rounding error. That’s not a close call. The case for waivers just isn’t there once you look at the numbers.

ML: What message do repeated Jones Act waiver discussions send to students who have invested years preparing for careers in the U.S. maritime industry? 

JC: It sends exactly the wrong message. These students didn’t take the easy path—they chose a demanding academic program, rigorous training, and a career that asks a lot of them, because they believe America needs mariners and they answered their country’s call. Every time waivers come up as a routine policy lever, it creates uncertainty and calls that decision into question, signaling that foreign labor is the first option and their training is negotiable.

We need these graduates to hear, clearly and consistently, that the country values what they’ve built and that there’s a career waiting for them—not a policy environment that treats the workforce we asked them to join as expendable. If we want the best students to keep choosing this path, our actions have to match that message.

ML: The industry continues to face workforce challenges across many sectors. How important is the Jones Act in maintaining a pipeline of qualified U.S. mariners and maritime professionals? 

JC: The Jones Act is the reason we have a domestic maritime industry. The Jones Act reserves the U.S. domestic maritime market for American mariners, just like aviation cabotage laws reserve domestic aviation routes for American flight crews. Knowing that this American market exists, no matter what’s going on internationally, is what gives young people a reason to enroll at a maritime academy in the first place. Cadets spend years training, earning licenses, and accumulating sea time because they know there are American vessels that need American crews to operate them. Remove or chip away at that demand signal, and you remove the incentive for the next generation to choose this career path at all.

This isn’t just an economic issue; it’s a national security issue. These American mariners are the same men and women our military relies on to crew the ships that move troops, equipment, and supplies during a crisis. We can’t surge that expertise overnight if we let the workforce atrophy in peacetime. Protecting the Jones Act means protecting the talent pipeline our country will need to call on when it matters most.

ML: Looking ahead, what policy actions or industry initiatives are needed to ensure today’s maritime academy graduates can build long-term careers in the U.S. maritime industry?

JC: The first step is simple: end the Jones Act waiver. That means making clear that domestic cargo moves on American vessels as a matter of law and policy. America First should be the rule, not the exception. Consistency matters here; graduates and the companies that employ them need to know the rules of the road aren’t going to shift every time there’s short-term pressure.

We also need industry and government working together on retention and advancement, in addition to recruitment: competitive pay, clear advancement paths, and support for the licensing and sea-time requirements that turn a new graduate into a senior mariner. We’ve done the hard part of attracting talented young people into this field. Now we owe it to them to continue building an industry that can actually absorb that talent and give them a career, not just a diploma.