Texas Built Its Economy on the Water. Washington Wants to Hand It Away.

If you’ve ever pumped gas in Galveston, eaten food shipped through Houston, or worked a job tied to the Port of Beaumont, the Port Arthur, or any of the other maritime hubs along our coast — you have the Jones Act to thank.

The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 isn’t just old legislation gathering dust in a federal archive. It is, right now, the legal spine that keeps Texas maritime commerce in American hands. And in March 2026, the federal government quietly moved to gut it.

Here’s what just happened — and why every Texan should be paying attention.

$713 Billion. 2.5 Million Jobs. All of It at Risk. According to the Texas Ports Association’s most recent economic impact study, Texas ports generate $713.9 billion in economic activity — accounting for 28% of the entire state’s GDP. They support 2.5 million jobs across all 254 Texas counties, not just the ones that touch water. The average maritime worker earns over $81,000 a year, and port activity generates $17.1 billion in state and local taxes annually.

That’s not a coastal industry. That’s the Texas economy.

The Jones Act is a critical part of why that system works. By requiring that goods moving between U.S. ports travel on American-built, American-owned, American-crewed vessels, the law keeps those wages, those tax dollars, and those careers on Texas soil — not funneled to foreign shipping conglomerates with no stake in our communities.

The Waiver Nobody Asked For

In March 2026, a Jones Act waiver was issued — ostensibly in response to the Strait of Hormuz disruption. Emergency waiver authority exists, and that authority is legitimate. What is not legitimate is what came next: a 659-category blanket waiver covering industrial materials with no apparent connection to a Persian Gulf energy crisis, extended through mid-August 2026, with no public accounting submitted to the congressional subcommittee responsible for oversight.

659 categories. No justification. No transparency.

The products covered by this waiver move through Gulf Coast routes every single day. Right now, those routes could be handed to foreign-flagged vessels that have no place in domestic trade under normal law — undercutting the American crews, the Gulf Coast shipyards, and the maritime careers that Texas depends on.

This isn’t a hypothetical risk. It is happening.

This Is Personal for Us Here in Houston and Galveston

The people this waiver hurts aren’t abstractions on a federal spreadsheet. They’re your neighbors. They’re deckhands, tankermen, longshoremen, port dispatchers, and maritime instructors. They’re workers building careers right here along the Gulf Coast — careers that were supposed to be protected by federal law.

One Galveston resident currently training for a Tank Vessel-PIC endorsement put it plainly in a letter to The Waterways Journal: “The Jones Act waiver issued in March 2026 is not an abstraction to me. It is a direct threat to the career path I am building and to the Gulf Coast maritime community I intend to serve.” That’s Texas. That’s what we stand to lose.

What You Can Do Right Now

A citizen petition has been launched demanding three things: congressional subcommittee oversight, a line-by-line public justification for the waiver’s scope, and opposition to the Open America’s Waters Act before it advances further.

This is how citizens hold Washington accountable. It takes 60 seconds.

👉 Sign and share the petition:

https://change.org/SaveJonesAct

Every signature puts pressure on the lawmakers who have jurisdiction over this law. Every share reaches someone else who doesn’t yet know their livelihood is on the line.

Texas didn’t build the most productive port system in America by letting Washington make quiet deals behind closed doors. Don’t let it start now.

Every Bit Texas covers the history, economy, and community stories of the Lone Star State. Share this post to get the word out — and sign the petition before the August deadline.