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To adjust certain ownership and other requirements for passenger vessels, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill repeals the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886 and adjusts Jones Act requirements to remove restrictions on passenger vessels operating between U.S. ports. The bill exempts passenger vessels from requirements to be U.S.-owned, U.S.-built, and U.S.-crewed when transporting passengers between ports in the United States, whether directly or via a foreign port. This allows foreign-owned and foreign-built vessels to operate passenger services in domestic U.S. waters. The bill also exempts these passenger vessels from citizenship and Navy Reserve requirements that apply to other vessels in domestic trade.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Sen. Lee, Mike [R-UT] (R-UT)
Actions (2)
- Jul 30, 2025 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. · senate
- Jul 30, 2025 Introduced in Senate
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 30, 2025
Mr. Lee introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To adjust certain ownership and other requirements for passenger vessels, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Open America’s Ports Act”.
SEC. 2. REPEAL OF PVSA AND ADJUSTMENT OF JONES ACT REQUIREMENTS FOR PASSENGER VESSELS.
(a) Repeal of PVSA Domestic Requirements.—Section 55103 of title 46, United States Code (commonly referred to as the “Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886”), is repealed.
(b) Adjustment of Jones Act Requirements.—Chapter 121 of title 46, United States Code, is amended—
(1) in section 12103, by adding at the end the following:
“(d) Nonapplicability.—The requirements of this section shall not apply to any vessel that transports passengers between ports or places in the United States to which the coastwise laws apply, either directly or via a foreign port.”;
(2) in section 12112(a)—
(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting “except in the case of a vessel described in subparagraph (C) of paragraph (2),” before “satisfies”; and
(B) in paragraph (2)—
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking “or” after the semicolon;
(ii) in subparagraph (B)(iii), by striking “; and” and inserting “; or”; and
(iii) by adding at the end the following:
“(C) transports passengers between ports or places in the United States to which the coastwise laws apply, either directly or via a foreign port; and”; and
(3) in section 12121(b), by striking “55102, and 55103” and inserting “and 55102”.
(c) Adjustment of Citizenship and Navy Reserve Requirements.— Section 8103(k) of title 46, United States Code, is amended to read as follows:
“(k) Exemption for Passenger Vessels.—Subsections (a) and (b) shall not apply to any vessel that transports passengers between ports or places in the United States to which the coastwise laws apply, either directly or via a foreign port.”.
(d) Conforming Amendments.—
(1) In general.—Chapter 551 of title 46, United States Code, is amended—
(A) by repealing section 55104; and
(B) in section 55121—
(i) in the section heading, by striking “and passengers”;
(ii) by striking subsection (a);
(iii) by striking “(b)” and all that follows through “States.—”; and
(iv) by striking “sections 55102 and 55103 of this title do” and inserting “section 55102 of this title does”.
(2) Additional conforming amendment.—Section 11504(f) of the James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (Public Law 117-263) is amended by striking “55103,”.
(3) Clerical amendment.—The table of sections for chapter 551 of title 46, United States Code, is amended by striking the items relating to sections 55103 and 55104.
SEC. 3. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.
Nothing in the amendments made by this Act shall be construed to exempt a vessel that transports passengers between ports or places in the United States to which the coastwise laws apply, either directly or via a foreign port, from any applicable law of the United States except as explicitly provided in such amendments. <all>
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