H.R. 7900

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7900 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7900

To establish a process for waiver of coastwise endorsement 
requirements.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

March 12, 2026

Mr. Cline introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To establish a process for waiver of coastwise endorsement 
requirements.

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 ``Protecting Access to American 
Products Act''.

SEC. 2. WAIVER OF COASTWISE ENDORSEMENT REQUIREMENTS.

Section 12112 of title 46, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following:
``(c) Waivers in Cases of Product Carrier Scarcity or 
Unavailability.--
``(1) In general.--The head of an agency shall, upon 
request, temporarily waive the requirements of subsection (a), 
including the requirement to satisfy section 12103, if the 
person requesting that waiver reasonably demonstrates to the 
head of an agency that--
``(A) there is no product carrier, with respect to 
a specified good, that meets such requirements and is 
available to carry such good; and
``(B) the person made a good faith effort to locate 
a product carrier described in subparagraph (A).
``(2) Duration.--Any waiver issued under paragraph (1) 
shall be limited in duration, and shall expire by a specified 
date that is not less than 30 days after the date on which the 
waiver is issued.
``(3) Extension.--Upon request, if the circumstances under 
which a waiver was issued under paragraph (1) have not 
substantially changed, the head of an agency shall, without 
delay, grant one or more extensions to a waiver issued under 
paragraph (1), for periods of not less than 15 days each.
``(4) Deadline for waiver response.--
``(A) Response deadline.--Not later than 60 days 
after receiving a request for a waiver under paragraph 
(1), the head of an agency shall approve or deny such 
request.
``(B) Findings in support of denied waiver.--If the 
head of an agency denies such a request, the head of an 
agency shall, not later than 14 days after denying the 
request, submit to the requester a report that includes 
the findings that served as the basis for denying the 
request.
``(C) Request deemed granted.--If the head of an 
agency has neither granted nor denied the request 
before the response deadline described in subparagraph 
(A), the request shall be deemed granted on the date 
that is 61 days after the date on which the head of an 
agency received the request. A waiver that is deemed 
granted under this subparagraph shall be valid for a 
period of 30 days.
``(5) Notice to congress.--
``(A) In general.--The head of an agency shall 
notify Congress--
``(i) of any request for a temporary waiver 
under this subsection, not later than 48 hours 
after receiving such request; and
``(ii) of the issuance of any such waiver, 
not later than 48 hours after such issuance.
``(B) Contents.--The head of an agency shall 
include in each notification under subparagraph (A)(ii) 
a detailed explanation of the reasons the waiver is 
necessary.
``(6) Definitions.--In this subsection:
``(A) Product carrier.--The term `product carrier', 
with respect to a good, means a vessel constructed or 
adapted primarily to carry such good in bulk in the 
cargo spaces.
``(B) Head of an agency.--The term `head of an 
agency' means the head of an agency responsible for the 
administration of the navigation or vessel inspection 
laws, or an individual of such an agency delegated such 
responsibility.''.
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