(11) Thus, CBP has created invalid exemptions 
from the prohibition embodied in the Jones Act, 
using a variety of new and old doctrines inconsistent 
with original congressional intent. In 2014, the Su-
preme Court of the United States found in Utility 
Air Regulatory Group. v. Environmental Protection 
Agency (573 U.S. 302, 328) that it is a ‘‘core ad-
ministrative law principle that an agency may not 
rewrite clear statutory terms to suit its own sense of 
how the statute should operate’’. 
(12) These invalid, ultra vires doctrines, and 
their uses, include— 
(A) an unlawfully broad interpretation of 
‘‘vessel equipment’’ which conflicts with Con-
gress’ statutory description of ‘‘merchandise,’’ 
and the explicit, limited statutory exemption; 
(B) the ‘‘paid out not unladen’’ doctrine, 
which provides that pipe or cable laying oper-
ations are not coastwise trade subject to the 
Jones Act—even when the pipe is laid between 
two coastwise points, and in spite of Congress’ 
statutory prohibition against foreign vessels 
performing ‘‘any part of the transportation by 
water’’ of merchandise; 
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(C) the ‘‘paid out not unladen’’ doctrine is 
also used by foreign vessel operators to justify 
the transportation of merchandise attached to 
the paid out pipe or cable; 
(D) the ‘‘lifting operations’’ exemption, 
which purports to permit self-propelled move-
ments by a vessel when using a crane or like 
equipment to install or remove merchandise on 
or from offshore facilities or subsea infrastruc-
ture; 
(E) the ‘‘decommissioning activity’’ exemp-
tion, which purports that merchandise trans-
ported as a result of decommissioning—i.e., the 
restoration of the sea-floor and the water sur-
face by plugging and abandoning the well and 
removing the installation and facility—is not 
subject to the Jones Act; 
(F) 
the 
‘‘offshore 
research 
vessel’’ 
misapplications, which improperly extends the 
exclusion for oceanographic or limnological re-
search vessels to commercial research activities 
that directly support the exploration for, or de-
velopment, production, transportation, or trans-
mission of, resources, on the outer Continental 
Shelf; and 
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(G) the ‘‘pristine seabed’’ exemption, 
where CBP has purported to hold that Outer 
Continental Shelf Lands Act’s explicit applica-
tion to the ‘‘subsoil and seabed’’ of the outer 
Continental Shelf does not include the ‘‘pristine 
seabed’’. 
(13) If a ruling letter is contrary to the stat-
ute’s plain text and the expressed intent of Con-
gress, or found unpersuasive by a Federal court, it 
will be invalidated as arbitrary and capricious. 
(14) Federal courts have not squarely ad-
dressed the interpretations contained in these CBP 
ruling letters and other guidance, and thus have 
never upheld these interpretations as valid and au-
thoritative. 
SEC. 3. PRECLUDING EXEMPTIONS FROM JONES ACT RE-
QUIREMENTS FOR CERTAIN FOREIGN VES-
SELS. 
The Secretary may not provide any exemption from 
the requirements of chapters 121 and 551 of title 46, 
United States Code (commonly referred to as the ‘‘Jones 
Act’’), to the owner of a foreign vessel engaging in com-
mercial transportation services to directly support the ex-
ploration for, or development, production, transportation, 
or transmission of, resources, including non-mineral en-
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ergy resources, from a planning or leasing area designated 
by the Secretary of the Interior under the Outer Conti-
nental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.). 
SEC. 4. OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH VESSELS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—In enforcing chapter 551 of title 
46, United States Code, the Secretary may not determine 
that a vessel engaging in commercial research activities 
to directly support the exploration for, or development, 
production, transportation, or transmission of, resources, 
including non-mineral energy resources, from a planning 
or leasing area designated by the Secretary of the Interior 
under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 
1331 et seq.) is not engaged in trade or commerce under 
such chapter. 
(b) OCEANOGRAPHIC RESEARCH VESSEL CLARIFICA-
TION.—Section 50503 of title 46, United States Code is 
amended by inserting ‘‘, except that any vessel engaging 
in commercial research activities to directly support the 
exploration for, or development, production, transpor-
tation, or transmission of, resources, including non-min-
eral energy resources, from a planning or leasing area des-
ignated by the Secretary of the Interior under the Outer 
Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 1331 et seq.) may 
be determined to be engaged in trade or commerce under 
this section’’ after ‘‘trade or commerce’’. 
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(c) DESIGNATION.—The Commandant of the Coast 
Guard shall deny any request from a foreign vessel to be 
designated as an oceanographic research vessel for any 
such vessel engaging in commercial research activities to 
directly support the exploration for, or development, pro-
duction, transportation, or transmission of, resources, in-
cluding non-mineral energy resources, from a planning or 
leasing area designated by the Secretary of the Interior 
under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 
1331 et seq.). 
(d) REVOCATION
OR MODIFICATION
OF CERTAIN 
RULING LETTERS.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall revoke 
or modify, as appropriate, the following head-
quarters ruling letters: 
(A) HQ H216579 (May 15, 2012). 
(B) HQ H205655 (March 20, 2012). 
(C) HQ 112830 (August 12, 1993). 
(D) HQ 110364 (September 29, 1989). 
(2) 
SUBSTANTIALLY
IDENTICAL 
TRANSATCIONS.—The Secretary shall revoke or mod-
ify, as appropriate, any treatments, including ruling 
letters, accorded by the Secretary to transactions 
that are substantially identical to the transactions 
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