I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7081 
To establish a process for waiver of coastwise endorsement requirements. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY 25, 2024 
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 Representa-
tives 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 REQUIRE-
MENTS. 
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.— 
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‘‘(1) IN
GENERAL.—The head of an agency 
shall, upon request, temporarily waive the require-
ments 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 re-
spect to a specified good, that meets such re-
quirements and is available to carry such good; 
and 
‘‘(B) the person made a good faith effort 
to locate a product carrier described in sub-
paragraph (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 cir-
cumstances 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.— 
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‘‘(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 find-
ings that served as the basis for denying the re-
quest. 
‘‘(C) REQUEST DEEMED GRANTED.—If the 
head of an agency has neither granted nor de-
nied 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 agen-
cy shall notify Congress— 
‘‘(i) of any request for a temporary 
waiver under this subsection, not later 
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than 48 hours after receiving such request; 
and 
‘‘(ii) of the issuance of any such waiv-
er, not later than 48 hours after such 
issuance. 
‘‘(B) CONTENTS.—The head of an agency 
shall include in each notification under subpara-
graph (A)(ii) a detailed explanation of the rea-
sons the waiver is necessary. 
‘‘(6) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 
‘‘(A) PRODUCT CARRIER.—The term ‘prod-
uct 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 agen-
cy responsible for the administration of the 
navigation or vessel inspection laws, or an indi-
vidual of such an agency delegated such respon-
sibility.’’. 
Æ 
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