Protectionism for the benefit of stateside shipping interests wins out over the rescue-and-rebuild interests of Puerto Rico and its citizenry. And yes, non-Jones ships have already been coming to help in the island’s Hurricane Maria recovery, so forget the claim heard last week that lack of port capacity and the availability of U.S. government vessels makes the law irrelevant. [Scott Shackford, Reason, earlier here and here] And given the Act’s impact on consumers in Hawaii and Alaska, how can it be that all four members of the Hawaii congressional delegation, and two of the three from Alaska, are stalwart backers of the law? [Colin Grabow, Cato] More: Tyler Cowen.

Filed under: Alaska, disasters, free trade, Hawaii