Congress mandates U.S. ships for all federal cargo—raising costs for taxpayers.
H.R. 2035 — American Cargo for American Ships Act · Filed by Salud Carbajal (D-CA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Mar 11, 2025 · Passed chamber
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What it does
This bill amends federal maritime law to require the Department of Transportation to ensure that 100% of cargo it procures, finances, or arranges be transported on privately-owned U.S. commercial vessels, provided those vessels are available at fair and reasonable rates. The requirement applies separately to dry bulk carriers, dry cargo liners, and tankers, and aims to guarantee U.S. shipping companies a fair share of government-financed cargo by geographic region.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a direct mandate requiring government-financed cargo to move exclusively on U.S. private vessels. This is a classic protectionist measure designed to shield a domestic industry (U.S. maritime shipping) from foreign competition by leveraging government procurement power.
What the text implies
- DOT projects (infrastructure, disaster relief, equipment transport) may face delays if U.S. vessel capacity is insufficient or rates exceed fair-market levels, creating a potential bottleneck in federal logistics.
- The 'fair and reasonable rates' standard is undefined and may become a litigation flashpoint between DOT, shipping companies, and project sponsors over what constitutes compliance.
- Separate tonnage calculations for dry bulk, dry cargo liners, and tankers create administrative complexity and may allow carriers to game the system by reclassifying cargo types.
- The geographic-fairness requirement ('by geographic areas') is vague and may lead to disputes over how DOT allocates cargo among competing U.S. carriers in different regions.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill protects U.S. maritime jobs and domestic shipping capacity, which benefits workers and communities dependent on shipping. However, it may increase costs for DOT-financed projects (roads, bridges, ports) by restricting carrier choice, potentially raising taxpayer expenses and slowing project timelines if U.S. vessels are unavailable or more expensive.
Who stands to gain
- U.S. maritime shipping companies (privately-owned commercial vessel operators)
- U.S. shipping workers and port labor unions
- Domestic shipbuilding and vessel maintenance contractors
Named in the bill
Department of Transportation (DOT), Secretary of Transportation, U.S. maritime shipping industry, 46 USC 55305 (existing maritime law), Privately-owned commercial vessels of the United States
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Mar 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 11, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure”
- Apr 2, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Apr 2, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported by Voice Vote”
- Jun 9, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 373 - 14…”
- Jun 9, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Ezell moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $80,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 10 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Salud Carbajal, the sponsor, reported $631,982 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Seafarers International Union of N.a. - Agliw — $80,000 on 1 filing
- Chamber of Shipping of America — $0 on 3 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,561 characters) on Apr 4, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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