This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, July 1st, 2021. I'm Caleb Brown.

Laws on the books tend to stay on the books until acted upon from an outside force such as the inertia of the Jones. the detecting domestic shipbuilders at the expense of everyone else.

Republican U.S. Senator Mike Lee is hoping to get rid of it.

I spoke with Senator Lee and Cato's Colin Grabo last week.

I became aware of the Jones Act, I don't know, maybe eight or nine years ago, when I was

visiting with some people who identified the problem, described what it does.

I believe the first people to raise it with me

were with the Grassroots Institute of Hawaii

who were explaining to me that people in Hawaii end up paying an enormous amount of

money every year as a result of the Jones Act.

Everything they buy becomes more expensive.

I think by some estimates,

the average Hawaiian family incurs

about $1,800 a year in Jones Act compliance related costs. This is a very significant

expense and it's one that disproportionately harms poor and middle class families

in Hawaii and in other coastal regions of the United States

including parts of Alaska, New England, and Puerto Rico.

So one of these things where once you learn about it, you can go a long time

without ever having heard of the Jones Act. Once you hear about it, you start to hear it echoing in a lot of discussions and I find it troubling, particularly because I can't find a way for the life of me to defend the Jones Act on policy grounds.

All right, so Colin, we have not seen much progress on constraining or eliminating the Jones Act.

What does it mean that we now have legislation introduced to get rid of it?

Well I think as you said, repealing this law is an incredibly difficult task, but I think

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