Jones Act waiver extended for another 90 days, but with tighter rules

"Data shows the waiver has driven a significant increase in domestic deliveries of essential products such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel," Rogers said in a post on social media.

Under the new terms, the administration has narrowed the scope of the relief, requiring individual voyages to undergo case-by-case review rather than allowing foreign ships to receive blanket exemptions from the Jones Act, a White House official confirmed.

The Jones Act requires cargo moving between US ports to be carried on ships built in the US, owned by US companies and crewed by American workers, and the waiver aims to lower gas prices by increasing shipping flexibility and reducing transport bottlenecks.

The waiver was set to expire on August 16 without the extension. It is the longest suspension of the more than a century-old law in its history.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, editing by Michelle Nichols and Deepa Babington)