Impact & Annual Reports

AWO delivers consistent, results-driven advocacy across Congress, federal agencies, and state and local governments to protect maritime commerce and improve operational certainty.

• Led the American Maritime Partnership to strengthen and leverage support for the Jones Act in the Trump Administration and Congress.
• Secured enactment of Coast Guard authorization act that addresses key member concerns on harassment reporting.
• Secured enactment of legislation to establish Atlantic Coast safe navigation fairways.
• Secured enactment of a Hudson River anchorage compromise that preserves navigation safety.
• Through AMP, intervened in a Constitutional challenge to the Jones Act to bolster the federal government’s defense of the law.
• Secured Coast Guard agreement to revise policy to authorize reduced engine room crewing for ATBs with automation endorsements.
• Created prioritized deregulatory action agenda and advocated with the Trump Administration and Coast Guard for regulatory and policy changes.
• Worked with Coast Guard to maintain member access to essential services during record federal government shutdown.
• Secured changes to Coast Guard cybersecurity regulations that allow AWO to support member compliance through the AWO Alternative Security Program.
• Secured restoration of the Coast Guard’s online mariner credential application status and verification tools.
• Pressed for continued improvement of the Coast Guard’s mariner credentialing program, with the award of a $50 million contract for system modernization.
• Secured updated Coast Guard guidance to reduce errors in crediting mariners working 12-hour days that delay credential processing.
• Led coalition urging the Administration to promptly publish Coast Guard VIDA implementation rulemaking and secured DHS commitment to prioritize it.
• Joined American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers’ legal challenge to EPA’s waiver of the California Commercial Harbor Craft Rule, maximizing an opportunity to pursue judicial relief at low cost to members.
• Joined industry coalition urging the Trump Administration to consider unintended consequences of its Chinese ship fee proposal and minimize supply chain disruptions in trade negotiations.
• Secured seats on OCIMF working groups to provide industry input in the SIRE and TMSA programs.
• Secured Coast Guard policy allowing vessel operators to leverage third parties for underwater survey in lieu of drydock to reduce costs and regulatory burdens.
• Secured greater operational flexibility for vessel operators whose ballast water treatment systems are not performing as designed in freshwater.
• Advanced Coast Guard/NTSB rulemaking to raise monetary threshold for major marine casualties.
• Secured Coast Guard commitment to provide greater flexibility in vessel inspection scheduling.
• With coalition partners, urged Department of Health and Human Services to speed approval of labs to conduct oral fluid drug testing.
• Advocated for stronger Coast Guard enforcement of bridge regulations and challenged unsafe remote bridge operation proposals.
• Established a program to track and influence bridge owners’ response plans after NTSB identified 68 bridges at risk for collapse from a vessel strike.
• Founded the Safe Vessel Access Coalition to improve safety at terminal barge docks.
• Activated working group to update best practices to mitigate benzene emissions and address air monitoring challenges at facilities.
• Engaged with the Department of Energy to ensure research on alternative maritime fuels reflects our industry’s needs.
• Established relationships with new Department of Transportation and MARAD leadership to make AWO the leading voice for our industry with the Trump Administration.
• Joined MARAD’s Center for Maritime Innovation and led Inland Waterways Working Group to guide projects and opportunities for our industry’s benefit.
• Advocated with the Corps of Engineers for Regional Dredge Pilot Program guidance to minimize waterway closures and reduce operational disruptions.
• Worked with industry coalition to repeal Missouri's mandatory paid leave program that posed special challenges for vessel work schedules.
• Grew momentum for exempting mariners from the Illinois paid leave law by securing a legislative sponsor and overcoming stakeholder opposition.
• Secured Coast Guard determination that certain Great Lakes voyages do not require a pilot, saving members $17,000 per voyage.
• Advocated for a collaborative approach to aids to navigation management and stopped the Coast Guard’s Coastal Buoy Modernization Project from progressing without industry input.
• Through coalition efforts, defeated anti-Jones Act legislation in Alaska and weakened legislation in New Hampshire.
• Promoted science- and technology-based strategies to defeat blanket operational restrictions like the North Atlantic Right Whale Vessel Speed Rule.
• Secured lifting of new tug escort requirements in Puerto Rico that would have adversely affected port safety, efficiency, and competition.
• Secured Coast Guard commitment to better communication on stowaway risks to members operating in the Caribbean.
• Joined the Louisiana Maritime Academy Board to represent inland operators in curriculum development.
• Defeated proposed Washington state taxes that would have cost individual members an estimated $500,000.
• Initiated a strategy to improve collaboration with California regulators and support compliance with the Commercial Harbor Craft emissions rule.
• Supported successful coalition effort to defeat a California emissions rule that would have suspended operations at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
• Supported successful effort to overturn a housing ordinance that threatened maritime industrial lands in Seattle.
• Organized the largest Congressional Barge-In this decade and state Barge-Ins and maritime days in Maryland, New York, and Washington.
• Through AWO PAC, delivered $325,000 in political impact and supported 50 Members of Congress.

AWO amplifies the industry’s story through coordinated public affairs, media engagement, and coalition leadership.

• Produced over 80 media and public affairs appearances to raise the industry's profile and advance AWO priorities, including:
  • Raising public awareness and support for the Jones Act in Washington, DC, Alaska, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Iowa.
  • Generating media coverage of safety and supply chain concerns created by California's Commercial Harbor Craft Rule.
  • Highlighting our industry's role in responding to the Baltimore Key Bridge collapse in a CBS News story on the anniversary of the accident.
  • OpEds and interviews highlighting workforce priorities including mariner safety and credentialing reform.
• Reinforced positive public awareness of the Jones Act by sponsoring a cable ad in the DC media market during Barge-In week.
• Produced a video educating policymakers and the public on industry’s importance to U.S. national security.
• Strengthened relationships with the Trump Administration and Congress through public statements of support for American maritime initiatives.
• Raised awareness of falls overboard prevention efforts through media coverage and social media amplification.
• Strengthened coalition relationships and advanced AWO priorities through national and international speaking engagements.