Protecting Access to American Products Act

This bill amends U.S. maritime law to create a process for temporarily waiving coastwise endorsement requirements for vessels carrying goods in bulk when suitable U.S.-flagged product carriers are unavailable.

Sec. 2, Waiver of coastwise endorsement requirements: The bill adds a new subsection to existing law allowing an agency head to temporarily waive the requirement that a vessel have a coastwise endorsement if a person shows there is no available product carrier for a specified good and that they made a good faith effort to find one. Any waiver lasts at least 30 days and can be extended for at least 15 days if circumstances haven't changed. The agency head must approve or deny a waiver request within 60 days; if denied, they must provide a report with findings within 14 days. If no decision is made within 60 days, the request is automatically granted for 30 days. The agency head must notify Congress within 48 hours of receiving a request and within 48 hours of issuing a waiver, including a detailed explanation for the waiver. A 'product carrier' is defined as a vessel built or adapted to carry a good in bulk, and 'head of an agency' refers to the official responsible for navigation or vessel inspection laws.