Jones Act? OT

Reuters reported today that Bush has temporarily suspended The Jones
Act to enable foreign tankers to deliver oil to the US during the next
short while. I have never heard of this act, not suprisingly.

My google research tells me that it is purpose is to ensure that any
interstate shipping is done by US vessels. The motivation behind it is
to ensure that vessels in US waters meet US safety standards, as many
(one site said 'most') foreign vessels do not meet our safety or
environmental standards. It also protects jobs among the US Merchant
Marine.

My question is: there must be a solid reason for doing suspending it.
Possibly that our shipping ability in regions beyond the Gulf of Mexico
are also hindered, or that we don't have the capacity to deal with the
volume of oil that we are about to import. Or that the process might
involve something like foreign vessels having to offload their oil at
offshore pipelines, or onto US vessels, which takes too long and adds
too much time lag to getting that oil into the system.

Can anyone tell me more about the Jones Act, why it has been suspended,
and the benefit that this will have? I don't know much about this, and
am curious. I always get enlightenment from the conversations around
here about economics, Petrodollars, etc.

--riverman