---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 56310"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "56310"
heading: "Voluntary purchase or charter agreements"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/56310"
units:
  - "Subtitle V — Merchant Marine"
  - "Part E — Control of Merchant Marine Capabilities"
  - "Chapter 563 — Emergency Acquisition of Vessels"
---

# §56310. Voluntary purchase or charter agreements


During any period in which [vessels](/usc/46/53501.md?p=9) may be requisitioned under this chapter as amended,[^1] the President is authorized through the [Secretary](/usc/46/53101.md?p=8) of Transportation to acquire by voluntary [agreement](/usc/46/53201.md?p=8) of purchase or charter the ownership or use of any merchant [vessel](/usc/46/53501.md?p=9) not owned by citizens of the [United States](/usc/46/53101.md?p=10).


## Footnotes

[^1]: So in original.

## Source credit

(Added and amended Pub. L. 115–91, div. C, title XXXV, § 3504(b), Dec. 12, 2017, 131 Stat. 1912.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section, as added and amended by section 3504(b) of Pub. L. 115–91, is based on act Aug. 9, 1954, ch. 659, § 2, 68 Stat. 675; Pub. L. 97–31, § 12(152), Aug. 6, 1981, 95 Stat. 167, which was formerly classified to section 197 of Title 50, War and National Defense, before being transferred to this chapter and renumbered as this section.

### Amendments

2017—Pub. L. 115–91, § 3504(b)(2), inserted section enumerator and catchline and, in text, substituted “this chapter” for “section 902 of the Merchant Marine Act, 1936,”.

Pub. L. 115–91, § 3504(b)(1), transferred section 2 of act Aug. 9, 1954, to this chapter and renumbered it as this section. See Codification note above.