---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 57302"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "57302"
heading: "Authority to acquire vessels"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/57302"
units:
  - "Subtitle V — Merchant Marine"
  - "Part F — Government-Owned Merchant Vessels"
  - "Chapter 573 — Vessel Trade-In Program"
---

# §57302. Authority to acquire vessels


To promote the [construction](/usc/46/53701.md?p=3) of new, safe, and efficient [vessels](/usc/46/53501.md?p=9) to carry the domestic and foreign waterborne commerce of the [United States](/usc/46/53101.md?p=10), the [Secretary](/usc/46/53101.md?p=8) of Transportation may acquire an [obsolete vessel](/usc/46/57301.md?p=2) in exchange for an allowance of credit toward the cost of [construction](/usc/46/53701.md?p=3) or purchase of a [new vessel](/usc/46/53301.md?p=a-2) as provided in this chapter.


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 109–304, § 8(c), Oct. 6, 2006, 120 Stat. 1662.)

## Notes

| Historical and Revision Notes |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Revised<br>Section | Source (U.S. Code) | Source (Statutes at Large) |
| 57302 | 46 App.:1160(b) (1st, last sentences). | June 29, 1936, ch. 858, title V, § 510(b) (1st, last sentences), as added Aug. 4, 1939, ch. 417, § 7, 53 Stat. 1184; Pub. L. 87–401, subdiv. (1), Oct. 5, 1961, 75 Stat. 833; Pub. L. 91–469, § 35(a), Oct. 21, 1970, 84 Stat. 1035; Pub. L. 97–31, § 12(91), Aug. 6, 1981, 95 Stat. 161. |

The words “toward the cost of construction or purchase of a new vessel” are added for clarity. The text of 46 App. U.S.C. 1160(b) (last sentence) is omitted as obsolete.