{"id":53334,"date":"2025-01-13T21:26:22","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T02:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=53334"},"modified":"2025-01-13T21:27:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T02:27:59","slug":"republicans-introduce-bill-authorizing-trump-to-buy-the-panama-canal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/01\/13\/republicans-introduce-bill-authorizing-trump-to-buy-the-panama-canal\/","title":{"rendered":"Republicans introduce bill authorizing Trump to buy the Panama Canal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A group of House Republicans introduced a bill to authorize the purchase of the&nbsp;Panama Canal&nbsp;. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., and more than a dozen of his colleagues brought it forward after President-elect Donald Trump expressed interest in bringing the canal back under American ownership for national security and economic reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" data-dominant-color=\"3f5648\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" style=\"--dominant-color: #3f5648;\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1110px) 100vw, 1110px\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/panama-canal-aerial-2-from-vanessa.webp?resize=780%2C439&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-53335 not-transparent\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/panama-canal-aerial-2-from-vanessa.webp?w=780&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/panama-canal-aerial-2-from-vanessa.webp?resize=300%2C169&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/panama-canal-aerial-2-from-vanessa.webp?resize=768%2C432&amp;ssl=1 768w\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Johnson said Trump is right to consider repurchasing the Panama Canal. The People\u2019s Republic of China has made significant investments in canal infrastructure, and Chinese companies have managing rights for two ports on either side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cChina\u2019s interest in and presence around the canal is a cause for concern. America must project strength abroad \u2013 owning and operating the Panama Canal might be an important step towards a stronger America and a more secure globe,\u201d Johnson said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">History of the Panama Canal<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The canal opened in 1914 after the United States spent a decade building it. Ships can pass through the canal in eight to ten hours, saving them an 8,000-mile journey around South America\u2019s Drake Passage, which is one of the roughest and most dangerous crossings in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than&nbsp;10,000 ships&nbsp;use the canal annually, including U.S. Coast Guard and military vessels. According to the State Department, 72% of the ships that pass through are either coming from or going to a U.S. port.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of the largest ships&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/21\/business\/panama-canal-water-revenue.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to transit&nbsp;<\/a>. Those tolls generate billions of dollars in yearly revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1903, the U.S. gained permanent rights to the Panama Canal Zone when former President Theodore Roosevelt signed a treaty with newly independent&nbsp;Panama. The canal cost&nbsp;$375 million&nbsp;to build, which was the nation&#8217;s most expensive construction project at the time. Former President Jimmy Carter gave Panama&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/history.state.gov\/milestones\/1977-1980\/panama-canal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">control of the canal in 1978&nbsp;<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A group of House Republicans introduced a bill to authorize the purchase of the&nbsp;Panama Canal&nbsp;. Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., and more than a dozen of his colleagues brought it forward&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"15","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDFcL3BhbmFtYS1jYW5hbC1hZXJpYWwtMi1mcm9tLXZhbmVzc2Eud2VicD9maXQ9NzgwJTJDNDM5JnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiUmVwdWJsaWNhbnMgaW50cm9kdWNlIGJpbGwgYXV0aG9yaXppbmcgVHJ1bXAgdG8gYnV5IHRoZSBQYW5hbWEgQ2FuYWwiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImhpZ2h3YXkiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.NkQNlQGvHEiLUZ48ywgZUok9gIbgG19AUhn7WZ38JJQMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":53335,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/panama-canal-aerial-2-from-vanessa.webp","type":"image\/webp"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[10753],"class_list":["post-53334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-republicans-introduce-bill-authorizing-trump-to-buy-panama-canal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53334"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53337,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53334\/revisions\/53337"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}