The White House announced that it will be waiving the Jones Act as the island of Puerto Rico continues to suffer from the devastation left by Hurricane Maria.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted Thursday morning that the act would be waived and “go into effect immediately.”

The Department of Homeland Security was under pressure from members of Congress to waive the Jones Act, a law that dates back to 1920 in order to speed up the shipment of goods and commodities to Puerto Rico as it deals with a humanitarian crisis after Hurricane Maria.

The Jones Act requires that all goods shipped between U.S. ports be carried by ships built by Americans and operated by Americans. Under the law, foreign vessels that enter Puerto Rico are subject to taxes, fees and tariffs.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, sent a similar letter to Acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke on Tuesday urging that the law be waived and arguing that it should ultimately be repealed. McCain said that the emergency waivers are valuable in speeding up recovery efforts.

“I am very concerned by the Department’s decision not to waive the Jones Act for current relief efforts in Puerto Rico, which is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis following Hurricane Maria,” he wrote. “It is unacceptable to force the people of Puerto Rico to pay at least twice as much for food, clean drinking water, supplies and infrastructure due to Jones Act requirements as they work to recover from this disaster.”

Senior DHS officials said Wednesday that the department has not received any formal requests to waive the Jones Act, although they acknowledged receiving the request from the group of House lawmakers. They claimed they hadn’t received any from senators despite McCain’s letter. These officials also stressed that the Jones Act is not interfering with the Defense Department’s and FEMA’s efforts to get goods and commodities to the island. They said the challenge is moving those things around Puerto Rico.

On Thursday morning, Florida Senator Marco Rubio urged the federal government to waive the act, tweeting the same had been done for “every major storm since #Katrina.”