US cruise bill introduced

REPUBLICAN Senators in the United States have introduced legislation which would overrule the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC) conditional sailing order (CSO), and allow cruising to restart by Jul.

Alaska’s Dan Sullivan (pictured) and Florida’s Marco Rubio & Rick Scott introduced the Careful Resumption Under Improved Safety Enhancements (CRUISE) Act on Tue, which aims to override the CDC’s restrictions.

The legislation would revoke the agency’s current order and “require the CDC to provide COVID-19 mitigation guidance for cruise lines to resume safe domestic operations,” according to the announcement.

The legislation sets 04 Jul as the date by which a new interagency group should create recommendations for resuming cruise operations, while unilaterally requiring the CDC to revoke its restrictions.

“Unlike the airlines, rail and other modes of transportation - and all other sectors of the hospitality industry for that matter - the cruise lines have been denied clear direction from the CDC on how to resume operations,” Sullivan said.

He said that “foot-dragging, mixed messages, and unresponsiveness of CDC leaders” is impacting the lives of Americans who are tied to the industry, including those residing in his state of Alaska, where cruising is facing additional challenges due to Canada’s ban on the industry into next year.

The CDC’s CSO is meant to provide guidance that will lead to ships sailing again, but is yet to provide a clear timeline for when cruising can resume.

Earlier this month, the CDC issued additional technical guidance, but offered no concrete timeline to signal when cruising could resume, after the industry pushed it to drop the “outdated” CSO last month.

The Governors of both Alaska and Florida, Mike Dunleavy and Ron DeSantis respectively, have threatened to sue the federal government of the United States if the CDC doesn’t allow cruising to resume by the northern summer yesterday).