Senate Bill Calls for CDC to Repeal Conditional Sailing Order, Restart Cruising by July

New legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate today aims to rescind the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) current Conditional Sailing Order (CSO) for cruise ships and compel the CDC to provide COVID-19 mitigation guidance for commercial cruise lines so that they may resume domestic operations. It’s been more than a year since cruising was halted in March 2020 due to the erupting pandemic.

Entitled the ‘Careful Resumption Under Improved Safety Enhancements (CRUISE) Act’, this bill was introduced by Florida Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, and Dan Sullivan of Alaska. Congresswoman María Elvira Salazar is leading this legislation in the House of Representatives, Senator Scott’s office announced in a statement.

This news arrives just days after Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis declared that he would be filing a lawsuit against U.S. President Joe Biden’s Administration, the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over what he called the “unlawful” shutdown of the cruise industry.

The proposed CRUISE Act demands that the CDC revoke its CSO by July 4, as well as, “any other order or regulation that prohibits the operation of all cruise ships in United States waters.” The bill would require the CDC to issue recommendations on, “how to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 introduction, transmission and spread among passengers and crew onboard cruise ships and ashore to communities,” by June 1.

The legislation also calls for the establishment of an interagency “Working Group”, tasked with developing recommendations for facilitating the restart of cruise ship operations in the U.S. by July. According to President Biden’s forecasts that the COVID-19 vaccine should become available to all Americans by May, July would seem a reasonable starting point.

Today, the first hearing of the newly formed Senate Subcommittee on Tourism, Trade and Export Promotion heard from travel industry executives who advocated for passage of the bill, and who also requested a roadmap for restarting travel in general.

“We really believe no sector of the travel industry should be unable to reopen,” said Tori Barnes, executive vice president of public affairs and policy for the U.S. Travel Association. She pointed out that, in a normal year, cruise ships carry about 13 million travelers into U.S. ports, and that one job is created for every 30 passengers. “That’s a significant contribution to the U.S. economy. We need there to be clear guidelines so we can reopen [cruising] again this summer,” she said.

Senator Scott rebuked the CDC’s prolonged inaction, saying, “The CDC’s refusal to properly address this shutdown is wrong, and it’s time to get the cruise lines open safely. Our bill, the CRUISE Act, says we’re not waiting on the CDC any longer. Cruises can and should resume, and we’re going to do everything we can to bring back our cruise industry safely.”

According to Travel Weekly, the bill claims that the cruise industry is the only segment of the U.S. economy that is, “completely prohibited from operations by the CDC due to COVID-19. For every other sector of the economy, CDC provides recommendations for how to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 without issuing orders to prohibit operations.”

“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. As a result, potential cruises this summer, when the President said the country will be able to return to normal with more and more Americans getting vaccinated, have been left adrift,” Senator Sullivan said.

He continued, “The foot-dragging, mixed messages, and unresponsiveness of CDC leaders is totally unacceptable and ultimately endangering the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of Americans, and the hundreds of small businesses across Alaska that rely on the tourism sector. My legislation with Senators Scott and Rubio will accomplish what letters, meetings, and repeated phone calls have not—directing the CDC to finally codify timely guidance and a plan for cruise ships to safely and responsibly welcome passengers again this summer.”