The state of Florida is suing the Biden administration to reopen the cruise industry “立即” and allow cruises to “resume safely,” Florida’s governor and attorney general announced Thursday.
“We don’t believe the federal government has the right to mothball a major industry for over a year based on very little evidence and very little data. And I think we have a good chance for success,” 共和党政府. Ron DeSantis said during a news conference at the Port of Miami.
The suit was filed Thursday morning against the Biden administration, the Health and Human Services Department and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 根据 to Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody. CNN has reached out to Moody’s office about the lawsuit.
Florida’s lawsuit comes as the US cruise ship industry is putting pressure on the CDC to resume cruising now that more and more Americans are getting vaccinated and the industry has resumed in other major cruise markets globally.
Florida’s lawsuit demands that “the court find that this effective no-sail order is unlawful and allow our cruises to resume safely,” Moody said Thursday, adding that Florida is “not going to sit back while an administrative agency decides to shut down an entire industry.”
CNN has reached out to CDC and HHS for comment.
At the start of pandemic last March, the CDC issued a no-sail order for cruise ships operating in US waters, leading cruise companies to suffer billions in losses last year.
在十月, the CDC announced a “framework for conditional sailing order,” detailing regulations for a phased resumption of cruises that includes testing all crew, developing onboard laboratory capacity and running “simulated voyages.” The order is in effect until November 1, or when Covid-19 is no longer a public health emergency, or the CDC director rescinds or modifies it.
The CDC on Friday put out guidance outlining how it expects to allow a resumption of sailings — recommending, rather than a requiring, passengers be vaccinated. The agency said it wanted to see “simulated (试用) voyages that will allow crew and port personnel to practice new Covid-19 operational procedures with volunteers before sailing with passengers.”
The CDC did not provide a date it plans to allow US sailings again for the first time since March 2020.
Both DeSantis and Moody warned that if the US cruise industry doesn’t reopen, tourists will seek to book cruises in other countries, resulting in lost revenue for Florida and other states.
DeSantis said that tens of thousands of Floridians depend on the “viability of the cruise industry for their livelihoods, for their jobs, their ability to feed their families.”
Moody accused the Biden administration of being unwilling “to revamp and consider lifting these no sail orders and allow us to resume this thriving industry with reasonable health protocols.”
