Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the state is filing a lawsuit against the Biden administration to allow cruise ships to resume sailing immediately, roughly a year after the industry was forced to shut down in response to the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The CDC has locked down this industry for over a year. This is not reasonable. This is not rational,” DeSantis said Thursday at the Port of Miami. “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.”
Florida is the cruise capital of the United States, and the industry generates billions of dollars for the state every year. The pause on cruises last year cost Florida 49,500 jobs paying more than $2 billion in wages, as well as $3.2 billion in lost economic activity.
“We have tens of thousands of Floridians … throughout the state who depend on the viability of the cruise industry for their livelihoods, their jobs, and their ability to feed their families,” DeSantis said.
The lawsuit comes a week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidance for the cruise industry to expand testing and vaccination efforts for crew members, but the guidance did not rescind the sailing ban issued last October. DeSantis has been calling on the CDC to repeal the “no sail” order amid mounting pressure from cruise companies, which have considered resuming services from Caribbean ports.
“People are going to cruise one way or another,” DeSantis said. “The question is are we going to do it out of Florida, which is the No. 1 place to do it in the world, or are they going to be doing it out of the Bahamas or other locations?”
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The CDC order “does not reflect the industry’s proven advancements and success operating in other parts of the world … and unfairly treats cruises differently,” Kelly Craighead, CEO of the Cruise Lines International Association, said last week. “Cruise lines should be treated the same as other travel, tourism, hospitality, and entertainment sectors.”
