Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the State of Florida filed a lawsuit to allow cruises to begin sailing from Florida ports. The lawsuit includes the U.S. federal government, the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
DeSantis announced this legal action during a news conference Thursday at PortMiami as he was standing in front t of a group of furloughed port workers at the Port of Miami.
“Today Florida’s fighting back. We’re filing a lawsuit against the federal government and the CDC, demanding that our cruise ships be reopened immediately.”
The governor went on to state “The CDC has locked down this industry for over a year, this is not reasonable, this is not rational,” DeSantis said. “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.”
DeSantis criticized how long cruises have been shutdown without any end in sight, “I don’t think you can just indefinitely shutter major, major businesses and cost all these jobs. So we want a way forward.”
“We have people flying on airplanes, they’re on buses, hotels, restaurants, theme parks, casinos, bars, you name it. But somehow the cruise is viewed differently.”
Attorney General Ashley Moody, who filed the action on behalf of the state, offered fighting words of her own.
“We are not going to sit back while an administrative agency decides to shut down an entire industry,” Moody contended, vowing to fight the “no-sail orders.”
Cruises have been shut down for more than a year now. Florida is the nation’s cruise capital with three of the world’s busiest ports: Miami, Port Canaveral near Kennedy Space Center, and Port Everglades which is in the Ft. Lauderdale area. Millions typically cruise from Florida each year and the industry generates billions for the state’s economy. It also accounts for an estimated 200,000 jobs.
Recent Cruise News
As the world is getting a firmer grasp on COVID-19 and travel/cruise companies are adopting new health and safety protocols to deal with it, more countries and companies are beginning to reopen travel. Cruise lines have started to offer cruises that begin outside of the U.S. Here are some of the most recent updates from the cruise industry.
- Do I Need a COVID-19 Vaccine to Cruise?
- When Will Cruises Resume 2021
- Will Carnival Cruises Require a COVID-19 Vaccine
- NCL 2021 Cruises Resume for Vaccinated Passengers
- Viking Cruises 2021 Start out of Iceland and Bermuda
