Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is calling on the federal government to end the lockdown on cruise ships so that they can begin sailing again by summer.
"I want to see these ships sailing," he said during a meeting at Port Canaveral, "It would be a great comeback for a lot of people who work in this industry."
Newsmax reports:
The industry officials claim inaction by the federal government is keeping thousands of workers unemployed and hurting Florida’s economy.
The Sentinel noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had lifted a "no-sail" order back in October. However, cruise lines are still waiting for technical guidance so they can start the test voyage needed to completely resume operations.
"We’re the most crippled by what they are doing with this national cruise lockdown," DeSantis continued. "If we get liberated from that, you are going to be able see maybe tens of thousands — maybe even a hundred thousand more people — going back to work."
The Sentinel noted cruise lines are already restarting cruises in Israel, Europe, and Singapore.
Florida is planning to fund about $260 million to aid ports in the state that have suffered losses during the pandemic. However, DeSantis said that won’t be enough if ships can’t sail.
Florida Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio and numerous other lawmaker are pushing the Biden administration to get the shops sailing again.
They wrote a letter to the White House COVID coordinator, Jeffrey Zients, on Thursday that reads:
"We appreciate the efforts by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to keep Americans healthy and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. However, we write with concern about the CDC’s continued restrictions on the cruise industry, and the economic toll it is taking on so many in our states that rely on this important industry.
"In October 2020, the CDC issued a Framework for Conditional Sailing as a phased approach to the safe resumption of cruise operations. In doing so, the CDC assured the cruise industry it would release detailed phases in order to resume full cruise operations. To-date, however, the CDC has still not issued Phase II requirements.
"We are disappointed that the CDC has been neither transparent nor forthright with the cruise industry, leaving a sector that is a significant economic driver for our states at a standstill, and affecting jobs in all major ports and surrounding cities."
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