Florida’s attorney general has declared victory in its legal efforts to overturn the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s conditional sailing order (CSO), which sought to regulate the cruise industry in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CDC last month allowed the sailing order to expire and also ended its appeal of the Florida injunction motion that had been sought by Attorney General Ashley Moody. This prompted Moody to end the sailing-order litigation, which argued the federal government exceeded its authority in regulating the cruise industry.
The cruise industry supports nearly 160,000 jobs in Florida, according to Moody’s office
“Following Attorney General Moody’s relentless legal efforts, Biden’s CDC has allowed the conditional sailing order that shuttered the industry to expire, and now the state is moving to end the litigation,” a news release from Moody’s office states.
The industry’s professional organization, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), however, doesn’t see the CDC’s recent actions as especially liberating. Instead of a mandatory regulation, the CDC has put in place a voluntary program that still discourages people from going on cruises in Florida and other states, according to CLIA.
“Our first read is that the voluntary program is far more confusing to (cruise) lines and consumers than even the previous guidelines at a time when restrictions are being reduced everywhere else as (COVID-19) cases drop,” Laziza Lambert, CLIA’s spokeswoman, told the Florida Record. “All of this seems unmerited and unnecessary for an industry that is already one of the most highly regulated and has continued to be so even after the expiration of the CSO.”
The CLIA did not comment specifically on Florida’s litigation seeking a preliminary injunction against the CDC’s former sailing order, but the association emphasized that data has shown its recent efforts to protect the public’s health and safety during the pandemic have been highly effective.
“The analysis, conducted by the PBI Research Institute, an independent, research-based consultancy in the energy, transport, and maritime sectors, determined that hospitalizations on cruise ships were 80 times lower than on land in the U.S. at the height of the Omicron surge,” Lambert said.
In other commercial settings around the nation, COVID-19 restrictions have been eased as coronavirus cases drop, she said.
“It’s unmerited that we continue to be one of the most highly regulated industries,” Lambert said.