DeSantis Says Florida Will Be Suing CDC Over Cruise Restrictions
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that his state will be filing a lawsuit against the U.S Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to allow cruise ships to begin sailing again.
“On behalf of the tens of thousands of Floridians whose livelihoods depends on the viability of an open cruise industry, today Florida’s fighting back,” he announced in a press conference. “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,” Gov. DeSantis said.
The Florida governor believes the lawsuit will have a ‘good chance for success’ and that the decision of the CDC to delay the opening of the U.S. cruise industry as ‘irrational.’
CNBC reported, “In the first 6 months of the pandemic, Florida lost $3.2 billion from the cruise industry shutdown, including 50,000 jobs paying $2.3 billion in wages, according to a September 3030 report from the Federal Maritime Commission.”
DeSantis presented the legal action at PortMiami with state Attorney General Ashley Moody and she said she filed the lawsuit against the CDC, Biden Administration and the U.S Department of Health & Human Services before the press conference.
The suit is filed in the United States District Court in Tampa and it seeks a preliminary and permanent injunction against CDC guidelines on cruise ships, and claimed that the industry, “has been singled out, and unlike the rest of America, prevented from reopening.”
AG Moody stated, “If we do not do this, you will see companies continue to move these cruises to other countries. Florida will not allow that to happen. Lives are on the line.”
Florida is considered to have three of the world’s busiest cruise ship ports in Miami, Port Canaveral and Port Everglades.
“The industry employs thousands of workers and generates billions for the state’s economy as millions of people typically cruise from one of Florida’s ports each year,” according to Orlando Sentinel.
