U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski announced new legislation to provide a permanent exemption from the Passenger Vessel Services Act for cruises between the Lower 48 and Alaska. She addressed the bill in a recent speech at the Southeast Conference Annual Meeting in Haines.
Sen. Murkowski said that the PVSA had the unintended consequence of putting Alaskan businesses at the mercy of the Canadian government, nearly wiping out the Southeast Alaskan economy due to Canada not responding to requests to allow foreign stops at their ports to meet the PVSA requirements. She intends to introduce legislation that will permanent exempt Alaskan cruises carrying more than 1,000 passengers from the Passenger Vessel Services Act. She said it will create jobs for American merchant mariners in the cruise industry, and to ensure foreign built cruise ships don’t compete with U.S.-built ships.
Sen. Murkowski said that the PVSA needs to be reformed so that Alaska’s ability to engage in commerce isn’t derailed by the government of another country.
She addressed the situation at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce and Visitor’s Center in May when she spoke to constituents locally:
“But we still have the Canadians to deal with and it’s dealing with yet another country, but we’ve got a legislative approach that we’ve been working out with a temporary fix with the Passenger Vessel Security Act as well as administratively. I think both Dan (Sullivan) and I have every secretary who has even a hint of oversight in this on our speed dial and we’re checking in on a regular, and they probably feel annoying, basis, but that’s what we’ve got to do. that’s what we have to do. we’re going to continue to work on that.”
Meanwhile, Congressman Don Young published an op-ed in the Vancouver Sun detailing his recently introduced legislation to allow ports or land owned by Tribes or Alaska Native Corporations to satisfy the Passenger Vessel Services Act’s foreign stop requirement. In his op-ed, he details his Tribal Tourism Sovereignty Act, which implements a permanent fix to allow large foreign-flagged ships to bypass Canada entirely.
