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HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 11
IN THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE - FIRST SESSION
BY REPRESENTATIVES MCKAY, Vance, Wool, McCabe, Story, Carpenter
Introduced: 2/18/21
Referred: House Special Committee on Arctic Policy, Economic Development, and Tourism, Transportation
A RESOLUTION
1 Requesting the United States Congress to pass legislation that provides a temporary
2 waiver of the Passenger Vessel Services Act to allow cruise ships to sail directly to the
3 state from other United States ports.
4 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:
5 WHEREAS Canada has announced it will extend its ban on large cruise ships until at
6 least February of 2022; and
7 WHEREAS 46 U.S.C. 55103 (Passenger Vessel Services Act) places restrictions on
8 the transport of passengers by foreign vessels between ports or places in the United States to
9 which the coastwise laws apply; and
10 WHEREAS most large cruise ships that sail to the state are foreign flagged ships and
11 are required to stop in or depart from a Canadian port before arriving in the state; and
12 WHEREAS, because of Canada's ban on large cruise ships, the state faces a second
13 season of severely reduced tourism, which has the potential to devastate the already crippled
14 tourism industry; and
15 WHEREAS the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the state's economy,
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1 which is already suffering from a recession; and
2 WHEREAS the state must do all it can to support the industries that keep its citizens
3 employed and help keep the struggling economy afloat; and
4 WHEREAS the state's leisure and hospitality industry lost more than 15,000 jobs at
5 the peak of the summer season compared to the same period in 2019; and
6 WHEREAS a temporary waiver of the Passenger Vessel Services Act allowing cruise
7 ships to sail to the state from United States west coast ports would help mitigate continued job
8 and revenue loss and provide major relief to an industry with an economic impact that spans
9 across every region of the state and employs people from Ketchikan to Nome;
10 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the United
11 States Congress to pass legislation that provides a temporary waiver of the Passenger Vessel
12 Services Act to allow cruise ships to sail directly to the state from other United States ports.
13 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, President
14 of the United States; the Honorable Kamala D. Harris, Vice President of the United States and
15 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Dan Sullivan,
16 U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska
17 delegation in Congress; and all other members of the 117th United States Congress.
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