Congress quietly exempts cruise giants from U.S. labor laws
S. 2536 — Safeguarding American Tourism Act · Filed by Mike Lee (R-UT) · Introduced Jul 30, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill exempts large cruise ships (800+ passenger berths) from U.S. maritime labor and citizenship requirements that normally apply to domestic passenger vessels. It also loosens visa and crewing rules for foreign workers on these ships. The primary beneficiaries are major cruise operators like Carnival and Royal Caribbean, which can now operate larger ships with cheaper foreign crews on domestic U.S. routes without meeting the same staffing standards required of smaller competitors.
Why we flagged it
The bill's functional purpose is to exempt large cruise operators from domestic maritime labor and citizenship requirements. While titled as 'safeguarding tourism,' it actually deregulates labor standards for a specific industry segment, benefiting cruise lines at the expense of workers and smaller competitors.
What the text implies
- Large cruise ships can now hire predominantly foreign crews at lower wages on domestic U.S. routes, undercutting U.S. maritime worker employment and wage standards without transparency to passengers.
- The 800-berth threshold appears calibrated to exempt only the largest cruise operators (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Disney Cruise Line) while leaving smaller domestic cruise operators subject to full PVSA/Jones Act compliance, creating a two-tier competitive system.
The full analysis lists 4 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
large cruise operators (Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean, Disney Cruise Line); foreign maritime labor suppliers; cruise ship operators with 800+ berth capacity