b'(4) be at least three years old; and (5) complytained its port ban. Thus, foreign-flagged crus- Alaska can stop at Canada again, so there was with various U.S. Coast Guard requirements.es ships from the lower 48 to Alaska wouldno need for an Alaska-specific waiver of the An applicant must pay a fee (currently $500)have been in violation of the PVSA. At the be- PVSA for the 2022 season.to MARAD and must specify the geograph- hest of the Alaska Congressional Delegation, ic area of proposed operations. Notice of theCongress approved a one-year waiver of theHowever,someinterestsinAlaskawould application is published in the Federal Regis- PVSA for such large ships. Because PVA rec- like to amend the PVSA to allow a foreign ter, and the application can be denied if com- ognized the economic dislocation that wouldcruiseshipthatcallsatanative-ownedor menters make a case that issuance of a waiverhave been inflicted on Alaska had the cruiseIndian-owned Alaskan port to be free of the will negatively impact American vessel build- ships been kept out of the state, PVA did notPVSA restriction. PVA had a video call last ersorexistingU.S.-flaggedcoastwise-quali- oppose the legislation. month with the president of one such Alas-fied vessels. The McCain Small Vessel WaiverkannativecorporationanditsWashington authorityisfoundinsection12121oftitleCanada has now relented on its coronaviruslobbyist. This issue bears close watching by 46 United States Code. rules, and foreign cruise ships on their way toPVA leaders and staff.There is an exception for foreign-built,small-capacity passenger vessels. Another exception involves so-called cruises to nowhere. A cruise to nowhere occurs when a vessel departs a U.S. port, sails into internation-al waters (usually at least three nautical miles from shore, but at least nine miles offshore in some Gulf of Mexico waters), and then re-turns to the same port without stopping at a foreign port. Based on a ruling by a U.S. At-torney General in 1912, a cruise to nowhere is not considered to be transportation because a passenger is not carried from one destination to another one; therefore, according to this rea-soning, the Passenger Vessel Services Act is in-applicable. The very few cruises to nowhere that still exist involve U.S.-flagged vessels that go into international waters where their pas-sengers can legally gamble. A foreign-flagged passenger vessel could theoretically engage in a cruise to nowhere, but to comply with U.S. immigration law, the crew members must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.In 2020, during the first summer of the coro-navirus pandemic, the Alaska cruise ship sea-son (served primarily by large foreign-flagged cruise vessels) did not take place. This was be-cause the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-vention (CDC) blocked sailings of large cruise ships and also because Canada refused to allow the foreign ships to dock at a Canadian port on their way to Alaska as a pandemic-related healthmeasure.Theresultwasaprofound negative blow to the economy of southeastern and south-central Alaska.Going into the summer of 2021, the CDC relaxed its limitations, but Canada still main-27 JULY 2022'