Sponsors (4)
The bill clarifies who counts as a "cruise ship" and who can recover nonpecuniary damages—improving legal clarity and potential remedies for passengers and courts—while increasing liability exposure and potential costs for some operators and passengers.
Cruise passengers and their families gain clearer legal grounds to seek nonpecuniary damages (e.g., loss of care and companionship), making it easier to determine eligibility for those remedies after injuries or deaths on qualifying cruise voyages.
Cruise operators, courts, and regulators get a clearer statutory definition of "cruise ship" (250+ passengers, sleeping berths, embarks/disembarks in the U.S., not coastwise), reducing ambiguity about which vessels the law covers and helping with consistent application of the statute.
Cruise operators could face higher liability exposure from expanded or clarified recoverable nonpecuniary damages, which may increase their legal costs and lead to higher ticket prices or reduced onboard services for passengers.
Vessels and operators near the 250-passenger threshold may newly fall within the law's coverage, exposing some small operators to greater litigation risk or regulatory requirements.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Revises the federal definition of "cruise ship," defines "nonpecuniary damages," and makes minor textual edits to the statute and chapter table.
Introduced April 10, 2025 by Debra Fischer · Last progress April 10, 2025
Creates a short title for the Act and updates federal maritime law by changing key definitions used in a statute that applies to cruise vessels. It replaces the legal definition of “cruise ship” with a set of criteria (passenger capacity, sleeping facilities, U.S. embark/disembark, and not a coastwise voyage) and adds a definition of “nonpecuniary damages” (loss of care, comfort, and companionship). The amendment also makes minor textual edits and updates the chapter table of sections.