To the best of my knowledge all the cruise lines, at least the ones with which I’m familiar, which do enter US territorial waters, and dock at US ports, do a criminal background check, and drug testing. For example, on their employment web site, RCCL states, “Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises are Equal Opportunity Employers. Employment will be subject to criminal background check, physical examinations, drug testing, and reference checks.”

I think the sponsors of the bills took this into account when they framed the legislation, and the difficulty of imposing employment regulations, on companies which hire foreign nationals at locations outside the US, even for ships which do business in US territorial waters, and at US ports.

It is not in the best interests of a cruise ship company to hire a bunch of criminals, cut-throats, drunks, or drug addicts to staff their ships. Hiring such individuals would be “bad for business.” The cruise lines do their homework on prospective employees, and I don’t believe that the cruise lines knowingly hire anyone like that.

I personally believe the employment practices of the cruise lines, with regard to background checks, drug testing, etc., are as good as in any industry. Multistate, and especially multinational background checks are extremely difficult and sometimes, even the best checks will not uncover everything about each employee.

Therefore, when my family cruises, which we do often, we consider ourselves to be in a large floating city, with all the good and bad that infers. We take the same precautions aboard a ship that we take at home, living in one of the largest cities in the US, with our belongings, and ourselves.

While I understand your feeling about this matter, I also empathize with Sarah Alexander, Shari Cecil, Laurie Dishman, Chantal Hopkins, Cathy Johnson, Janet Kelly, Angela Orlich, Kim Rossi, Deborah Shaffer, and far too many others who have been the victims of sexual assault while on cruises.

I don’t think it’s too much to ask of our Federal House and Senate, and of our President, to work to prevent crime on cruise ships and improve safety, while they tackle other issues in their work. I think our Congress owes it to all Americas to make our lives as safe as possible through relevant and sound legislation, whether we’re at home, at work, at school, at play, or on vacation.