Dear Friends and Members..

Tomorrow the US Senate Sub Committee on Transportation will move to mark-up
senate bill 588 which is known as The Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act of
2009. Similar legislation is also pending in the House. There have been
important developments regarding this bill. 

As of yesterday, CLIA delivered a letter to Sen. Kerry, author of the bill,
indicating that they will support this important legislation and work toward
the passage of this legislation. A copy of that letter is attached. One
major concession that was made was the removal of the provision concerning
the Death on the High Seas Act from the legislation. With the cruise lines
now supporting this legislation, we fully expect the bill to have an
excellent chance of becoming law.  THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THAT SUCH
LEGISLATION HAS EVER BEEN PUT IN PLACE WHICH WOULD REGULATE STANDANDS FOR
THE CRUISE SHIP INDUSTRY.

This is a historic event and one that ICV has worked toward since our
founding in 2006. We believe that the impact of this will be felt around the
world. Even though ICV is a group of volunteers with very limited funds, our
members have worked extremely hard using their own funds to help move this
process forward. 

For your information, I am attaching a summary of the bill's original
proposals and what is included in the current draft of the bill.  As can be
seen, while we did not get everything, major steps were taken to improve
safety for passengers along with making this information available to the
public via the internet. Also, ICV intends to continue to pursue various
issues that might not be included in this first bill.

While there will be further developments that we will be updating you with
soon, I want to share this important development with our friends and
members.  It has truly been a team effort involving many individuals that
brought this about and we wish to thank all of them for the vital role that
they have played in the long and difficult path.

While this bill is currently not yet approved in both the House and Senate,
we are confident that this will happen now that the cruise lines are
supporting our efforts.


Ken Carver