Legislation that would enable the owners of the Delta Queen to return the historic steamboat to cruise service on the Mississippi River has been reintroduced by Missouri’s U.S. senators. Democrat Claire McCaskill and Republican Roy Blunt say they are continuing their bipartisan effort to reinstate an exemption for the Delta Queen that was first made by Congress in 1966. The exemption would allow the wooden Delta Queen to cruise once again, even though it does meet requirements that passenger vessels be made of noncombustible material if they are carrying 50 or more passengers on overnight excursions. Financing to renovate the steamboat hinges upon its ability to return to cruise service, says Cornel Martin, president of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company , which bought the boat in 2012. Martin says his company has funding sources in place for the nearly $10 million that it will to cost to renovate the steamboat before it can cruise inland waterways once more. “The investors and the
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