An increasingly bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers are calling for President Obama to impose a travel and visa ban from Western African nations battling the Ebola virus.
Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, of Hawaii, joined a small but growing number of Democrats calling for Obama to suspend commercial flights from the West African nations afflicted with the virus. Gabbard also called on Obama to cut off visas for travelers from those countries, which include Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
“Just look at the domino effect that just one sick person from West Africa has had,” Gabbard said Friday. “We’re still scrambling to deal with that episode. Just imagine the chaos that will occur if even more such sick individuals enter the country.”
Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has called for a travel ban, and three House Democrats added their names to an Oct. 8 letter to Obama, signed by 27 lawmakers, that tells the president “the United States needs to institute travel restrictions” to control spread of the Ebola virus.
In the Senate, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee sent Obama a letter demanding the president “immediately cease issuing visas to persons of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, and to consider expanding this ban to other countries that may not have standards in place to properly screen travelers entering the United States.”
Obama has resisted a travel ban but on Friday appointed longtime aide Ron Klain as an Ebola czar who will coordinate the federal response.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wants House appropriators to return to Washington and consider additional funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
“While the interest in a travel ban is understandable, most in the scientific community believe it would dramatically weaken our ability to fight the disease at its source. Instead, we should be focusing on enhancing our domestic and international screening, strengthening our domestic protocols and ramping up our training of health professionals to stem the spread of the disease here in the United States, and ensuring that we are funding our public health agencies appropriately,” Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said Friday.
Gabbard criticized as “absurd” the Obama administration’s argument U.S. travel routes must remain open to help treat the outbreak in Africa.
“During this period, essential personnel and equipment can be transported in and out of these countries via charter flights,” she said.
Two nurses who treated Liberian Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan are now battling the disease at hospitals with special bio-containment units. There are no additional Ebola cases so far.
The response to Obama’s decision to tap Klain have been mixed.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., denounced the choice.
“Ebola is a health crisis,” Sessions said Friday. “Yet the president has appointed as his new Ebola ‘czar’ a partisan loyalist whose expertise is politics, not health.”
Sessions added, “The American people can have zero confidence in Ron Klain’s competence to carry out this critical role.”
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., praised Klain.
“He is smart, aggressive and levelheaded,” Schumer said. “Exactly the qualities we need in a czar to steer our response to Ebola. He is an excellent choice.”
