President Joe Biden would veto a Republican-backed, Senate-passed resolution that would nullify his federal transportation mask mandate should it reach his desk, according to the White House.
The Office of Management and Budget wrote that requiring people to cover their faces while on public transportation and in transportation hubs had prevented the spread of COVID-19, “saving lives.”
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“Public transportation and transportation hubs are places where people across communities congregate, often for extended periods and in close quarters,” the OMB wrote in a position statement. “The determination of the timeline and circumstances under which masks should be required in these settings should be guided by science, not politics.”
The Senate nevertheless voted 57-40 on Tuesday night to pass the resolution, with bipartisan support. Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah was the sole GOP defector. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul introduced the measure.
“Today, the Senate said enough is enough and sent a message to unelected government bureaucrats to stop the anti-science, nanny state requirement of travel mask mandates,” Paul said in a statement following the vote.
Paul’s resolution would use the Congressional Review Act to try to roll back the rule, which the Biden administration extended until April 18 after it was set to expire March 18. It would only need simple majorities to pass, avoiding a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and the resultant 60-vote threshold. A Biden veto would keep the rule in place.
“Since March 2020, unelected bureaucrats have incessantly declared that we should ‘follow the science,’” Paul said in a statement last month. “But the same bureaucrats continue to defy science by imposing an ineffective and restrictive mask mandate for individuals traveling on public transit and airplanes.”
“As the entire world is learning to live with COVID, the federal government still uses fearmongering to stubbornly perpetuate its mandates rather than giving clear-eyed, rational advice on how to best protect yourself from illness,” he added. “That is why I am forcing a vote to repeal travel mask mandates on public transportation and put a stop to this anti-science nanny-state requirement.”
While the resolution would be unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled House, it expresses the sense in the Senate that it is time to revisit the rule. It also once again demonstrated Democratic divisions over how to unwind pandemic mitigation measures.
This time, eight Democrats broke ranks and voted with the GOP: Sens. Michael Bennet, Catherine Cortez Masto, Maggie Hassan, Mark Kelly, Joe Manchin, Jacky Rosen, Kyrsten Sinema, and Jon Tester. Half of the Democrats who voted in favor of the resolution are up for reelection this midterm cycle.
Two Democrats, Manchin and Tester, voted with Republicans in December to overturn Biden’s vaccine mandate. Both are from red states. The measure passed the Senate 52-48. White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced at that time that Biden would veto that measure as well, and it stalled in the House.
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Democrats have narrow majorities in both houses, including a 50-50 split in the Senate, which they only control thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote.
The Senate vote on Paul’s resolution comes as Democratic elected officials have eased COVID-19 protocols, including shedding mask and vaccine requirements in blue states. Party operatives have warned against becoming too cautious for public opinion, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, a symbol of that approach, has been seen less on the airwaves of late. Biden has begun holding bigger public events, although Harris had to skip one Tuesday night because her husband contracted COVID-19 — to the president’s apparent confusion.
