Sen. Rand Paul plans to make a push to repeal mask mandates for airplane passengers.
“When the Senate returns to session, I will be introducing an immediate repeal of the mask mandate on planes,” the Kentucky Republican wrote on Twitter on Thursday. “Enough!”
On Jan. 29, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention required passengers to wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19 while traveling and in transportation centers such as airports, ferry terminals, and rail stations.
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In late April, President Joe Biden extended the mask mandate on all public transportation through Sept. 13. But lawmakers have grown impatient over the administration’s pace in lifting the regulation.
“Time to stop this farce and let people travel in peace!” Paul said on Twitter.
Last month, during a markup of rail and safety legislation in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, a measure introduced by Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, would have ended the mandate. But the provision, which committee members voted on along party lines, failed.
“I think we should express the sense of this committee that what is being foisted on us now in the name of science is hogwash,” Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, said.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the ranking member on the Transportation-HUD Appropriations subcommittee, asked Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg why passengers on airplanes must wear masks, but customers in crowded airport bars were not required to do so.
Buttigieg responded that the mandate was still in place at the time because planes have “a number of people from different places passing through the same small place” as well as children on board. Additionally, no vaccine had been approved for anyone under 12 at that point.
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“This is something we need to continue to revisit,” Buttigieg said. “And while I haven’t seen … a specific rubric that says, ‘If we hit this benchmark, we can say goodbye to the masks,’ which we’re all eager to do, I do think it’s, of course, true that the sooner we get as many people as possible vaccinated, the sooner we can get there.”
