In a Tuesday hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, the partisan contrast reemerged between Democratic senators hoping for federal, legally binding, and enforceable policies for virus mitigation and a Republican skepticism toward giving police power to the federal government.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin called the current business environment an “uneven playing field” because so many businesses are flouting safety rules while others comply. She was specifically advocating for the involvement of OSHA in workplace standards, but she also referred to how the refusal to follow various health guidances puts customers at risk of infection.
That situation does, as Baldwin said, create an uneven playing field, but not without consequence. Governors are responding effectively to noncompliance and to region-specific outbreaks on a local level, showing that Washington does not need to carry the burden of control. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a week ago, promised the state would warn and even suspend operating licenses of businesses in flagrant violation of the conditions accompanying its reopening plan. He has since ordered bars closed following a spike in cases. This is the sort of decision state governments exist to handle.
Texas authorities have suspended the alcohol permits of seven bars because they did not follow Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s orders to close. Abbott also recently closed bars amid a spike in virus cases.
In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered bars to close in seven counties, including Los Angeles, where its county health department connected recent spikes to bars opening.
At least in Florida and Texas, noncompliance has been met with the regulatory sword, but all three states have shown they can and will respond to their own problems where business and virus interact. The decision to close all bars seems a bit draconian, but these decisions are made by states, as they should be. Federal, uniformly enforceable standards would not be magical. Moreover, the idea oversteps enforcement authorities that are already in place. Keep standards and enforcement local.
