On Feb. 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a mask mandate for public transportation in the United States.
The federal agency’s order followed the lead of President Biden’s executive order on Jan. 20, his first day in office. The CDC’s rule requires most people to wear face masks “over the mouth and nose” while traveling on “conveyances into and within the United States.” It also states that “conveyance operators” must “use best efforts” to keep those masks strapped on.
The Washington Examiner asked several transportation experts and stakeholders about the practical implications of this order. The common refrain in the answers was that it is mostly, but not entirely, symbolic because masks are already widely required on public transportation.
“The move is mostly symbolic because local mask mandates are already in effect in most places. However, President Biden wants to show he is taking the pandemic seriously, and enacting a federal mask mandate supports that position,” said Ashley Nunes, director of competition policy at the R Street Institute.
“There is conflicting data about the extent to which such mandates help because the policy is often accompanied by other measures, like physical distancing and limits on gatherings,” he added.
“The CDC decision reflects a decisive shift in federal attitudes, one that better aligns the federal government with their peers in local transit agencies. But since most agencies already mandated mask usage, the practical impacts for employees and patrons should be minimal,” said Adie Tomer, a fellow with the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.
Where there are new rules comes confusion and lingering legal questions.
Ted Greener, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads, told the Washington Examiner, “Given that the order is geared most clearly to public transportation, as a private mode of transportation, we are clarifying how this applies to the freight rail industry.”
He hastened to add that “freight railroads will put the safety of their employees at the forefront of their operations and will comply with federal guidance.”
Jeff Davis is a senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation. He looks at the mandate in terms of personnel, enforcement, and legal standing.
“For aviation, it means that airports and airlines now have federal TSA officers on-site who are ordered to help them enforce mask-wearing. I expect some TSA personnel to be stationed at major Amtrak stations enforcing the mandate. Similarly, at ports of entry to the U.S., other Homeland Security personnel will be directed to enforce the mandate,” Davis told the Washington Examiner.
“For transportation providers that already had their own mask mandates, the new federal mandate will make the local providers more confident in enforcing their own mandate,” he added.
Davis believes there is also a “gray area,” legally, “if there are any transit providers out there that were not enforcing their own mask mandate.”
“The CDC order is on questionable legal ground when it comes to forms of transportation that don’t cross state lines, and if any strictly local transportation providers fail to comply, it will be interesting to see which, if any, federal entity takes them to court and how that court case goes,” he predicted.
Gary Leff is the author of the influential View from the Wing website. He said he believes the order adds an unintended complication to the airlines’ existing efforts at mask enforcement.
“For air travel, masks were already mandated. United, Southwest, and American Airlines did not allow exceptions to board, requiring masking for passengers 2 years and older. The CDC mask mandate, however, introduces medical exceptions,” Leff told the Washington Examiner.
“The federal mask mandate does not increase masking in-flight. Instead, it allows some people not to wear them who had to before. It’s a step backward for advocates of masks as a tool to fight the pandemic,” he added.
