This past Tuesday, members of the United States Senate officially passed a resolution to end mask mandates for all of public transportation.
The resolution in question, which was sponsored by Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, gathered very strong bipartisan support, ending in a 57-40 vote with a group of 8 Democrats even voting in favor of the idea.
Just a single Republican senator, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, tried to go against the group to vote against the resolution.
“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 stated in a release in the wake of the vote, as reported by The Daily Caller.
“Since March 2020, unelected bureaucrats have incessantly declared that we should ‘follow the science,'” he stated. “But the same bureaucrats continue to defy science by imposing an ineffective and restrictive mask mandate for individuals traveling on public transit and airplanes.”
Paul stated that he made the choice to force the vote all because the federal government was suing “fear-mongering to stubbornly perpetuate its mandates” as the world comes to terms with the fact that they have to “live with COVID.”
The Kentucky legislator also sounded the horn for “clear-eyed, rational advice on how to best protect yourself from illness.”
This past Thursday, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued an official release announcing that it planned to extend its mask mandate for even longer nthan expected, stretching it out to April 18th.
“At CDC’s recommendation, TSA will extend the security directive for mask use on public transportation and transportation hubs for one month, through April 18th,” claimed one administration official when speaking to Fox News.
“During that time, CDC will work with government agencies to help inform a revised policy framework for when, and under what circumstances, masks should be required in the public transportation corridor,” continued the official in their statement.
“This revised framework will be based on the COVID-19 community levels, risk of new variants, national data, and the latest science. We will communicate any updates publicly if and/or when they change.”
The previous deadline for the mandate was the 18th of March, reported the outlet, highlighting that a large group of over 92 republicans had issued a letter to TSA Administrator David Pekoske that demanded the dropping of the mandate.
Paul had previously promised to force this particular vote and put an end to these “unscientific” mask mandates on public transportation and planes.
“Apparently government doesn’t want to relinquish its power and plans to extend the mask mandate on planes & public transportation,” stated the Republican senator this past Thursday directly before the official announcement from the TSA. “Not on my watch! I’ll be forcing a vote next week to end this unscientific mandate.”