Senate Votes To Repeal CDC Mask Mandate For Public Transportation

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution Tuesday that would end the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) mask mandate for air travel and public transportation.

The resolution, spearheaded by Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, picked up bipartisan support in a 57-40 vote. The vote comes after the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced Thursday that they would extend the current mask mandate for public transportation through April 18. Eight Democrats voted in favor of Paul’s resolution and only one Republican voted against it, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney.

“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 after the vote.

“Since March 2020, unelected bureaucrats have incessantly declared that we should ‘follow the science.’ 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 fear mongering to stubbornly perpetuate its mandates, rather than giving clear-eyed, rational advice on how to best protect yourself from illness,” he continued.