The White House has become drunk with power. But those days are over.
Because Congress has introduced a bill that will finally handcuff the President.
There’s no way around the fact that Joe Biden and his predecessors of the last twenty years have, to varying degrees, abused the power of the executive branch to push their agenda onto the American people.
This most often looks like legislation by regulation where the executive branch agencies try to effectively legislate by introducing new bureaucractic red tape that is designed to do the job of Congress but via unelected officials.
Donald Trump’s presidency was marked by cutting a lot of that red tape, unlike Barack Obama and George Bush before him, but he was by no means perfect. Some conservatives take issue with the way he was willing to bypass Congress to fund a border wall after Congress had already rejected legislation to do so.
Whether or not he was justified is beside the point. The point is that some Congress members have had enough, and a new bill that’s been introduced is designed to tie the hands of the executive branch once and for all.
You see, in recent weeks, we’ve all been hearing about how COVID-19 is back on the rise. As a result, some institutions are reimplementing mask mandates. Could a federal mask mandate be back on the table? Not if U.S. Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio (R) has anything to say about it.
On Tuesday, J.D. Vance presented legislation that would prevent the federal government from ever again making face masks mandatory nationwide.
Under the Freedom to Breathe Act, President Joe Biden and government agencies would not be able to impose face mask regulations on schoolchildren or passengers on public transportation. The legislation would be in effect until December 31, 2024, if approved and made a law.
“We tried mask mandates once in this country. They failed to control the spread of respiratory viruses, violated basic bodily freedom, and set our fellow citizens against one another,” Vance said during an appearance with Fox News. “This legislation will ensure that no federal bureaucracy, no commercial airline, and no public school can impose the misguided policies of the past.”
According to the text made available in Vance’s press release, the measure would forbid federal authorities, including Biden, from implementing face masks on any U.S. commercial airplanes, public transportation systems, or schools.
Additionally, it would ban the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from enforcing mask regulations in response to a public health emergency and the three institutions indicated above from refusing service to anyone who declines to wear a mask. Other clauses demand that all federal agencies follow the law and withhold funding from such limitations.
The Republican senator said, “Democrats say they’re not going to bring back mask mandates; we’re going to hold them to their word.”
The newly introduced legislation comes as school boards are becoming concerned about a new coronavirus type known as EG.5. Axios reports that as students return to school, an increase in Covid cases has forced several schools to stop lessons or enact safety regulations like mask wearing.
Following at least three positive Covid-19 tests this week, a Maryland elementary school has reintroduced the requirement for mask use. The principal of Rosemary Hills Elementary School informed parents via email that “students and staff in identified classes or activities will be required to mask while in school for the next 10 days, except while eating or drinking.”
This action contravenes the optional mask policy of the county school district, which is only overruled by the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Whether children can choose not to wear masks is not stated in the principal’s communication.
Some businesses and medical centers in New York and California have resumed mandating masks in reaction to the Covid upsurge. Morris Brown College in Georgia restored its two-week mask policy in August. A temporary mask mandate was also put in place by the Hollywood studio Lionsgate before it was removed last month.
As Covid cases increase, Dr. Anthony Fauci urged Americans to heed the CDC’s advice to wear masks on Saturday, despite having said in 2020 that masks don’t offer the “perfect protection” that many people believe they do.
What would make the bill better would be to prevent anyone in the White House from being able to violate basic human freedom ever again, not just until December of 2024.
An amendment to the U.S. Constitution illuminating the First Amendment rights even further is what the American people need to be protected from abusers in the federal government. Not masks.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
