WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator JD Vance (R-OH) led a press conference on Senate Republicans’ plans to ban federal mask mandates. He also thanked the U.S. Air Marshal Association for their support of his Freedom to Breathe Act.
Watch Senator Vance’s remarks here and below:
“We introduced this legislation to stop the federal government from reimposing mask mandates in part because I see this gnawing hysteria start to creep back into the country,” said Senator Vance. “People getting worried about the uptick in COVID cases, and look, COVID is not a good thing, I’m not happy that it’s in this country, but it is and it’s here to stay. It’s time for adults and leaders to accept that, to live with it, and not to cause our children to suffer because we can’t actually make calm, rational decisions.”
“Kids as young as two years old were required to wear masks even when they were playing outside,” said Senator Thune. “It was an example when you give the Democrats an inch, they’ll take a mile … This stuff is crazy and I hope that we can get this issue addressed once and for all and do away with these owners egregious policies and mandates that make it so much more difficult for our kids and people generally in this country to be able to go about their business on a daily basis, to socialize and particularly for our kids to be able to learn at the fastest rate possible. So I’m grateful to JD for his leadership on this, and let’s end this really bad idea once and for all.”
“This protects our individual rights as citizens,” said Senator Barrasso. “The last thing we need is another one size fits all approach from the federal government … I understand the medicine of this as a public servant. I also understand the importance of protecting our freedoms, our liberties, our rights. And that’s what this bill, the Freedom to Breathe Act, does. It protects our freedoms, protects our liberty, protects our rights and I’m here to stand with JD in support of it.”
“The impact from these mass mandates have been devastated loss of learning, social impacts, emotional impacts combined with the lockdowns, you’ve seen significant decreases in math scores, reading scores,” said Senator Schmitt. “And so for the folks who want to bring this back again, I think all of us are here to say it’s not, we’re not going to allow you to do that … I appreciate the proactive approach we have here to make sure this kind of COVID tyranny never takes hold again.”
The U.S. Air Marshal Association endorsed Senator Vance’s legislation earlier this month. Read the endorsement letter here.
“I’m proud have air marshals here today and their support for this legislation, because they actually often face the brunt of airline passengers arguing with one another about these mask mandates,” said Senator Vance. “Why do this again when we know it just divides our citizens against each other and doesn’t have any strong or great effect?”
“The Air Marshal Association applauds your introduction of the ‘Freedom to Breathe Act’ which prohibits the imposition of a mask mandate on passengers of air carriers or public transit,” said John Casaretti, President of the Air Marshal Association. “We offer our emphatic support for this common-sense legislation … Masking requirements had directly contributed to a sharp increase in violence on aircraft, and air crews and aviation workers had suffered direct physical attacks because they were tasked with enforcing arbitrary masking requirements … Air crews and transportation workers should never be compelled to enforce arbitrary policies on behalf of the government.”
Read more on the Air Marshal Association’s endorsement of Senator Vance’s legislation in reporting from Fox News here.
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