President Biden Signs Bill Package With Ban on Mask Mandates Tucked Inside

People gather their luggage after arriving at Miami International Airport on a plane in Miami, Fla., on Feb. 1, 2021. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

President Joe Biden signed a $460 billion package of spending bills over the weekend to avoid a partial government shutdown, which included Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-Ohio) legislation banning federal mask mandates from the Department of Transportation.

The law, known as the “Freedom to Breathe Act,” prohibits the Transportation Department from using federal monies to enforce mask mandates on passenger airlines, busses, rail, and any other transportation program funded through fiscal year 2024.

“The era of public health panic is over,” Mr. Vance said in a statement following the bill’s passage. “Tonight, my amendment to prohibit COVID-19 mask mandates by the Department of Transportation—including the FAA—passed the Senate. This is a massive victory for common sense. Mask mandates were an outrageous overstep by the public health establishment. We cannot allow this mistake to be repeated.”

The Ohio Republican’s legislation was introduced in September 2023 after some public health officials began calling for mask mandates following a surge in COVID-19 cases. Some businesses, hospitals, and universities, including Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia, imposed mask mandates after the uptick in cases.

Republican Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, John Barrasso of Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Ted Budd of North Carolina, and Eric Schmitt of Missouri co-sponsored the legislation.

In September, Mr. Vance asked the Senate for unanimous approval in an attempt to force the bill’s passage, but Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) objected, citing the bill was misleading. He argued that officials at the local level should have every healthcare option available to them.

J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who was then senator-elect, arrives at a meeting with Senate Republicans at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Nov. 16, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Support From Air Marshal Association

“We tried mask mandates once in this country,” Mr. Vance said in a statement last year. “They failed to control the spread of respiratory viruses, violated basic bodily freedom, and set our fellow citizens against one another. This legislation will ensure that no federal bureaucracy, no commercial airline, and no public school can impose the misguided policies of the past. Democrats say they’re not going to bring back mask mandates—we’re going to hold them to their word.”

The Air Marshal Association also backed Mr. Vance’s bill, which it described as “common-sense legislation.”

“We support a permanent ban on masking requirements in public transportation, but believe that prohibiting masking requirements through December 31, 2024, will send a clear message,” wrote John Cassaretti, president of the Air Marshal Association, in a letter to Mr. Vance.

“Federal air marshals were routinely diverted from their national security mission to monitor and respond to masking related incidents, or were asked by air crews to intervene with non-compliant passengers,” the letter continued.

Mr. Cassaretti also noted that he had testified during an open Congressional hearing about the “sharp increase in violence on aircraft,” adding that “air crews and aviation workers had suffered direct physical attacks because they were tasked with enforcing arbitrary masking requirements.”

The following month, Mr. Vance filed the legislation as an amendment to an appropriations bill which passed the Senate.

“This is a massive victory for personal freedom in this country,” Mr. Vance said. “We saw countless abuses of authority throughout the COVID pandemic, and the American people were justifiably enraged by unscientific mask mandates. Today, the United States Senate took an emphatic step toward common sense and individual liberty. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished here and look forward to continuing the fight.”

Local Mask Mandates

In January, officials in Monmouth County, New Jersey, reimposed an indoor mask mandate at the Sandy Hook unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area amid an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations.

“Masks are currently required in all federal buildings in Sandy Hook,” according to a statement on the park’s website. “Monmouth County is at HIGH Covid-19 community level, as identified by the CDC.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) consider readings above 20 per 100,000 as high. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Monmouth County was 20.4 per 100,000, according to CDC data on Jan. 12.

California, New York, and Illinois were among a handful of states that also implemented mask mandates earlier this year.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.