Senate votes to repeal CDC’s mask mandate for airline passengers

The Senate voted Tuesday to repeal the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID-19 mandate requiring masks on public transportation, including airplanes.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., introduced the resolution that received bipartisan support with a 57 to 40 vote.

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, was the only Republican to vote against the measure.

Eight Democratic senators voted in support of the resolution: Michael Bennet, Jacky Rosen, Catherine Cortez-Masto, Maggie Hassan, Mark Kelly, Joe Manchin, Kristen Sinema and Jon Tester.

The resolution, which was first introduced in February, expresses disapproval of the CDC's mask mandate.

The resolution still faces significant challenges to become law. It did not receive enough votes to override the veto that President Joe Biden has threatened to do. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., may not even allow the House to vote on the measure.

"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," Sen. Paul wrote in a press release 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 travelling on public transit and airplanes," the senator, who is also a doctor, wrote.

Sen. Paul has fought against what he sees as an abuse of power from White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.

"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," Paul said. "That is why, I forced this vote, and I applaud the Senate for rejecting this nonsense."