The federal mask mandate for travel has been extended three times since President Joe Biden made his ruling in January of 2021. It is now poised to expire on April 18. But will the White House extend it into the summer?
“The American people have seen through the false logic that COVID-19 only exists on airplanes and public transportation. They see it every day when they go to a grocery store, restaurant, shopping mall, or movie theater with no masks in sight, leading them to demand unneeded mandates come to an end. In response to this outcry, 21 states have filed suit to put an end to this egregious transportation mask mandate overreach,” wrote a group of U.S. senators and congressional representatives to the president last week.
“In addition, you’ve received letters from various transportation stakeholders urging you to put pandemic-related travel restrictions behind us. Specifically, the White House received letters from the U.S. Travel Association, Airlines for America, and the American Bus Association, all of whom are imploring your Administration to either repeal the transportation mask mandate immediately or let it expire.”
The April 8 letter was signed by Republican Reps. Sam Graves (Mo.), ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; Garret Graves (La.), ranking member on the Aviation Subcommittee; Republican Sens. Roger Wicker (Miss.), ranking member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee; and Ted Cruz (Texas), ranking member of the Aviation Subcommittee.
While most of the country has dropped mask mandates in workplaces and schools, the Biden rule says nose and mouth coverings must be worn in airports, planes, bus stations, buses, railroad stations, and trains.
Complicating the decision this week is that many Democrats in the ruling class in the nation’s capital have contracted Covid, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Seventy-two high-ranking political leaders who attended the Gridiron Dinner (an annual event for the political elite held at an exclusive, invitation-only journalism dining club called the Gridiron Club) subsequently came down with the virus, including Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, and . It was the first Gridiron Dinner since 2019, and all guests were required to show proof of vaccination.
In March, the White House official and TSA said that during the month extension, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would work with agencies to “help inform a revised policy framework for when, and under what circumstances, masks should be required in the public transportation corridor. This revised framework will be based on the COVID-19 community levels, risk of new variants, national data, and the latest science. We will communicate any updates publicly if and/or when they change.”
On the NBC Today Show on Monday, White House Covid-19 Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said the mandate for masking travelers “is absolutely on the table.”
As the Biden Administration evaluates its options, attorneys general from 21 Republican-led states, including Alaska, sued the federal government over the travel mask mandate, arguing the rule is federal overreach. CEOs of major airlines including Alaska Airlines wrote to the Biden Administration that the mask requirements are out of step with “the realities of the current epidemiological environment.”
The masking rule has led to an outbreak in defiant behavior on commercial air carriers that has resulted in airlines developing no-fly policies for those who won’t comply, and to asked the Biden Administration to create a nationwide “no fly list” for passengers who are identified by the airlines as being overly unruly, or for those who attack flight attendants, gate agents, and fellow travelers. Mask mandates are the origin of an estimated three-quarters of bad behavior by travelers, the airlines told the Administration.
The sticking point is that defining unruly behavior can be subjective and violate travelers’ constitutional rights.
Of 5,981 such reports to the Federal Aviation Administration last year, 72% were related to masks. The agency started investigations of 1,105 of those cases, which was 300 percent more than any year since the FAA began collecting data in 1995.
The FAA took enforcement action in 390 cases since the mask mandate went into effect in January of 2021. Prior to that, several airlines already had a mask mandate in effect for travel on their carriers.
