WH Opposes House Bill Removing COVID Vaccine Requirement

The Biden administration on Tuesday said it opposes legislation that would remove  COVID-19 vaccine entry requirement for international travelers.

"This policy has allowed loved ones across the globe to reunite while reducing the spread of COVID-19 and the burdens it places on the health care system in the United States," the Biden administration said in a press release.

Twenty-nine House Republicans have signed on to House Resolution 185, introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., which would bar the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from enforcing the order and terminate the requirement.

The bill also "nullifies any successor or subsequent orders that require foreign persons traveling by air to show proof of a COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of entry and prohibits the use of federal funds to administer or enforce such a requirement."

Massie in a January statement called enforcement of the requirement a double standard.

"If you watched C-SPAN last week, you saw 434 members of Congress gathered in the Capitol screaming, yelling, cheering, and speaking. Many of these members are unvaccinated, and many haven't taken boosters," he said. "So, why do we subject visitors who want to see their families to this COVID-19 double standard?

"The CDC's unscientific mandate is separating too many people from their families and has been doing so for far too long. It needs to end."

House Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee Chair Brett Guthrie said it's time for the mandate to end.

"It is long past due to end this mandate," he said, according to Denver 7. "Doing so will align the United States with the rest of North America's COVID-19 vaccine policy for people coming into the country and recognize COVID-19 is endemic — rather than a pandemic."

Many countries have ended vaccine requirements for entry, including Canada.

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