Senate Approves Bill To Remove Mask Requirement On Planes, Transit
Eight Democrats joined with nearly all the Republicans to support the measure sponsored by Sen. Rand Paul, but the bill's fate in the House is uncertain. News outlets also explore some of the questions about setting up President Joe Biden's ARPA-H, an agency designed to push biomedical advances forward more quickly, and a Senate committee's effort to establish an independent panel to to probe the U.S. response to the pandemic.
Roll Call:
Senate Votes To Overturn Mask Mandate On Airplanes, Transit
The Senate on Tuesday voted 57-40 to overturn a federal requirement that passengers on U.S. airplanes and other modes of public transportation wear masks. The Congressional Review Act measure, introduced by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is the latest salvo in a fight between congressional Republicans and the Biden administration over public health requirements related to the pandemic, which has killed more than 963,000 Americans to date, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics. Despite the defection of eight Democrats — Sens. Jon Tester of Montana, Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Michael Bennet of Colorado, Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly of Arizona, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire all voted to oppose the mandate — the resolution’s future is uncertain in the House. (Wehrman, 3/15)
Houston Chronicle:
Sen. Ted Cruz Joins GOP Effort To End 'Asinine' Airplane Mask Mandate
Texas’ Republican senators on Tuesday joined a GOP effort to end a federal mask mandate for airline passengers, which U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz blasted as “utterly demonstrably asinine.” The Senate on Tuesday afternoon passed a Republican-led resolution to end rules requiring masks be worn on planes and other federal public transportation on a 57-40 vote. It now heads to the Democratic-controlled House, where its future is unclear. (Wermund, 3/15)
In other pandemic news from Congress —
The Washington Post:
Lawmakers Push Pandemic Probe Modeled On 9/11 Commission
A Senate panel voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to establish an independent task force to probe the U.S. response to the pandemic — the closest lawmakers have come to supporting such an investigation, two years into the crisis. The vote on that bipartisan legislation, part of the Prevent Pandemics Act advanced by the Senate’s health committee, is the first step in a fraught political journey, and comes as Democrats and Republicans have pursued their own probes, seeking to shape public perceptions ahead of midterm elections that could alter the balance of power in Washington. (Diamond, 3/15)
AP:
Pandemic Preparedness Bill Moves Ahead; Funding Still Needed
A Senate committee has approved a bipartisan blueprint to overhaul the nation’s public health system, applying the lessons of COVID-19 to future outbreaks through a new chain of command, a stronger medical supply chain, and clearer crisis communications. The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee approved the PREVENT Pandemics Act by a vote of 20-2 Tuesday. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/16)
The New York Times:
At Least Nine House Democrats Test Positive For The Coronavirus After A Party Retreat And Late-Night Voting
At least nine House Democrats have announced in the last five days that they tested positive for the coronavirus, with more than half of those cases emerging after lawmakers attended a party retreat last week in Philadelphia. It is unclear what drove the wave of cases or where the representatives had been infected. But members of the House spent hours on the floor without masks for votes that stretched late into the night last Wednesday before Democrats boarded buses to travel to their gathering. (Cochrane and Patil, 3/15)
And more from Capitol Hill —
Stat:
Congress Just Launched ARPA-H, But It Has A Chaotic Road Ahead
Congress has finally funded the agency that President Biden has pledged will help “end cancer as we know it.” But when they set aside $1 billion for the new agency, to be known as ARPA-H, lawmakers paved a chaotic path forward, leaving unresolved major questions like where the agency will be located, and whether it will exist independently or as part of the National Institutes of Health. In a surprising twist, lawmakers have punted the second decision to health secretary Xavier Becerra. However, considering the Biden administration’s long-held stance that ARPA-H should be housed within the NIH, research experts say it’s not much of a decision at all. (Facher, 3/16)
USA Today:
‘They Cannot Be Trusted’: Lawmakers Slam Facebook Over Sale Of Deadly Children's Products
Despite repeated warnings that Facebook Marketplace allows the sale of recalled products that have killed children, the platform’s parent company, Meta, has still failed to prevent such items from being available on its site. Now, members of Congress are demanding the company do more, writing to Meta last week that its “continued failure” to block the sale of recalled items is a “remarkable dereliction of duty by your company on behalf of your users.” Similar letters members of Congress sent in 2019 and 2020 failed to spark significant action by the social media giant. In addition, pressure from safety advocates, grieving families, federal regulators and a USA TODAY investigation have not led to meaningful changes to how Facebook addresses the danger. (Nadolny, 3/16)
