Ted Cruz and Kevin Cramer Introduce Bills Banning Mask and Vaccine Mandates

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Kevin Cramer (R-ND) introduced bills on Tuesday banning mask and vaccine mandates.

“To protect the rights and privacy of Americans,” Sen. Cruz wrote in a press release, “I’ve introduced legislation that would prohibit federal COVID mandates. This means no mask mandates, no vaccine mandates, and no vaccine passports.”

“My legislation also provides civil rights protections for employees from their employers, to stop discrimination based on vaccination status,” Cruz continued. “The American people must have the freedom to exercise personal choice when it comes to protecting their health and the health of their families.”

Cramer also issued a statement:

When it comes to handling COVID-19, Americans are self-governed people who have more than enough information available to them on how to talk to their doctor and figure out what is best for themselves and their families. Efforts by the Biden Administration and its allies to bully or force people to comply with mask and vaccine mandates – even though their guidance has been inconsistent and haphazard throughout the pandemic – will only succeed at infringing upon the rights of the American people. Our legislation would protect Americans by preventing the federal government from allowing itself to make these important decisions on their behalf.

According to measures in the bill, mask mandates on public property and funding to enforce mask mandates would be prohibited, along with blocking future mask mandates the Biden administration may implement.

The vaccination portion of the bill would render it unlawful to mandate “someone to receive any COVID-19 vaccine originally approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) without first obtaining the patient’s informed consent.”

The bill would also protect the rights of parents and guardians “by requiring any person or entity administering the vaccine to obtain parental consent before administering a COVID vaccine to individuals under 18 years of age.”

“Under this bill, schools cannot give underage students a vaccine without first getting legal guardians’ permission,” the press release reads.