Providing for Consideration of H.R. Postal Service Reform Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. HUDSON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to oppose the previous question so we can immediately consider H.R. 6619, the Unmask Our Kids Act.

This is critical because, as a Member of Congress, but more importantly as a dad of a kindergartner, I am frustrated. I am frustrated because all throughout the pandemic, bureaucrats, mayors, Governors, and school administrators have all lectured us to follow the science. Just follow the science.

Well, I agree. Thankfully, 2 years into this pandemic, we now have science behind the mild impacts of COVID-19 on children and the importance of ventilation instead of masking to limit spread in classrooms. We also have science on how important it is to see faces for a child's development.

Yet, even with this data, schools continue to impose mask mandates, including roughly 85 of the 115 North Carolina school districts. And if you break these mandates, you face severe consequences.

Just last Thursday, 12-year-old Lincoln Matthews, from my district, decided not to wear a mask to school, with the support of his father. Lincoln said he can't breathe in his mask, especially when he is forced to wear it even while running in PE class. However, Lincoln was written up and kicked out for insubordination. This is wrong.

What is worse is, these rules apparently don't apply to everyone. On Friday, just 1 day after Lincoln was kicked out for not wearing his mask, Stacey Abrams visited a classroom in Georgia without a mask while every child around her, as you can see, wore their masks. As my colleague, Mr. Reschenthaler, said, this photo is not science; this photo is political science.

Sadly, this is just the latest example of politicians who want to control your life. They tell you what to do then ignore their own rules. For these hypocrites, it is rules for thee but not for me.

Well, I am here to say that the American people are fed up. I am here to say, parents have rights.

So let's actually follow the science. It is time to scrap these mandates and give parents the freedom to choose what is best for their own children.

Today, I encourage my colleagues to pass the Unmask Our Kids Act and end these mandates once and for all. If it is good enough for the politicians, it is good enough for our kids.

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