Providing for Consideration of H.R. Terminating Cdc Requirement for Proof of Covid-19 Vaccination for Foreign Travelers; Providing for Consideration of H.J. Res. Disapproving the Action of the District of Columbia Council in Approving the Local Resident Voting Rights Amendment Act of Providing for Consideration of H.J. Res. Disapproving the Action of the District of Columbia Council in Approving the Revised Criminal Code Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. MASSIE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York for yielding.

The U.S. should be leading the free world right now but, instead, we are falling behind. Hundreds of countries have a vaccine policy that is more liberal than the United States at the moment.

If you live in Japan, Italy, Spain, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Israel, Germany, France, Australia, South Africa, Egypt, Brazil, Taiwan, Mexico, all of our neighbors to the north and to the south, to the east and to the west have gotten rid of their COVID vaccine mandates to enter their countries, but we have not. Why is that?

What is our policy right now?

To enter into the United States, if you are a foreigner, you have to have a COVID vaccine. Who can enter right now without a vaccine?

Well, if you are an illegal alien apprehended at the border and awaiting a trial or a hearing, you don't need a vaccine; just come on into the country, we will check it out later.

What if you are somebody who comes in and you have been vaccinated, but you have got a full-blown case of symptomatic COVID? Oh, you are vaccinated? No problem. Come on in. Bring your new variant, whatever it is. We will welcome you.

If you are a healthy tennis player who has not been vaccinated, then stay out of our country. That is the message that we have been sending.

Our policy is at least 2 years out of date. The U.S. Travel Association recognizes this. They said that every day this policy remains in place encourages some travelers to avoid the U.S., costing us valuable visitor spending and delaying our efforts to re-ignite inbound travel.

So our economy is suffering. But that is not really what compelled to me to offer this bill. I am concerned about the families who have been separated for 3 years; children who haven't seen their parents; spouses who haven't seen each other, separated for 3 years.

There is no religious exemption in the vaccine mandate policy that the United States has. In fact, there are dictatorships that have better policies than ours right now: Iran, Russia, China, Cuba, Syria; oh, not vaccinated? Not a problem because they recognize at least the science behind it.

Mr. Speaker, this is a structured rule. During the debate, we are going to allow three amendments from the Democrats on my bill, and we are going to allow two Republican amendments. I think that is very kind of us. We didn't see this kind of openness and legislative deliberative process when the other party was in the majority.

Think about this as I close: Today, later in this Chamber, there will be over 1,000 people, sharing the oxygen, the air in this room with the President and the Vice President of the United States, and none of those thousand people that will be in this room have been mandated to take the vaccine.

So when you think about casting your vote on this, just consider for a second: Are you being a hypocrite?

None of your staff and none of the Members of this legislative body, or the Supreme Court, or the Senate who are going to join us here later today with the President, none of them have been mandated to take the vaccine. We shouldn't do the same.

We should not project xenophobia from this country. We should allow visitors; we should reunite families; and we should re-ignite our economy by eliminating this policy.

Mr. Speaker, I support the rule.

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