Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. OGLES. Mr. Chair, my amendment prohibits the Secretary of Defense from requiring individuals to wear masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19 on any military installation in the United States. I was proud to introduce a similar amendment last year, and I am happy to do so again.

Policies involving mandatory mask implementation are not about science or safety but control.

Tom Jefferson, not to be confused with Thomas Jefferson, a leading epidemiologist who coauthored what The New York Times Opinion section called: ``The most rigorous and comprehensive analysis of scientific studies conducted on the efficacy of masks for reducing the spread of respiratory illness, including COVID-19'' found that there was no evidence that masks made a difference.

It found that wearing a mask in public places probably makes little or no difference in the number of infections, and Dr. Fauci has recently admitted as much.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. OGLES. Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for his words.

Again, to my colleague's point, this really is about following the science and the lessons we have learned that this information, the requirement, the mandatory implementation of mask wearing, which was not presented honestly to the American people, has created distrust within the very institutions that we should trust when such said things happen.

That being said, I think this is important to lay the groundwork and the framework that you can't just mandate masks because you feel that you have to do something.

Fauci has acknowledged that he was winging it, that the 6-foot margin was made up. We now know the efficacy of masks didn't work, and, yes, obviously not wearing a mask could or could not have an impact.

The efficacy studies were on the masks themselves, on N95 masks. This isn't about not wearing a mask; this is about the fact that N95 masks did not work against COVID. We should not have a mandatory mask allowance for our military because of control.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. OGLES. Mr. Chair, again, I will just emphasize this amendment is based off of what we now know about COVID. We know the masks didn't work. There is no need for the Secretary of Defense to urge or mandate our military to wear masks on military installations.

This is about freedom.

This is about liberty.

This is about science.

Mr. Chair, I urge adoption, and I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source