The White House proposed budget for the Department of Transportation seeks to ban COVID-19 transportation mask mandates. Those ended April 18, 2022 after a federal judge struck them down, taking the Biden administration off the political hook from deciding when they were no longer needed.
Here’s the language that the Trump administration is using:
SEC. 416. None of the funds appropriated or made available by this division for the Department of Transportation for fiscal year 2027 may be used to enforce a mask mandate in response to the COVID-19 virus.
Sec. 416 Explanation
Section 416 prohibits FY 2027 funds from being used to enforce mask mandates
The broader government-wide general provision in the White House’s proposed budget also says,
SEC. 743. None of the funds made available by this Act or any other Act may be used to implement, administer, or enforce any COVID–19 mask or vaccine mandates
My first reaction was, we’re still doing this? It’s been four years since a federal transportation mask mandate has been in place. My second thought was, this only applies to COVID-19 mandates. It wouldn’t forbid spending money on a COVID-26 mandate.
But we very much are still doing this. Just last month an appeals court ruled that United Airlines must face a class action lawsuit for religious discrimination over its vaccine mandate. The airline placed 2,200 employees unpaid leave in fall 2021.
The thing about the 2021 federal transportation mask mandate is that it never made sense in the way 2020 airline mask mandates did.
- The federal mandate was actually looser, requiring more accommodations (exemptions) than the airlines themselves had offered.
- The airline mandates were adopted in spring 2020 to make people more comfortable flying. The federal mandate came when airlines already required masks.
- Cloth masks which satisfied the mandate did litle-to-nothing.
- You were allowed to remove your mask for eating and drinking. Call it the Ted Cruz exception, milking a Starbucks for the whole flight or eating a can of Pringles very slowly.
- Inflight was one of the places were masks were needed least, due to HEPA air filtration and downward air flow. The airport, of course, was a different matter. Air travel required masking, but clubs and bars did not.
- The federal mandate came about after vaccines were approved. Most people could begin getting vaccinated if they wished to protect themselves. And when the mandate was imposed, those vaccines were sterilizing against the dominant form of the virus spreading at that time. They were nearly completely protective and prevented spread. (This changed later as the virus mutated, and the vaccines themselves did not keep up.)
Masks on board became one of the most polarizing elements in the history of air travel. Unruly passenger events spiked to previously-unheard of levels. Reported incidents never really fell completely back to pre-pandemic levels, and the norm of reporting remained elevated.
Tonight this lady refused to wear her mask abord the @AmericanAir flight from Charlotte NC towards #WashingtonDC DCA. She was yelling and gave a speech about “tyranny”. The passengers in neighboring rows moved.
She calmed down when officers in civilian outfit intervened#COVID19 pic.twitter.com/h95v9ddpXH— Emir Sfaxi (@EmirSX) January 11, 2021
Video shows the moment a woman punched a Southwest Airlines flight attendant and knocking out two of her teeth. The incident reportedly started over a mask violation. pic.twitter.com/NAPZknOs1e
— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) May 27, 2021
Even before it became a federal requirement, JetBlue kicked a two year old off a flight for not wearing a mask, Delta banned the Navy SEAL who shot bin Laden, and a conservative activist found himself without a reservation all over not wearing a mask.
I am not the bad guy. I Killed the bad guy.
— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) August 19, 2020
This wasn’t uniform across airlines. United Airlines had fewer flashpoints and flight diversions, for instance, than American Airlines. American cabin crew were given a rule, and left to enforce it. United, with the David Dao passenger dragging incident still fresh, had given flight attendants de-escalation training. They tended to just write up non-compliant passengers and deal with issues on the ground.
2020 was such a strange time. Fast-tracking vaccines was one of the top successes of the first Trump administration, but the ‘right’ rebelled against them (and not just vaccine mandates). Meanwhile, in places like Texas early mask mandates were the conservative alternative to lockdowns. However, as the pandemic progressed we learned a lot more about the COVID-19 virus, that virus mutated, and the mandate that was put in place in early 2021 did not match well to public health needs at the time.
Still, it’s strange to be re-litigating all of this now, except that it’s always remembering that politics is not primarily about policy, it is about relative status of members of your coalition. And a statement against mask mandates is something that the President’s coalition wants as part of ‘owning the libs’.
A great reminder though how strange 2020 was. Not every inflight incident was about masks.
The judge who overturned the mandate in 2022 deseves a medal of freedom honor.
Glad to see the administration is saying mask mandates will never happen again. Needed them in 2021 and 2022
How about the ICE mask mandates.
As my mother, and more recently my doctor, said, better to be safe than sorry.
Is America great again yet?
Could it be possible this administration is trying to be as stupid as possible so they can see their names in the history books? This could only make sense to the senseless. Yes, I’m looking at you @Brian.
To the uneducated, uniformed and non critical thinkers it’s a victory lap showing the voters mandate. Now go back to your new reeducation camp.
Is it just me, or do others feel a sense of depression when remembering those days?
Trump’s breathtaking ignorance of basic science and his willful contempt toward public health cost the lives of 1,235,885 confirmed deaths, and his leadership is still making this an issue, along with voting-by-mail. Please note that this disgusting creep accepted the COVID vaccine after extraordinary life-saving measures were performed for him despite his refusal to take basic precautions to protect himself and everyone around him. Also, the dotard votes by mail.
This is what you voted for Americal, and this is what you got. So, lie in your bed now.
I wonder if this is just housekeeping? Somebody noticed it could technically be enforced (there is no SCOTUS opinion). A lot of unenforceable laws remain on the books. It does make sense to remove them. I find it interesting that Ohio modified their marriages laws a few years ago to essentially require both parties to be >18 (with a close-in-age exception for 17 yo). However, they left in the male/female exclusivity. This was post Obergefell. The right wanted the gay marriage ban to remain in case that decision was overturned. The left, to their credit, knew they couldn’t get the gay ban lifted, but could prevent the marriage of children.
One of the dumbest things to come along in modern history. Not to mention you could take it town to have a sip of beverage because COVID supposedly knew not to attack when you were having your Coke. And it of course was the first “virus” in mankind to be “racist.”
Presumably the mandate is still there but the courts indicated it was unconstitutional to enforce. The administration was right to formally send it to the dustbin of stupid human activity.
And I see that the CDC officially rescinded the order requiring airlines to collect passenger contact information for international flights to the U.S. on November 21, 2025. It was another pandemic-era measure, which made only limited sense since it didn’t include other forms of entry. (However American kept collecting the data for about 6 weeks more before catching up on this.)
The pandemic could have been handled much better, starting when it began with Trump leveling with the American people. (He said he didn’t want to start “a panic”, maybe in the stock market, but it left a lot of people exposed and some estimates are that over a hundred thousand died needlessly. And does anybody remember his crackpot ideas to cure it?) And a national registry for vaccinations would have avoided the meaningless cards. I filled out the blank one I was given and others printed their own.
At the end of the day maybe we learned something from all of this, maybe not. Another plague will come, and hopefully we will be a little more prepared for it.
“I love the uneducated”
-DJT
No wonder why they’d sneak in a mandate like this four years after the fact. It appeals to the lowest common denominator of society. if this was a Venn diagram, there would be a significant overlap to DJT’s base.
Next time no mandates and while we are at it, let’s get rid of motorcycle helmets and seat belts too. The smart ones can figure it out and those that want “their freedom” will become stronger or extinct. We have too many young male Americans. A huge war and the re-institution of the draft would also help to rightsize the country. BTW Putin is paying big bucks for mercenaries as “drone operators” and our Government seems to support the Russians over the Europeans. Check it out boys.
@ George — When will you drop your idiocy over COVID? This virus has killed 7 million people and counting, and you continue to speak about it as if it is no biggie.
Where there isn’t a problem, manufacture one immediately!
Another copy-and-paste job?
@Gene most of those people were very old and/or very sick. When are you going to learn you got conned. The elderly and the ill are very suspectable to flus and colds. That’s what happens. Nothing was done to maybe prevent their deaths. Just moronic measurers like wearing a jockstrap across your face. And how did that jab work out? Funny I never got it and have lived on just fine.
Sounds like our Stable Genius is deeper in the throes of dementia than we knew.