Senator Mitt Romney (R.UT) voted with his Democrat colleagues on Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) to maintain the federal mask mandate for children as young at two years old. Romney voted against lifting vaccine and mask mandates in federal Head Start programs.

Republican Senator Mike Braun (R.I.) proposed an amendment to the legislation which would prohibit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from “implementing or enforcement their regulations regarding vaccination protections in Head Start”

HHS states that Head Start requires universal masking for all participants aged two years or older.

After nearly two years of federal mask mandates, President Biden declared in his State of the Union address that most Americans can now wear masks freely. This was in accordance with the CDC’s new guidelines. He is absolutely right. It is time to get our lives back, especially if science is used instead of political science.

The Braun amendment was supported by two Swing Republican Senators, Lisa Murkowski (R.AK) and Susan Collins. However, it failed to pass. Romney was the only HELP Committee Republican to vote against the lifting of mask mandates for young kids.

Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, stated that the federal government mandates “punish children.”

“The rest of America is offended by your telling them that their children, who aren’t at risk, aren’t spreading this disease, and that we are going to make these kids wear masks. Paul stated that it was unscientific, inhumane and hinders their learning.