President Biden retracted several COVID-19 executive orders Friday — including one imposed on his first day in office to require people to wear masks in federal facilities.
Biden’s Executive Order 13991 — titled “Protecting the Federal Workforce and Requiring Mask-Wearing” — was issued after the wearing of face masks became heavily polarized, with outgoing President Donald Trump and his aides rarely wearing them and focusing on “reopening” from lockdowns.
The order is “hereby revoked,” the White House said in a Friday afternoon announcement more than four years after the virus brought mobile morgues to New York and shut down schools and businesses across the country.
Under the prior order, federal agencies were told to “immediately take action” to “require compliance with CDC guidelines with respect to wearing masks, maintaining physical distance, and other public health measures by: on-duty or on-site Federal employees; on-site Federal contractors; and all persons in Federal buildings or on Federal lands.”
The enforcement of mask requirements long ago subsided, with the White House lifting its own internal mask requirements more than two years ago in March 2022 after the CDC adjusted its mask recommendations to account for local risk reflected by hospitalization rates.
Biden on Friday also retracted Executive Order 13998, adopted on Jan. 21, 2021, that sought to impose mask mandates on flights, trains and buses, and Executive Order 13910, adopted by Trump on March 23, 2020, to forbid the hoarding of medical supplies. --->READ MORE HERE
 |
| AP/Getty Images/File |
Sen Ron Johnson warns that federal government has grown so large it is 'immune' to oversight
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., lambasted Congress on Tuesday for "out of control" federal spending and "unserious" efforts to hold the government accountable.
Johnson, the ranking member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, spoke at the Heritage Foundation's Weaponization of U.S. Government Symposium in the morning, where he discussed his investigations into the COVID-19 pandemic response and great difficulty conducting oversight of the Biden administration.
The problem with Congress, Johnson said, is that members have voted to grow the government without conducting proper oversight of waste, fraud and abuse. He said federal spending is on track to be $6.9 trillion this year while the budget for his investigative committee was cut.
"I got my funding cut when I became ranking member, OK. Do you know how many staff members we have to do oversight over millions of government employees? We've got five. That's how unserious Congress is about oversight," Johnson said.
The Wisconsin Republican has led the charge in the Senate to investigate the origins of COVID-19. He has also accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of coordinating with social media companies to censor COVID vaccine skeptics – although critics have accused Johnson of peddling anti-vaccine misinformation. Johnson is also a leading Senate Republican probing corruption allegations surrounding President Biden's involvement with his son, Hunter Biden's, business dealings. --->READ MNORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
Ninth Circuit upholds federal judge’s decision to stay out of challenge to Covid rules
7 out of 10 Americans think COVID-19 came from a lab
USA TODAY: Coronavirus Updates
WSJ: Coronavirus Live Updates
YAHOO NEWS: Coronavirus Live Updates
NEW YORK POST: Coronavirus The Latest
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.
No comments:
Post a Comment