02.24.23

Hoeven: Long Past Time Biden Administration Ends COVID-19 Mandates

Senator Presses HHS Secretary to Rescind COVID-19 Mandates, Stresses Burden on Rural Health Care Providers

WASHINGTON – In a call with Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra this week, Senator John Hoeven:

  • Pressed Secretary Becerra to rescind mandates related to COVID-19.
  • Reinforced the importance of telehealth in rural health care and supporting efforts to bolster the rural health care workforce. 

“The Biden administration has announced it plans to end the public health emergency in May,” said Hoeven. “The federal government must also end its overreaching COVID-19 mandates. Rather, we should be supporting health care providers and not burdening them with mandates that are not necessary nor feasible.”

The call comes as part of Hoeven’s ongoing efforts to stop overreaching federal COVID-19 mandates including:

  • Ending the Defense Department’s COVID vaccine mandate in the NDAA.
  • Voting for a CRA to repeal the vaccine mandate on private employers.
  • Voting for a CRA to repeal the vaccine mandate for health care workers.
  • Working to prevent the federal employee and contractor mandates, including repeatedly voting to defund the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
  • Cosponsoring legislation to repeal the vaccine and mask mandates for Head Start teachers and volunteers.
  • Pressing the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary to stop vaccine mandates for USDA employees.

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