EXCLUSIVE — Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) will introduce amendments in this year’s Homeland Security appropriations bill to prevent funding for mask mandate efforts and the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
Nehls said the Department of Homeland Security should be focused on protecting the nation instead of attempting to “advance the Left’s woke agenda.”
REPUBLICAN THREAT BECOMES REAL FOR BIDEN AFTER IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY
Amendment 29 takes aim at masking requirements by cutting federal funding for entities that seek to enforce masking mandates after a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations increased concerns that mandates could be put back into effect.
The amendment, obtained by the Washington Examiner, states that funding in the bill cannot be “used to reimplement or enforce COVID-19-era mask requirements for airport entry, access, and commercial air travel.”
Targeting various federal agencies for which finances were appropriated by Congress in the past, the amendment says those funds may not be “utilized by the Department of Homeland Security, Transportation Security Administration, or any related federal agency to reimplement, develop, or otherwise enforce any federal rule, regulation, or order requiring persons to wear face masks for the purposes of domestic air travel in response to COVID-19.”
In January 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention required people to wear masks in public transportation hubs, including planes. However, a federal judge voided the national mask mandate for airplanes and other modes of public transportation in April 2022. The CDC recommended people 6 months and older receive the updated COVID-19 booster this week, shortly after the Food and Drug Administration greenlit a new booster targeting subvariants.
Some Republican lawmakers are working on legislation to tackle concerns that masks may soon be required in some areas. Last week, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) introduced the Freedom to Breathe Act, which would bar any federal official from issuing mask mandates in certain public spaces. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) introduced a companion bill to Vance’s legislation in the House.
Nehls, who has introduced several amendments to the Homeland Security appropriations bill, also proposed blocking funding to DHS's Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, which investigates complaints, such as those regarding Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers.
The other amendment, Amendment 204, states, “Funds made available by this Act may be used for the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Department of Homeland Security.”
“DHS should not receive another dime to support Biden’s bureaucrats who are involved in the ‘Abolish ICE’ movement and force American travelers to comply with mask mandates on airplanes,” Nehls said. “DHS has one mission — protect our nation from domestic and foreign threats, not waste taxpayer dollars on the woke and radical agenda of the Left and the Biden administration.”
Republicans have stepped up attacks against President Joe Biden’s handling of the growing immigration crisis, accusing the administration of working to abolish ICE. A conservative organization shared Nehls’s concerns and pushed to dismantle the CRCL.
“CRCL has become an anti-ICE component of DHS that seeks to fundamentally transform ICE from immigration enforcement to releasing deportable aliens into American communities and providing them with taxpayer-funded social services,” said Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation. “Congressman Nehls is taking the correct approach — end it entirely.”
Republicans have pressed the Biden administration to provide additional information on DHS’s connections to nongovernmental organizations, alleging misuse of taxpayer dollars to fund immigration services.
Last year, Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN) accused DHS of using taxpayer dollars to fund groups that have ties to the "Abolish ICE" movement. The Church World Service, a nonprofit group, was designated last year as the secretariat and fiduciary agent for DHS’s Case Management Pilot Program.
The Republican senators wrote a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas accusing the group of being “at the forefront of pro-open border and anti-enforcement activities for years” and diverting funds away from ICE and Customs and Border Protection activities.
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Congress is gearing up to debate and pass an appropriations bill to fund the DHS for fiscal 2024. The Senate and House will have separate spending legislation. Republicans in the House are using the appropriations bill to include several amendments in an effort to scale back Biden’s immigration, border, and COVID-19 policies.
Members of Congress have until Sept. 30 to pass 12 appropriations bills to avert a government shutdown.