President Joe Biden might force Americans who want to travel on domestic trips to present COVID-19 vaccine passports or show negative test results, The Daily Wire reported.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that the Biden administration is still considering plans to further restrict the right to travel.
A reporter asked Jean-Pierre why the Biden administration was not placing more restrictions on domestic air travel.
“The U.S. is now accepting fully vaccinated travelers from countries that were previously restricted during the pandemic,” the reporter said. “And given how rapidly the Delta variant spread here within the United States over the summer, why are there still no vaccine or testing requirements for domestic travel?”
Jean-Pierre admitted that the Biden administration does not see any fundamental limits to its power.
“So, you know, we say this all the time: Everything is on the table,” Jean-Pierre said. “We just don’t have any announcement to preview right now on this. So, I don’t have anything more to share on the domestic travel.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., on Sept. 29 introduced legislation—the U.S. Air Travel Public Safety Act—that would give the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Federal Aviation Administration the power to right new laws governing air travel.
“We know that air travel during the 2020 holiday season contributed to last winter’s devastating COVID-19 surge,” Feinstein said. “We simply cannot allow that to happen again.”
The bill would give bureaucrats the authority “to develop national vaccination standards and procedures related to COVID-19 and domestic air travel in order to prevent future outbreaks of the disease.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has already mandated that foreign passengers must show a negative COVID-19 test or proof of recovery from COVID-19 to enter the United States.
The Biden administration plans to tighten the rules for international travel.
