Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., and Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., blasted the Biden administration for requiring toddlers to wear masks both inside and outside while attending a federally funded program.
Nearly 1,600 Head Start facilities provide early education services to low-income children. The administration now is requiring grant recipients to mask, at all times, even children as young as 2.
"The decision to mask or not mask a toddler should be made by a parent or guardian, not [President] Joe Biden," Thune and Scalise wrote in a Fox News opinion column.
"Not only is this decision to police schoolyard activities yet another affront to parents' rights by the Biden administration, even worse is nothing about this nationwide policy is based on science or common sense."
Although two federal judges have placed a preliminary injunction on the rule, pending a lawsuit from 25 states, Republicans planned to introduce legislation to nullify the requirement.
They say that Congressional Review Act gives Congress the ability to overturn executive branch rules and regulations.
"We cannot allow big-government socialists to hold back America’s children any more than they already have," they wrote. "Children need to be in the classroom. And when there, they should be free to act as kids do — laughing, learning and interacting with friends and teachers unimpeded by a cloth mask that is likely doing very little besides serving as an impediment."
Thune and Scalise said it has been learned that young children are less vulnerable — transmission low and symptoms usually mild — to COVID-19 than other demographic groups.
Parents should be allowed to mask themselves or their children if they feel the necessity, but "the federal government should stay out of that decision-making process, especially for Americans who are least at risk for the virus but high at risk for being left behind educationally or emotionally," Thune and Scalise wrote.
The two Republicans said the mask requirement for toddlers was the latest example of Democrat overreach.
"One thing we've learned over the years is that when Democrats have power in Washington, they typically use it to impose freedom-restricting rules, whether it be on small businesses, family farmers or innovators," they wrote. "But we've never seen Democrats try to regulate the behavior of toddlers — until now."
Thune and Scalise cited that The World Health Organization explicitly states that "children aged 5 years and under should not be required to wear masks … based on the safety and overall interest of the child," and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control doesn’t recommend mask-wearing for children under the age of 12.
"A face mask may be one of the most debilitating learning barriers for young children," the two lawmakers wrote. "The early years are when kids learn to recognize facial cues, understand emotions, and speak and express themselves. Prolonged masking directly interferes with a student’s ability to learn verbal and nonverbal communication skills, which can set them back for the rest of their life."
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