The House will not hold a scheduled vote on a bill repealing the travel bans imposed by President Donald Trump to focus on legislation responding to the coronavirus outbreak, Fox News reports.
The No Ban Act was set to come to the House floor sometime this week, but Democratic leaders have delayed a vote to speed the passage of coronavirus-related legislation, according to a spokesperson for Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., the bill's sponsor.
Trump signed an executive order banning travel from several Muslim-majority countries in 2017, including Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Yemen. Earlier this year that ban was extended to include Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania.
This week, the president banned European citizens, not including those from the United Kingdom, from traveling to the U.S. for one month amid the coronavirus outbreak.
"Democrats could not have picked a worse week to try to undermine American travel restrictions," Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Wednesday, on the floor of the House. "President Trump's quick decision to restrict travel to countries like Iran and China was a smart response, and it is helping keep America safe."
Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., added in a press conference, Iran has been heavily hit by the coronavirus, and "with this outbreak of coronavirus, the president . . . needs to have all the tools available to limit people coming in from countries with a high propensity of coronavirus, and you wouldn't want legislation that would make it more difficult."
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