Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) introduced a bill on Thursday that would target vaccine passports through the federal government, state governments, and businesses.
First obtained by Fox News, the Vaccine Passport Prevention Act would bar the federal government from requiring vaccine passports and would incentivize states to follow suit by limiting federal funds based on a series of conditions.
Not only does the legislation aim at both the state and federal levels, Davidson seeks to use Congress’ constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce to restrict business connected to interstate commerce from requiring proof of vaccination.
The bill serves not as a criticism of the COVID-19 vaccine, but to protect the civil liberties of American citizens.
“They’re not really providing a rational basis for discriminatory activity – they’re busy separating healthy people from other healthy people on the presumption that people without a vaccine are not healthy,” Davidson told Fox News in an interview. “The idea that people can’t restore our way of life and reconnect with civil society unless they get a vaccine is an inherent violation of civil liberties.”
The bill does, however, provide a few exceptions for disallowing vaccination proof — notably, schools, health care providers, and Department of Defense (DOD) employees.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s commented in support of vaccine passports in Dallas on Monday.
“If a company, a business wants to take steps to keep their workers and their passengers safe, I would think that, from a government perspective, we want to do everything we can to encourage that,” Buttigieg told KDFW FOX 4. “And that’s certainly our view at the federal level.”