You are currently viewing U.S. House of Representatives votes to lift the travel requirement

More news related to the illogical and outdated U.S. vaccination requirement, because we told you we’d keep you in the loop: U.S. Representatives (the equivalent of federal MPs) from both parties voted to end the requirement, by a vote of 227 to 201.

But for now, it has no impact at all. And it’s far from certain that it’s going to have any impact too.

Here are the details.

 

Reminder of the context

In early January, the U.S. vaccination requirement was extended by President Biden.

I won’t repeat the basics of this rule, you can read that article with all the details of this unscientific measure, because their definition of “vaccinated” has never been updated and is completely outdated according to all the experts in epidemiology (and everyone else who has the slightest bit of critical thinking and doesn’t just blindly believe the governments).

 

Since then, Biden has also announced the end of the state of emergency in the United States, but that will only take effect on May 11. And that doesn’t include the vaccination requirement to enter the country, which is a separate and completely distinct rule.

But as we explained in that article, it gives the impression that the vaccination requirement will remain in place until May 11, although this is not certain. It could end earlier or even stay longer.

 

The vote in the House of Representatives

Since these announcements, the U.S. Travel Association has made several public appearances to criticize the rule.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives voted 227 to 201 to end the rule.

That doesn’t end the rule.

The Senate must also vote and it is controlled by the Democrats, President Biden’s party. While it wasn’t unanimous, they voted overwhelmingly against the bill in the House of Representatives.

Not just that, the President can even veto it if he wants. And all indications are that’s what he would do if it got there. He just repeated that he was against the law that was passed.

He says it “reduces the spread,” which is obviously absurd. Having been vaccinated 2 full years ago, without ever having had a booster dose (the American definition of “vaccinated”) would reduce the spread more than testing negative? More than having had COVID-19 a few weeks ago and having immunity, but not having had a vaccine?

And it is those who criticize this who are “anti-science” according to the many who suffer from covidanxiety who don’t want to get over all this.

Anyway, the next steps in this bill remain to be seen.

We’ll let you know as soon as there are developments. But it doesn’t look like this vote will change anything at this point.

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Summary

The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to end the U.S. vaccination requirement, but unfortunately, that doesn’t change anything at this point. It would also be surprising if it changed anything later, but we’ll obviously be following closely.

What would you like to know about the travel requirements in the US? Tell us in the comments below.

 

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Featured image: United States Capitol (photo credit: Mike Stoll)

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Andrew D'Amours

Andrew is the co-founder of Flytrippers. He is passionate about traveling the world but also, as a former management consultant, about the travel industry itself. He shares his experiences to help you save money on travel. As a very cost-conscious traveler, he loves finding deals and getting free travel thanks to travel rewards points... to help him visit every country in the world (current count: 71/193 Countries, 47/50 US States & 9/10 Canadian Provinces).

This Post Has 13 Comments

  1. Fred Braun

    I travel to the US once a year for vacation. Last time I visited the USA was in November 2021, I entered the US a few days before the vaccine requirement was enforced. I have not returned to the US since then because I don’t want to be vaccinated, so basically I’m waiting for this ridiculous requirement to be lifted. Do you think that the chances are higher for this to happen in April/May?

    1. Andrew D'Amours

      The last time it was due to expire was January 10th, and they announced the extension on the 30th. So maybe we’ll know tomorrow. If not, you’ll know very soon whether it’ll be lifted on April 10th. I’ve stopped making predictions about things that are clearly completely nonsensical and illogical. In fact, I’ll soon write a post about how you can legally enter without being vaccinated, because their rules are even more stupid than I thought. Stay tuned.

      1. Pia ferdinandsen

        Hey Andrew
        I am from Denmark and waiting for the vaccine mandat to be removed
        My sister lives in Florida so i am looking forvard to that.
        Thanks for Update us here..I look this page up every day to see if there are Any changes.

  2. oliver

    Boy the vaccinatede sure did screw everyone with their blind compliance.
    Let us hope that they enjoy hell as much as they enjoy destroying peoples lives.

  3. Chris

    Thank you Andrew for explaining everything so accurately and keeping this topic up to date. I have a business trip planned to Florida to the middle of May so I hope – if they won’t drop it by vote – they will drop it after 10 of April to when it is valid. Otherwise it would be highly ridiculous nonsense. I hope it will finish like this, otherwise I will need to take any kind of 1-dose vaxxine to make it on time after 10 of April, this is important business trip, but I do not want to do that anyway … all the best

    1. Andrew D'Amours

      Hi, in theory early May it should end with the end of the public health emergency. Not even sure Canada still offers the one-dose vaccine, I went to Texas to get it back in April 2021 when I naively believed they’d leave us alone and get over all this if we took it 😛

      1. Frank S

        How were you able to get to Texas to get the “one-dose” if didn’t have any shots to pass the US entry requirements? Just curious ….

      2. Andrew D'Amours

        This was way back in April 2021, they had no vaccine requirement back then, just the test requirement 🙂

  4. DjokoFan

    Hi, I’m a Djokovic fan and I’m tired to see him banned from playing tennis tournaments in the US. He’s n1 and allowed to play everywhere but not in US it’s absurd.

    1. Andrew D'Amours

      Hi, it sure is absurd, although it’s certainly even worse for families who can’t even reunite with loved ones.

  5. TL@

    Thanks for keeping us updated.

    We’d love to have a Florida holiday while our teenager is still willing to go on holiday with us 😉

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