Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, during this pandemic, the people of the United States have seen the Federal Government intrude into their lives more frequently and more completely than ever before. President Biden didn't make any pretense about this. He didn't mince any words. He didn't sugarcoat it. He didn't even try to hide behind any veneer when he spoke to the American people. He said: ``Our patience is wearing thin.''

This five-word expose of the President's thinking is deeply troubling. It is not the kind of sentiment you ever want expressed within a Free Republic, not from the Chief Executive.

To say ``our patience is wearing thin'' might be something that you say of a foreign adversary. It might be something you say of a subordinate within government, someone who reports up to the President. It is not something you say of the people--the people who, in our system, collectively, are the sovereign.

It is only by the consent of the governed that our government has its legitimacy, and to denigrate the American people that way is not consistent with who we are. It is not consistent with our form of government.

So I find that five-worded mission of how he views the American people worrying in its own right. But I find it nothing short of horrifying that he--as if acting as some sort of omnipresent nanny state disciplinarian executive is now set to plunge even more deeply into everyday lives of the American people.

We are here today to remove one of the options from the unconstitutional buffet of strong-armed Executive tactics used by President Biden in connection with COVID-19. Requiring proof of vaccination for interstate travel would create millions of second-class Americans. And it would make all Americans subject to a form of government and a type of power to which we are not accustomed. And that is really ill-suited for our Constitution structure.

The Constitution itself protects Americans from this type of action. The Privileges and Immunities Clause and the Fourteenth Amendment grants Americans the right to freely travel between the States. There is no precedent for the Federal Government requiring anything like vaccination before traveling domestically. There is no precedent because there is no legitimate Federal power in this area to begin with.

It is important to remember that the Federal Government doesn't have what we call general police powers. These are the basic powers of government that are there to protect life, liberty, and property and to focus on things like health, safety, and welfare.

You see, State governments retain this general police power. Remember that James Madison, in Federalist No. 45, described the powers given to Congress as few and defined and those reserved to the States as numerous and indefinite.

The Founding Fathers understood what general police powers were. They deliberately, consciously, intentionally, and with very good reason did not give those powers to the Federal Government.

So as a result, the Federal Government doesn't possess, under the Constitution, the ability to pass laws or regulations of this sort. No, in our system of government--our national government--this Federal Government has to pass only those laws that are within these powers that are few and defined, those enumerated in the Constitution.

The President of the United States, under our Constitution, does not, moreover, have any kind of unilateral lawmaking authority whatsoever. So the power is not Federal in the first place. And even if it were a proper Federal power, which it is not, it is a legislative power that he is trying to wield here. Only we can give him that. Only we can enact legislation.

Article I, section 7, makes it very clear that if you are going to change the legal status quo, if you are going to establish policy at the Federal level that will carry the force of generally applicable Federal law, you have to be acting within one of Congress's enumerated powers.

But more importantly here, under article I, section 7, you have to have passage in the House; you have to have passage in the Senate of the same legislative vehicle, followed by presentment to the President of the United States. That formula hasn't been followed here. We have no Federal law on this as a result of that. We, thankfully, got rid of a King back in 1776. We have never gone back--never looked back and longed for the Union Jack. We shouldn't be anxious to convert the Presidency into a type of monarchy, even if it is a mini monarchy.

Beyond the constitutional problems, requiring vaccine passports for domestic travel within the United States would place a huge burden on not only the American people, but also on airlines and on other businesses that are already hard hit by the pandemic. Multiple major airlines have already expressed their concerns with a vaccine passport mandate.

Look, the last thing the American people need is more mandates and restrictions preventing them from making their own reasonable decisions. Americans deserve to be able to make a living and to be able to engage in interstate commerce and to travel interstate without mandates making them choose between providing for their families and undergoing a medical procedure against their will.

That is why I am fighting President Biden's existing mandate and fighting against future intrusions by the executive branch into the lives of Americans.

The bill offered by my friend and colleague, the Senator from Florida, would ensure that Federal Agencies cannot attempt to impose vaccine requirements for interstate travel or commerce. I am proud to be here in support of this bill. I am proud to defend Americans and their constitutional rights. I hope we can protect millions of our fellow citizens and the American way of life by passing this bill.

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