Texas Senator Ted Cruz To Introduce Bill To Overturn Vaccine Mandate For School Kids In D.C.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) says he plans to introduce a bill that would overturn a vaccine mandate for school kids in D.C., which is more than 1,100 miles from the border of the state he actually represents in the U.S. Senate.

In a press release from his office sent Wednesday, Cruz said the bill would seek to nullify the vaccine mandate approved by the D.C. Council in late December, which requires students eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine that is fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to get inoculated by Mar. 1, though enforcement would not begin until the start of the 2022-23 school year.

“These mandates, we’re seeing them all over the place. You know, we’re seeing them in schools. It is amazing how many Democrats are willing to try to force parents to get their kid vaccinated,” said Cruz on Tuesday in an interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.

“I’ll tell you, the District of Columbia — the school board — voted to force every child in D.C. to get vaccinated,” Cruz continued. “I’m introducing this week legislation in the Senate to reverse that order. Under the Constitution, the District of Columbia is under the authority of Congress. The school board has no right to force you to get your five-year-old vaccinated. If you want to vaccinate your kid, vaccinate your kid. But if you don’t want to, who are these petty authoritarians trying to make this decision for you? And sadly, it’s a pattern we’re seeing across the board.”

In the interview Cruz mistakenly said the school board approved the vaccine mandate, correcting himself in his press release, where he said “the bill passed 11-1, with only one member of the City Council voting against the measure.” No member voted against the measure; Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8), who says he has received the vaccine but does not want to force others to do so, voted “present.”

D.C. already requires students to be vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, mumps, measles, rubella, polio, Haemophilus influenza type (Hib), hepatitis B, and varicella, much the same as Texas. A new D.C. law allows kids as young as 11 to seek these vaccines without parental consent and under the guidance of a doctor.

“Immunizations are the best defense against some of the most common and sometimes deadly infectious diseases. They are necessary to prevent an outbreak among unimmunized children and children and adults who are unable to receive immunizations, similar to those measles outbreaks that have occurred in other jurisdictions and forced the temporary closure of schools,” says D.C. Health in its Immunization Attendance Policy.

According to D.C. data, 20% of the city’s 5- to 11-year-olds have already received one or both doses of the COVID vaccine. About 67% of kids aged 12 to 15 have received at least one dose, as have 65% of kids aged 16 to 17.

This isn’t the first time Texas has messed with D.C. Last August, Rep. Pat Fallon (R-Texas) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) introduced a bill that would prohibit D.C. from instituting a vaccine mandate for businesses, which Mayor Muriel Bowser later did. (It will take effect Jan. 15.) Their bill has not moved forward in the House, and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said at the time she would not allow it to.

“Congressman Fallon is from Texas. It’s interesting to me how these ill-conceived bills to restrict the rights of D.C. to govern itself always come from members of Congress with no ties to D.C.,” she said in an August statement. “D.C. has a right, based on the science, to do what it can to protect our residents.”

Cruz’s bill similarly has little chance of clearing the Senate, then the House, and then being signed by President Joe Biden, a Democrat. But it still drew opposition from some local officials.

“It’s another infringement on our autonomy as taxpayer citizens,” said Bowser at a press conference Thursday afternoon.

“I hear they say ‘don’t mess with Texas,’” tweeted D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine. Same rule applies here: Keep your hands off D.C. Deferring to local officials is a basic concept of federalism, a principle on which our country was founded.”

“Vaccines save lives. Vaccine requirements are common in school. Standing in the way with cases as high as they’ve ever been and with a clear difference between being vaxxed and not, is beyond reckless,” added Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6). “One year after Jan. 6, don’t you think you’ve done enough harm, Senator?”

Cruz and D.C. have clashed in the past. In 2013, the government shutdown spurred by Cruz’s opposition to the Affordable Care Act also shuttered the D.C. government, because it is considered to be federally funded. (This is despite the fact that the city raises its own revenue to fund operations.) A few years later, he managed to get a bill passed blocking a D.C. law that banned discrimination based on reproductive health decisions. In 2018, he unsuccessfully tried to block D.C. from enforcing the ACA’s individual mandate.

Cruz is up for re-election in 2024, though D.C. residents will be unable to vote for or against him.