The North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill Monday that prevents governments from imposing mask mandates.
The bill, which would prohibit state and local officials and schools from requiring face masks, passed with a vote of 50-44. It will now advance to the Senate.
Rep. Jeff Hoverson, the bill’s sponsor, has called the mask requirements “diabolical silliness.”
“They do not want North Dakota to get sucked into what is becoming obvious,” Hoverson said, the Prairie Public Press reported. “The mask is a part of a larger apparatus of a movement of unelected, wealthy bureaucrats, who are robbing our freedoms and perpetuating lies.”
This bill comes after North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum imposed a statewide mask mandate in November. Burgum had previously expressed skepticism of mask requirements but backtracked on his statements as the virus strained the state’s hospital capacity.
“Since the beginning, we’ve taken a data-driven approach to our pandemic response, focusing on saving lives and livelihoods,” Burgum said at the time. “Right now, the data demands a higher level of mitigation efforts to reverse these dangerous trends, to slow the spread of this virus, and to avoid the need for economic shutdowns.”
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