H.R. 5368: Freedom to Breathe Act
On September 8th, 2023, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance introduced H.R. 5368: Freedom to Breathe Act to Congress; legislation to prevent the return of mask mandates across the nation. This act is merited to uphold the sovereign rights of the individual, as America witnessed a totalitarian response to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic. Vance looks to invoke explicit guarantees on the freedoms of future Americans, ensuring that no person will be exiled from society for failure to renounce their Constitutional rights and comply with the health mandates of a global institution.
H.R. 5368 deploys preventative sanctions against government intervention should another pandemic outbreak occur; denoting its applicability of enforcement, even under emergency authorization. The government should not hold the power to depose the supreme authority of the U.S. Constitution, nor coerce constituents to abide by nefarious public policy. The coronavirus pandemic presented an unprecedented infringement on the rights of citizens unseen in contemporary polity.
The Contents of the Bill
The contents of this nine-page bill include preventative measures barring federal funding during the applicable period. H.R. 5368 asserts hegemony over “any provision of Federal, State, Tribal, territorial, or local law, declaration, guidance, or directive to the extent that such laws, declarations, guidance, or directives are inconsistent with this Act,” (Senate). Federal agencies are required to comply within ninety days of the bill’s enactment, mandating the agencies supplant “new or revised regulations as are necessary to carry out this Act,” (Senate). H.R. 5368 ensures that Americans will not be forced to comply with outrageous mask mandates blatantly unsupported by science. It does not mention the guarantee against forced inoculations; instead honing in on the mandate to muzzle.
H.R. 5368 reads;
During the applicable period, notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds may be obligated or expended to propose, establish, implement, or enforce, directly or indirectly through the imposition of a condition on receipt of Federal funds, any requirement that an individual wear a mask or comply with a mask mandate while traveling as a passenger of an air carrier in the national airspace system, using public transit, or while in any elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education, (Senate).
No Federal Funding
H.R. 5368 bars federal funding; in other words, tax dollars may not be siphoned to public health institutions, major pharmaceutical companies, or global agencies. The propagandized contorted depictions of public health witnessed throughout the coronavirus pandemic forced participants to function as experimentees, while receiving no just compensation other than cultural normalcy facilitated by personal acquiescence to radical sanctions and obligation; whose authority asserts compliance at the expense of individual sovereignty. Consider for a moment if the federal government had invested the money used to push experimental mRNA vaccines to bolster major pharmaceutical companies.
In H.R. 5368, Vance states;
no Federal funds may be obligated or expended to propose, establish, implement, or enforce, directly or indirectly through the imposition of a condition on receipt of Federal funds, any requirement that an individual wear a mask or comply with a mask mandate while traveling as a passenger of an air carrier in the national airspace system, using public transit, or while in any elementary school, secondary school, or institution of higher education, (Senate).
Temporal Justice
Conversely, H.R.5368 only offers protection until December 31st, 2024, whereby no guarantee of its furtherance, nor consideration, is proposed. Furthermore, it only guarantees the protection of the rights and dignity of “passengers of air carriers or public transit and in educational settings within the United States;” adding the vague contingency “and for other purposes.” This does not guarantee that the freedom to breathe will become revered as inherent to civic liberties for posterity; instead, it functions as an early campaigning scheme. J.D. Vance produced a fantastic bill, yet failed to account for permanent revision, or any consideration of such. The legislation expounds; defining the term mask as “a material covering the nose and mouth of the wearer, excluding face shields;” and mask mandate as any “order, directive, or ordinance which requires an individual to wear a mask to travel on any conveyance, or to enter or remain in any place within the United States, in response to a public health emergency,” (Senate). H.R. 5368 is an honorable bill, yet temporary; therefore, it cannot be relied upon to protect the liberties of future generations. Rather, it correlates with demagoguery; standing to implicitly fortify Senator Vance’s name, not the interests of his constituents. Once the bill goes into effect, the public is likely to forget its short duration, and declare Senator Vance as the man who abolished the federal mask mandates; this is not the case beyond December 31st, 2024.
Mask Inefficiency
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), “[t]he size of SARS-CoV-2 ranges from 0.07 μm to 0.09 μm;” thereby denoting that N95 Masks “block at least 95% of very small (0.3 μm) particles and is considered a standard for enhanced respiratory precautions,” (NIH). The data presented by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reveal the blatant inefficiency of masks, bringing concern and question to the origin of the original mask mandates, whereby citizens were forcibly muzzled to uphold illusions of institutional public safety.
Biblically, we are reminded through Scripture that masks are against faith and the intentions of God; whereby the Lord writes, “[f]or a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man,” (1 Corinthians 11:7; ESV).
The Seventeenth Amendment
The Seventeenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states that, “[t]he Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.” This defeated the principle of federalism, as the purpose of State-elected Senators was the support the interests of each State; since its ratification on April 8th, 1913; the Amendment revised Article I, § 3 of the U.S. Constitution.
The benefit to the Seventeenth Amendment is the obligation it invokes in Senators, to uphold the interests of State constituents; this simultaneously proposes a problem, as Senators are far more likely to invoke temporary policy to gain appeal from Constituents, no matter if that policy leaves a lasting change on American polity. The Ohio Senator’s H.R. 5368 displays the needs of the American people in the contemporary age of pandemics, bioweaponry, and other curated health emergencies.
Conclusion
Beyond its brief lifespan, J.D. Vance’s bill proposes important principles to secure many essential foundations of American liberty. Citizens should expect H.R. 5368 to set the trend for brief and effective legislation that focuses on specific civic grievances; yet also additionally proposes annual revision, and not just allow the federal government to strategize future sanctions while observing methods of temporal explicit dissent. Contemporary Americans must demand representation against Federal, State, Tribal, territorial, or local law, declaration, guidance, or directive; securing their own sovereignty against maleficent laws, declarations, guidance, or directives. Overall, J.D. Vance’s H.R. 5368 stands as a temporary legislative landmark, thereby offering inspiration to future legislators about fulfilling the needs of their constituents. A temporary bill is better than no bill at all and highlights the need for an enumerated guarantee that America will remain a self-ruling nation.
Bibliography
Constitutioncenter. (Accessed on December 23rd, 2023). 17th Amendment - Popular Election of Senators | Constitution Center. https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/amendments/amendment-xvii.
Senate. (Accessed on December 23rd, 2023). https://www.vance.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/ERN23A3322.pdf
Vance. (Accessed on December 23rd, 2023). Senator Vance Leads Push To Ban Federal Mask Mandates - J.D. Vance. https://www.vance.senate.gov/press-releases/senator-vance-leads-push-to-ban-federal-mask-mandates/.