{"id":1204524,"date":"2022-01-10T12:04:40","date_gmt":"2022-01-10T17:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1204524"},"modified":"2022-01-10T12:29:12","modified_gmt":"2022-01-10T17:29:12","slug":"gop-lawmakers-want-dc-mayor-to-rescind-covid-19-vaccine-mandate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-lawmakers-want-dc-mayor-to-rescind-covid-19-vaccine-mandate\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Lawmakers Want DC Mayor to Rescind COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgop-lawmakers-want-dc-mayor-to-rescind-covid-19-vaccine-mandate%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1204524&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Two top Republican lawmakers on Monday called for Washington Mayor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-muriel-bowser\">Muriel Bowser<\/a> to rescind her order that requires anyone 12 or older to present proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter many businesses in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy requiring anyone over the age of twelve to present proof of vaccination to enter most indoor establishments in the District, students who are not vaccinated will be prohibited from eating at restaurants, meeting indoors for conferences, enjoying entertainment venues, and more,\u201d\u00a0Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), the top Republican on the House Subcommittee on the Environment, wrote (<a href=\"https:\/\/republicans-oversight.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/2022-01-10-Letter-to-Bowser-Vaccine-Mandate.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) to Bowser, a Democrat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll Americans, especially our youth, should be welcomed to the District, but your sweeping mandate locks them out of their capital city,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<p>The lawmakers argued that because of the rise of the Omicron virus variant, vaccine requirements don\u2019t make sense. The variant of the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/giving-the-right-name-to-the-virus-causing-a-worldwide-pandemic-2_3277200.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus<\/a>\u00a0has sickened millions of Americans who were vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p>They also noted that Bowser\u2019s order contains no exceptions for people who have recovered from COVID-19. Recovery bestows a measure of protection, studies show, though some experts say people who have natural immunity should still get vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p>Staffers on the House panel were told by Washington\u2019s chief financial officer, Fitzroy Lee, that about 20 percent of the city\u2019s revenue comes from sales tax collection and 25 percent comes from income tax collection.<\/p>\n<p>Lee also said that hotel revenues were down 33 percent and restaurant revenues were down 25 percent from before the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Comer and Norman want a briefing from Washington officials on the mandate no later than Jan. 18.<\/p>\n<p>Bowser\u2019s press secretary did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4203693\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4203693\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/mayor-bowser-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser walks in Washington on Sept. 7, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>The first-term mayor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/dc-mayor-imposes-covid-19-vaccine-requirement-for-restaurants-bars-gyms_4173128.html\">announced the vaccine mandate just before Christmas<\/a>. Among the stated reasons for imposing the requirements was that the vaccines help prevent hospitalizations, so forcing residents and visitors to get vaccinated would lead to a lower number of hospitalizations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe do know that mandates have the ability to move people who are not vaccinated to become vaccinated and we also know that that is a huge public health benefit,\u201d she said, citing city data that indicated people who are not vaccinated are still at higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and going to the hospital.<\/p>\n<p>According to the District of Colombia Department of Health, the daily and weekly COVID-19 case rate continues to increase even as the hospitalization rate drops. Additionally, most patients in district hospitals do not have COVID-19, and 14 percent of hospital capacity remains available.<\/p>\n<p>Bowser acknowledged that studies and real-world data show the Omicron variant is not as lethal as the Delta strain but added, \u201cthat doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not disruptive, and that doesn\u2019t mean that we don\u2019t have a responsibility to contain it where we can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The mandate takes effect on Jan. 15 if it is not withdrawn. Establishments that must verify vaccination under the mandate include restaurants, bowling alleys, and gyms.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Zachary Stieber covers U.S. news and stories relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. He is based in Maryland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two top Republican lawmakers on Monday called for Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser to rescind her order that requires anyone 12 or older to present proof of COVID-19 vaccination to enter &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1204524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}