On Tuesday, President Joe Biden will stand in the Capitol and deliver his second State of the Union… and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has a surprise for him.
After two years, Pelosi is expected to lift the House’s mask mandate right before the address, in accordance with the C.D.C.’s new guidelines.
Pelosi sets official mask policy in the House but she has previously deferred to Capitol Physician Brian P. Monahan.
“Individuals may choose to mask at any time, but it is no longer a requirement,” Monahan said in a statement describing the C.D.C. guidelines.
After setting policy, Pelosi chooses how to enforce it. Lately, she has issued orders resulting in fines for some lawmakers who refuse to wear masks.
House speakers followed these procedures even before the pandemic. For example, Pelosi plays a similar role in the House’s security policy. In 2019, she threatened to bar former President Donald Trump from giving his State of the Union in the House over what she called security concerns pertaining to a government shutdown.
The C.D.C. altered the official coronavirus guidelines on Friday. Previously, the agency recommended masking in counties classified as “substantial risk” or “high-risk.”
Then, the agency scrapped the distinction between “substantial” and “high.” As of now, only 28 percent of Americans live in high-risk counties. The other 71 percent can safely go without masks.
Under the new guidelines, 71 percent of schoolchildren can now go without masks in school, according to an analysis by the American Enterprise Institute.
Still, the CDC is urging elderly people to consult their doctors before going maskless. Plus, the agency allows individual people to choose to mask.
Washington, D.C., officially qualifies as a low-risk, and so do most counties in nearby Maryland and northern Virginia.
The new guidelines have faced both praise for their timeliness… and criticism for their complexity.
On its website, the C.D.C. maintains a map of every county, color-coded according to risk level.
The Horn editorial team