The North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill that would avoid rules that require masks, a mandate that a lawmaker called “diabolical nonsense”.
The state’s lower house voted 50-44 on Monday to ban state and local governments, schools and businesses from ordering mask warrants amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Grand Forks Herald reported.
The bill goes to the Senate.
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Deputy Jeff Hoverson, the project’s sponsor, characterized the mask’s requirements as “diabolical nonsense”.
“The mask is part of a larger apparatus of a movement of wealthy and unelected bureaucrats, who are stealing our freedoms and perpetuating lies,” said Hoverson, reported the Prairie Public Press.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jason Dockter argued that a mask ban would remove control from local governments.
“If people wanted to decide on a mask term, they should have that choice,” said Dockter. “They should also have the option of not ordering.”
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The potential legislation comes after North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum imposed a statewide masking mandate in November.
“From the beginning, we took a data-based approach to our response to the pandemic, with a focus on saving lives and livelihoods,” said Burgum at the time. “At the moment, the data requires a higher level of mitigation efforts to reverse these dangerous trends, to slow the spread of the virus and avoid the need for economic downtime.”
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