Arizona Representative Andy Biggs discussed his two important House bills that would put an end to unlawful mandates and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) during a recent episode of "The New American" with host Christian Gomez.
Biggs' bills are the "No Mandates Act" (HR 6395) and "Nullify Occupational Safety and Health Administration" or "NOSHA Act" (HR 5813), which he introduced in November last year.
Biggs explained that his proposed "No Mandates Act" would prohibit the federal government from issuing any Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandates and stop the government from requiring vaccine passports or any other proof of vaccination.
"It does attack this issue on two fronts. Number one, it says there could be no vaccine mandates. So that's an important part, just saying you can't mandate this. And the second thing is saying, you can't require a vaccine passport type of thing," Biggs said.
"You have got to basically stand down here. This is an individual choice. And it's a real simple bill. I think it's a page and a half, actually. But it covers all of the pertinent information that's necessary to turn this into a meaningful law, which would restrict the demons of the COVID era, which are the medical bureaucrats."
NOSHA Act to abolish OSHA
Biggs' proposed NOSHA Act, on the other hand, would abolish OSHA.
"That bill is even shorter than the other one. It just eliminates the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Here's the thing: OSHA is basically outmoded. It's outdated, whether you agree or disagree. But the folks that advocated for OSHA, they felt like there should be some federal oversight into the states and an ability to regulate workplace environment," Biggs explained.
"Well, the reality is, most states have some kind of rubric now to watch over those issues. That's not a federal issue. There's no constitutional authority for it, nor is there any moral authority for it. The states are the ones that interact with their citizenry, and they're the ones that should be held accountable for whatever side they take on this. We should not be doing it in the federal arena, and that's why I introduced the legislation.”
Gomez asked Biggs whether Congress should still be pushing to pass his bills despite the threat of a Joe Biden veto.
"I'm a big believer that you should never let the threat of a no vote or defeat prevent you from introducing and passing good legislation. So if the Senate says, 'Well, you're not going to get 60 votes in the Senate.' I say so what, let's pass the best legislation. We can get it over to the Senate and let the Senate reveal themselves to be not principled or not having the same principles and values of that particular legislation," Biggs explained.
"And in this case, if it were to get to President Biden and he were to veto it, then he has to own that. And so does everybody else in his party. And then there should be accountability and there would be accountability."
Lockdown policies are ill-founded as pandemic instrument
Gomez pointed out that researchers from Johns Hopkins University released last month a literature review and meta-analysis study of the effects of lockdowns and COVID-19 mortality. They concluded that the mandated lockdowns in response to the first wave of COVID-19 in the United States and in Europe only reduced the mortality rate by 0.2 percent.
The researchers wrote in the report: "In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic instrument. We find little to no evidence that mandated lockdowns in Europe and the United States had a noticeable effect on COVID-19 mortality rates."
Biggs thinks the country is now witnessing a breakdown of the Democrats' narrative in terms of lockdowns and other strict policies. (Related: Lockdowns BACKFIRE: Areas with most aggressive covid lockdowns saw highest infection numbers.)
"We were talking about this from a freedom perspective, two years ago. We intuitively understood that there's a whole lot of secondary and tertiary ramifications to this type of lockdown and taking away of freedom. So, for me, it's rewarding to know that there are finally some folks out there that agree with us," Biggs said.
"But you still have some of the authoritarian Democrats who are hanging on and clinging on to this. So like in L.A., for instance, they say even though California is going to get rid of this mask mandate, L.A. is going to say, ‘Well, you still have to wear masks in the city. So you still see the people who are doing this for control are still out there, but I think little by little people are waking up."
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