Senate committee advances bill to block COVID-19 mask mandates after tense exchange

The Senate Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee on a voice vote advanced Senate Bill 590, a measure the sponsor said would end the state's COVID-19 mask mandate and bar similar future mandates until the public-health crisis has passed.

Sponsor remarks framed the bill as a response to what he described as an unprecedented consolidation of power in the executive branch during the pandemic. In committee, he said executive orders had closed businesses and imposed fines without legislative input and argued SB590 would restore the legislative role. “I’ll take a dangerous freedom over a comfortable servitude any day of the week,” he said during his remarks.

The committee heard testimony opposing the bill from Laura Xu, who said the Department of Health and public-health emergency powers (cited in the hearing as 20-7-109 and 20-7-110) allow rapid response and that SB590 would remove flexibility to react to public-health threats. Xu said the bill conflicts with Act 403 of 2021, provides no sunset, and would limit mitigation options. She noted the governor had indicated a face-covering directive would end at midnight on March 31 and urged continued reliance on metrics such as the seven-day hospitalization rate.

Senator Hester asked whether the bill would prevent private businesses from requiring masks. The witness read the bill language saying, in part, that on the act's effective date "all mandatory face covering requirements are removed," and the sponsor later countered that private property owners would retain discretion to refuse service and could enforce mask rules so long as they did not violate anti-discrimination laws.

Committee members asked no further questions; the sponsor closed, the committee called the question twice to confirm the voice vote, and the bill was approved by voice vote. The transcript records vocal "ayes" and calls of "no," but no roll-call tallies appear in the hearing record.

SB590 references statutory emergency authorities in testimony and cites Act 403 of 2021; the committee record does not show additional hearings or amendments during this session. The bill now moves on according to committee procedure.