The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that masks will not be deemed a mandatory requirement for plane passengers.
During a discussion with the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday, FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson stated that it will leave health-related safety regulations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as they train their focus on “aviation safety.”
“Our space is aviation safety and their space is public health,” he said, later adding that wearing masks “will not be regulatory mandates.”
This decision will allow individual airlines to make the call on requiring masks.
Dickson’s remarks on the FAA’s decision were met with opposition as Democratic lawmakers believe the federal agency could do more to mitigate the spread of the virus.
“Reports have shown enforcement for noncompliance has been uneven and difficult,” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) said. “The FAA needs to do more to ensure the aviation system is mitigating the spread of the virus.”
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) also weighed in on the FAA’s decision.
“Is this, like, a philosophical thing with you folks?” Schatz said. “I just don’t get why you wouldn’t want this to be mandatory.”
Airlines are tackling the issue of requiring passengers to wear masks. An airline opted to remove a passenger this week who refused to comply. Failure to comply could also lead to passengers being banned from future flights through specific airlines.
The FAA’s decision comes as nearly half of U.S. states battle upticks in positive coronavirus cases. Some states, including Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, have seen more than 2,000 cases in a day, with some of them having consecutive days reaching the number.
In fact, California reached a new record high with more than 4,000 cases in one day reported on Wednesday. Nationwide, the country is averaging more than 20,000 new cases each day.
As of Thursday morning, there are more than 2.2 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States as the death toll reached at least 120,000.