WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Steve Daines, R-Mont., introduced legislation to prohibit the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from mandating proof of vaccination for critical infrastructure workers embarking on essential travel to the United States from either Canada or Mexico. Titled the Continuing Safe Essential Travel Across our Border Act, the measure would address critical transportation modes, such as trucking, and help prevent further disruption to cross-border supply chains because of a loss of eligible drivers and operators.

“American families are feeling pain in President Biden’s economy,” Wicker said. “Limiting the movement of goods across our borders through a federal vaccine mandate is totally unnecessary and counterproductive to getting our economy back on track. I joined Senator Daines on this important legislation to end the Administration’s unhelpful restriction and provide some relief to our truck drivers who are essential to the supply chain and our economy.”

"President Biden’s overreaching vaccine mandates are wreaking havoc on our entire country. They’re hurting small businesses, burdening the labor force and worsening the supply chain crisis,” Daines said. “It’s time we put an end to Biden's big government mandates that are unnecessarily straining our truck drivers, jobs and the economy.”

The supply chain has suffered major disruptions because of the coronavirus pandemic. Overwhelmed ports and rail stations have suffered from significant labor shortages, slowing the ability to transport goods and resulting in higher prices for consumers.

The senators’ legislation would prohibit DHS from requiring an essential critical infrastructure worker to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition to engage in essential travel from the U.S. into Mexico or Canada or into the U.S. from those countries. The legislation follows an earlier letter from Senator Daines and Senator Wicker urging the Biden Administration to reverse vaccine mandates for truckers crossing the northern border of the U.S.

Read more about Senator Wicker and Senator Daines’ opposition to vaccine mandates here and here.