HELENA, Mont. (AP) – As U.S. lawmakers gather this winter to address the crisis caused by the pandemic, state-owned homes could be irrigation farms themselves.
Many lawmakers will begin the annual meeting remotely, but some Republican-controlled state houses, from Montana to Pennsylvania, plan to hold at least a portion of their sessions in person without the need for masks. Public health officials say the move jeopardizes the safety of other lawmakers, staff, lobbyists, the public and journalists responsible for holding politicians accountable.
The risk is more than mere speculation: a continuous version of The Associated Press finds that more than 250 lawmakers from across the country have contracted COVID-19 and that at least seven have died.
The Montana legislature convened Monday without disguising rules. The Republican majority has dismissed or postponed recent Democratic requests to keep the session at bay until the vaccines become more available. In the absence of that, the Democrats asked for requirements regarding masks and virus tests, which were also rejected.
Democratic lawmakers wore masks when they were sworn in. Few Republicans have done the same.
“If the session is held without public health precautions, it is likely that the virus will spread to the environment. It is highly likely that we will see serious diseases, and that there are deaths associated with it,” said Drenda Niemann, the health officer in Lewis and Clark County, which includes the capital, Helena.
Instead of addressing COVID-19 guidelines before the session, Republicans decided to address them after lawmakers met by creating a panel that would meet regularly to consider the policy update. Senate President Republican Jason Ellsworth said the panel “allows us to be more fluent in the situation” and “provides for our personal freedoms and our responsibilities.”
The divergent approaches to the virus – with Republican lawmakers mostly rejecting mask mandates and closure measures, and Democrats urging a more cautious approach – reflect those of Americans in general. This contrast was reflected during the holidays, when millions of people ventured onto the roads and airports, despite pleas from health officials to avoid travel and family gatherings to curb the virus, which claimed more than 350,000 U.S. lives.
Some legislators try to find a balance between doing personal business and protecting against the disease.
The New Hampshire House, which has 400 members, plans to hold its first session day Wednesday with a drive-in event at the University of New Hampshire in what acting speaker Sherm Packard called the body’s most risk-reducing session ‘during the pandemic.
The clerk and speaker will do business from a heated platform, and members can watch and listen via a screen or via their car radios. Microphones are brought to their windows for questions and debate, and there will be voting via electronic devices.
New Hampshire House Speaker Dick Hinch, a Republican, died on December 9 of COVID-19, a week after being sworn in during an outdoor gathering at UNH. Democrats insisted on remote rallies.
Lawmakers in Alaska, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Washington require masks, but the requirement is not applied in Pennsylvania. Lack of enforcement is concerned for news outlets that need to balance their ability to cover events with the safety of their reporters.
“If we’re starting a high-profile case and there’s a scrum of reporters shouting questions at a lawmaker being unmasked, it could not be a worse situation,” said Paula Knudsen Burke, with the Pennsylvania Press Freedom Reporting Committee. .
In Idaho, where lawmakers do not have to wear masks, Melissa Davlin of Idaho Public Television said the media tries to keep reporters safe while also ensuring adequate access to lawmakers, many of whom do not follow the same guidelines for public safety as newsrooms. .
Casual conversations “are so valuable for coverage and insight and even just background,” Davlin said. To miss it is a real loss to our ability to cover the session. But at the same time, we are not going to benefit our viewers and readers if we get sick. ‘
Republicans in the Ohio House blocked attempts to enforce a mask mandate, despite the fact that more than a dozen lawmakers there tested positive for COVID-19.
Incoming Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman was to be sworn in from his home on Monday after testing positive for COVID-19. Spokesman John Fortney said Huffman had experienced mild symptoms and would return to the State House after a quarantine period.
In conservative Wyoming, where Republican Gov. Mark Gordon only issued a mask mandate in early December, lawmakers plan to convene virtually Jan. 12 to hear the governor’s speech. Legislative leaders will later decide whether to start a virtual session in February or hold a personal session starting in March, reports the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
Wyoming, Republican Rep. Roy Edwards, died a day before election day after what his family later confirmed was COVID-19. Edwards spoke in opposition to the restrictions on public health to prevent the spread of the coronavirus during his campaign.
In Montana, all floor sessions and committee meetings will be available for viewing or hearing online, and lawmakers are allowed to virtually attend many hearings, but voting on final bills is discouraged. Members of the public and lobbyists will be able to testify about accounts using video conferencing if they have access to the technology.
“I feel it would rather censor the people who are vulnerable or who give the advice that experts give,” said M. Kumi Smith, assistant professor of epidemiology and community health at the University of Minnesota.
Ellsworth, the Republican leader of the Senate, acknowledged that the legislature’s COVID-19 panel would not resolve everything.
“At the end of the day, it’s an animal we can’t control,” he said during a regular hearing on December 16 about the pandemic. ‘I would think that our members are going to have those who are going to get sick. It is possible that we have members who are dying. But the possibility is there regardless, even if we are here or not. ”
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Associated Press authors Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire and Farnoush Amiri in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.