White House, Congress lift mask mandates for vaccinated people

The White House on Thursday lifted its mandate for staff and visitors to wear masks on the complex following the guidance of new Covid-related guidelines issued earlier in the day.

Staffers and media immediately removed masks after being notified by emails that, effective immediately, the requirements were lifted for those who are 14 days after their last required dose of one of the Covid-19 shots.

The news came just after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that fully vaccinated Americans could gather with other individuals without masks indoors and outdoors, even if some in their group are unvaccinated.

Congressional offices also learned on Thursday that health officials would be rolling back the majority of pandemic restrictions for fully vaccinated people across the complex.

The Capitol physician informed members and staff on Thursday night that they could “resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic,” according to a memo obtained by POLITICO. Fully vaccinated people can do so “without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart” unless they are visiting a health unit, the note reads.

Mask mandates will still be in place on the House floor, however. Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN on Thursday that she would not lift that mandate until more lawmakers had received a vaccine. Roughly 75 percent of House lawmakers have been vaccinated, according to the Capitol physician.

It does not include guidance on whether the House should nix its proxy-voting system, which has allowed hundreds of lawmakers to vote remotely — by tapping a colleague to physically cast their vote for them — while avoiding potentially risky travel.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris approached the Rose Garden podium for an afternoon address on the news with no masks. They embraced, maskless, as they walked away from the podium after the speech and returned to the White House.

“America has been waiting for this day for a long time,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki tweeted Thursday, along with a photo of Biden speaking maskless.

Senior White House staffers attending Biden’s speech weren’t wearing masks, according to a pool report.

First lady Jill Biden and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who flew to West Virginia on Thursday, disembarked from their plane without masks on, a nod to the new CDC guidelines. Actor Jennifer Garner, who greeted them, showed up wearing a mask but immediately removed hers.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told reporters that in a meeting with Biden and other GOP senators on Thursday, Biden and lawmakers removed their masks based on the updated CDC guidance, according to a pool report.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) took off her mask and twirled it on the Senate floor Thursday after the news of the new guidance broke.

Biden has set a goal of getting 70 percent of Americans vaccinated and returning to some normalcy by July Fourth. Thursday's announcement marked the first time the administration has said it is safe for vaccinated people to remove masks in any kind of group gathering no matter who is present.

In recent weeks, the White House has been reopening with more staffers and journalists allowed on campus, though it has moved slowly in part to show it was taking Covid more seriously than the Trump White House, which had hosted multiple crowded events and refused to require masks.

The White House is offering vaccines to all employees through its medical unit and allows staff to take time off to get vaccinations, but that’s rare, since the shots are available on the grounds themselves.