The federal requirement to wear masks on planes and public transportation is set to expire next week, and airline executives and Republican lawmakers are urging the Biden administration to abandon the mandate.

On Monday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control was discussing the fate of the rule — and consideration of an alternative “framework” of action to limit the spread of COVID-19. Officials described it as a close call.

“This is a decision that will be made by CDC Director (Rochelle) Walensky. I know the CDC is working hard to develop a scientific framework to address that,” White House coronavirus policy adviser Dr. Ashish Jha said Monday. I think in the next few days we will see the framework come out. “

Extending the mask-wearing rule again is “on the table,” Jha said.

The government suspended the rule for a month in March to give public health officials time to develop alternative ways to limit the spread of COVID-19 during travel.

Mask-wearing is the most visible vestige of the government’s restrictions to control the pandemic, and possibly the most controversial. The surge in verbal abuse and sometimes violence on planes has largely been attributed to the mask-wearing controversy.

Critics have seized on the fact that states have lifted requirements for masks in restaurants, stores and other indoor settings, but COVID-19 cases have fallen sharply since the omicron variant peaked in mid-January.

“The American people have seen through the false logic that COVID-19 exists only on airplanes and public transportation,” Republicans on the House and Senate transportation committees said in a letter to the administration Friday.

However, the recent increase in cases may provide a reason for the CDC to keep the mask rule in place for longer.

The seven-day rolling average of new reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. rose slightly in recent days, albeit from relatively low levels, after two months of sharp declines.

Several prominent officials have contracted the virus, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 82, who was absent when he appeared at a White House event with President Joe Biden last week. Wearing a mask, he tested positive for the virus. Also last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo revealed they had tested positive after a rally that was quickly dubbed a superspreader incident.

Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, believes that if the mission is canceled, more air passengers and crew members will get sick. The CDC’s linking of mask guidance to hospitalization rates is a mistake, he said, because less severe but highly transmissible variants can still kill large numbers of people.

“In public health, we try to prevent crashes. Medicine is basically mechanics who try to fix cars after a crash,” he said. “Are you saying, ‘Oh, you don’t have to wear your seat belt today, the hospital beds aren’t full yet?’ Who did that?”

Airlines began requiring masks in 2020, months before the administration issued an order just days after President Joe Biden was inaugurated. Airlines face financial bankruptcy due to the pandemic, while masks and other measures, such as blocking middle seats, are designed to reassure frightened passengers that flying is safe from the virus.

In December, the CEO of Southwest Airlines was forced to retract a comment that because the planes have powerful air filters, masks don’t do much to improve cabin health and safety.

Travelers have returned — the number of Americans flying daily soared to more than 2 million in March — and airlines think they can sell large numbers of seats without mask regulations.

“My flight attendants implored us to stop this behavior,” said Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle. “Every day it’s causing all these incidents on the boat, it’s frustrating and it’s dangerous. You’re asking a 24-year-old flight attendant to explain it to someone who’s crazy about this rule.

The union representing flight attendants once supported the mask rule but is now neutral. Officials said their members were divided, which could explain why the two largest U.S. flight attendant unions declined to comment on the matter this week.

Executives from 10 airlines, including American, Delta, United and Southwest, wrote to Biden last month urging the White House to drop mask rules and require international travelers to respond to COVID-19 before flying to the U.S. 19 Tested negative. Measures were taken that no longer make sense in the current public health context,” the executives said.

American Airlines, the trade group representing these large airlines, and three other industry groups made a similar appeal to Dr Jha on Friday. They point to recent CDC guidance finding that most Americans no longer need to wear masks indoors because of the relatively low rates of hospitalizations in their communities.

Savanthi Syth, an airline analyst at Raymond James & Associates, said some people felt uncomfortable flying with other passengers who weren’t wearing masks, but others avoided flying because masks were uncomfortable. Long flight.

“I expect the vast majority of passengers and flight attendants will welcome this change (if the rules are lifted) as it aligns with most other areas of daily life,” Syth said. She said any impact on travel demand would be minimal and airlines would get a bigger boost from the removal of testing requirements for incoming international passengers.

Chris Lopinto, co-founder of travel site ExpertFlyer.com, said that because of the recent rise in COVID-19 cases, it may be wise to keep the mask rule in place until cases subside again.

“I don’t think either way will have a material impact on demand, given that airlines can barely meet the demand they already have,” he said.

Most congressional Democrats continue to support mask mandates. A leading libertarian, Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass), urged the CDC and TSA to keep the rule, saying viruses and variants still affect older adults and those with weakened immune systems or disabilities people pose a threat.

However, political considerations may be changing. Last month, eight Democrats broke with the White House and joined Senate Republicans in a token vote against a mask mandate. Four of those Democrats face tough re-election bids in November, and if any of them lose, the party is unlikely to retain control of the Senate.