Montana's Congressional delegation celebrates lifting of border vaccine requirements

The U.S. will no longer require that Canadians heading south across the border be vaccinated against Covid-19, beginning at midnight May 12.

“It’s about time,” said U.S. Sen. Steve Daines this week.

The Department of Homeland Security is lifting Title 19 — which required proof of vaccination to enter the country — nearly a month after President Joe Biden signed a bipartisan congressional resolution to bring the Covid-19 national emergency to an end at the conclusion of May 11. The same day the border crossing requirements fade away, so do vaccine requirements for federal workers and contractors, according to the White House.

Daines, a Republican, saw the lifting of the vaccine requirements on foreign travelers as particularly beneficial for Northwest Montana. He pointed to the tourism industry in and around Glacier National Park as one likely beneficiary of easier cross-border travel.

His Republican colleague in the House, Ryan Zinke, also celebrated the move. Zinke highlighted the longstanding ties between communities on both sides of the border in Montana.

“Finally Montanans can be reunited with their family and loved ones and law-abiding Canadians can visit their properties and businesses without having to take insane and costly measures like booking private aircraft,” Zinke said in a statement.

Zinke, like Daines, described the vaccination requirements, which went into place in October 2021, as government overreach.

“The vaccine requirement was ill advised and based on flimsy science,” said Zinke in a statement. “The pandemic is long over and this news is welcome but far too late.”

Montana’s sole Democrat in Congress, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, similarly praised the removal of the vaccination requirement.

“Canada is Montana’s largest trading partner, and folks in the Treasure State depend on reliable cross-border trade to keep costs low and consistent,” Tester said in a statement. “This is a big win for folks in Montana, and I’ll keep pushing the administration to restore full hours of operations at our ports of entry so that we can fully resume business with our Canadian friends.”

Seeing border restrictions dropped has proved a bipartisan issue in Montana. In May 2021, Tester joined Daines in calling on the Biden administration to reopen the northern border.

Officials closed ports of entry to nonessential travel as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in March 2020.

Though the border reopened in the fall of 2021, Tester continued to push for lessened restrictions on international travel. In September of last year, he urged Biden to drop vaccine requirements, particularly for commercial truck drivers, citing supply chain jams and Canada’s status as the U.S.’ foremost trading partner.

The two nations share a roughly 5,525-mile border with 120 land ports of entry. Montana has 13 land border crossings along the 545 miles of border it shares with British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Canada is the largest international inbound market to the U.S., officials with the U.S. Travel Association said in 2020, with nearly 21 million visitors spending $20.8 billion in 2019.

Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.