US Congress, Republicans step-up demands for Ebola travel ban
Calls to exclude travellers put pressure on Obama administration as president says he is considering appointing a 'czar' to oversee the response to the disease
Republican lawmakers dragged the Ebola crisis into the political arena on Thursday, ramping up their demands that President Barack Obama impose new restrictions on travel from countries ravaged by the deadly virus.
Returning to Washington from the campaign trail three weeks before mid-term elections, Republicans made the call for a travel ban a dominant theme at a congressional hearing on the outbreak.
The Obama administration has resisted a ban on travel from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in West Africa, where thousands have died in the Ebola outbreak that began in March.
“Distrust in government is even greater now that Ebola has crossed into our country after the president said it was unlikely.”
“The president has that authority. He’s choosing not to exercise it,” said Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican. “No one understands why we’re not doing this fundamental job of defending the country.”
Obama, speaking to reporters on Thursday after a White House meeting with aides involved in the Ebola fight, said experts had told him “a flat-out travel ban is not the way to go” because a ban would be less effective than current screening measures on travellers to the United States from the region.
“I don’t have a philosophical objection necessarily to a travel ban if that is the thing that is going to keep the American people safe,” Obama said.
But he noted that some travellers might try to enter the United States under the radar and would avoid the screening measures, leading possibly to more rather than fewer Ebola cases.
