More than four months ago, President Joe Biden declared in a seemingly unscripted moment during an appearance on 60 Minutes that the COVID-19 pandemic was over.

But on Tuesday, hours before the president will deliver his annual State of the Union address to Congress, the Biden administration announced its opposition to a Republican-led effort to end a part of America's lingering pandemic policies: a vaccine mandate for all foreign travelers entering the U.S. by air.

"While COVID-19 is no longer the disruptive threat that it once was, the Administration opposes Congressional action to reverse the vaccination requirement for noncitizen nonimmigrants entering the United States by air," the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement. "This policy has allowed loved ones across the globe to reunite while reducing the spread of COVID-19 and the burdens it places on the health care system in the United States."

The statement was released in response to a bill sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) to prohibit enforcement of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) vaccine mandate for foreign travelers. In remarks on the House floor last month, Massie called the mandate "unscientific, illogical, [and] unconstitutional."