U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks of Huntsville blasted Alabama’s shelter-at-home policy as a tool to fight the spread of the coronavirus, describing it as a “nanny state” and urging state leaders to immediately flip the switch on the economy.

Brooks made his comments in a Monday night press release as his office announced that, at the request of Gov. Kay Ivey, his committee submitted recommendations on how best to reopen Alabama.

See committee’s full report at end of story.

Along with his committee’s recommendations – which Ivey sought from each of the state’s seven Congressional districts – Brooks sounded off on his personal opinion of the shelter-at-home order enacted by the governor and state health officer Dr. Scott Harris that went into effect April 4 and expires April 30.

“Alabama has two options," Brooks said in a statement accompanying the report. "We can live under government dictate, where a burgeoning nanny state regulates, ‘for our own good, because we are not smart enough to know better’, the minutiae of our lives (even to the point of dictating when we can visit our children, grandchildren, parents and siblings, and how far apart we must be when we do so).

"Or we can have a government that is a partner and advisor, that gives its best advice but defers to citizens the liberty and freedom of making their own decisions on how to best balance the conflict between COVID-19 safety and the income needed to support family life. I am proud that, in the Tennessee Valley, our advisory committee members chose to respect liberty, freedom, and the right of individual citizens to do what they believe is best to protect and promote their own lives.”

Brooks comments are perhaps the strongest public pushback Ivey and Harris have received from an elected official in Alabama. Brooks, who has no party-qualified Democratic opponent in the November general election as he seeks a sixth term in Congress, also acknowledged that "Alabama and America are forced to make the best of a bad situation.”

“Tennessee Valley residents are extraordinarily concerned, and even somewhat fearful, of the COVID-19 pandemic and are angry about how the pandemic has been handled by all levels of government," Brooks statement said. "There are no winners in the battle between a strong economy and minimal loss of life to COVID-19. If we do everything possible to minimize COVID-19 deaths, the economy collapses and we risk even more people dying because of the fallout from that economic catastrophe. If we return economic activity to what it once was, then COVID-19 deaths will undoubtedly increase."

The report from Brooks committee said that the shelter-at-home order may have been "prudent" but "it is also far and away the primary cause of Alabama’s collapsing economy, huge job losses, closed businesses (many of which can never be revived), and lost incomes."

The 14-member committee cast a 10-0 vote to rescind the shelter-at-home order "today (immediately) without any replacement government mandates" other than for the state to "do it can to help inform all Alabama citizens" about how best to protect themselves from the COVID-19 virus.

The committee also voted 10-4 to allow the shelter-at-home order expire as scheduled on April 30 without further mandates beyond sharing best-practices information. The exception was to preserve the section of the shelter-at-home order requiring a 14-day quarantine for everyone who tests positive for COVID-19.

The committee also endorsed widespread accepted practices in fighting the coronavirus spread such as frequent hand washing, abstaining from shaking hands, wearing masks in public, maintaining social distancing and working from home