Biden Adviser Says Big-Company Vaccine Mandate on Legal Ground

(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden’s requirement for employees at companies with more than 100 workers to get Covid-19 vaccinations or regular testing is on solid legal ground, presidential adviser Cedric Richmond said.

“We’re very confident we’re on statutory and legal grounds,” Richmond said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. 

A federal appeals court in New Orleans temporarily halted the mandate’s nationwide rollout on Friday and gave the Biden administration until Monday to respond. Republican state attorney-generals and companies have been challenging the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s rule, which sets a Jan. 4 deadline.

“The purpose of the OSHA rule is that we keep employees safe in the workplace,” Richmond said. “So when you go to work you want to make sure that you’re safe, and we see that mandate vaccines work.”

The administration is “fully prepared to defend this standard in court,” Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda, the U.S. Labor Department’s top legal officer, said Saturday.

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