Senate Republicans to Force Vote on Blocking Vaccine Mandate
Senate Republicans to Force Vote on Blocking Vaccine Mandate
(Bloomberg) -- Senate Republicans plan to force a vote to block President Joe Biden’s new vaccine mandates for workers, an effort that is all but certain to fail in the Democratic-controlled Congress.
The mandate fight, however, could soon head to the courts and potentially be an issue in the 2022 midterm elections.
Under the Congressional Review Act, a Senate minority can force votes to block regulations like the new vaccine mandates scheduled to take effect Jan. 4, but it would take Democratic defections to send such a bill to Biden’s desk and a two-thirds majority to override a veto. Action isn’t likely to take place until December.
More than 40 Senate Republicans have signed on to the effort led by Mike Braun of Indiana so far. Braun calls the mandate a “vast overstep of authority by the federal government,” and a number of other Republicans have argued it is unconstitutional.
Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, who has offered legislation to protect essential workers whom she calls “COVID-19 heroes” from having to get vaccinated, argued the mandate would worsen a labor shortage.
“While businesses scramble to fill the 10.4 million open jobs in our country, Biden’s vaccine mandates will push even more Americans out of the workforce,” she said in a statement Thursday.
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