White House Won't Give a Timeline for OSHA's Vaccine Mandate Rule

Katie Pavlich | September 29, 2021 4:00 PM

Speaking to reporters at the White House Wednesday afternoon, Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to give a timeline for when OSHA will release a new federal rule, put in place by President Joe Biden, that forces companies with more than 100 employees to require Wuhan coronavirus vaccinations.

"You had said it [OSHA rule] would be weeks just now, when it was announced a few weeks ago it was going to take a few weeks so are you signaling a delay of any kind with that rule?" a reporter asked.

"We never gave an exact timeline so maybe we should have been more specific at the time. Obviously, it takes time and we want to make sure when we put these out they are clear and they provide guidance necessary to businesses," Psaki said. "I can't give you a timeline. OSHA's working on them but obviously, hopefully, we'll know more in the coming weeks."

When the rule was announced on September 9, at the same time Biden was leaving hundreds of Americans stranded behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, the White House issued a description of OSHA's plans.

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is developing a rule that will require all employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workforce is fully vaccinated or require any workers who remain unvaccinated to produce a negative test result on at least a weekly basis before coming to work. OSHA will issue an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) to implement this requirement. This requirement will impact over 80 million workers in private sector businesses with 100+ employees.