Over 100 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) this week to consider legislation to “nullify” President Biden’s vaccine mandate for American workers.
As CBS News reported, the Senate voted Wednesday to overturn Biden’s mandate – which included mandatory vaccinations and testing requirements for businesses with 100 or more employees. Democratic Senators Joe Manchin (WV) and Jon Tester (MT) joined Republicans to vote to rescind the mandates.
The letter, led by Rep. Fred Keller (R-PA) and Re. Darrell Issa (R-CA), called on Pelosi to consider the legislation in the House of Representatives. Furthermore, they described the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for workers as “unacceptable and unlawful overreach” by the government and said it raises “serious constitutional concerns.”
“Last week, the Senate passed on a bipartisan basis a resolution to nullify President Biden’s vaccine mandate for private businesses under the Congressional Review Act. We write to urge the immediate consideration of Senate Joint Resolution 29 (S. J. Res. 29) in the House of Representatives before the chamber recesses for the holidays.
S. J. Res. 29 provides for congressional disapproval of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) emergency temporary standard requiring all private-sector employers will 100 or more employees to adopt a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for their workers to require employees who choose not to get vaccinated to undergo weekly testing and wear a mask in the workplace. On November 12, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reaffirmed its November 6 order staying the mandate on the grounds that it grossly exceeds OSHA’s statutory authority and raises serious constitutional concerns.
Given the great consequence this matter has for all our constituents, the House of Representatives has a special responsibility to vote on S. J. Res. 29. The OSHA mandate represents an unacceptable and unlawful overreach by the federal government, and it will cause irrevocable harm to our nation’s businesses and workforce.”
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Keller's identical legislation is backed by 212 Republican House members.
??All 212 members of @HouseGOP have cosponsored my Congressional Review Act resolution to nullify President Biden’s vaccine mandate on private employers with more than 100 employees.
— Congressman Fred Keller (@RepFredKeller) December 7, 2021
I urge my House Democratic colleagues to stand with us against this blatant gov’t overreach. pic.twitter.com/YX9ivKXJPD
“The people we are fighting for are the people that built the greatest economy in the world, the people that got us through the pandemic because of their hard work and going to work every day, and now we’re standing up for them,” Keller said in a video posted to Twitter. “I’m hopeful that the rest of the Democrats in the Senate and the Democrats in the House will join us in standing up for the people for which we work – our constituents – making sure that we fight against these vaccine mandates.”
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