President Biden was dealt a major blow on Saturday after a U.S. federal court temporarily blocked the vaccine and testing mandate on private employers, but the commander in chief's plan for forced vaccination may also run up against another challenge.
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) is leading the charge to undermine the mandate through the power of the purse.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Marshall called the vaccine mandate “wrong—morally, legally, and constitutionally.”
“Accordingly, we will oppose all efforts to implement and enforce it with every tool at our disposal, including our votes on spending measures considered by the Senate,” he said.
While the Republican expressed support for the Covid vaccines, the decision whether to receive it ought to be personal, not forced, he argued.
“These early examples demonstrate that coerced unemployment will destroy the machinery that allows our nation to function. Vaccine mandates threaten our law and order, national security, supply chains, travel, and every sector of our economy,” he said.
“To be clear, this was not President Biden’s bet to make. The president of the United States does not have any statutory or constitutional authority to undertake this breathtakingly vindictive and unprecedented action," he said. "The Constitution, which protects the people from the dangers inherent in the excessive accumulation of power in the hands of the few, neither authorizes nor tolerates this kind of abuse.
“It does, however, vest in Congress—the branch of the federal government most accountable to the people at the most regular intervals—the exclusive power to fund all federal endeavors," Marshall added. "We intend to use that power here to make sure that this mandate never takes effect.”
Noting the date of the end of the current spending period—Dec. 3—Marshall said he and the 10 other GOP senators who co-signed the letter will “not support—and will use all means at our disposal to oppose—legislation that funds or in any way enables the enforcement of President Biden’s employer vaccine mandate. Nor will we vote for or support cloture on any continuing resolution in the absence of language protecting Americans from this action.”
President Biden is waging a cruel campaign to punish unvaccinated Americans. My colleagues and I will use all means at our disposal to make sure no American has to choose between jab or job. pic.twitter.com/T5X1AC2z9l
— Dr. Roger Marshall (@RogerMarshallMD) November 3, 2021
The letter was co-signed by Republican Sens. Marsha Blackburn (TN), Ted Cruz (TX), Steve Daines (MT), Jim Inhofe (OK), Ron Johnson (WI), Mike Lee (UT), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Rick Scott (FL), Tommy Tuberville (AL), and Rand Paul, M.D. (KY).