Republicans immediately announced legal action on Thursday against Joe Biden's vaccine mandate after details were released of the new rule, which affects more than 80 million workers at private companies and federal contractors.
'Joe Biden failed to shut down the virus like he promised – he couldn't do his job, so now he wants you to lose yours,' Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel wrote in a statement regarding the new rule.
'While I am pro-vaccine, the Biden administration does not have the authority to force hardworking Americans to choose between being vaccinated and providing for their families,' McDaniel continued.
'That's why the RNC is suing the Biden administration over this unlawful vaccine mandate and will maintain every legal option to fight this authoritarian overreach.'
The Republican Attorney Generals from Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee also filed a joint lawsuit against Biden's new 'unconstitutional' vaccine mandates for federal contractors on Thursday.
'The federal government contracts with private businesses and public agencies in states across the country, and the Commonwealth is no exception, meaning that numerous Kentuckians are subject to the Biden Administration's unconstitutional vaccination requirement,' Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron stated in a press release on the lawsuit.
'We are taking the issue of federal overreach seriously and will protect the livelihoods of countless Kentuckians and Kentucky businesses from overbroad mandates,' he added.
Both the private and federal contractor mandates require that workers get the final – or only – dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by January 4, 2022.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced details of the new rule for private industry and federal contractors on Thursday, leading to immediate backlash from Republicans.
After the deadline, noncompliant companies can face fines up to $13,653 per unvaccinated worker.
The new rule also requires workers to get weekly testing if they do not get vaccinated, and the stringent testing regimes may need to be paid for out of employees' pockets.
RNC Chair McDaniel wrote in her statement announcing legal action on Thursday: 'This mandate is yet another attack on frontline workers, first responders, small businesses, and the rights of the American people.'
She also noted that by taking months to craft the rule and shifting the deadline to after the holidays to gain political capital, that Biden has negated justification for it to be considered an emergency to implement the mandate.
OSHA staffers will be doing random inspections to check if businesses are complying and employees could have to pay for their own tests out of pocket. The agency is using emergency orders that usually deal with workers exposed to 'grave dangers' to enforce the standards.
GOP lawmakers responded with fury and said some unvaccinated Americans were being forced to decide between putting food on the table or getting the shot, while retailers said the new rules will put an 'unnecessary' burden on businesses before the holiday season.
Red states are also likely to fight to stop the guidelines being put in place after the White House said they 'preempt any inconsistent state or local laws, including laws that ban or limit an employer's authority to require vaccination, masks, or testing.'
The stringent new rules have been put in place amid widespread backlash to mandates, including bids from furious Republicans who are trying to overturn it to keep people in their jobs amid fears of staff shortages and first responders being turned away from work in major cities.
On Wednesday San Francisco announced that children aged 5-11 will be forced to prove they've had the shot to enter restaurants and entertainment venues. The new rule comes just a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the Pfizer vaccine for children in that age group.
In a statement on Thursday, President Biden said vaccination requirements are 'good for the economy' and they will help send people back to work.
'For our country, the choice is simple: get more people vaccinated, or prolong this pandemic and its impact on our country. The virus will not go away by itself, or because we wish it away: we have to act. Vaccination is the single best pathway out of this pandemic.'
Companies with 100 or more workers will face fines up to $13,653 for each unvaccinated employee in the New Year
Sanitation workers in New York City are protesting the vaccine mandate, which has caused a slow down in pickups and has led to immediate garbage pileups in the city (shown here in Queens on November 3)
A large pile of trash accumulates along 54th Street in New York City on Wednesday as sanitation workers protest the vaccine mandate
Senator Marsha Blackburn said in a statement: 'Our economy is crumbling, and President Biden is doing everything in his power to make it worse. While businesses scramble to fill the 10.4 million open jobs in our country, Biden's vaccine mandate will push even more Americans out of the workforce.'
She also tweeted Thursday morning: 'Joe Biden is firing essential workers.'
Republican Representative Jody Hice insisted to DailyMail.com: 'American workers should never have to choose between their job or a vaccine.'
'Millions of American workers will face job over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, but many of them are unfortunately bound to tight non-compete clauses,' the Georgia lawmakers added. 'If terminated, these people will be held in workers' purgatory – they won't be able to earn a living, and they can't find a new job. How are they expected to put food on their table? This is unacceptable!'
Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona said: 'Enough is enough.'
'Since day one of the Biden Administration, federal agencies, like OSHA, have been weaponized against the American people,' he told DailyMail.com. 'OSHA has no right twisting the arm of the private sector and forcing ultimatums on employees' personal healthcare decisions. That's why my bill, the NOSHA Act, abolishes OSHA and its bureaucratic regulations. It's time to end the Big Brother state and fight back against these unconstitutional agencies.'
This week, Biggs introduced a bill to abolish OSHA after the agency created and imposed Biden's rule forcing private businesses to mandate coronavirus vaccines.
'OSHA's existence is yet another example of the federal government creating agencies to address issues that are more appropriately handled by state governments and private employers,' Biggs, an attorney and former president of the Arizona State Senate, said in a Tuesday press release.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, New York Republican Congresswoman Claudia Tenney said the 'OSHA rule far exceeds the boundaries of executive authority.'
'President Biden has made the decision to render our constitutional guardrails completely irrelevant,' she added. 'It is truly the point of no return for this Administration, and the rule will further exacerbate an already disastrous labor crisis.'
Tenney has introduced two bills related to the vaccine – one to fight the mandate and one to protect workers who are fired for deciding not to get the jab.
Vaccine mandates have already been put in place in many cities across the country.
But as the administration's focus on the vaccine mandates increase, Americans' view of the COVID pandemic being the top issue facing the country decreases.
Instead, the top concern of Americans going into the 2022 midterm elections is the U.S. economy and rising inflation, which critics claim will only get worse with Biden's new mandate.
An October Reuters/Ipsos poll found just 12 per cent of adults say that health issues like coronavirus as a top national priority, down from 20 per cent in February.
Meanwhile, two-thirds of the country, including the majority of all political parties, say that 'inflation is a very big concern for me.'
GOP Representative Byron Donalds of Florida told DailyMail.com: 'Despite the Democrats' shellacking this week, the Biden administration is pressing on with their unconstitutional mandate requiring private businesses to mandate vaccination to avoid fines up to one million dollars.'
'Americans from southwest Florida and all across the nation will have to choose between food on the table or taking a shot they feel they do not need,' he lamented. 'This tyrannical mandate is a gross infringement of medical privacy and the individual rights of every American and won't hold water in the judicial system.'
The OSHA rule is being implemented as an Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS), which is a rare authority by the Labor Department agency that is meant to help workers if they could potentially be exposed to grave danger in the workplace.
A July congressional report notes how seldom the ETS is used.
Previous to the COVID pandemic, the OSHA ETS was created and used to address the dangers of asbestos to employees.
OSHA issued an ETS related to the pandemic in June to help protect health care workers from COVID by mandating hospitals, nursing homes and other related workplaces to draft a plan on keeping employees safe by improving ventilation, supplying adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) and implementing social distancing measures or building barriers.
Now the ETS is being used again to require vaccines in private workplaces nationwide.
Senate Republicans launched an effort on Wednesday to use a congressional procedure to overturn Biden's new vaccine mandate announced in September as his administration tries to force increases in vaccination rates.
Senator Mike Braun of Indiana , the top Republican on the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, said he and 40 other GOP senators would begin the process of using the Congressional Review Act to overturn the mandate.
'Last year we did everything we could to keep people in their jobs,' he tweeted. 'Now Joe Biden is doing everything he can to push them out.'
'Today, I'm leading 41 of my colleagues to strike down his oppressive vaccine mandate for businesses,' Braun added.
The businessman-turned-senator told Fox News: 'Now, when we're finally at kind of an equilibrium, you're putting an ultimatum on them – either get the vaccine or lose your job.'
A senior Biden administration official said the penalties for those who do not comply with the workplace vaccine mandate will be commensurate with fines for all other rule violations.
OSHA will enforce the new rule mandating vaccinations for employees in private industry, just like it does for any other workplace regulation put in place by the Labor Department.
For each employee found to be unvaccinated, the company or business will receive a fine in the amount of no more than $13,653 – the same maximum penalty given for any other workplace violation.
OSHA estimates the rule could prevent more than 250,000 hospitalizations in its first six months after being put in place.
The new rule requires that the alternative testing route for those who do not want the vaccine will need to be paid for by the workers and not the employer.
'Given that vaccines are safe, free, and the most effective way for workers to be protected from COVID-19 transmission at work, the ETS does not require employers to provide or pay for tests,' the OSHA rule states.
It adds, however, that 'employers may be required to pay for testing because of other laws or collective bargaining agreements.'
Biden promised as president-elect in December that his administration would never impose vaccine mandates on private industry. He broke that promise in September when announcing the new requirement.
As vaccines became widely available, Biden almost immediately imposed mandates for vaccinations for federal employees.
At least 40 companies, unions and individuals requested meetings with the the White House Office of Management and Budget to gain clarification regarding the requirements, implementation and enforcement.
A couple and their child walk past a pile of trash accumulated on 7th Avenue in New York City on Wednesday as sanitation workers protest the vaccine mandates
New York City firefighters and their supporters protest the city's vaccination mandate on November 1, 2021
Workers, including firefighters, attend a Worldwide Walkout in Manhattan on Wednesday protesting the coronavirus vaccine mandate
Many pleaded that the mandates be put off until after the holidays as supply chain bottlenecks and worker shortages already threaten to further stunt the U.S. economy during the biggest shopping and shipping season of the year.
Biden already had to work to make a deal with private industry to keep the Port of Los Angeles open 24/7 to help quel traffic jams of shipping container ships amid a trucker shortage.
Many in the trucking industry, including unions, have said that drivers would rather quit, be fired or retire than comply with Biden's mandate. Others have said that drivers might try to get a job at a smaller company with less than 100 workers to avoid the vaccine requirement.
The National Retail Federation (NRF), the world's largest retail association, was one of the entities requesting the mandate be put off.
NRF Senior Vice President for Government Relations David French released a statement on Thursday in response to the new OSHA emergency temporary standard.
'Over the past 19 months, retailers across the country have taken extraordinary measures to keep their employees, customers and communities safe during the COVID-19 pandemic,' he wrote. 'As part of these efforts, retailers have distributed, encouraged, incentivized and, in some instances, mandated the vaccine.'
'Since the president's announcement of the vaccine mandate for private industry, the seven-day average number of cases in the United States has plummeted by more than half,' he added. 'Nevertheless, the Biden administration has chosen to declare an 'emergency' and impose burdensome new requirements on retailers during the crucial holiday shopping season.'
'As an industry that supports one in four American jobs, retailers have consistently requested that the administration take public comment on this new vaccine mandate,' French wrote.
'It is critical that the rule not cause unnecessary disruption to the economy, exacerbate the preexisting workforce shortage or saddle retailers, who are already taking considerable steps to keep their employees and customers safe, with needless additional requirements and regulatory burdens.'
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