Voting mostly along party lines, the Senate voted Tuesday to nullify the Biden administration’s vaccinate-or-test mandate for companies with 100 or more employees.
Democratic Senators Jon Tester (MT) and Joe Manchin (WV) voted with all 50 Republicans in favor of a resolution meant to overturn the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency temporary standard on November 5, 2021.
“I’ve met with Montana’s small business and community leaders in recent months who have raised serious concerns about the negative effect the private business vaccine mandate will have on our state’s economy at a critical point in our recovery. That’s why I joined a bipartisan majority of my colleagues in defending Montana jobs and small businesses by voting against these burdensome regulations.” Tester stated.
“It is not the place of the federal government to tell private business owners how to protect their employees from COVID-19 and operate their businesses,” Manchin said.
“No one should be forced to choose between getting a vaccine and losing their job. The bipartisan Senate passage of my challenge to President Biden’s vaccine mandate on private businesses sends a crystal clear message to the White House: Back off, and stop this crazy federal overreach, said Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN), who introduced the resolution.
The House of Representatives must pass a similar bill in order for the Labor Department’s rule to be nullified.
“Now, following this bipartisan victory in the Senate, we look to the House of Representatives for five Democratic Representatives who will stand up for small business owners and the rights of their constituents against this big government-gone-wild mandate,” Braun added.
Even if the resolution passes both houses of Congress, President Biden has the authority to veto the action.
