(Washington Insider Magazine) -The Senate voted and passed legislation going against President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for employers working at private establishments. This measure, which passed with 52-48 votes, lifts the mandatory vaccine and testing requirements for large, privately-owned companies, despite the CDC recommendations.
Alongside all the Senate Republications, two Democratic Senators (Jon Tester and Joe Manchin,) voted in support of the overturn. It was a bipartisan split.
Other senators that were present had strong, differing opinions on the mandate, some even going so far as to tweet unofficial declarations of their personal thoughts. One of the most notable of these was a tweet posted by Mike Braun (R-Ind.,) who claimed that this was gross overreach – calling the policy “crazy.”
The resolution was introduced by Senator Braun who firmly believes mandates to be unconstitutional and questions President Joe Biden’s authority to mandate vaccines. Many Republicans agreeing with Senator Mike Braun have said while they understand the importance of vaccines, they still believe mandating the vaccine to be in violation of the constitution.
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told reporters that he believes the vaccines are essential – but the methodology that the Administration is taking is grossly incorrect. Before the vote, he predicted that the mandate will backfire. He believes that those who remain unvaccinated will choose to continue to be unvaccinated due to preconceptions based on the Biden Administration’s method of handling these things.
The flaw here, according to Sen. Marshall, could be the Administration’s refusal to accept natural immunity as a valid defense against the variants.
Biden shared his plan for vaccination or testing mandate in early September in hopes of increasing the Covid-19 vaccination rate. Businesses with at least 100 employees and federal contractors were required to receive the vaccine before returning to work. If they were unable or refused to receive the vaccine, mandatory testing was required in its place. This decision sparked frustration amongst thousands of employees and employers across the nation.
Odds are against the bill as it still has to head to the House for a vote, which is currently controlled by the democrats. If the Republican Senators in the House are able to convince a good amount of Democratic Senators to collaborate on this vote, it would be sent directly to Biden’s Desk. It is assumed that once the measure makes it to President Biden, he would veto the legislation making it nearly impossible to lift the federal vaccine mandate.
Many federal judges around the nation have spoken out to question Biden’s authority to require vaccine mandates.
Because the republican GOP’s opposition to the vaccine mandate has been adopted by the anti-vaccination campaign, many Democrats have argued this opposition is directly impeding the country’s response to the pandemic. They believe they are equipping the anti-vaccination movement, which is believed to have rapidly grown since the start of the pandemic. While this may be true, many on the Republican side claim that their freedom to live as they choose is being directly infringed upon as the government continues to navigate and mandate through these unprecedented events.
