Republicans in the House of Representatives, led by Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, are introducing a bill Friday that would prohibit federal agencies from implementing vaccine mandates.
Biggs’ bill takes aim at President Joe Biden’s instructions to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to publish an emergency temporary standard that would require all business with more than 100 employees to ensure their employees are vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19. Although the rule has not yet been published, multiple Republican governors and state attorneys general have declared their intention to file lawsuits against it. (RELATED: Arizona Becomes First State To Sue Biden Over Vaccine Mandates)
Biden also announced that he would tighten vaccine requirements for federal employees and contractors.
The bill, dubbed the “Freedom from Mandates Act,” overturns Biden’s executive orders mandating vaccines for federal employees and contractors. It prohibits the Secretary of Labor from issuing a rule requiring COVID-19 vaccines or tests for private employees. The bill also prohibits the Secretary of Health and Human Services from stripping Medicare or Medicaid funds from health care providers that do not require COVID-19 vaccines or tests.
It does not prohibit states or private entities from instituting their own vaccine requirements. Biggs introduced a bill in August that does prohibit these entities from enforcing vaccine mandates.
Read the bill here:
Biggs 132 XML by Michael Ginsberg
“The federal government may not force the American people to get a vaccine against their will. President Biden’s continued attempts to trample on the rights and liberties of Americans must not be tolerated. His vaccine mandates are just another example of using fear and division to pit Americans against each other and maintain his control. The American people must be allowed to make their own health care decisions. It is their right,” Biggs told the Daily Caller.
The conservative advocacy organization FreedomWorks is also supporting the legislation.
“In our system of government the Congress, not the executive, writes our laws. Unfortunately, that basic civics lesson is lost on President Joe Biden as he tests the limits of his authority with a series of sprawling COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Rep. Andy Biggs’ Freedom from Mandates Act is a harsh rebuke to President Biden’s executive overreach in the fight against invasive COVID-19 mandates,” FreedomWorks president Adam Brandon told the Daily Caller.
21 Republicans in the House are co-sponsoring the legislation.