The Senate is preparing to vote this week on a resolution that would ban President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for private companies, an action that is likely to pass with West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s support. Indiana Republican Sen Mike Braun led GOP senators under the Congressional Review Act last month.
Manchin has been on record as recently as last week of Braun’s proposal to vote against a vaccine mandate for private companies.
On Thursday Manchin said –
“In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and as the new Omicron variant emerges, I will not vote to shut down the government for purely political reasons. There is too much at stake for the American people,”
He went on to say…
“But let me be clear, I do not support any government vaccine mandate on private businesses. That’s why I have cosponsored and will strongly support a bill to overturn the federal government vaccine mandate for private businesses. I have long said we should incentivize, not penalize, private employers whose responsibility it is to protect their employees from COVID-19. I have personally had both vaccine doses and a booster shot and I continue to urge every West Virginian to get vaccinated themselves.”
Braun spoke with Fox News and made this statement,
“President Biden’s vaccine mandate is an unconstitutional invasion of what should be a personal medical decision for every American and an affront to the rights of 80 million American workers.”
“Today, my Republican colleagues and I will formally challenge this federal overreach, and I urge the Senate to vote in favor of this disapproval resolution when it comes to the Floor for a filibuster-proof, simple-majority vote in early December,” he added.
The Republican rep from Pennsylvania, Fred Keller has been pushing through a similar resolution in the House and has been joined by 206 sponsors. Last week he released this statement,
“The last thing businesses need right now is an unconstitutional vaccine mandate that drives a wedge between workers and job creators. I commend Senator Machin for his leadership on this issue and urge more of my Democratic colleagues in both chambers to stand with us and the American people against this blatant government overreach.”
It’s looking less and less likely between the battles that Biden’s mandate has met in the court system as well as these two new resolutions from the House and the Senate that the White House will be able to mandate vaccines that would impact up to about 84 million American workers.
