The vaccine mandate on businesses with more than 100 employees is being challenged in court, but Republicans said they wanted to use the legislative maneuver rather than let the judicial process play out. The leader of the Senate petition, Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.), called the Biden administration's rule "government in overdrive", while other Republicans stressed that they personally support it.
At a Wednesday press conference, Sen. Mike Lee joked that he was pro-vaccine. I am pro-worker so I am anti-mandate.
The repeal effort was blasted by most Democrats as ridiculous and anti-science, and warned it would prolong the pandemic and facilitate the emergence of new Covid variants.
The Senate's majority leader said that Americans who have not been immunized are the biggest problem. We can't tie our hands behind our backs.
The vote was forced by the Republican minority with the support of Manchin and Tester, two centrist Democrats who expressed concern about the mandate.
The Republicans in the House unanimously supported the parallel effort. An aide for the New Democrat Coalition of House moderates said they know that the GOP caucus is confident it can peel off enough Democratic defections from lawmakers in swing districts.
The congressman spoke at the Capitol in Washington.
Keller told POLITICO in a phone interview that the measure has them standing with the American people. They have done the right thing and we trust they can continue to do that without a mandate.
The Biden administration pointed to the recent success of mandates in the military, federal agencies and some large corporations in pushing vaccination rates well over 90 percent, and cited the backing of the Business Roundtable and several major labor unions.
The White House was cold on the GOP.
The White House said that the president would veto it. She said that the rule was based on a 50-year-old law and that they were confident in their ability to implement it.
Despite mounting virus cases and predictions of a difficult winter, Republicans will keep fighting the administration's Covid measures.
Critics of the private sector mandate argue that it will hurt companies that are already struggling with worker shortages.
In an interview before the vote, Tester said that they had been hearing from businesses. The military, hospitals, government contractors are different.
Braun's office said the senator has received more calls from his own people about this issue than any other time.
Opponents of the rule argue that it is unconstitutional, pointing to recent court rulings blocking other vaccine mandates imposed by the Biden administration.
The federal government doesn't have the authority according to Keller.
