The Biden Administration has remained firm on its vaccine mandate in order to stop the spread of COVID-19. However, the mandate has received pushback from lawmakers and citizens from both parties, and GOP lawmakers have rallied against it. Governors like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) have vowed to challenge the President every step of the way, and now DeSantis has taken legal action against the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard, calling it "unconstitutional.”
In a statement, DeSantis reminded that “we started with 15 days to slow the spread and now it’s get jabbed or lose your job.” “We’re supposed to be a government of laws, not a government of men,” he added, expressing that “this OSHA rule is 500 pages of a government of bureaucracy, a government that is being run by executive edict, not a government bound by constitutional constraints.”
The Governor informed that the Sunshine State is committed to challenging the “rule in court because it’s inconsistent with the Constitution and not legally authorized through Congressional statutes,” detailing that “there is no federal police power and the federal government cannot unilaterally impose medical policy under the guise of workplace regulation.”
In turn, DeSantis admitted that Americans “should make informed choices about their own healthcare” and that “it is important to stand up for people’s individual ability to make decisions for themselves. And the practical result is that this is going to exacerbate a lot of the existing problems that we are seeing with the economy.”
Across the country, law enforcement officers to healthcare workers to airline pilots and others have taken to the streets to protest the mandates. This continues to worry lawmakers as a recent poll suggested that 72% of unvaccinated employees would quit if forced to take the vaccine.
