The White House is letting the Departments of Justice and Labor take point in the battle over President Joe Biden’s workplace coronavirus vaccine mandate after a federal judge temporarily blocked its implementation over the weekend.
Senior White House officials declined to answer questions Monday from the Washington Examiner about what specific steps the president himself could take in the process. Instead, officials pointed to statements issued by Labor and Justice officials responding to the stay issued by the United States’s 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday.
BIDEN’S VACCINE MANDATE TEMPORARILY HALTED BY FEDERAL COURT
“The U.S. Department of Labor is confident in its legal authority to issue the emergency temporary standard on vaccination and testing. The Occupational Safety and Health Act explicitly gives OSHA the authority to act quickly in an emergency where the agency finds that workers are subjected to a grave danger and a new standard is necessary to protect them,” Solicitor of Labor Seema Nanda wrote in a statement. The OSHA law says that any state or local laws related to an occupational safety and health issue on which OSHA has a standard are preempted unless they are part of an OSHA-approved state plan, and such plans are required to have regulations identical to or at least as effective as federal standards.
She particularly noted that “this ETS preempts any state or local requirements that ban or limit an employer’s authority to require vaccination, face covering, or testing” and claimed that the “new emergency temporary standard is well within OSHA’s authority under the law and is consistent with OSHA’s requirements to protect the health and safety of workers.”
Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley also vowed that the administration would challenge the 5th Circuit’s ruling.
“The OSHA emergency temporary standard is a critical tool to keep America’s workplaces safe as we fight our way out of this pandemic,” he tweeted Saturday afternoon. “The Justice Department will vigorously defend this rule in court.”
DOJ Spokesman Anthony Coley on today’s order in the 5th Circuit:
“The OSHA emergency temporary standard is a critical tool to keep America’s workplaces safe as we fight our way out of this pandemic. The Justice Department will vigorously defend this rule in court.”— Anthony Coley (@AnthonyColeyDOJ) November 7, 2021
Principal deputy White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre echoed those comments during Monday’s White House press briefing.
“The administration clearly has the authority to protect workers and actions announced by the president are designed to save lives and stop the spread of COVID 19,” Jean-Pierre stated. “I also want to step back for a second because there is precedent here. The Department of Labor has a responsibility to keep workers safe and the legal authority to do so. The secretary determines — the secretary of the Department of Labor determines workers at risk or what is called the grave danger.”
“If we really, you know, zero in on these past years, more than 750,000 people have died of COVID. You have approximately 1,300 people a day, who continue to die a day, as I said, from COVID,” she added. “If that’s not a grave danger, I don’t know what else is.”
Furthermore, Jean-Pierre urged businesses that would be subject to Biden’s rule, those with more than 100 employees or that contract with the federal government, to “not wait” in implementing testing or vaccine mandates while the administration fights the 5th Circuit stay.
“It is important and critical to do, and waiting to get more people vaccinated will lead to more outbreaks and sickness,” she added. “We’re trying to get past this pandemic, and we know the way to do that is to get people vaccinated, so people should not wait. We should continue to move forward and make sure that they’re getting their workplace vaccinated.”
Despite the slight hesitation in addressing the 5th Circuit head-on, the White House is rolling out a new campaign to encourage vaccination among children 5-11 years of age after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration granted that demographic a COVID vaccine Emergency Use Authorization.
That effort is being spearheaded by first lady Jill Biden. She joined Surgeon General Vivek Murthy Monday at a pro-vaccine event at Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean, Virginia, the first school in the country to administer the polio vaccine to students back in 1954.
“The vaccine is the best way to protect your children against COVID-19. It’s been thoroughly reviewed and rigorously tested,” she said in a speech to parents in attendance. ” It’s safe, it’s free, and it’s available for every child in this country, five and up.”
“Parenthood and worrying go hand-in-hand. It’s just what we do,” she continued. “I can’t promise you that the dangers of the world will become any less frightening. Just wait until your kids start driving! But with this vaccine, we can take away at least one of those worries.”
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra also sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to elementary school principals and superintendents on Monday calling on them to take three specific actions to boost vaccinations among children:
- Host a COVID-19 vaccine Clinic at Your School(s)
- Distribute Information About the COVID-19 Vaccine to All Families with Children Ages Five Through Eleven Years Old
- Hold Conversations with Your School Communities on the COVID-19 Vaccine
“We need your help now more than ever to continue to protect our communities and our children. Thank you again for your dedication to keeping students and your communities safe,” they added. “As trusted partners in your communities, we ask that you do all that you can to help accelerate vaccination among school-age children.”
