The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has now submitted its draft of President Joe Biden's emergency order mandating COVID vaccinations or weekly virus testing for employers with 100 or more workers.
OSHA sent the draft of the emergency order to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review.
The office has 90 days to review the rule or send it back to OSHA for revision. Text of the proposed order won't be published until OMB completes its review, but you can reportedly request a meeting with the office to give your input on the mandate:
Biden's OSHA vaccine mandate is now sitting at the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. You can request a meeting to give your input.
RIN: 1218-AD42https://t.co/HTBV9WBmco
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) October 13, 2021
Last month, Biden announced his controversial new executive orders mandating COVID shots for many private employees as well as all federal employees and contractors. His sweeping move of executive power could impact as many as 100 million Americans.
As CBN News has reported, Biden's mandate has been met with pushback from many Republican governors and others.
At least 24 state attorneys general have announced their intent to sue the Biden administration if the mandate is implemented because the new requirements may conflict with state law.
On Tuesday, Florida issued its first fine to a county it says violated a new state law banning COVID-19 vaccine mandates and for firing 14 workers who decided not to get the shots.
The Florida Department of Health on Tuesday issued the $3.5 million fine for Leon County, home to the state capital, saying officials violated Florida's "vaccine passport" law, which prohibits businesses and governments from requiring people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination.
"These are people that, presumably, have been serving throughout this whole time and now all of a sudden they're basically getting kicked to the curb," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a news conference in St. Pete Beach.
Later, the governor tweeted, "No one should lose their jobs because of COVID shots."
In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order Monday barring any entity, including private businesses, from enforcing a COVID vaccine mandate on workers and called on state lawmakers to pass a similar ban into law.
"No entity in Texas can compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer, who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19," Abbott wrote in his order.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki argued during a briefing Tuesday that "federal law overrides state law" and said Biden will continue to "use every lever at his disposal to" enforce his mandates.
"We're going to continue to implement the law, which the president of the United States has the ability, the authority, the legal authority to do, and we are going to continue to work to get more people vaccinated to get out of this pandemic," she said.
As CBN News reported, a group of Ohio clergy representing more than 100 congregations across the Buckeye State signed a letter Monday addressed to Biden, detailing why they strongly disapprove of his directive.
"As clergymen from one hundred and one (101) diverse congregations across North Central Ohio, we would like to note that this unnecessary mandate by your office is in sharp contrast to the statement you made as President-elect on December 4th, 2020 when you stated you would not impose a national vaccine mandate," the letter reads, according to Front Lines Ohio.
It also points out that on Oct. 7, 2020, Vice President Kamala Harris stated she "would not take a COVID-19 vaccine if ordered by the President of the United States."
"The federal government should not impose its will on persons by mandating COVID-19 experimental vaccines and removing other alternative treatments. The people should have the ability to make their own health decisions," the letter read.
"This unilateral and divisive order is unethical and tantamount to what a totalitarian king would dictate," the missive continued. "Furthermore Mr. President, with respect to your vaccine mandate, we respond by saying 'We have no king but King Jesus.'"
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