White House to push vaccine mandate despite court freeze [Video]

• An appeals court issued a stay on the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate on Saturday, but the White House declared that they will defend against legal disputes.
• Officials said that they have the authority to implement the rule and that employers should move forward with it.
• The administration declared that in order to get past the pandemic, the nation needs to increase its vaccination rate.

President Joe Biden’s vaccine-or-test mandate for private companies has been stayed by a federal court, but the White House still urged businesses to move forward with implementing the rules.

The mandate, formally known as an emergency temporary standard, was unveiled by the Biden administration last week. It requires businesses with at least 100 employees to make sure that their employees get the COVID-19 vaccine or otherwise undergo weekly testing.

The deadline to comply with the mandate was set on Jan. 4, with each rule violation costing up to about $13,600. According to officials, this mandate will affect 84 million people.

On Saturday, the three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans cited “grave statutory and constitutional issues” when it temporarily blocked the rule. All three judges were appointed by Republican presidents. 

Other legal disputes were made by over two dozen state attorneys general and other organizations. It’s still unclear how long a resolution will take.

Talking to reporters on Monday, White House deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre advised employers to “not wait to take actions that will keep your workplace safe.”

“Waiting to get more people vaccinated will lead to more outbreaks and sickness,” she continued. “We’re trying to get past this pandemic, and we know the way to do that is to get people vaccinated.”

Several businesses have already implemented their own vaccine requirements. Officials hope that the mandate will further increase vaccination rates, thereby decreasing COVID-19 infection and mortality rates.

As of last week, more than 750,000 have died from COVID-19 in the U.S.

Jean-Pierre added that the Justice Department would be defending the rule, which was developed by the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Jean-Pierre declared on Monday, “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.”

Under federal law, OSHA has the authority to issue an emergency temporary standard if it determines that workers need to be protected from exposure to a “grave danger.”

During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the weekend, White House chief of staff Ron Klain expressed his confidence that “When this finally gets fully adjudicated, not just a temporary order, the validity of this requirement will be upheld.”

He continued, “If OSHA can tell people to wear a hard hat on the job, to be careful around chemicals, it can put in place these simple measures to keep our workers safe.”

Source: The Hill