Washington, D.C. – Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, along with Senator Mike Braun (R-Ind.), Congressman Rick Allen (R-Ga.), House Education and Labor Committee Ranking Member Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.), led over 130 Representatives and over 40 Senators in filing an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the upcoming case considering the Biden Administration’s top-down Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) requiring private workplaces with over 100 employees to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine or require weekly testing.
In the brief, the members argue that Congress did not give OSHA the authority to impose a vaccine mandate and urge SCOTUS to prevent the enforcement of the mandate.
“The Biden Administration’s unconstitutional vaccine mandate imposes government control into the private, medical lives of millions of American citizens,” Stefanik said. “This mandate hurts our nation’s workers, employers, and small businesses and will now rightfully be challenged in the highest court in the land. I am proud to lead my colleagues in standing up for the rule of law against the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional vaccine mandate on private workplaces.”
Read full text of the amicus brief here.
On December 17, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit lifted the Fifth Circuit’s stay of the Biden Administration’s vaccine mandate for large employers. The Department of Labor has stated it will begin enforcing the ETS on January 10, 2022. The Department will also give employers acting in good faith until February 9, 2022 before it will begin issuing citations for violations of the mandate’s testing requirements.
Several parties have filed petitions for review, and SCOTUS is set to hear oral arguments on January 7, 2022 on whether to issue an emergency stay of the ETS.
From the beginning, Stefanik has opposed the Biden Administration’s rule requiring private companies to enforce a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
In November, Stefanik joined her colleagues in introducing an Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to nullify the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) “emergency” rule requiring private companies to enforce a COVID-19 vaccine mandate. In December, Stefanik pressed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to bring this to House floor for a vote after the Senate voted in favor of an identical Senate resolution (S.J. Res. 29) by a vote of 52-48.
