WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — The United States senators from Indiana, Mike Braun and Todd Young, are joining with other Republicans to challenge President Joe Biden's federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Forty senators are using the Congressional Review Act to challenge the mandate. The act allows Congress to eliminate an executive branch rule through an official process. If a joint resolution of disapproval is approved by both houses of Congress and signed by the president, or if Congress successfully overrides a presidential veto, the rule at issue is invalidated.
The move is in anticipation of the White House issuing vaccination requirements for private employers with more than 100 employees. The senators said that rule will affect more than 80 million Americans and impose fines.
“Since the announcement of President Biden’s vaccine and testing mandate in September, I have led the charge to strike down this vast overstep of authority by the federal government. Today, we are one step closer to protecting the liberties of millions of Americans in the private sector workforce under the Congressional Review Act. I urge my Senate colleagues to vote in favor of this disapproval resolution in the coming weeks,” Braun said.
Republicans are expected to fail in the effort, but it is viewed as an attempt to make Democrats up for reelection potentially vulnerable.
This effort is in addition to lawsuits filed by more than 20 states against the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, with nearly all of the lawsuits coming in a wave on the same day last week.
Attorneys general from Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming signed on to one lawsuit last Friday, which was filed in a federal district court in Missouri. Another group of states including Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Georgia.
The states asked a federal judge to block Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate that requires all employees of federal contractors to be vaccinated against the coronavirus by Dec. 8, arguing that the mandate violates federal procurement law and is an overreach of federal power.