Top House and Senate Republicans are moving to put an end to Democrat President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate, calling the move “a highly inappropriate invasion of what should be a personal medical decision for every American.”
Fox News reported that Rep. Fred Keller (R-PA) and Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN) were working together to use the Congressional Review Act to nullify the executive order.
“The Congressional Review Act allows us as members of Congress to keep the executive branch in check when they release these mandates, and we’re exercising our constitutional authority,” Keller told Fox News. “The federal government does not rule over the people. States make up the federal government. It is we the people that give the government its power, the government does not give power to the people.”
“I would hope that anyone who’s looking at this Congressional Review Act would look at their duty as an American citizen and look at the constitutionality of what President Biden has done and support it,” Keller added. “We’re taking this step to give the freedom back to the American people … and take it from a president that doesn’t have the authority to do this. We’re standing up for the people that we represent, and we’re standing up for all Americans in making sure their constitutional rights aren’t infringed upon by an overzealous executive.”
Braun, the top Republican on the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, which has jurisdiction over OSHA, announced this week that he was leading a group of 42 Republican Senators in opposing the vaccine mandate, calling it a “vast overstep of authority by the federal government.”
Fox News reported separately:
A Republican aide told Fox News that the remaining eight GOP senators — Sens. Mitch McConnell, Richard Shelby, Susan Collins, Roy Blunt, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Bill Cassidy, and Rob Portman — are awaiting the formal filing of the OSHA rule. The aide said that there is no Republican opposition to the disapproval.
The news comes as a federal court ruled on Saturday to freeze Biden’s vaccine mandate, citing possible “grave statutory and constitutional” issues with it.
The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit stated the following:
Before the court is the petitioners’ emergency motion to stay enforcement of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s November 5, 2021 Emergency Temporary Standard (the “Mandate”) pending expedited judicial review.
Because the petitions give cause to believe there are grave statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate, the Mandate is hereby STAYED pending further action by this court.
Immediately following the release of the OSHA rule, The Daily Wire was the first major company to file a lawsuit against the Biden administration, as the company noted in a report on Thursday:
The lawsuit does not take a position on whether someone should receive the vaccine or not, only against Biden’s mandate, announced earlier this year and unveiled on Thursday morning. The mandate applies to all companies with 100 or more employees and forces those businesses to police the vaccine status of their employees. The Daily Wire, with over 100 employees, falls under the mandate.
The Daily Wire’s lawsuit seeks to overturn Biden’s executive action, arguing that the order is unconstitutional and that the Biden administration violated federal law in drafting it.
Jeremy Boreing, co-founder and co-CEO of The Daily Wire, explained the company’s decision, saying, “We’re not the enforcement arm of the federal government.”
“Forcing Americans to choose between their livelihoods and their freedom is a grotesque abuse of power and we won’t be a party to it,” Boreing added. “We will not incur the cost of implementing this testing regime. We will not incur the liability of inserting ourselves into the private health decisions and information of our employees. Our company was founded to stand against tyranny, and we will.”