[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 182 (Monday, October 18, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7027-S7028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                                Vaccines

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I want to address a topic this afternoon 
here in the U.S. Senate that I believe not enough people are talking 
about. It is something that I certainly heard a lot about when I was 
back home in Alaska, and I think it is something that millions of 
Americans are talking about.
  But nobody here on the Senate floor is talking about, but we should 
be because this goes to constitutional authority, and it goes to what I 
believe means to be an American--freedom, liberty, and it is this: the 
Executive order that the President--President Biden issued mandating 
vaccinations for both Federal contractors and private employers.
  In essence, what he has said in this Executive order--we are still 
waiting on the rule--is that employers need to have people who are 
vaccinated--all their employees by a certain date or they are going to 
be fired.
  That is the President of the United States saying he has that power 
to force employers to make their employees decide between a vaccination 
or putting food on the table for their families. Vaccination or you are 
fired.
  We are not talking about that, and this is unprecedented--
unprecedented. Never before has a President claimed the authority to 
actually do this. The military is a different exception. Private 
employers who have some connection to the Federal Government or 
otherwise, tell your employees: Get vaccinated or you are fired.
  And the President of the United States is claiming the constitutional 
authority to do that.
  I don't even think it is a close call. I don't even think it is a 
close call. Never been done before, and I don't even think it is a 
close call whether the President has the constitutional authority to do 
this.
  Think about, if he did, what this could mean for power in other 
realms that the executive branch or President would have.
  Now, I will stipulate right here, I am vaccinated. I have encouraged 
others to get a vaccine in consultation with their doctors. We all want 
to put this pandemic behind us, no doubt about it. The vaccinations 
help with that. But that doesn't mean there should be an excuse to look 
the other way when the President is acting in an unconstitutional 
manner.
  And there are many reasons, certainly with regard to my constituents, 
that people might be hesitating with regard to a vaccine. Some of them 
have health conditions that preclude them from taking a vaccine. Some 
of them may have serious religious objections to the vaccine. Some of 
them have histories of abuse and don't trust the Federal Government or 
the medical establishment. Some of them have dug in their heels and 
believe the government simply doesn't have the right to tell them what 
substance to put in their bodies.
  The President of the United States is taking this unprecedented--and 
it is unprecedented--action: Get a vaccine or the Federal Government 
will mandate you get fired.
  It is not just in my view unconstitutional, but it shows contempt for 
hard-working Americans; contempt that I see percolating again and again 
among some in the far left.
  Think about it. You don't say what you think we should say, you are 
fired. You work for an industry that used to power America but now is 
out of favor with some on the left--oil, gas, coal, especially in 
Alaska, as the Presiding Officer knows--we will shut down your business 
and we will make sure your employees are fired. You speak your mind 
about an issue, you are fired. You don't take a vaccine, you are fired.
  Oh, by the way, I think the Federal deadline on the vaccination put 
out by the President is December 8. So you are going to be fired right 
before the holidays.
  Now, as you know, this is a 180-degree turn--180 about-face--with 
regard to what this body did last year.
  What do I mean?
  So we worked in a bipartisan way during 2020, when the pandemic hit, 
particularly the CARES Act. I think every U.S. Senator voted for that. 
But the other relief that we worked hard on, Democrats and 
Republicans--when the historians look back at 2020, there are going to 
be a lot of things, but I think one good thing is they are going to say 
the Congress of the United States came together, no playbook--we 
certainly had never seen this before--came together to help the 
American people; Democrats, Republicans, the President--that was 
President Trump--on relief.
  And here is the thing. This is why I mean it is a 180-degree turn. 
One of the core principles of all the relief packages that we passed 
last year--the aviation relief packages that helped our airlines, the 
PPP--throughout all the relief bills that passed this body in a 
bipartisan way, one critical component was we need to make sure 
employers and employees stay connected.
  Almost all the relief said: All right. Airline industry, we can't let 
you go under. You have got to stay safe in terms of the ability to fly 
for the American people. You are going to get billions and billions and 
billions in relief, but you can't fire your employees. You have to keep 
them connected.
  The PPP, the estimates are tens of millions of Americans kept their 
jobs because of that program. You got relief, small business in 
America, but you can't fire your employees. That was the agreement. 
That is what we worked on. That was the core principle that helped us 
get through the pandemic economically.
  Joe Biden is taking a sledge hammer to that connection. It is 
actually the exact opposite. We are still challenged by the pandemic. 
Our economy is still challenged.
  But what is he doing?
  If you don't listen to Joe Biden, private employers in America, you 
have to fire your employees.
  That is exactly the opposite of how this body worked across the 
aisle, Democrats and Republicans, and the previous President. The 
approach was this: We are going to help you, but you have to keep your 
employees. That is the right approach. That is the right approach, and 
yet no one is talking about this new approach from the new President: 
Do what I say, even though I don't have the constitutional authority. 
You have to get a mandate, even though I don't have the constitutional 
authority. And if you don't, I am going to make sure private employers 
fire their employees--oh, right before Christmas.
  Doesn't anyone have a problem with this?
  Well, I have a problem with this. And, again, I think people should 
get vaccinated. I just don't think the President of the United States 
has the constitutional authority to tell Americans: Do it or you are 
going to get fired.
  So here is what I hope. I have been reaching out to some of our 
business leaders to make a respectful request, and it is this: You 
don't want to fire your employees. Heck, this country doesn't have 
enough people who are working right now.
  You have the Biden economy, which is long lines, superhigh energy 
prices, people who aren't working, and empty shelves. We need more 
workers. We certainly don't need the President of the United States 
telling employers: Fire your people prior to Christmas, but that is 
what he is doing.
  So here is what I think, respectfully, our business leaders should be 
doing. They should be looking and remembering what we did last year. 
For example, if you are an airline executive, we all worked really hard 
to make sure we continued to have air service for America and it was 
safe and that you kept your employees.
  So what our business leaders should be doing is saying respectfully: 
Mr. President, it is highly unlikely you have this authority, and I 
don't want to fire my employees.
  The best business leaders I know are very loyal to their employees.
  So hold off. Don't fire them because Joe Biden says you have to. In 
the litigation that is going to play out in this country, he almost 
certainly is going to lose--almost certainly. I don't think there is a 
court in America that says that the President of the United States, 
without Congress's permission or passing a law--that the President of 
the United States on his own--has the

[[Page S7028]]

power to go to private sector employees and say: Your employees have to 
get vaccinated or you, Mr. Employer, have to fire them.
  I think the President is going to lose that case in every court in 
America. So if you are a business leader, here is my respectful 
request: Hold off. Wait for the litigation to play out, and don't fire 
your employees because the President has told you to because they 
haven't gotten vaccinated before Christmas.
  You know, we are already starting to see this. Some business leaders 
are taking a different approach, not this ``Do what I said or you are 
fired.'' They are offering financial incentives, hiring medical 
advisers to talk to their employees. They are allowing medical and 
religious exemptions. They are offering testing as an alternative to 
forcing the vaccine on their workers. And I read about one today. I 
have had discussions with others who are saying: Look, it is not our 
intention to fire employees right before Christmas.
  These are the leaders who are saying they value and trust their 
employees, like what we did last year. Here is significant relief, 
businesses in America, but don't fire your employees. As a matter of 
fact, you can't if you accept this aid--which they didn't.
  So these are the leaders who value their employees. And, at the end 
of the day, this is the approach that is going to work. It is going to 
work better for all of us--for these businesses, their workers, their 
communities, and our country.
  I wish the President would take note of this, but right now he seems 
hell-bent on doing a 180 from what we did last year, and that was 
encouraging businesses to work through the pandemic while keeping their 
employees, not ordering in an unconstitutional manner the firing of 
employees because Joe Biden said so.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.

                          ____________________