[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 212 (Wednesday, December 8, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9028-S9034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Vaccine Mandate

  Mr. HAGERTY. Mr. President, on September 9, President Biden announced 
that his Department of Labor, through OSHA, would issue a vaccine 
mandate covering more than 80 million privately employed Americans. 
Violators would be subject to significant financial penalties.
  This mandate makes medical decisions for much of the American people 
with the stroke of a pen, and it immediately struck me as severe 
Federal overreach. Therefore, the next day, I wrote to the Secretary of 
Labor to confirm that he would submit this mandate to Congress for 
review under the Congressional Review Act. In that letter, I noted that 
Americans' elected representatives should review an order that 
threatens the livelihoods of many of their constituents.
  I am pleased to join Senator Braun and a majority of my Senate 
colleagues in supporting this resolution to disapprove President 
Biden's vaccine mandate.
  Regarding the mandate itself, I want to first say that I support the 
vaccine, which is a product of President Trump's Operation Warp Speed. 
I visited my doctor, and I made the personal choice to take the 
vaccine. I have spoken to many Tennesseans and have urged them to do 
the same. But the decision to take the vaccine is a personal one. It is 
a decision that each American should be allowed to make in consultation 
with his or her doctor, not under Federal threat of job loss and 
financial penalty. This mandate improperly puts the Federal Government 
between Americans and their doctors and between Americans and their 
jobs.
  Tens of millions of essential workers were asked to risk their health 
for the good of the country during the pandemic. They courageously 
responded to this call. Many of them--many of them--contracted the 
virus. Yet now we are telling these heroes, from frontline healthcare 
workers to the employees who made sure we had access to groceries and 
essential goods, that they will be fired unless they comply

[[Page S9029]]

with the vaccine mandate. They deserve better.
  Not only is this vaccine mandate wrong, but it was promptly declared 
unlawful by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Other Biden administration 
vaccine mandates are meeting similar fates in the courts. Yet the Biden 
administration refuses to relent or reevaluate the damage that it is 
doing.
  Sadly, the Biden administration's use of Federal Government power to 
control the American people's lives is not limited to vaccine mandates; 
it is a basic element of their strategy to remake America. Don't 
believe me? Just look at the Democrats' so-called Build Back Better 
proposal. The Biden administration is marketing this legislation to 
transform America by using a cartoon depicting a mom and her son and 
the government programs on which they would depend under this plan from 
the very beginning of their lives to the very end. That is the 
definition of cradle-to-grave, Big Government dependency, and that is 
the stated goal of the Democrats' legislation.
  This legislation federalizes preschool and childcare, which will 
crowd out community- and faith-based providers and put the Federal 
Government in charge of what your children are taught during their most 
formative years.
  If this was about children, then parents would be allowed to choose 
the preschool or childcare provider that is best for their children, 
but, instead, it is about control. So the government would ultimately 
decide which preschools and which childcare providers would survive.
  The Build Back Better legislation increases by 10 times the penalties 
on private employers for violating the vaccine mandate. Now, a willful 
violation can result in a $700,000 fine and must result in a minimum 
fine of $50,000. In other words, small businesses that fail to comply 
will face financial ruin.
  When it comes to employment, if you are one of the millions of 
Americans who work in the oil and gas industry, the Build Back Better 
plan delivers $550 billion worth of crushing Green New Deal mandates 
and tax increases. It replaces these good-paying jobs with $8 billion 
to the Civilian Climate Corps, a taxpayer-funded climate police.
  Once your job is gone or your business is closed, the Build Back 
Better proposal offers government welfare programs with no work 
requirements. This attacks the dignity of work and right of self-
determination that underscores what it means to be American--again, 
more government control.
  By providing $80 billion in increased IRS funding--a staggering six 
times the current IRS budget--the Biden administration is planning to 
wring an extra $400 billion out of the American people to pay for all 
of this Big Government. With everyone from small business owners to 
grandparents now facing regular audits and IRS spying on their bank 
accounts, the government will have much greater control over how 
Americans earn and how they spend their money.
  In sharp contrast, Republicans want to put Americans, not the Federal 
Government, in control of their lives. We want to strengthen the 
American dream so that Americans can free themselves from government 
dependency. We oppose Big Government socialism that imposes greater 
Federal control over Americans' lives.
  In the coming weeks, Members of this body will be asked a very simple 
question, whether on the vaccine mandate or the Build Back Better 
legislation: Do you believe the Federal Government should have more 
control over American lives? Their answers are crucial for the future 
of our country. Is cradle-to-grave government dependency something to 
help Americans avoid or is it something to strive for? Should personal 
healthcare decisions be made by Americans or by government agencies? Do 
parents know what is best for their children or should bureaucrats and 
teachers unions decide? Are you willing to eliminate good-paying energy 
jobs? Should the IRS have more power to spy on the American people?
  Over the next weeks, all of us must decide what kind of country we 
will have. My hope is that we will preserve and strengthen the American 
dream by empowering Americans to determine their own futures, to climb 
the ladder of success, and to free themselves from government 
dependency--not treat them with a lack of dignity that suggests that 
the very best they can hope for is a life managed by the Federal 
Government.
  The first opportunity to provide an answer is the upcoming vote on 
this resolution disapproving President Biden's vaccine mandate. I have 
been pleased to work with Senator Braun to bring this resolution to the 
floor, and I urge all of my colleagues to support its adoption.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, Congress, not the Executive, makes the laws 
in this country. National laws have to be passed by the legislative 
branch. Our Constitution makes that very clear. In fact, it is the very 
clause of the first section of the first article of the Constitution. 
It states unambiguously:

       All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a 
     Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a 
     Senate and House of Representatives.

  You cannot make up Federal law without going through that formula--
passage in the House, passage in the Senate, followed by presentment to 
the President.
  In the case of COVID-19 vaccine requirements, the President of the 
United States has decreed mandates--mandates that threaten the jobs and 
the livelihoods of 45 million Americans, including over half a million 
Utahns whose jobs are on the line.
  Now, courts across the country have started--quite correctly--to 
recognize that these mandates are offensive to the Constitution. They 
are not authorized by the law. But that doesn't diminish in any way, 
shape, or form our duty here as Members of the U.S. Senate, as part of 
the legislative branch, to assert clearly, unambiguously, and swiftly 
that these mandates are unconstitutional, illegal, and morally 
indefensible.
  I have heard from hundreds of Utahns who are themselves at risk of 
losing their jobs and therefore their ability to provide food for their 
children, specifically due to these mandates. Their stories are nothing 
short of heartbreaking. I have heard from countless businesses in my 
State, businesses that are afraid of losing key workers and having to 
shut their doors and no longer operate specifically due to these 
mandates. I have heard from people who happen to have medical or 
religious concerns over the vaccines, and their pleas are falling on 
deaf ears.
  These Americans aren't asking for anything extravagant or unusual or 
unreasonable--far from it. These are Americans who are simply worried 
about their ability to put food on the table and gifts under the tree 
during challenging economic times--economic times that are difficult 
enough as it now stands, economic times that have been worsened by 
excessive government spending, economic times that are about to get a 
whole lot more difficult for a whole lot more people specifically 
because of these mandates. President Biden seeks to make them not only 
unemployed but also unemployable, second-class pariahs.
  Well, it is true the courts have offered temporary relief to some, 
but these Americans and these businesses look to Congress for 
immediate, lasting, and permanent relief. We do, after all, make the 
law. We are the only branch of the Federal Government authorized to do 
so.
  So this will be one of the easiest votes that I have ever cast in my 
11 years in the Senate. The American people agree. Only 14 percent of 
those polled support firing those who are unvaccinated. Fourteen 
percent of all Americans say that, yeah, somebody who doesn't get the 
vaccine ought to be fired as a result of not getting the vaccine. Even 
some Democratic politicians are starting to change their tune. They are 
souring on the mandates.
  Americans understand that conditioning employment on personal medical 
decisions is callous, it is cruel, and it is immoral. It is certainly 
not something that these people want to face. It is not something that 
Democrats or Republicans want. It is not something they agree with. It 
is not something they are going to tolerate.
  The economic impact of firing half a million Utahns would be 
disastrous,

[[Page S9030]]

and when you replicate the effects of doing that on State after State, 
where we see--according to many datasets, anywhere from a quarter to a 
third of the workforce in most States is being threatened by this. In 
some States, it is higher. It is more like 40 percent in places like 
West Virginia, 37 percent in Alabama, and 31 percent in Utah.
  Now, in the healthcare sector alone, where keeping doctors and nurses 
and technicians at work has been particularly difficult, the Nation 
risks losing countless thousands of key professionals while the need 
for their very services remains most dire.
  This isn't acceptable. It is not something we want to see. It is not 
something we should have to face.
  When you add all of this up, the cumulative effect across different 
industries and in different States across the Nation would be 
catastrophic as we face supply chain troubles, inflation, rising gas 
prices, a labor shortage, and so, so much more. The very last thing our 
economy needs is to have tens of millions of Americans unemployed.
  I am very, very much against these mandates. I am for the vaccines. I 
have been vaccinated. My family has been vaccinated; and I have 
encouraged people everywhere to get vaccinated, but when someone 
chooses not to be vaccinated for whatever reason--whether it is a 
medical reason or a religious reason or a reason related to a personal 
belief or due to a specific concern about a specific reaction they have 
had to something else--it is still their decision. It still doesn't 
warrant the overpowering hand of the Federal Government's coming in and 
threatening to force their employers to fire them under the threat of 
crippling penalties--penalties that any employer, no matter how big or 
wealthy or otherwise lucrative, would find incapacitating.
  I have come to the Senate floor now 20 times to speak specifically 
against President Biden's vaccine mandates. I have offered more than a 
dozen bills to reduce their harms on millions of Americans and hundreds 
of thousands of Utahns.
  Today, with my colleagues, I encourage the Senate to use the 
Congressional Review Act as it was intended. There is no clearer 
example in the history of the Congressional Review Act of such an 
egregious overstep by the Executive. There is no more blatant abuse of 
delegated authority or usurpation of authority that was never granted. 
The Congressional Review Act provides us with the opportunity to strike 
down this offensive mandate and make sure that neither President Biden 
nor any subsequent President can institute a similar rule.
  I encourage my colleagues to think of the half a million Utahns, of 
the almost 5 million Californians, of the 300,000 West Virginians, and 
of the tens of millions elsewhere across the Nation. Forty-five million 
livelihoods are at stake of the workers and families in each of our 
States. These Americans demand that we take action. Today, we have that 
choice. I implore each and every one of my colleagues to stand with the 
American people, the American worker, the American family by supporting 
this resolution.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.
  Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I rise this evening to discuss President 
Biden's divisive and unprecedented vaccine mandate on private 
businesses.
  I would like to make one thing clear at the start: I have encouraged 
Nebraskans to consider getting vaccinated since the day these vaccines 
were approved, and I hope more Americans will join me in choosing to 
get one, but that is their choice.
  Through OSHA, the administration has issued an ``emergency rule'' to 
require, roughly, 84 million employees of private companies to get 
vaccinated or be subjected to weekly testing. If business owners fail 
to enforce this rule for their employees, they could be fined tens of 
thousands of dollars per violation.
  The Biden administration is on entirely new ground here. There is 
simply no precedent for this kind of intrusion into Americans' private 
lives. Courts agree. The Fifth Circuit blocked the OSHA mandate almost 
immediately, citing ``grave statutory and constitutional issues.''
  We in Congress have the power to push back too. In October, I joined 
nine of my Senate colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden 
that outlined our concerns about this abuse of Federal power. Under the 
Congressional Review Act, the House and Senate can vote to overturn 
executive Agency actions like this OSHA mandate, and I hope the Senate 
will do that when we vote on this later today. All 50 Senate 
Republicans signed on to this challenge. If our resolution passes both 
Chambers--and it looks like it may do that on a bipartisan basis--
President Biden will have to decide if he wants to keep defending this 
deeply unpopular policy.
  The administration's decision to force private employees to get 
vaccinated is not just unprecedented; it is also counterproductive. It 
would apply to nearly 300,000 workers in my State of Nebraska alone--
more than 28 percent of our entire workforce. Businesses across 
Nebraska, from grocery chains to irrigation companies and family farms, 
have reached out to me about the damage this mandate will do to their 
companies. They come from very different industries, but their message 
is the same: We support the vaccines, and we have taken this pandemic 
seriously, but if the President goes through with this mandate, we 
could lose many of our employees.
  At a time when millions of jobs need to be filled and we are seeing 
massive supply chain issues, Americans simply cannot afford this kind 
of Federal overreach. We need to stop this mandate in its tracks here 
in Congress because this could be the first step on the road to even 
stricter rules.
  Let's just look at New York City. It has recently announced one 
vaccine requirement that will affect private employees and another that 
will affect children as young as 5 years old. Bill de Blasio's parting 
gift to New Yorkers is this: Get at least one shot by December 27, or 
you are going to lose your job.
  Starting later this month, kindergartners are going to have to show 
vaccine cards to get into restaurants, movie theaters, and other public 
places.
  I do not want to see policies like this even come close to being 
enacted at the Federal level, but I wouldn't put it past this President 
to try. The Senate must pass this resolution and prevent these kinds of 
mandates from being issued again in the future.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. BRAUN. Mr. President, I come here this evening, but I have been 
back home on recess breaks ever since there has been this idea of a 
vaccine mandate.
  We have got a modern miracle in having vaccines available like they 
have been. It is part of the long journey against COVID. Along with 
therapeutics now, they are miracles. Yet getting vaccinated should be a 
decision between an individual and his or her doctor. It shouldn't be 
up to any politician, especially in a mandate coming down from that 
highest authority--our President--and he ought to be consistent with 
what he has said in the past. He said he would never make vaccines 
mandatory. He didn't keep his word.

  Overreach--I have been here a little under 3 years, and I see it in 
so many arenas, a lot of it with good intention. We try to solve things 
here. I think the American public sometimes scratches its collective 
heads to say: Where are the results? Why does it cost so much? But in 
this case, you have got to also take into consideration our 
Constitution, our personal freedoms. It is at stake today.
  The Federal Government has no authority to make anyone choose between 
getting a vaccine and keeping their job. Today, this body will stand up 
against this overreach.
  Main Street--Main Street--is where I come from. When you have to 
explain to people constantly when they are scared by actions like this, 
can this possibly happen; will the government go through with it; will 
it somehow fall apart--well, when you have bad ideas, that eventually 
happens. And it is going to start here this evening. We have seen it in 
the courts. It has been repeated earlier here this evening how 
unpopular it is with the American public.
  We did everything we could to keep individuals with their employers. 
We have spent billions, trillions of dollars doing so. The threshold 
for a small

[[Page S9031]]

business then, when we were helping, was 500 employees. Now we have 
lowered it to 100. It has got people frightened across the country.
  Small businesses face enough hardships. Most are finally getting some 
type of equilibrium with everything that has happened over the last 
year and a half, and now they have to contend with this.
  As mentioned earlier, any businesses could get fined up to $14,000 
per employee. That is more than we were lending them--money--in some 
small businesses over the recent past.
  A lot of stuff just does not make sense. Listen to the number of 
organizations, ones that all play into telling us how they like to keep 
free enterprise going, keeping the private sector healthy: the National 
Federation of Independent Business, NFIB; National Retail Federation; 
National Restaurant Association; Association of Wholesale Distributors; 
American Trucking Associations; Associated Builders and Contractors; 
Associated General Contractors; American Pipeline Contractors; National 
Lumber and Building Material Dealers; Distribution Contractors. These 
are all businesses--I have another 10 I could mention--that come from 
Main Street America. It is not the tier of largest corporations; these 
are the businesses in our own hometowns. They are crying out: Do not 
follow through with this lunacy.
  When you dig a hole, and you keep making it deeper, despite 
everything you are hearing, that is a bad business plan. You can always 
get out of it by just quit digging. And you are hearing it loud and 
clear.
  We must focus on returning to the prosperity we achieved pre-COVID. 
One thing that will stop this recovery cold is the Federal Government 
getting in the way, as it is doing now.
  His mandates are under fire in the courts. Main Street job creators 
are complaining against it. And tonight, the U.S. Senate must send a 
clear message: Back off on this bad idea.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wyoming.
  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to join my 
Republican colleagues to oppose President Biden's vaccine mandates.
  Last December, President-elect Joe Biden told the American people 
that he would not issue a vaccine mandate. Just a year ago, as 
President-elect, Joe Biden said:

       I don't think they should be mandatory.

  He said:

       I wouldn't demand it to be mandatory.

  Last October, as a Presidential candidate, Joe Biden said:

       You can't say ``Everyone has to do [it].''

  Then, this summer, his Press Secretary said it is ``not a role the 
federal government even has the power to make''--``not a role even the 
federal government has the power to make.''
  In July, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control said:

       There will be no nationwide vaccine mandate.

  Then, in early September, with this Nation in shock and reeling 
because of the disastrous collapse in Afghanistan, suddenly and 
unexpectedly and completely opposite of everything this administration 
has promised, the Biden administration broke the law, and in doing so, 
violated the rights of the American people by calling for this vaccine 
mandate.
  Joe Biden issued a nationwide mandate, and in doing so, he has taken 
a sledgehammer to the American workforce and the American economy. 
Because of the President's irresponsible policies, we now have the 
worst labor shortage in American history, and we have broken new 
records for unfilled jobs. As a result, we also have the worst supply 
chain crisis in 40 years. We don't have enough goods on the shelves. We 
don't have enough workers to fill the shelves.
  The President must have known that many wouldn't comply with his 
mandate. He must have known people would be forced out of their jobs as 
a result of the mandate. He didn't seem to care. He imposed the mandate 
anyway.
  Now people are losing their jobs, shelves are empty, and prices 
continue to rise. Inflation is the No. 1 concern of the American 
people.
  Now, I am a doctor. I am vaccinated, so is my entire family. I am 
pro-vaccine and anti-mandate. Vaccines work. Nationwide mandates don't 
work.
  Courts have already ruled that the President's mandates are illegal. 
Yesterday, a Federal judge in Georgia blocked the mandate on Federal 
contractors. Not only are these mandates illegal, they are ineffective.
  Joe Biden's mandates have only hardened people against the vaccine. 
They have increased resistance to getting vaccinated because President 
Biden has politicized the vaccines, and all the mandates have 
accomplished is making people lose their jobs.
  In the Joe Biden world, his mantra seems to be, vaccinate or 
terminate.
  What we ought to be doing, instead, is giving people information. Let 
them work with their doctors to make the right decision for them and 
their families.
  That is what I have been doing for decades in Wyoming as a doctor. We 
don't need mandates. We don't need public health officials who can give 
Americans reliable information, saying they have to enforce and apply a 
mandate. They are there to give the information and then the vaccine if 
the person chooses to have it.
  The Biden administration spent 10 months flip-flopping on this issue. 
President Biden ran from his basement during the campaign saying he was 
the answer to COVID. He is not, hasn't been. He has sent one mixed 
message after another, and then he has issued a nationwide mandate. It 
has been inconsistent, ineffective, and incompetent.
  When President Biden issued his mandate, he said, ``We've been 
patient [with the unvaccinated] but our patience is running thin.''
  Well, I will tell you, Mr. President, the American people have been 
patient. It is the patience of the American people now with you, 
President Biden, that is wearing thin.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator 
Lankford be recognized for up to 6 minutes, Senator Murphy for up to 5 
minutes, and that I be recognized last for up to 12 minutes prior to 
the scheduled vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, it is sort of hard to be able to 
recognize a simple fact that this is the United States of America, home 
of the free, land of the brave.
  Then why is it such a difficult conversation with so many people in 
my State when they ask this question: Are we still free as a nation?
  Why are we having this conversation? Are we still free as a nation? 
Of course, we are.
  We are having this conversation because September 9, the President of 
the United States announced he was losing patience with the American 
people, and he was going to put a new demand on every single office in 
America, every workplace; that anyone who had 100 or more people in 
their company, every single person in that company had to be vaccinated 
because the President was losing patience with them. He said it is for 
health risk.
  COVID-19 is serious. I have been vaccinated. Everyone in my family 
has been vaccinated. I am exceptionally grateful for the vaccine. But 
to be able to reach into companies with this one simple statement: If 
you don't follow my instructions, so the President says, you will be 
fired--that every person in the country now doesn't work for their 
employer, they now work for the President of the United States. May I 
remind us, we are the United States of America, home of the free, land 
of the brave; that we are a people who make our own decisions and live 
in a free nation.
  What is interesting is, there is all this conversation about everyone 
needs to be vaccinated or we are not going to ever get to herd 
immunity; we will never get to herd immunity; we will never be able to 
put down COVID-19. How many times have we heard that statement over the 
past year and a half? We have got to get to herd immunity.
  Well, I don't know if anyone has looked lately at the CDC's website. 
But if you go to the CDC website, it will list out percentagewise how 
many people have been vaccinated or currently

[[Page S9032]]

have natural immunity in their system. And if you go to their website 
and see it, the number that they have for 16 years old and up is 92 
percent of America. Ninety-two percent of Americans either have natural 
immunity, antibodies in their system, or they have received the vaccine 
and have that set of antibodies in their system.
  May I remind us again, how long have we been talking about herd 
immunity? I understand COVID is a tenacious disease. I take it 
seriously because, like every single person in this room, I have lost 
family members and friends who have died due to COVID. But we do not 
have the right as Americans to assign to the President of the United 
States that that President can actually go to any company he chooses 
and pick and choose the companies and say, this company, everyone has 
to be vaccinated; that company, they don't. If you have 95 people, it 
is no big deal. If you have 100 people, they are toxic. If you are 
FedEx and UPS, you need to all be vaccinated, but if you are the U.S. 
Postal Service, you don't have to be vaccinated. That kind of picking 
and choosing that the President has done around our economy, that is 
not the role of the U.S. President.
  For all of us who take this disease seriously and for all of us who 
have been vaccinated and stand up frequently and talk about the 
importance of vaccinations, we also believe that we are Americans and 
that we are free people.
  So what are the mandates that are down now? Well, there was a 
private-sector mandate for every company of 100 or more. There was a 
Federal contractor mandate that if you have a company that works for 
the Federal Government, regardless of your size for any Federal 
contracting, that you have to also have every person vaccinated. There 
are Federal employers who all have to be vaccinated, members of the 
military, reaching into the National Guard, which, for the first time 
ever, they have violated the law, saying that they are going to 
literally cut the pay for members of the National Guard who are not 
vaccinated, though the law clearly states they cannot reach into a 
State National Guard and literally pick and choose individuals they 
want to pay and don't pay. They have already dropped that out there and 
saying they are going to do that as well.
  They have reached out to members of the healthcare community and told 
them, if you have Medicare or Medicaid, then you all have to be 
vaccinated. What has been the response? The American people have 
responded loud and clear that they believe we live in the land of the 
free. And while millions and millions have been vaccinated, they all 
turn around and say, it was also my choice to be able to do that.
  Companies in my State are literally requiring employees to sign two 
forms: One saying that they will get vaccinated and the second form 
saying, if you have a negative reaction to the vaccine, you won't sue 
our company.
  What in the world? That is not who we are.
  So what has happened in just the last couple of weeks? Well, the 
courts have finally gotten involved. First off, the courts have done a 
nationwide stay on the private-sector mandate. That is what we are 
talking about tonight, putting a nail in the coffin with a vote in the 
U.S. Senate to say: No, we will not allow this.
  There has been a nationwide stay put in for those individuals that 
are on Medicare and Medicaid and those healthcare workers. There has 
been a nationwide stay now for Federal contractors, for universities, 
for individuals around the country that have any connection with the 
Federal Government.
  The courts have already stepped in and said the President doesn't 
have the authority to do this, and this vote tonight is whether this 
body agrees that the President should have unilateral power to declare 
whatever he wants for any private-sector business in the country or if 
the President doesn't have that authority to do that. That is all this 
vote is. This vote is not about vaccines and, as has been falsely 
accused, this whole group of anti-vaxxers that are out here.
  This is a very simple vote: Do the people in this body believe that 
the President of the United States has the authority to declare that 
any employee in any company of 100 or more to do what he wants?
  I say no, because we live in the land of the free and the home of the 
brave, and it is time for us to go on record on if we believe that or 
not.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. MURPHY. Mr. President, it is not often that you get the Business 
Roundtable, which is an organization representing some of the biggest 
private-sector companies in the world; the largest labor unions in the 
country; and the American public all on the same page on a policy. But 
that is what is happening with respect to the President's requirement 
that big employers in this country either test their employees 
regularly for COVID or they get vaccinated in order to stop the spread 
of this insidious disease.
  This is a very popular proposal, and it is popular for a simple 
reason: People are exhausted with having their lives fundamentally 
changed, turned upside down by a pandemic that we have the power to 
stop.
  We have the power to stop it because of researchers and scientists 
who discovered a vaccine that is wildly more effective than the 
vaccines that have been invented to attack other diseases--90 percent 
effective, if not more, against COVID. If everybody got vaccinated in 
this country, we could all take off our masks. If everybody was 
vaccinated in this country, we wouldn't have to be passing emergency 
relief bills to keep the economy afloat. If everybody got vaccinated, 
we could open back up all of our restaurants. That is what Americans 
want. That is why this policy is so popular.
  And I understand what my friend from Oklahoma is saying, that they 
are not arguing over the efficacy of the vaccine, they are just arguing 
over the constitutional powers of the Presidency.
  But come on. Come on. We understand the power of our words in this 
place. Republicans know that when they come down to the floor and 
attack the vaccine mandate day after day after day, they know they are 
giving fuel to the fire of the anti-vaccine campaign. They know that 
they have become an extension of those that are trying to convince 
Americans that the vaccine has a microchip in it, that the vaccine 
kills you.
  It just strains credibility for my Republican colleagues to suggest 
that there is no connection between the anti-vaccination campaign in 
this country and those that are every single day on the floor of the 
Senate talking about how dangerous it is to require that people in this 
country get the vaccine. There is a connection, and the growing 
movement of people in this country who think that the vaccine is some 
conspiracy to hurt people--well, this movement to try to end the 
vaccine campaign by the President, it is wind underneath their wings.
  But let's talk about what this policy really is because it is 
actually not a mandate for vaccinations. It is a testing mandate. 
Right? That is what it is. What it says is that everybody in these big 
employers has to get tested once a week, and if you don't want to get 
tested, then your employees can get vaccinated.
  Let's be clear. This is a testing requirement, not a vaccination 
requirement, and that testing requirement is totally consistent with 
the history of OSHA. In fact, OSHA is in the business of mandating 
testing.
  OSHA mandates blood testing for industries with high exposures to 
lead. OSHA mandates hearing tests for industries with high noise level 
exposure. OSHA mandates testing for exposure to silica in industries 
that are working in and around silica.
  OSHA requires testing all the time. So that is what they are doing 
here--yes, on a bigger scale and, yes, also with an ability to avoid 
the testing if you get vaccinated. But that is what this requirement is 
really all about.
  And it is working. It is working--the numbers going from 50 to 96 
percent in a company like Tyson Foods after the vaccine requirement.
  Lastly, let me say this: This general lack of seriousness from our 
Republican colleagues about a plague that has killed 700,000 Americans, 
it is just stunning to me. It is just stunning. These aren't bee 
stings. These aren't knee scrapes. This is a deadly pandemic that has 
ended the lives of 700,000 of our mothers and fathers and

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sisters and brothers prematurely, hundreds of thousands of Americans 
who should be sitting at the Christmas table, who should be at Hanukkah 
celebrations with their families this month. And they are gone; 700,000 
Americans have disappeared.
  But apparently, the inconvenience of a weekly test is so odious, is 
so revolting, that it is worth another 700,000 people dying--because 
that is what we are talking about: a weekly test. The OSHA rule does 
not mandate the vaccine; it is a way out of the weekly test, a weekly 
test that is a little swab swirled around your nostril five or six 
times for 30 seconds.
  That is the requirement. That is the cost, the sky-high, 
Constitution-violating, unpatriotic cost the Republicans have been down 
here on the floor railing against for a month. Estimates suggest that 
that requirement can save thousands of lives. But apparently, the cost 
of a nose tickle is too great a cost to pay to save thousands and 
thousands of Americans from dying from a preventable pandemic.
  I urge my colleagues to oppose this effort.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Connecticut, 
and I rise today as well to urge my colleagues to vote against this 
dangerous resolution, which would pull the rug out from under our COVID 
response efforts at a really critical moment.
  We are fighting an unprecedented pandemic, and we all know just how 
painful this fight has been. Everyone remembers the way it upended our 
economy as small businesses shuttered, workers got sent home; the way 
it upended our healthcare system as emergency rooms filled and supplies 
dwindled and healthcare professionals started working really long hours 
in dangerous conditions; the way it upended our lives when schools and 
childcare providers were forced to close to keep people safe.
  We all know people who have been infected by this deadly virus. We 
all know people who are still fighting the effects of long COVID, which 
we are still trying to work to understand. And we all know people who 
have been killed by this virus.
  We have lost family members, mothers, daughters, fathers, sons, 
grandparents. We have all lost dear friends. We have lost beloved 
community members and frontline workers who keep our communities 
functioning. We have lost teachers and principals, doctors, nurses, 
police officers, firefighters. We have lost time with each other that 
we cannot get back.
  This virus left no American and no part of America alone. COVID has 
now killed over 785,000 people in this country, more Americans than any 
war we have ever fought. And despite what Republicans seem to believe, 
given the fact we are voting on a resolution to undermine a cornerstone 
policy of our pandemic response and despite the hard-fought and very 
real progress we have made, this crisis is not over.
  We are still averaging over 100,000 new cases a day. We still have 
over 50,000 people hospitalized with COVID. We are still, right now, 
seeing, on average, well over 1,000 deaths a day, overwhelmingly among 
people who are not vaccinated.
  And we are still on high alert for new variants. We saw with Delta 
how a new, more dangerous, more contagious variant of COVID-19 could 
set back all the progress we fought so hard to make, and we are at this 
very moment learning more about the Omicron variant and what sort of 
threat it might pose.
  So how on Earth does it make sense right now to undercut one of the 
strongest tools that we have to get people vaccinated and stop this 
virus? In what world is that a good idea?
  We all know the damage this virus does to our communities. We should 
be doing everything we can to stop it. We should be using every tool to 
protect our country, our economy, and our families.
  And we know vaccines are one of the best tools we have to do that. It 
has been almost a year now since the first vaccine was authorized. 
After months of hoping--remember that?--that news meant we finally had 
a safe, effective vaccine to protect people from this virus, and we 
have made a lot of progress since then when it comes to making the most 
of vaccines and getting them to people across the country.
  Vaccines are now authorized, as we know, for everyone ages 5 and up. 
Booster shots are now available to make sure people continue to stay 
protected amid concerns over these new variants. And around 60 percent 
of all eligible people in our Nation are fully vaccinated.
  But we still have a ways to go to vaccinate our country and to 
vaccinate the world if we are going to end this pandemic. That should 
be our No. 1 priority.
  But this resolution that our friends across the aisle are offering 
tonight would move us in the opposite direction. It will take away one 
of the strongest means we have to encourage people to get vaccinated, 
save lives, end this pandemic, and keep our economic recovery on track.
  Immunization requirements in this country are not new. They go back 
as far in our history as General George Washington, who required his 
troops to get vaccinated against smallpox. They have been critical in 
the fight of diseases like polio and measles and mumps and rubella, 
just to name a few.
  And the reason we no longer have to worry about diseases like 
smallpox and polio in this country is because vaccines work.
  Nor are workplace safety standards a new thing. The Occupational 
Safety and Health Administration has a long track record of setting and 
enforcing safety standards that simply prevent workers from getting 
sick or injured on the job.
  OSHA not only has the authority to protect workers with safety 
standards; it has been doing this for 50 years. The law that 
established OSHA even gave it authority to respond to emergencies by 
issuing an emergency temporary standard, or ETS, when there is a grave 
danger to workers.
  And it makes all the sense in the world for them to use that power to 
protect workers from COVID because the painful reality is that COVID-19 
has killed a lot of workers. We have lost hundreds of meatpacking 
workers and grocery store workers to this virus. We lost over 3,600 
healthcare workers to COVID in 1 year. And over 10,000 agricultural 
workers have been killed by COVID.
  This is exactly the kind of threat OSHA should be protecting people 
against. It is exactly the kind of grave danger Congress gave OSHA the 
authority to issue an ETS to respond to. And OSHA has rightfully used 
that authority to put forward an emergency temporary standard on COVID-
19 that is simple, it is flexible, and it is lifesaving.
  Republicans seem to not be hearing this part, so I want to be 
especially clear about it. This requires employers with 100 or more 
employees to make sure workers either--either--get vaccinated or get a 
COVID test once a week before they go in to the workplace--either 
vaccinated or tested once a week.
  It also provides, by the way, paid time for workers to get 
vaccinated, removing a key barrier to vaccinations. It is a strong tool 
for getting our Nation vaccinated. And despite how my Republican 
colleagues talk about it, letting employers have the flexibility to 
offer a testing option means they don't have to ask workers to leave 
their job if they choose not to get vaccinated.
  This step for getting people vaccinated or requiring testing is 
overwhelmingly popular with American people. A poll actually taken 
shortly after President Biden announced this step found that 6 in 10 
Americans supported requiring businesses of 100 or more to have 
employees vaccinated or tested regularly; and 7 in 10 supported making 
sure people have paid time off to get vaccinated.
  Of course, that should be no surprise. After all, no one wants to go 
to work worried that they might come home to their family with a deadly 
virus, worried that they might get their own kids sick, which is why 
getting more people vaccinated could help our country get back to work.
  We all know people want to work where they feel safe. We all want to 
work where we feel safe. And economists predict that vaccination 
policies could lead to millions of Americans reentering the workforce.
  Let's get something straight: the big threat to our workforce and to 
our

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economy is the virus. It is the virus that has killed hundreds of 
thousands of people and shuttered businesses. It is not the safety 
standard that will keep workers safe and businesses open.
  In fact, this type of safety standard is also supported by businesses 
across the country. Many businesses have already implemented policies 
like the standard Republicans are trying to overturn. And you know what 
has happened time after time?
  United Airlines, 99 percent of its 67,000-person workforce has 
complied overwhelmingly by getting vaccinated. Tyson Foods went from 
having less than half of its 120,000 workers vaccinated to now over 96 
percent. MGM Resorts has 98 percent of its workers vaccinated. Walmart 
says an overwhelming majority of employees have gotten vaccinated. A 
Connecticut manufacturer with 250 workers recently announced 100-
percent vaccination rate. And that list goes on and on.
  In one place after another, we are seeing over 90 percent of workers 
comply with this requirement--some through testing, and the 
overwhelming majority through vaccination.
  The big picture here is that this rule, which Republicans keep 
attacking, is saving lives. OSHA estimates it will help protect 84 
million workers and prevent thousands of deaths and over 250,000 
hospitalizations from COVID-19, and yet here we are--Republicans 
pushing to scrap it entirely, undermining the progress, and putting 
America lives and livelihoods in danger.
  This pandemic has done a lot of damage. It wrecked our economy. It 
shut down our schools and our businesses. It forced people to postpone 
weddings and graduations and funerals. It devastated our Nation's 
mental health. It killed over three-quarters of a million people.
  It is not over. We have come a long way. This pandemic sent 
unemployment as high as 14.8 percent. Today, it is back down to 4.2 
percent--the lowest it has been since the start of the pandemic.
  Schools have reopened and brought students safely back to classrooms. 
Businesses are hiring. People are getting vaccinated, getting back to 
work, getting back to plans that have been put off by this pandemic, 
and getting back to seeing their friends and families. But they do not 
want to go backwards. The American people do not want to go backwards. 
And that is exactly where the Republicans' misinformation on 
commonsense policies like this will take us: backwards.
  We know the path forward to finally end this involves getting 
everyone vaccinated. We should all be working towards that goal, not 
against it. Families are counting on us to lead our Nation through this 
crisis, not back into it.
  After all we have lost and all the hard work we have done to rebuild, 
we must not throw our economy and our communities and Americans' lives 
into jeopardy by sabotaging our pandemic response. When you are 
fighting a fire, you don't stop in the middle of it and turn off the 
water. That is exactly what this resolution will do.
  It takes away one of the most important tools we have given OSHA to 
protect workers, in the middle of a pandemic when we need it most, and 
jeopardize all of the hard work Americans have done to get us out of 
this.
  So I am here tonight to urge my colleagues to vote no--no to more 
lost lives, no to a longer pandemic, and to join me in defending a 
commonsense tool that will help put this incredibly difficult chapter 
of American life behind us.
  I yield floor.