Handing Republicans a symbolic win, the US Senate voted 52-48 on the resolution to nix President Biden’s vaccine mandate for larger businesses, which needed a simple majority to be approved.
GOP view Wednesday’s vote as a significant win and the first time they’ve been able to use the Congressional Review Act to successfully get through the Senate a resolution targeting a Biden rule.
They believe that the rule constitutes an overreach of the federal government and it violates the civil liberties of American workers.
Yet, even if they get the vote in the House, the White House has warned that Biden will veto the resolution and neither chamber has the two-thirds majority required to override it.
Democratic Senators Jon Tester and Joe Manchin voted with Republicans on Wednesday, giving it enough support to be sent to the House, where the resolution faces a hurdle since Republicans can’t use a similar fast-track process to force a vote over the Democratic leadership’s objections.
They hope to force there a vote through a discharge petition, which will only require support from a handful of House Democrats to achieve the simple majority needed.
Manchin, who also voted last against defunding the mandate as part of the short-term funding bill, stressed that the federal government should incentivize, not penalize, private businesses which have a responsibility to protect their employees from COVID-19.
Biden’s rule published through the OSHA mandated businesses with at least 100 employees to demand their workers to get vaccinated by Jan. 4 or undergo regular testing.
This vaccine mandate has run into several court challenges with the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit blocking it in November as “fatally flawed” and ordering OSHA not to enforce it pending adequate judicial review of a permanent injunction motion.
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