By HANNAH BLEAU
Over 100 Republican lawmakers, led by Reps. Fred Keller (R-PA) and Darrell Issa (R-CA), sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) on Tuesday, urging her to consider legislation — which already passed in the Senate — to nullify President Joe Biden’s coercive vaccine mandate on millions of American workers.
“We write to urge the immediate consideration of Senate Joint Resolution 29 (S.J. Res. 29) in the House of Representatives before the chamber recesses for the holidays,” they wrote, noting the resolution “provides for congressional disapproval of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) emergency temporary standard requiring all private-sector employers with 100 or more employees to adopt a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for their workers or require employees who choose not to get vaccinated to undergo weekly testing and wear a mask in the workplace.”
Lawmakers also noted that the OSHA rule is currently paused due to ongoing litigation.
“Given the great consequence this matter has for all our constituents, the House of Representatives has a special responsibility to vote on S.J. Res. 29. The OSHA mandate represents an unacceptable and unlawful overreach by the federal government, and it will cause irrevocable arm to our nation’s businesses and workforce,” they wrote.
The lawmakers noted the Senate recently passed a resolution designed to nullify Biden’s vaccine mandate via the Congressional Review Act. Rep. Keller’s identical legislation, House Joint Resolution 65, has the support of the entire Republican conference in the House — all 212 members:
With that, the lawmakers urged Pelosi to immediately consider S.J. Res 29 in the House. Notably, only two Democrats in the Senate, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Jon Tester (D-MT), voted with Republicans to nullify Biden’s mandate.
“Anybody that doesn’t sign on to it can’t claim to want to protect your liberties and freedoms,” Keller said during a recent appearance on Breitbart News Saturday. “We took an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees us rights. It tells us we limit the power to the government, we the people, not the other way around.”
“President Biden’s vaccine mandate violates the individual liberties of over 80 million American workers. These are the men and women who kept our economy going throughout the pandemic – now this administration wants to stop them from being able to provide for their families unless they submit to the president’s unconstitutional mandate,” he said in a recent statement, noting the support of the entire GOP House conference.
“The reckless and unconstitutional vaccine mandate that President Biden wants to force upon the nation threatens the jobs of millions of workers and the future of thousands of businesses in every corner of the country – and we won’t rest until they are free from it for good,” said Rep. Issa said in a statement.