BOISE, Idaho — In a letter to OSHA Wednesday, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, House Speaker Scott Bedke and Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder requested the Biden Administration withdrawal its vaccine mandate rule for private businesses.
Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) blocked implementation of the vaccine mandate, which required that employees at large businesses get a vaccine or test regularly and wear a mask on the job.
SCOTUS’s conservative majority concluded the Biden administration overstepped its authority by attempting to impose the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) vaccine-or-test-rule on U.S private businesses with at least 100 employees. OSHA had estimated the rule would save 6,500 lives and prevent 250,000 hospitalizations over six months.
On Wednesday, Idaho leaders sent a letter to the assistant secretary of Labor for OSHA, requesting the rule be permanently withdrawn after SCOTUS blocked implementation last week.
The letter said the vaccine mandate rule should be withdrawn "because it violates the 10th Amendment, it unnecessarily invades the province of the State of Idaho as it tailors it COVID-19 response to the specific needs of its citizens and businesses, and no congressional authorization for this rule has been advanced or identified."
OSHA is yet to withdraw the rule. At the same time SCOTUS blocked implementation, the court said it is allowing the administration to proceed with a vaccine mandate for most health care workers in the U.S. The court’s orders Jan. 13 came during a spike in coronavirus cases caused by the omicron variant.
The full letter with Gov. Little, Wasden, Bedke and Winder's concerns can be read here.
Hours after the U.S. Supreme Court halted the OSHA vaccine-or-test rule last week, Little and Wasden also commented on the decision to block implementation of the vaccine mandate rule and the decision to proceed with the vaccine mandate for healthcare workers, as previously reported by KTVB.
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