No Vaccine Mandates

On Thursday, September 9th, President Joe Biden announced his newest plan for the expanded federal pandemic response to COVID-19. That plan includes steps to mandate vaccinations in ways which clearly violate both individual and employer rights.

Most notably, President Biden stated that all employers with 100 or more employees must either require their workforce to become fully vaccinated or require unvaccinated employees to test weekly. The Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration will develop and enforce the rule, which will have an impact on over 80 million employees in the private sector.

Employers are not agents of the state and should not be used as such by being coerced into implementing governmental mandates.

This is one of the most oppressive, overbearing, and dictatorial governmental COVID-19 measure we have seen to date. Social distancing can be kept. Masking can be removed. But the unintended adverse reactions to a vaccination required for an individual to keep a job is permanent.

This mandate violates free market principles, but even more importantly it violates individual liberties by requiring a forced medical procedure as a condition of employment. An employee will be forced to choose between continued employment or potential negative health risks.

In addition, President Biden signed an order requiring all federal executive branch workers to be vaccinated, as well as any employee of a contractor which does business with the federal government. He is also encouraging states to require school employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as well. Finally, he is launching an attack on our healthcare workers at the frontlines of the pandemic by requiring workers in facilities which receive Medicare or Medicaid dollars to be vaccinated.

All of this is bad news for the millions of individuals who constitute the American workforce. Therefore, I am working on legislation which will protect the medical freedom of Texans from the heavy hand of the federal government.

No one should ever be forced or coerced into receiving a medical treatment they do not want to receive. Using it as a term or condition of employment―essentially, "take this vaccine or you're fired"―is un-American and wrong. No one should have to choose between keeping their job or taking a vaccine they do not want.

In addition, I have filed other bills to protect employees and other individuals from both employer and governmental vaccine mandates. It is inappropriate for any level of government to tell businesses they must issue vaccine mandates on their employees. For that matter, it is wrong for any employer to mandate vaccines as a condition of employment without appropriate exemptions.

I fully support minimal government regulations on business. However, our nation and state were founded upon principles protecting the rights of the individual, not business. With so many employers already issuing vaccine mandates before President Biden's announcement, legislation which protects employees' rights is also appropriate.

When our nation was founded, the 10th amendment to the constitution ensured that all rights not expressly given to the federal government were retained by the states. Medical freedom is one such right and Texas must protect her citizens from oppressive federal mandates.