U.S. Senate to Biden: No to Private Sector Vaccine Mandate
The U.S. Senate Wednesday night sent the Biden administration a message: Congress' upper chamber does not support the president's private sector vaccine mandate.
With two Democratic senators joining all 50 Republicans, the Senate voted 52-48 to repeal President Joe Biden's executive mandate requiring that private-sector employers with 100 or more workers ensure their employees are vaccinated against COVID-19 or face weekly testing. Businesses that didn't follow the directive were to face stiff fines.
U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, and Jon Tester, D-Montana, joined Republicans in rebuking the mandate.
While the measure, introduced by Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana, is unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled U.S. House, federal courts already have halted Biden's private-sector and other vaccine mandates, saying they amount to executive overreach.
"We've seen two consistent patterns in the past few months: the Biden Administrat