Press Releases

U.S. Representatives Earl L. "Buddy" Carter (R-GA) and Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), currently the only two pharmacists serving in Congress, today introduced legislation to block the Biden Administration’s proposed vaccine mandate for private employers. 

The Blocking Joseph Robinette Biden’s Overreaching Mandates Act would prohibit the federal government from forcing private sector and Federal employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine against their will, regardless of immunity status.

“We will not allow President Joe Biden to infringe upon the rights of hard-working Americans to make their own medical decisions,” said Congressman Carter. “President Biden’s proposed mandate is the definition of unconstitutional federal overreach. It is yet another example of an Administration that does not care about the rights of the American people, but about consolidating control and appeasing the party’s radical fringe. It is time for Biden to put politics aside and respect liberty, as well as science, and back off of this mandate.”

“The recent vaccine mandates by President Biden are nothing short of authoritarian government overreach that infringes upon our American civil liberties,” said Congresswoman Harshbarger. “The Biden administration has revealed that this isn’t about COVID-19, it’s about control. Americans have rightfully lost their trust in President Biden to provide accurate guidance when it comes to COVID-19 as he continues to put politics over science."

President Biden announced he will impose sweeping new national COVID vaccine mandates on September 9. While the move has garnered legal challenges, both Carter and Harshbarger have heard from employers and employees concerned that they may be forced to choose between complying or facing severe economic hardship.

President Biden’s executive actions that are expected to take effect within the next several weeks would:

• require an estimated 4 million federal employees and contractors — including remote workers — to be fully vaccinated, with no alternative option for periodic COVID testing, or they may face job termination;
• require more than 50,000 health care facilities that accept Medicare or Medicaid funding to vaccinate their employees (about 17 million people nationwide), or risk losing federal funding; and\
• require private employers with 100 or more employees mandate that their workforce be vaccinated against Covid-19 or tested weekly for the virus.

The text of the bill can be found here.