WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Boozman (R-AR) joined Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Mike Braun (R-IN) and congressional Republicans in filing an amicus brief with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) regarding Friday’s case considering the Biden Administration’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) vaccine mandate.
The brief supports the lawsuit challenging the mandates and urges SCOTUS to issue an emergency order to halt them. Boozman and his colleagues argue Congress did not give OSHA the authority to impose a vaccine mandate.
“Congressional members have an interest in the powers they delegate to agencies not being abused—the legislative authority vested in the federal government belongs to Congress, not the Executive branch. In this case, the promulgation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) of a sweeping, nationwide vaccine mandate on businesses intrudes into an area of legislative concern far beyond the authority of the agency. And it does so with a Mandate enacted through OSHA’s seldom-used ‘emergency temporary standard’ (ETS) provision that allows for bypass of notice and comment rulemaking under certain circumstances. That OSHA exceeded its authority in enacting the ETS Mandate is not a ‘particularly hard’ question,” members wrote in the brief.
Under the OSHA rule, COVID-19 vaccinations are mandated for private employers with 100 or more employees.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked implementation of OSHA’s rule but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit overturned the ruling and reinstated the mandate.
Boozman has also joined efforts to block Biden’s vaccine mandate on private employers. The Senate, with Boozman’s support, passed a bipartisan resolution under the Congressional Review Act to nullify the Biden administration’s mandate.
