Biden admin submits federal vaccine mandate for review

US President Joe Biden officially submitted his federal vaccine mandate intended for private businesses. As outlined by Reuters, the US Labor Department, through their Occupational Safety and Health Administration branch (OSHA), submitted their COVID vaccine mandate guidelines for private-sector companies to the White House for their review.

White House spokesperson Jen Psaki confirmed the development but did not say how long the review would take. The retail industry previously requested a 90-day warning when implementing these rules.

The Biden administration announced it intended to push a federal vaccine mandate in early September. In a speech on the topic, he solidified the regulatory measures for vaccines on the government employee side while making it clear he'd have OSHA draft up these rules for private businesses.

"The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been working expeditiously to develop a temporary emergency standard that covers employers with 100 or more employees to ensure their workers are fully vaccinated or undergo weekly testing to protect employees from the spread of coronavirus in the workplace. On Tuesday, October 12, as part of the regulatory review process, the agency submitted the initial text of the temporary emergency standard to the Office of Management and Budget," wrote the Department of Labor in an email reply to Bloomberg Law.

Last week, the Federalist pointed out how the COVID vaccine mandate for private companies was only an idea in the interim between Biden's September speech and now. Over the past few weeks, government responses to COVID pushed vaccine mandates to the forefront.

In the case of Southwest Airlines, people directly linked the airline mandate as the cause for mass cancellations and flights delays. Despite Senator Ted Cruz expressing such a notion, Southwest's CEO blamed general "absenteeism" instead.

Governor Ron DeSantis issued his first fines to a Florida county over firing unvaccinated workers. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has preemptively banned private businesses from mandating the COVID vaccine via Executive Order. To that end, Psaki accused both of them of "putting politics ahead of public health."

When it comes to a Texas-based company like Southwest Airlines? They ultimately decided they'd be following the Biden administration's vaccine mandate demand regarding their status as a federal contractor.