President Biden revealed a series of steps to combat the newly surging pandemic, including the announcement of an imminent federal rule that all businesses with 100 or more employees must ensure that every worker is either vaccinated for COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing for the coronavirus.
“We’re in a tough stretch, and it could last for a while,” Biden conceded, as the delta variant of the coronavirus has caused cases, hospitalizations and deaths to rise across the country. But, he added: “We can and we will turn the tide on COVID-19.”
Biden said the new emergency rule for private sector employers, which will be issued by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, would apply to 80 million workers. In total, he said the six-pronged strategy he unveiled Thursday would affect some 100 million Americans.
Biden also announced that businesses meeting the 100-worker threshold must give employees paid time off to get themselves or family members vaccinated.
Many Republicans quickly condemned Biden’s proposed rule, and the Republican National Committee on Thursday night announced its plan to sue the Biden administration.
“Forcing main street to vax or pay a fine will not only crush an economy he’s put on life support—it’s flat-out un-American,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., wrote on Twitter. “To Joe Biden, force is more important than freedom. Americans won’t stand for it.”
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement: “It is not the government’s role to dictate to private businesses what to do. Once again President Biden is demonstrating his complete disregard for individual freedoms and states’ rights. As long as I am governor, there will be no government vaccine mandates in Oklahoma.”
An NPR survey found that 50% of U.S. adults support employers requiring vaccination to return to in-person work, while 44% do not. The poll did not ask about government mandates for businesses.