Republican lawmakers in the Michigan House and Senate on Thursday filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit against President Joe Biden’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration vaccine mandate.
The mandate, which could impact millions of Americans, has faced widespread backlash and legal opposition from multiple state officials and private leaders. Numerous lawsuits have been filed.
“This mandate from the federal government is the fastest way to make a bad situation worse. The comply-or-leave overtone of the new OSHA rules can only really do one thing, which is exacerbate a labor shortage crisis,” said Michigan State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey in a statement.
Shirkey, like many other opponents, explained that the new regulation has the potential to impact staffing levels in many industries, some of which are already facing critical shortages.
“Healthcare workers are in desperate supply. Our energy security cannot afford to have linemen walk off the job. This federal overreach will exacerbate supply chain shortage, interrupt manufacturing production already way behind, destabilize our critical infrastructure and worsen the labor shortages across all industries,” Shirkey added.
Officials have also denounced the measure as unconstitutional and a large expansion of federal government powers.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has temporarily stopped the mandate’s implementation, which was scheduled to start in early January. A judge cited that the policy “fails almost completely to address, or even respond to, much of this reality and common sense” and is “staggeringly overbroad.”
“This catastrophic display of government overreach succeeds at one thing alone: Confirming that President Biden is ill-equipped to protect the American family and their economic interests. We will fight and we will not stop until this country is back on track to recovery,” Shirkey continued.
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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mike Shirkey” by mihousegop CC BY 2.0 and photo “Michigan House floor” by Michigan House Republicans.
