Some Republican leaders in Florida are set on “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” by severing ties with the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration over the forthcoming federal vaccine mandate, Fortune reported.
Instead of accepting the coming emergency temporary standard that is under review, Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson indicated their willingness to stand with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in rejecting the Biden administration’s plan.
“In the coming days, we will review the governor’s specific proposals as well as discuss our own ideas for legislative action, including whether now is the time for Florida to withdraw from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and establish our own state program,” Sprowls and Simpson said in a joint statement.
“We believe that by doing so, Florida will have the ability to alleviate onerous federal regulations placed on employers and employees,” they added.
It is unclear how Florida would proceed with creating its own work safety agency, “an expensive and complicated task that hasn’t been attempted by any state in over 40 years, Fortune reported.
Once the mandate goes into effect, the Biden administration has said that nursing homes could face a loss of federal funds, which could cripple facilities that don’t toe the line. This situation presents a conundrum for providers in Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order earlier this month prohibiting “any entity in Texas” from mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for any employee or consumer “who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19.”
