State legislatures rush to pass vaccine, mask bills

As Republican governors and attorneys general around the country sue, or threaten to sue, to challenge President Joe Biden’s sweeping vaccine requirements, state legislators of both parties are also taking action on COVID-19 mandates.

Biden said in September that companies with at least 100 employees must require all their employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.

He also moved to mandate shots for health care workers, federal contractors and the vast majority of federal workers.

The rules have ignited a fierce debate across the country. Republicans insist that it infringes on personal liberty, while Democrats maintain that it is simply sound public health policy.

In a special session, Iowa lawmakers passed a bill late Thursday in the state Legislature to create exceptions to employer vaccine mandates and to give unemployment benefits to people fired for refusing to be vaccinated.

Minutes before Iowa’s lawmakers were to meet in a special session on redistricting, the Assembly released a bill that would allow employers to waive vaccine requirements for religious or health reasons.

Crucially, the bill allows Iowans to receive a medical waiver without a doctor’s note.

Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa, a Republican who opposes government requirements for masks and vaccines, signed the bill into law Friday, saying in a statement that “no Iowan should be forced to lose their job or livelihood over the COVID-19 vaccine.” Although Republicans have the majority in the Iowa House and Senate, there was bipartisan support for the bill.

Elsewhere, the Republican-controlled Legislature in Tennessee approved a slate of bills early Saturday limiting the enforcement of COVID-19 protections, although lawmakers backed off provisions that would have prevented many businesses in the state from enforcing mask mandates, The Associated Press reported.

The legislation prohibits government entities and public schools, as well as many private businesses, from mandating vaccinations or requiring proof of vaccination, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

After pushback from the business sector, however, the lawmakers agreed to carve out various industries from the ban on COVID-19 vaccine mandates, including many health care facilities and entertainment venues.

Under the new legislation, government entities will largely be prohibited from implementing mask mandates, unless they meet specific criteria. The changes limit public schools from requiring masks, except in extreme circumstances, according to education news website Chalkbeat Tennessee.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who has been a strident opponent of federal vaccine mandates, on Friday called for a special session of the state Legislature in two weeks to consider protections for workers who could lose their jobs because of vaccination requirements, saying in a statement that a person’s “right to earn a living should not be contingent upon COVID shots.”

On Saturday, hundreds rallied outside the Statehouse in Topeka, Kansas, expressing opposition to federal COVID-19 mandates as a legislative committee considered recommendations for the Republican-controlled legislative body, the AP reported. The very name of the panel the Special Committee on Government Overreach and the Impact of COVID-19 Mandates signaled the political resistance to federally imposed requirements.

By contrast, the Illinois General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats, raced on the final day of its fall session to make it harder for people to avoid COVID mandates. The Legislature updated the state’s “conscience” law that was approved in the 1970s to protect doctors and other health care workers from having to provide abortions that conflict with their beliefs.

The bill, which will be signed into law by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, states that it is not a violation of the law for an employer to take any measures or impose any requirements that help prevent contraction or transmission of COVID-19.

Supporters said that the original 1970s law was never intended to allow residents to use moral or religious objections to avoid vaccination. They said the additional language would close what they argued was a loophole.