Biden expected to sign executive order requiring federal employees to be vaccinated

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Biden is expected to sign an executive order requiring all federal employees to be vaccinated amid a surge in coronavirus cases and pandemic deaths.

Biden is scheduled to lay out his strategy late Thursday for dealing with the pandemic in remarks from the White House.

The requirement for the estimated 2.1 million civilian workers will give them no option of regular testing to opt out of the requirement, according to a person familiar with the plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the president’s 5 p.m. remarks.

Covid cases have topped more than 150,000 while deaths are more than 1,000 a day as the delta variant has taken a toll.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/09/09/covid-delta-variant-live-updates/#link-WNRZ332GYZF7BNDUXUJR6YOTR4

---

[Owl]

1. Very excellent!

[Deminpenn]

2. Good

Unless there is a true medical condition that precludes being vaccinated, all feds, even retired ones, should be vaccinated.

[Tomconroy]

3. As goes Covid, so goes Joe Biden's presidency.

It might not be fair, but lots of things aren't.

[Moebym]

17. Epidemiologist Dr. Charity Dean said on Sam Bee's show the other day

"We're going to be in this for the next one to three years"

If the Democrats lose control of both chambers of Congress in '22 and the presidency in '24 because of the inability or unwillingness of tens of millions of Americans to do right by each other, oh well - life's not fair (tm), c'est la vie, right?

[Tomconroy]

28. Obviously Joe Biden understands what I'm saying.

[Irish_Dem]

29. I don't think Biden is always focused upon re-election.

He is focused on doing the right thing, and is out of F's to give.

[Thomas Hurt]

4. Hey, maybe that will get rid of some christofascist trumpers!

[BumRushDaShow]

5. I used to work with some christofascist Raygunites

and was luckily able to retire from the federal government 2 weeks after TFG was inaugurated, so I can imagine the head explosions.

I will say that the vast majority were not like that - at least where I worked. But the few who were could be loud about it.

[MichMan]

6. Should be uneligible for any unemployment if fired

[Submariner]

7. Federal employees and Contractor employees on fed jobs

are subject to random or mandatory drug tests, for the safety of everyone on the job. It just makes sense to have the same requirement for the vaccine.

[BumRushDaShow]

10. "Federal employees & Contractor employees on fed jobs are subject to random or mandatory drug tests"

I remember when they first tried to do that under Raygun and it went to court multiple times - with the last 2 cases up to the SCOTUS essentially resulting in rulings that although authorizing it, narrowed the scope of the types of positions that would be subject to it - National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab & Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Association

Thus it is mainly only in effect for certain job classifications (e.g., LEO and equivalent positions who carry weapons, transportation workers like truck drivers, etc).

Otherwise, it hasn't been imposed on others in the federal government unless there is suspicion.

[Farmer-Rick]

11. And every military person

Military routinely does unannounced urinalysis. As long as they just select a group and not individuals.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. Right

although I think they had tried to take that to court too but it fell under the "handles a gun" criteria. I.e., positions where their drug use could directly impact the safety of the public in their normal duties.

So someone like a clerk/typist (the few who are left) in a place like HUD, who is obviously not out at an airport as a security screener for example, is not going to be routinely subject to it unless that person is suspected (due to their behavior/actions at the workplace) of usage requiring a drug test.

I know when Raygun first signed the Executive Order, people in my office in the agency I worked for at the time, freaked out because what was being discussed/speculated about, was having a supervisor in the bathroom "observing" while a urine sample was being collected (and worse, it could potentially be a male supervisor standing outside of your stall in the ladies' room doing this). It had gotten that bad.

[Submariner]

22. Drug tests have been routine at the Hanford nuclear reservation,

Rocky Flats, CO, and Oak Ridge Tennessee Labs, for everyone involved in the Manhattan project cleanups.

I assumed all DOE management were also subject to the same drug testing requirements as contractors, since we are all dealing with the same lethal waste disposal problems, so everyone needs their heads screwed on straight, drug free, when working the potential radiation exposure issues.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. Yes - anything that may have some impact on "safety of the public" in the course of their work

See what I posted here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2797741

[luv2fly]

8. Good news for job hunters

There should be some federal job openings in the very near future.

[ffr]

20. +1

[Historic NY]

9. Good way to get rid of the ROADS

Retired on active duty.

[Farmer-Rick]

12. It should be made mandatory for every job.

I bet then we would have a whole lot fewer anti-vaxxers.

[Sienna86]

13. I want a mandate for all planes and trains too

Good news.

[IronLionZion]

14. Sweet! and they include contractors

The new vaccine requirement will apply not just to the about 2.1 million federal employees but millions of contractors that do business with the government. It follows a policy announced by the Pentagon in August making vaccines mandatory for the military.

This is very good for the folks who did not have the option to work from home but were stuck with maskhole/vaxhole coworkers.

[Snackshack]

16. Good.

[flying_wahini]

18. About time.

[ffr]

19. i.e. all Trumpers, OUT!

[hermetic]

21. Will this include postal employees?

Many of them are in constant contact with a whole lot of people every day. I sure hope they are included. Hey, DeJoy, you been vaxxed?

[BumRushDaShow]

23. They were apparently exempt from the earlier E.O. regarding masking or getting a vaccination

https://www.postaltimes.com/postalnews/usps-exempt-from-vaccine-mandate-sees-uptick-of-employees-in-quarantine/ and their main union insisted that it needed to be negotiated - https://www.apwu.org/news/apwu-statement-mandatory-vaccination-federal-employees

However after that happened and their cases went right back up, they did recently re-institute their own mask mandate - https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2021/08/usps-brings-back-mask-policy-for-workforce-with-or-without-vaccination/

So right now, there seems to be conflicting or no info out there regarding this latest E.O. and USPS, with a complete dodging of the issue in reports that I have seen. So it's possible it may still include them (or not) and if it does, the union could take them to court to demand collective bargaining for the change in working conditions...

[hermetic]

26. Thank you!

That was some good to know information, that I wasn't really aware of.

[BumRushDaShow]

27. You are welcome! USPS is an odd entity

and operates relatively independent from the rest of the Civil Service-covered federal government although due to their explicit mention in the Constitution, they are obviously federal employees and authorities are spelled out under various Postal Acts, notably when they were completely reorganized in 1970 via the Postal Reorganization Act. That sortof made them into a quasi-corporation (similar to how Amtrak is a quasi-government entity).

[Cryptoad]

25. Hows about we,,,

turn off the tap for all this Federal money into the State until the State Gov require all State employees to be vaxed,,,,