Des Moines, Iowa — Senate Republican Leader Jack Whitver says the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the federal vaccine mandate for health care workers likely closed the door on efforts at the state level to counter that edict.
Whitver says that means it will take an act of congress to override the Biden Administration’s order that health care workers get fully vaccinated against COVID.
A group of House Republicans are working on a bill that in its present form would forbid employers from asking if workers are vaccinated. In October, the Iowa legislature passed a law that ensures health care workers may file for unemployment benefits if they’ve had a religious or medical exemption request denied by their employer.
The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Biden Administration’s COVID vaccine mandate for private sector workers in businesses with 100 or more employees. Whitver made his comments during taping of “Iowa Press” on Iowa PBS.
