State lawmakers plan to tackle vaccine and mask mandates from both local and federal officials when they come back next week for a special session on COVID-19.
Lawmakers had been meeting at the Capitol since Monday to work on the megasite incentive package for Ford’s Blue Oval City. They finished up Wednesday.
Next Wednesday, lawmakers will be exploring ways to reduce the impact of a federal vaccine mandate on Tennessee workers. While that mandate hasn’t yet been established, President Biden has informed workplace safety regulators that he’d like them to mandate vaccines for companies with more than 100 employees.
House Majority Leader William Lamberth thinks the mandate will punish employees rather than protect them.
“What really bothers me is not an individual business requiring a vaccine, folks could leave that job and go to another one. It’s that entire sectors of our economy have decided to put in kind of an arbitrary vaccine mandate and that leaves folks in their choice of field of work without any options whatsoever,” said Lamberth.
Among the things they’re likely to discuss are legislation that would ignore any federal vaccine mandates. They’re also likely to try to prevent local health officials and school boards from enforcing mask mandates.
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