Biden’s executive order requiring federal employees to be vaccinated doesn’t apply to members of Congress. It applies only to executive branch employees, as is true of executive orders generally.
“The president has a lot of authority over employees of the EXECUTIVE branch,” Andrew Reeves explained in an email to FactCheck.org (emphasis his). Reeves is a professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis and author of a book on executive branch politics.
“The separation of powers — one of the hallmarks of the American political system — is the principle at work here,” Reeves said.
A 2019 Congressional Research Service report on presidential directives described executive orders as being “directed at executive branch officials and instruct them on how to manage agency operations.”
In addition to the separation of powers, Reeves noted that the statutes cited in the executive order — Title 5 sections 3301, 3302 and 7301 — don’t extend to the legislative and judicial branches.
As for whether or not the forthcoming OSHA rule will apply to workers in the legislative branch, that’s unclear.
The Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970, which created OSHA and gave it authority to set workplace safety standards, gives OSHA the ability to “promulgate, modify, or revoke occupational safety and health standards that apply to private sector employers, the United States Postal Service, and the federal government as an employer,” a recent Congressional Research Service report explained.
OSHA didn’t respond to our request for clarification on which federal employers would be covered by its forthcoming rule.
Pfizer — which worked with German company BioNTech to develop the first COVID-19 vaccine to get full approval from the FDA — announced in August that it would require its U.S. employees to either get vaccinated or agree to weekly testing.
A Pfizer spokesperson confirmed to FactCheck.org that the company is “requiring all U.S. colleagues and contractors to be fully vaccinated, unless approved for a medical or religious accommodation from vaccination.”
The company is also expecting to be covered by the OSHA rule, the spokesperson said.
Similarly, Moderna — which developed another COVID-19 vaccine — already requires its U.S. employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Also, since it has more than 1,800 employees, it is likely to be covered by the OSHA rule.
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