Will SCOTUS Act In Time To Stop Brandon's Train Wreck?

Heritage |   The Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal workers went into effect Nov. 22, despite vocal opposition from some members of Congress. This mandate could result in more than a hundred thousand people being disciplined or fired for refusing to comply, even if those workers are otherwise excellent employees or if their loss will severely disrupt the government’s ability to function.

The White House reports that 92% of 3.5 million total federal workers have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Another 4.5% are considered “in compliance” by way of having requested an exemption, with some but not all of those exemptions having been approved thus far. Federal employees who had already resigned or found new employment due to the vaccine mandate are not included in these figures.

If all those exemptions granted for the 4.5% and 96.5% are “in compliance,” that’s still a likely loss of 3.5%, or 122,500 federal workers who are not willing to get vaccinated.  

Under ordinary circumstances, firing even a single federal worker is extremely difficult. Federal managers attempting to fire an employee must prove “a preponderance of evidence” and prove that dismissing the employee will improve the performance of the agency.

At a minimum, firing a federal worker takes 170 days, but often it takes well over a year—and sometimes even two years. The nearly impossible process of firing a federal worker even with just cause means that federal managers almost never even attempt to dismiss or discipline workers.

According to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, federal agencies dismissed 0.18% of their career permanent workforce in 2013.

In a complete disregard for what ordinarily constitute an excessive amount of protections for federal workers, the president’s vaccine mandate could allow federal employees—including the best, the brightest, the longest-serving, and even those crucial to federal missions—to be disciplined or dismissed exclusively because they make a personal health decision to not get a COVID-19 vaccine.