The U.S. Senate this week voted to overturn President Biden’s health care workforce vaccine mandate in a 49 to 44 vote along party lines.
It was a vote that was considered largely symbolic through a measure called the Congressional Review Act, according to a New York Times report. Six Democratic senators missed the vote.
The resolution was introduced in December by Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota with Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas.
The act can be used by Congress to overturn certain federal agency regulations through a joint resolution of disapproval, according to a news release from Sen. Cramer’s office. The resolution has to be disapproved by both the House and the Senate, and then signed by the president, or Congress has to override a presidential veto, for the rule to be invalidated.
“This is a vote to protect frontline and essential health care workers from Biden’s overreaching vaccine mandate, especially at a time when we’re facing personnel shortages across the health care field, particularly in rural hospitals and medical centers,” Cramer said in the news release.
Roughly 84.4% of staff per facility are considered fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) data as of the week of Feb. 20.
If the measure were to clear the House of Representatives, which appeared unlikely — according to the Times — then Biden would veto it.
Nursing home workers in half of the country are less than two weeks away from the March 15 deadline to be fully vaccinated. Those states were involved in a lawsuit that eventually made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, who upheld the CMS vaccine guidance.
In the 25 states and Washington, D.C. where the mandate was already in effect, nursing homes with staff vaccination rates under 100% would be considered non-compliant after Jan. 28 – with opportunities to return to compliance.
Facilities with 80% or higher staff vaccination compliance, who also have plans to achieve 100% compliance in 60 days, won’t be subject to additional enforcement, CMS said. If facilities achieve upwards of 90% staff vaccination within 60 days, with a plan to achieve 100% compliance in yet another month, no enforcement will be taken.
In other words if nursing homes meet the agency’s 80% and 90% milestones, they effectively have 90 days to get into full compliance with the CMS mandate.
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