Authored by Joseph Lord via The Epoch Times,
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) has announced that he will join Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and all 50 Senate Republicans to strike down President Joe Biden’s private sector vaccine mandate.
“I’m not crazy about mandates,” Tester said on Tuesday, though he added that he supports mandates aimed specifically at health care workers and military servicemen.
Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) at a Senate hearing in Washington on Sept. 27, 2017. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)
Tester, a moderate Democrat in the upper chamber, is the second Democrat to announce that he will join Republicans in striking down the mandate using a 1990s oversight law.
Sen. Joe Manchin announced his decision on Dec. 3, saying that he would support Republicans in their effort to strike down the private sector mandate.
Manchin explained the decision in a statement, “I have personally had both vaccine doses and a booster shot and I continue to urge every West Virginian to get vaccinated themselves.” Still, the senator emphasized his opposition to any effort to impose vaccination on private sector employers and employees.
“Let me be clear: I do not support any government vaccine mandate on private businesses,” said Manchin. “That’s why I have cosponsored and will strongly support a bill to overturn the federal government vaccine mandate for private businesses.”
“I have long said we should incentivize, not penalize, private employers whose responsibility it is to protect their employees from COVID-19,” Manchin said.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) speaks during a hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office building in Washington on June 9, 2021. (Stefani Reynolds/Pool via Reuters)
Manchin and...