Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt is calling on the Biden administration to withdraw its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers.
Schmidt argues that the mandate violates the rights of workers and the authority of states.
Schmidt joined a coalition of 21 other attorneys general in filing a petition under the Administrative Procedures Act requesting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services take action to repeal its Interim Final Rule (IFR) and State Surveyor Guidance, which require participating healthcare facilities to “develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that all staff are fully vaccinated for COVID-19.”
The IFR regulates more than 10 million healthcare workers and suppliers in the United States. Of those, CMS estimated that 2.4 million were unvaccinated when it issued the IFR.
The coalition alleges that the vaccine mandate violates the states’ sovereign right to enact and enforce their laws and exercise their police power on matters such as compulsory vaccination and it fundamentally changes the deal under which they agreed to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Additionally, the attorneys general argue the IFR is arbitrary and capricious, structurally defective, and exceeds CMS’s statutory authority. Constitutionally speaking, it violates the 10th Amendment; Non-delegation, Major Questions, and Anti-Commandeering doctrines; and the Spending Clause.
A copy of the petition sent to CMS can be found at http://bit.ly/3XlvWk9.
