{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://estes.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3237", "Rep. Estes Speaks Out Against Vaccine Mandate and CMS Rule", "2021-11-05", "2021", "2021-11", "Republican", "House", "KS", "Ron Estes", "E000298", "estes.house.gov", "estes", "https://estes.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx?DocumentTypeID=27", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kansas) joined a press conference with nearly three dozen of his Republican colleagues in response to President Biden\u2019s overreaching vaccine mandate through OSHA. Yesterday OSHA released their new rule for employers with 100 or more employees.\n\n\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about the validity of the COVID-19 vaccine,\u201d said Rep. Estes. \u201cIn fact, a lot of Kansans tell me they are vaccinated, but they just don\u2019t believe the government should trample on the rights of others who choose not to be vaccinated. Others tell me they\u2019ve been at the same company for many decades and are nearing retirement, and some who have continued to work faithfully even through the pandemic, yet are being forced to resign or retire because they\u2019ve made a personal health care decision. It\u2019s absolutely absurd and unconstitutional for President Biden and OSHA to feel that they are empowered to make those decisions for all of America.\u201d\n\nWatch Rep. Estes' remarks at a press conference.\n\nAdditionally, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an interim final rule for health care workers. This rule reflects President Biden\u2019s vaccine mandate and requires more than 17 million health care workers employed by facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid to receive the COVID-19 vaccine by Jan. 4, 2022. Rep. Estes has already noted existing workforce shortages in the health care industry, and this CMS rule will only exacerbate the problem.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://estes.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3237"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9511800017207861, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}