{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://harshbarger.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-diana-harshbarger-introduces-bill-prohibit-federal-government", "Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger Introduces Bill to Prohibit the Federal Government from Requiring COVID-19 Vaccines", "2021-10-01", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "House", "TN", "Diana Harshbarger", "H001086", "harshbarger.house.gov", "harshbarger", "https://harshbarger.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Today, Congresswoman Diana Harshbarger introduced the Blocking Joseph Robinette Biden\u2019s Overreaching Vaccine Mandates Act in the House of Representatives.\n\nThis bill prohibits the Federal Government from requiring private sector and Federal employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine against their will.\n\n\u201cThe recent vaccine mandates by President Biden are nothing short of authoritarian government overreach that infringe upon our American civil liberties,\u201d said Congresswoman Harshbarger. \u201cThe Biden administration has revealed that this isn\u2019t about COVID-19, it\u2019s about control. Americans have rightfully lost their trust in President Biden to provide accurate guidance when it comes to COVID-19 as he continues to put politics over science.\n\n\u201cI\u2019m all for fighting COVID and keeping Americans healthy and safe, and we should use all scientific clinical tools and protections available. But authoritarian vaccine mandates and threatening jobs based on COVID vaccine status \u2014 that could have devastating impacts to our health care and first responder workforce and other parts of our economy \u2014 are not the answer. I have, and will always, take a strong stance against forced COVID vaccines and have previously introduced the No Vaccine Passports for Americans Act. Now, President Biden has made clear that he is not afraid to violate our constitutional rights to get what he wants. If Biden were serious about COVID-19 he would secure our southern border immediately. I am fighting to ensure that our civil liberties remain protected and that the Federal Government has no place in requiring COVID-19 vaccines.\u201d\n\nOriginal co-sponsors are U.S. Representatives Buddy Carter (GA-01), Bill Posey (FL-08), Yvette Herrell (NM-02), John Rutherford (FL-04), Ron Estes (KS-04), Jeff Duncan (SC-03), and Michael Guest (MS-03).\n\nBackground\n\nOn September 9, 2021, President Biden announced he will impose sweeping new national COVID vaccine mandates that are likely to face a number of legal challenges from governors, employers, unions and other stakeholder groups.\n\nPresident Biden\u2019s executive actions that are expected to take effect within the next several weeks would:\n\nRequire an estimated 2 million federal employees and contractors \u2014 including remote workers \u2014 to be fully vaccinated, with no alternative option for periodic COVID testing, or they may face job termination;\n\nRequire more than 50,000 health care facilities that accept Medicare or Medicaid funding to vaccinate their employees (about 17 million people nationwide), or risk losing federal funding.\n\nThrough the U.S. Department of Labor\u2019s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA), require private employers with 100 or more employees to mandate that their workforce be vaccinated against Covid-19 or tested weekly for the virus. Should the Federal government find noncompliance with this mandate, employers could face massive punitive fines of up to $14,000 per violation.\n\nThe text of the bill can be found here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"]], "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://harshbarger.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-diana-harshbarger-introduces-bill-prohibit-federal-government"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6122418455779552, "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"}