The new order cites changed conditions including widespread vaccination of the general population, lower infection rates and the general lifting of prior restrictions. Image: Ron Adar/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffPresident Biden has issued an executive order revoking the one he issued in September 2021 that generally mandated that federal employees be vaccinated against the Coronavirus, formalizing a decision previously announced. Also revoked was a mandate issued at that time for employees of many federal contractors.
“We no longer need a government-wide vaccination requirement for federal employees or federally specified safety protocols for federal contractors. Vaccination remains an important tool to protect individuals from serious illness, but we are now able to move beyond these federal requirements,” the order issued Tuesday says.
“I issued those orders at a time when the highly contagious B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant was the predominant variant of the virus in the United States and had led to a rapid rise in cases and hospitalizations. Those orders were necessary to protect the health and safety of critical workforces serving the American people and to advance the efficiency of government services during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Biden’s new order says.
The White House last week had announced its intent to lift those mandates effective Thursday along with the end of the pandemic-based national health emergency; the general national emergency related to the pandemic was lifted last month.
Like that announcement, the new order cites changed conditions including widespread vaccination of the general population, lower infection rates and the general lifting of prior restrictions. It also repeats that announcement’s characterization of the federal employee mandate as “successfully implemented”—based on late-2021 data showing 98 percent of federal employees and military personnel had received at least one dose of vaccine or had an approved or pending request for an exception at the time.
The mandate made unvaccinated employees subject to a disciplinary progression potentially ending in firing unless they fell under an exception for medical or religious reasons. However, no actions more severe than letters of counseling apparently were taken before a federal judge issued an injunction against the mandate in early 2022 in one of a dozen suits against it. That injunction has stayed in effect through a number of appeals ever since.
The new order also says that agency policies adopted to implement those prior orders, “to the extent such policies are premised on those orders, no longer may be enforced and shall be rescinded consistent with applicable law.” That presumably will affect workplace safety protocols issued over the last several years, although the exact scope of those changes is still to be defined—likely by the interagency Safer Federal Workforce Task Force, which primarily issued them.
The “maximum telework” designation for federal agencies that has been in effect since early 2020 meanwhile is set to end Monday (May 15). However, that may have relatively little immediate impact, since the administration also has told agencies to begin what promise to be months-long reviews of their mix of onsite and offsite work, taking into account issues such as productivity, customer service and employee views.
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