The White House has announced new policies to loosen COVID-19 vaccine mandates that had previously drawn concern from defense contractors facing reluctant workforces and lawmakers who said they were worried about the Pentagon’s industrial base.
The new policies released by the Labor Department, which will be enforced starting Jan. 4, delay the Dec. 8 deadline for all federal contractors to be fully vaccinated. The policies would allow businesses with more than 100 workers to use testing and masking in lieu of proving full vaccination, but contractors are not included and must still be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4.
All covered employers are also required to pay employees for the time it takes to get vaccinated and provide sick leave for those who experience side effects. Employers, however, will not be required to pay for regular COVID-19 tests for those who refuse to get vaccinated or seek medical or religious exemptions.
The policies are intended to be in place for six months, though a host of legal challenges is expected, especially in states like Texas and Florida, where governors are suing the Biden administration over the vaccine mandates.
The new policies follow concern voiced by defense contractors who said they believed the mandate to have a fully vaccinated workforce would lead to workforce challenges.
Greg Hayes, chief executive of Raytheon Technologies, said during a recent quarterly earnings call the company was "expecting some level of disruption, some level of challenge in the supply chain." He told CNBC he expected the vaccine mandate would also cause Raytheon to lose "several thousand" employees from its total workforce of 125,000.
Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, have lobbied the White House and the Pentagon to remove, loosen or at least better clarify vaccine mandates for defense contractors.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent Biden a letter asking the mandate be suspended for defense contractors.
"I share your desire to see our country through the COVID-19 pandemic as quickly as possible, and, I -- like you -- have elected to take the vaccine," Tuberville wrote. "But your administration's mandate is short-sighted, ill-conceived, and threatens our national security. . . . It is quite possible that your mandate will result in individuals leaving the workforce to avoid the vaccine, thus, resulting in increased worker absences and labor costs, and decreased efficiency. During this time of increasing worry about the technological advances of near-peer adversaries, we should focus on policies that will ensure our national security interests are protected. This order does the opposite."
Though scientific evidence shows vaccines protect people and those around them from COVID-19, some U.S. workers, including those in the defense industrial base, have protested or left work because of the mandates, with many citing politics, health worries and ethical concerns.
Responding to workforce concerns prior to the release of the new policies, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said during an Oct. 27 press conference that the administration did not view vaccination deadlines as “cliffs.”
“But even once we hit those deadlines,” he said, “we expect federal agencies and contractors will follow their standard [human resources] processes and that, for any of the probably relatively small percent of employees that are not in compliance, they’ll go through education, counseling, accommodations, and then enforcement.”