The United States estimates that it might spend $22 million per month testing unvaccinated federal employees.
In a statement, the United States government stated that it would suffer “significant harm” if an appeals court did not overturn an injunction prohibiting the implementation of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal employees, and that testing unvaccinated employees could cost up to $22 million per month.
In a statement released late on Monday by the Justice Department, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget Jason Miller stated that the government would suffer on a number of fronts if it were unable to enforce the vaccine requirements.
According to Miller’s remarks on January 28, “although the vast majority of government civilian personnel have received a full vaccination, hundreds of thousands of them have not.”
He went on to say that the government recruits approximately 20,000 people per month and that it is now unable to demand that they be vaccinated.
A federal judge in Texas ruled on Jan. 21 that President Biden could not order federal employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and that the United States government could not discipline individuals who did not comply.
In September, President Joe Biden issued an order mandating approximately 3.5 million workers to get vaccinated by Nov. 22 unless they have a religious or medical exemption – or else face disciplinary action or termination.
According to Miller’s announcement, as of Jan. 21, approximately 2% of the federal civilian employees “had neither confirmed that they were properly vaccinated nor submitted a request for or granted an exception.”
COVID in the United States
19 occupational safety regulations compel government employees who have not been immunized to submit to periodical testing. Performing weekly testing “could cost taxpayers between $11 million and $22 million per month, or $33 million and $65 million each quarter,” according to Miller.
In his letter to Miller, he stated that tens of thousands of unvaccinated federal employees do not have pending or approved requests for an exception, while tens of thousands of exception petitions are pending.
A federal appeals court in the United States refused to overturn the vaccine decision last week. The case will be heard by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on March 8, 2019.
Government agencies will be required to alter their “re-entry and post- reentry plans and timelines” in response to the ruling, which would entail “establishing enlarged COVID-19 testing programs within agencies,” according to Miller.
He went on to say that if the injunction remains in place, “it will jeopardize the federal government’s capacity to protect the health and safety of federal employees.”
Using President Ronald Reagan’s 1986 executive order ordering federal employees to abstain from using illegal narcotics on and off duty, the Justice Department asserted that the president has “extensive authority to regulate the federal civil service.”
