Business groups ask White House to delay Biden Covid vaccine mandate until after the holidays10/25/2021 Worried that President Joe Biden’s Covid vaccine mandate for private companies could cause a mass exodus of employees, business groups are pleading with the White House to delay the rule until after the holiday season.
White House officials at the Office of Management and Budget held dozens of meetings with labor unions, industry lobbyists and private individuals last week as the administration conducts its final review of the mandate, which will require businesses with 100 or more employees to ensure they are vaccinated against Covid or tested weekly for the virus. It is estimated to cover roughly two-thirds of the private-sector workforce. OMB officials have several meetings lined up Monday and Tuesday with groups representing dentists, trucking companies, staffing companies and realtors, among others. Retailers are particularly concerned the mandate could trigger a spike in resignations that would exacerbate staffing problems at businesses already short on people, said Evan Armstrong, a lobbyist at the Retail Industry Leaders Association. “It has been a hectic holiday season already, as you know, with supply chain struggles,” Armstrong told CNBC after meeting the White House last Monday. “This is a difficult policy to implement. It would be even more difficult during the holiday season.” Thirty percent of workers said they would leave their jobs rather than comply with a vaccine or testing mandate, according to a KFF poll published last month. Goldman Sachs, in an analysis published in September, said the mandate could hurt the already tight labor market. However, it said survey responses are often exaggerated and not as many people will actually quit. The Occupation Safety and Health Administration delivered its final rule to OMB on Oct. 12, and the mandate is expected to take effect soon after the agency completes its review. The National Retail Federation and the retail leaders group asked White House officials in meetings last week to give businesses 90 days to comply with the mandate — delaying the effective date to late January at the earliest, lobbyists said. The Business Roundtable told CNBC it supports the White House’s vaccination efforts, but the administration “should allow the time necessary for employers to comply, and that includes taking into account employee retention issues, supply chain challenges and the upcoming holiday season.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which met with OMB on Oct. 15, also asked the administration to delay implementing the rule until after the holiday season. Officials at OMB declined to comment. However, former officials at OSHA, which will enforce the mandate, told CNBC that businesses will likely have some time to implement the rules. Jordan Barab, deputy assistant secretary of OSHA during the Obama administration, said the administration will probably give businesses about 10 weeks, as they did for federal contractors, until employees have to be fully vaccinated. However, the compliance date could come sooner for weekly testing, he said. “OSHA has always had provisions where its required equipment, for example, that may be in short supply to suspend enforcement if an employer can show its made a good faith effort to procure that equipment,” Barab said. “They may make a relatively early date for weekly testing but also provide some additional time in case supplies are not adequate.” The National Association of Manufacturers, in a letter to OMB and OSHA head James Frederick last Monday, asked the administration to exempt businesses from the requirements if they have already implemented company-wide mandates, or achieved a certain level of vaccination among employees through voluntary programs if certified by a local public health agency. Robyn Boerstling, a top lobbyist for the manufacturers’ group, called the federal requirements “redundant and costly” for companies that already support vaccination among their staff. Boerstling also expressed concern that businesses with barely more than 100 employees could lose valuable people to competitors who are not covered by the mandate. “A realistic implementation period can allow for workforce planning that is necessary given the acute skilled worker shortage and ongoing supply chain challenges by supporting the need to keep manufacturing open and operational,” Boerstling wrote in the letter to the administration last Monday. Industry lobbyists have also raised concerns about the cost of testing, and who will cover those costs. The Retail Industry Leaders Association believes employees who choose not to get vaccinated should pay for their weekly testing. “If folks are allowed to refuse vaccination, and the employer takes testing obligations from a cost standpoint, then there’s no real motivation for those employees to get the vaccine,” Armstrong said. With an estimated 4 million unvaccinated retail workers, testing costs will also add up quickly, he said. However, Barab said OSHA generally requires employers to cover the cost of equipment and procedures called for under its rules throughout the agency’s 50-year history. Industry concerns about the impact of Biden’s vaccine mandate on employment come after a record 4.3 million workers quit their jobs in August, the highest level of turnover in 20 years. The retail industry was particularly hard hit, with 721,000 workers leaving their positions. Goldman Sachs says the mandate would actually boost employment by reducing Covid transmission and mitigating health risks that have been a drag on labor force participation, encouraging many of the 5 million workers who have left the job market since the pandemic to return. Global supply chains are also strained amid a surge in pandemic-related demand for durable goods, factory shutdowns in places like China and Vietnam, and a shortage of truck drivers and skilled longshoremen on the West Coast. The White House admits there is little it can do to tackle the macro issues like increased demand and foreign factory operations. But it has recently taken some steps to help, like brokering a deal to keep major West Coast ports open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “We’re already having supply chain issues; we’re already having workforce shortage issues,” Ed Egee, a top lobbyist at the National Retail Federation, told CNBC after the group’s meeting with OMB last Tuesday. “This mandate cannot be implemented in 2021 without having serious repercussions on the American economy.” - CNBC
0 Comments
Former U.S. Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell died Monday morning due to complications from COVID-19, his family said in a statement. "He was fully vaccinated. We want to thank the medical staff at Walter Reed National Medical Center for their caring treatment," the family said. "We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American. Powell was 84 years old. He served under four presidents -- Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush -- at the very top of the national security establishment, first as deputy national security adviser and then as national security adviser. Finally, he was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior ranking member of the U.S. armed forces and top military adviser to the president.
He was the first African-American ever to hold that post and the first to be secretary or state. During that time he helped shape American defense and foreign policy. He was in top posts during the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the downsizing of the military after the end of the Cold War, the 1989 invasion of Panama, the 1991 Gulf War, the 1992-93 engagement in Somalia and the crisis in Bosnia. SLIDESHOW: Colin Powell through the years"Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of Colin Powell," Bush said in a statement. "He was a great public servant, starting with his time as a soldier during Vietnam. Many Presidents relied on General Powell’s counsel and experience. He was National Security Adviser under President Reagan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under my father and President Clinton, and Secretary of State during my Administration. He was such a favorite of Presidents that he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom – twice. He was highly respected at home and abroad. And most important, Colin was a family man and a friend. Laura and I send Alma and their children our sincere condolences as they remember the life of a great man." Powell retired from the Army after the Gulf War, and his supporters urged him to enter politics, touting him as the only candidate with the moral stature needed to unite the country and heal longstanding racial wounds. After his retirement, from 1994 to 2000, Powell was engaged in several notable humanitarian and personal efforts. In 1994, he, former President Jimmy Carter and former Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., embarked on a peacekeeping mission in Haiti, in which they were able to help bring to an end to military rule and establish an elected government for the country. In 1995, Powell published his autobiography, "My American Journey," in which he touched on everything from his military experiences to more personal matters. Powell was also a co-chair for America's Promise, a non-profit organization geared toward empowering young people, for which he served as chairman from 1997-2000. The media spotlight first found the four-star Army general during the 1991 Gulf War, when, as head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he appeared on television screens across the world. With his steady gaze, he conveyed intelligence, certainty and straightforwardness. After the allied coalition expelled the Iraqi army from Kuwait, Powell's celebrity grew, and his name became synonymous with integrity for many Americans across the political spectrum. A decade later, as President George W. Bush's secretary of state, Powell played a pivotal role in another conflict. In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on the homeland, Powell worked to build an international coalition and used his long military experience to help design a strategy for the war on terrorism. He tried to prepare the country for a different type of war, one where the enemy might be hard to identify. "I was raised a soldier, and you are trained, there is the enemy occupying a piece of ground. We can define that in time, space and other dimensions, and you can assemble forces and go after it," Powell said at the time. "This is different. The enemy is in many places. The enemy is not looking to be found. The enemy is hidden. The enemy is very often right here within our own country. And so you have to design a campaign plan that goes after that kind of enemy." Throughout his service in the military, Powell never made his political leanings known. Although he served under both Democratic and Republican administrations, it wasn't until 1995 that Powell announced that he had registered as a Republican. He formally supported the candidacy of Democratic presidential candidates Lyndon Johnson, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. The reelection campaign of former President Donald Trump brought out Powell's political side in the last years of his life, when he called on voters not to support the incumbent, Republican president. "I think he has not been an effective president," Powell told CNN's Jake Tapper in June 2020. "He lies all the time. He began lying the day of inauguration, when we got into an argument about the size of the crowd that was there. People are writing books about this favorite thing of lying. And I don't think that's in our interest." "The values I learned growing up in the South Bronx and serving in uniform were the same values that Joe Biden’s parents instilled in him in Scranton, Pennsylvania," Powell said in a video message at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. “I support Joe Biden for the presidency of the United States because those values still define him, and we need to restore those values to the White House." After the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Powell told CNN he "can no longer call myself a fellow Republican" and that "we need people who will speak the truth." Powell spent his entire adult life in service to his country. He leaves behind his wife of 48 years, Alma Powell, and his son, Michael. - ABC News WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Colin Powell, the first Black U.S. secretary of state and top military officer, died on Monday at the age of 84 due to complications from COVID-19. He was fully vaccinated, his family said in a statement on Facebook. "We have lost a remarkable and loving husband, father, grandfather and a great American," his family said. Powell was one of America's foremost Black figures for decades. He was named to senior posts by three Republican presidents and reached the top of the U.S. military as it was regaining its vigor after the trauma of the Vietnam War. Powell, who was wounded in Vietnam, served as U.S. national security adviser under President Ronald Reagan from 1987 to 1989. As a four-star Army general, he was chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush during the 1991 Gulf War in which U.S.-led forces expelled Iraqi troops from neighboring Kuwait. Powell, a moderate Republican and a pragmatist, considered a bid to become the first Black president in 1996 but his wife Alma's worries about his safety helped him decide otherwise. In 2008, he broke with his party to endorse Democrat Barack Obama, who became the first Black elected to the White House. Powell will forever be associated with his controversial presentation on Feb. 5, 2003, to the U.N. Security Council, making President George W. Bush's case that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein constituted an imminent danger to the world because of its stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. Powell admitted later that the presentation was rife with inaccuracies and twisted intelligence provided by others in the Bush administration and represented "a blot" that will "always be a part of my record". Reporting by Will Dunham and Arshad Mohammed; Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Alex Richardson
- Reuters |
Stephen WestHe's your reporter for this Archives
July 2022
Categories |