WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said President Joe Biden “went back on his word” when he ordered a vaccine mandate for private businesses, and she joined several of her GOP colleagues Wednesday afternoon urging passage of a Congressional Review Act (CRA) to stop it.

 

A vote in the Senate on the CRA Wednesday night passed with bipartisan support. Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. John Tester, D-Mo., joined the Republicans in the vote to repeal the mandate.

 

But the road ahead still includes a House vote, a possible veto by Biden and, if that happens, the process of gathering enough votes (two-thirds in both Senate and House) to override a veto.

 

Capito said during the press conference that a year ago Biden said vaccines should not be mandatory and he would not “demand it to be mandatory.”

 

But then earlier this year he issued a mandate for all private businesses with 100 or more employees to require Covid vaccinations or be tested weekly.

 

Capito, who has always urged everyone to get vaccinated, said as a result of the mandate, which is now being stalled in courts, “anxiety in West Virginia” is real and daunting to families facing higher bills and the possibility of losing their jobs if they choose not to get vaccinated.

 

“They realize this is an invasion of their own abilities to make decisions about themselves and their health care,” she said.

 

“Encouraging and requiring are two different things.”

 

About 300,000 jobs in West Virginia could be impacted by the mandate in manufacturing, service and other businesses “across the spectrum,” she said.

 

“It will be a killer of our economy,” she said of the businesses that will suffer when people refuse to be vaccinated and lose their jobs if the mandate is upheld.

 

“But this is bigger than that. It is killing America’s spirit of being able to make decisions about yourself.”

 

Capito said it will also hurt federal agencies, like the Border Patrol, which could lose 20 to 30 percent of its workforce at a critical time.

 

“I am very pleased to join colleagues in an effort to try to stop this federal overreach,” she said.

 

The mandate would affect more than 80 million Americans, she added, and businesses could face a $14,000 fine for each violation.

 

Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., led the effort on the CRA to nullify the vaccine mandate.

 

Braun said “we are lucky we have a vaccine” and people should be vaccinated unless they have “good reason not to.”

 

However, making it a mandate is the “heavy hand of government, that is overreach,” he said. “This is when my phones started ringing off the hook.”

 

Braun said it is a bipartisan effort to pass the CRA to nullify the mandate and all legislators should check with their constituents about it because most Americans oppose it.

 

All 50 GOP senators are expected to vote to nullify.

 

Democratic Senators Joe Manchin, W.Va., and Jon Tester, Mont., both said previously that they would vote with the Republicans on the CRA.

 

“I do not support any government vaccine mandate on private businesses,” Manchin said in a statement last week.

 

“That’s why I have cosponsored and will strongly support a bill to overturn the federal government vaccine mandate for private businesses.”

 

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said he is pro vaccine, but “I am against mandates because I am pro worker.”

 

Lee said the CRA is designed to address an issue like this, when the executive branch of government goes too far with a “presidential overreach.”

 

About 500,000 jobs would be impacted in Utah, he said, with 5 million in California.

 

Lee called the mandate an “egregious exercise of presidential power … This one is a doozy.”

 

“We have over-empowered the executive branch over decades,” he said of presidential powers.

 

“What we will see in the years to come is an expansion of things like the CRA,” referring to a way to nullify presidential executive orders.

 

“The American people are counting on us.”

 

Lee said the court system has so far ruled against the “unconstitutional” mandate, but using the court system takes time.

 

“Only Congress is in a position now to stop it immediately and permanently,” he said.

 

“This is our moment. We need to do our part.”

 

Lee also said House Democrats could face many constituents in their states who have jobs on the line and they need to think about that.

 

“This is not a hypothetical exercise,” he said. “It involves a lot of people.”

 

All senators who spoke said they have been vaccinated and urge others to be vaccinated as well, but this is all about making sure people have a choice.