WASHINGTON — A bipartisan Senate vote Wednesday night to stop the federal vaccine mandate on private businesses passed, but even if it would make it through the House it is unlikely to get past a presidential veto.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., was one of the GOP senators pushing the vote on a Congressional Review Act (CRA) measure to cancel Pres. Joe Biden’s mandate, which is now stalled in the court system.
Capito said during a virtual press conference Thursday the House may get enough Democratic help to bring it to vote, but if it passes, Biden most likely will veto it and getting the two-thirds majority vote in both the Senate and House to override a veto is unlikely.
“I think it can pass the House,” she said because people have to be hearing the “deep question about requiring a vaccine.”
But Biden will “probably” veto the bill if it reaches his desk, she added. “I do not think there is a two-thirds of the entire body that would override that.”
However, Capito said the Senate vote was “significant” because it was bipartisan and it brought attention to the mandate, and voices of opposition.
Democratic Senators Joe Biden, W.Va., and Jon Tester, Mont., voted with Republicans for the 52-48 passage.
“My voice is a reflection of what I hear at home,” she said, with jobs on the line because many will refuse to be vaccinated, making it not only a personal choice issue but an economic one as well.
“Only 38 percent of the trucking employment base will be vaccinated,” she said. “The President needs to hear these concerns and one way to do that is by passing legislation no matter where it will end up.”
People have many reasons not to take the vaccine, she said, but any mandate only “hardens people’s reservations about getting the vaccine.”
About 40 percent of the workforce would be impacted by the mandate and Capito pointed out in a press conference before Wednesday’s vote that the country cannot afford to lose possibly 20 to 30 percent of its workforce over the vaccine mandate, especially during a time that jobs are plentiful and it can be difficult to find employees.
“I am pro-vax,” she said of her support for people taking the COVID-19 vaccines, “and I encourage people to get vaccinated. But it should be a personal choice.”
Capito said the mandate is a “fundamental constitutional question” on whether the President can mandate through an executive order and if he is exceeding his authority.
“The issue will be decided in courts,” she said.
The extent of the President’s authority surfaced during the discussion related to just how far it should go.
Capito said there is “merit” to looking at how much power the President has and how those orders impact the traditional process of allowing Congress to enact policies.
“An executive order can come like a blanket and change policies without the legislative process … “ she said, which is why “wild swings between administrations” can be seen.
Pres. Biden ended some of former Pres. Donald Trump’s executive orders and Trump stopped some of former Pres. Barrack Obama’s orders.
“This is not the way we want to formulate policy,” she said, adding that Congress should do this in a deliberate and thoughtful manner. “It’s more permanent and it’s hard to undo.”
Capito said more power has “drifted” toward the executive branch and it may be time to take a look at how do rebalance that.
Capito also addressed an issue related to Homeland Security funding and where the Biden administration wants to spend it.
“We have a border crisis,” she said, with 164,000 people apprehended at the southern border in October, the most on record for any previous October. That number was less than in September, but did not indicate anything is getting better.
Capito said the money earmarked for the border is aimed at merely trying to manage the crisis, not trying to solve the problems with actions like a better wall system and expediting the political asylum claims process.