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‘We’re going to try’: Florida about to call it quits with OSHA in response to oppressive vaccine mandates

November 11, 2021 | | Print Article

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(Video Credit: Forbes Breaking News)

Gov. Ron DeSantis is calling a special session next week in Florida that will consider withdrawing from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) following President Biden’s federal vaccine mandate which the agency has been tapped to implement.

“We have got to stop trying to browbeat people,” DeSantis asserted, according to Orlando Weekly. “From the very beginning, we’ve said, let’s not put people down, let’s lift people up. That’s what we are going to be doing, and we are going to be saving a lot of jobs in the state of Florida.”

The heavy-handed agency has issued a regulation that now requires businesses with more than 100 employees to prove that workers are either fully vaccinated against COVID or are submitting to weekly testing and mandatory mask-wearing while on the job.

The Florida House and Senate both presented proposals this week to be included in the special session that begins on Monday and will continue through Nov. 19. It’s not surprising that the Republicans who control both chambers want to give OSHA the boot over the mandate.

“In the coming days, we will review the Governor’s specific proposals as well as discuss our own ideas for legislative action, including whether now is the time for Florida to withdraw from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and establish our own state program,” wrote Florida House Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson in a statement announcing the special session week. “We believe that by doing so, Florida will have the ability to alleviate onerous federal regulations placed on employers and employees.”

“If OSHA, the Department of Labor and OSHA, is going to be weaponized as a way to hold hostage businesses throughout the state of Florida, no problem. We want a different plan,” said Sprowls during a news conference discussing the session, News Service of Florida reported. “We want out of OSHA. We’ll submit our own regulatory authority and say goodbye to the federal government.”

Simpson said in a statement, “After 40 years in the private sector running businesses that depend on an in-person workforce, where significant safety risks have to be mitigated, I am shocked to see such an unconstitutional mockery of the important role of OSHA.”

If the Florida legislature decides to move away from OSHA, it could take years according to the News Service of Florida report. The proposal is sponsored by Republican Sen. Travis Hutson and Rep. Ardian Zika and is seen as the first step in getting free of the agency.

Unfortunately, that will not save businesses that have decided to take a principled stand against the mandate. They will be subjected to bankrupting fines and penalties if they do not comply with OSHA and the Biden administration. Jan. 4 is the deadline to bend the knee and OSHA could fine them up to $136,532 per “willful” violation and possibly much more than that.

During the same special session. lawmakers will also debate proposals that would prevent government employees from being forced to get vaccinated, requiring employers to allow vaccine exemptions for workers, and prohibiting the Florida state surgeon general from forcing citizens to get the jab.

Currently, a federal 5th Circuit appeals court in Louisiana has temporarily frozen Biden’s mandate. But the White House is encouraging employers to move forward with it regardless of legal standing.

The Biden administration has also snapped back at DeSantis, claiming that Biden has the power and the wherewithal to implement the federal mandate. DeSantis has formally announced that the state of Florida will sue the Biden administration over the vaccine mandate.

(Video Credit: Forbes Breaking News)

“We are not going to let Joe Biden turn our businesses owners who are the backbone of our economy into the vaccine police,” Treasure Coast State Rep. John Snyder told CBS 12 News in an interview.

Florida may start a trend across the nation over OSHA:

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Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
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