Arkansas to file a legal challenge to new federal vaccine rules

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Thursday his state will file litigation over the new vaccine requirement rules issued by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.The Biden administration announced Thursday that its vaccine rules applying to private businesses with 100 or more employees, certain health care workers and federal contractors will take effect Jan. 4. Hutchinson said he opposes the mandates because businesses should be able to run the workplace how they wish. He believes the new rules are unconstitutional because they usurp the states’ responsibilities to keep citizens healthy.He relayed a conversation with a Jonesboro business owner who said he would have trouble finding workers if he required a vaccine. “Businesses very importantly should have the freedom to decide for themselves what is best for their workplace and the health of their workers and customers. The results of these mandates are very significant. The result of these mandates is to create hardships on people, businesses and our efforts to get people back to work. In a time of supply shortages, this is the last thing we need to do is to lose workers and drivers for trucking companies that are so critical to having the supplies that we need in society today,” Hutchinson said.Hutchinson also said Human Development Centers only have 55% of workers vaccinated.State Secretary of Human Services, Cindy Gillespie, said the federal mandates could create health and safety issues for state-run health care providers who receive Medicaid and Medicare funding.”The Human Development Centers are impacted by this and the Arkansas State Hospital as well as the Arkansas Health Center, which is the nursing home down in Haskell. We have over 3,000 employees that are affected through this mandate. And in all situations at all of these facilities, we are at this point very much struggling with staff and down staff. At the Human Development Centers alone, we’re down about 700 staff. So the staff that are there are working overtime, they are working weekends, they are working very long hours. And so losing more staff becomes a health and safety issue,” Gillespie said.The attorney general for neighboring Oklahoma announced Thursday afternoon it also will sue over the new rulesArkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge released a statement on Twitter earlier in the day, saying the vaccine rules are illegal and that the federal government should expect legal action from the state.Previous LawsuitRutledge and attorneys general from nine other states signed onto a lawsuit last week meant to block Biden’s previous requirement that all employees of federal contractors be vaccinated against the coronavirus. That requirement was set to take effect on Dec. 8, 2021, but has been pushed back to Dec. 8, 2022.Biden has argued that sweeping vaccine mandates will help end the deadly pandemic, but Republicans nationwide have opposed the vaccination requirements and have threatened to bring similar legal challenges.Local ResponseThe White House’s mandate would impact dozens of businesses in Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley.Sen. Jim…

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