Motion to Discharge

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Mr. President, the United States is facing economic challenges that we haven't experienced in this country for decades. The supply chain crunch is leading to backlogged ports, and that, in turn, is spilling over into empty shelves. Inflation is exacting a punishing toll on American families; on their budgets, on their quality of life.

And it is not the well-off families that are being most harmed by it, no. It is those who are least prepared to endure that. It is America's poor and middle class; those who are working hard to survive from day to day, trying to reach that American dream, trying to ascend the economic ladder that the American dream has long enabled.

Now, each of these problems, in its own right, would be a really serious and vexing primary concern for most people and most businesses, even during normal economic times. But these are far from normal economic times.

In fact, when businesses are polled, their primary concern isn't about any of these things. It is the labor shortage. Businesses are struggling to find workers. The Joint Economic Committee Republicans released a report recently explaining that Americans have lost many vital connections to work. Government policies and social pressures are leading to a lower labor force participation rate than at any time in decades.

This trend is worrying not only because work helps Americans put food on the table--and it does, and it is necessary to do that--but also because work often provides a sense of accomplishment and belonging and self-worth. Work is a social good in its own right.

But businesses across the country are struggling to find workers, and that is leading to more of these same problems, leading to higher prices on things that people need to buy. All this is making everything else more complicated, more difficult for America's poor and middle class.

I have spoken to businessowners in Utah, who are closing their doors for days each week because they can't find workers. Some businesses are offering extremely generous salaries and signing bonuses for those who are willing to work. Nonetheless, they are still struggling to find employees.

Now, work is often the primary connection Americans have with peers. Work provides a sense of involvement, taxpayer responsibility, and community with others. Work is also the way we get things done. It is how we manufacture, farm, mine, and build. Work is a requisite for prosperity at any level, in any form.

Unfortunately, President Biden is making work more difficult and less enticing, increasingly less possible. Raising taxes on Americans gives them less incentive to work, and as the Penn Wharton Budget Model shows, the Democrats' trimmed-down plan would cost almost $4 trillion over 10 years and cost American taxpayers $1.5 trillion in new taxes.

Through his unconstitutional and sweeping vaccine mandate, President Biden is forcing countless American workers out of a job and preventing others from joining or rejoining the workforce. This is far from a mere abstract constitutional transgression. This is a constitutional violation that goes far beyond the text of a document that extends deeply into the lives of the American people, especially the poor and the middle class.

I have now heard from over 300 Utahans who are at risk of losing their livelihoods due to this mandate. Their stories are gut-wrenching. Their stories are tragic. Their stories remind me of how indefensible and inexcusable and immoral this vaccine mandate truly is.

These are ordinary, everyday, hard-working Americans who all too often are just trying to make ends meet, put food on the table, provide for their families, and otherwise get by.

Many of them have legitimate medical, moral, or religious objections. Many of them work for employers who have no desire to implement the mandate and who themselves are worried about their ability to keep their businesses open.

Now, I have heard from a number of Utah businesses whose management and ownership have expressed these exact same feelings, and I have heard from Utah workers who have expressed these feelings over and over and over again. Let me tell you about a few people I have heard from who have described this awful situation.

Now, one Utah business in the high-tech space has expressed concern about losing valuable employees due to the mandate. The business that I am referring to at the moment has implemented policies to encourage vaccination and recognizes, of course, the value that vaccination can bring to the workforce. Nonetheless, the businessowners are uncomfortable with making these decisions for their employees.

The business's management said: ``We feel strongly that it is not the government's right to require vaccination.''

They are absolutely right.

A growing Utah food manufacturer with 350 employees is very worried about the mandate's impact on that company's ability to keep product moving. This business plays an important role in food supply chains in Utah, throughout the Western United States, and throughout the country.

Leaders of this business said: ``This mandate is government overreach, is outside the scope and purpose of OSHA, and will have dire consequences on our company and our economy in this extremely tight labor market.''

They know that some of their workforce would quit if the mandate were enforced.

Another Utah business is similarly worried. This larger operation's leadership said: ``We are in a difficult labor situation. It is a daily struggle to be fully staffed and produce the products our customers expect. Some of our employees have stated they will quit if forced to be vaccinated. Any disruption in our labor force will be critical to our operations, and a disruption in our labor force not only means some of our customers may not receive product they expect, it may mean local, time-sensitive supply would not get processed. That disruption would be devastating.''

Now, it is important here that I not be misunderstood. I am against the mandate, but I support the vaccine. I have been vaccinated. I have encouraged others to be vaccinated. These vaccines are helping countless people avoid the harms associated with COVID-19. But this mandate is already doing serious harm to our economy and to people who want the right, the basic human right, to make their own medical decisions.

That is why I, along with my colleague, the Senator from Kansas, Dr. Marshall--Senator Marshall and I have sent a letter directly to the majority leader, Senator Schumer. We have advised him, months before the current spending period ends in December, that we will oppose any funding legislation that enables the enforcement of President Biden's employer vaccine mandate.

It is essential to remember here that Congress, the branch of government most accountable to the people at the most regular intervals, this is where the Constitution places the power of the purse. This is where the Constitution places the power to pass legislation. Congress, not the President, has the authority to decide how Federal funds are spent.

Now, we believe our funds would be misspent in this way or any endeavor that would harm Utahans and Kansans and all Americans, would worsen our difficult economic situation, or would take away fundamental medical freedoms.

This now marks the thirteenth day that I have come to the Senate floor to oppose the mandate. I am going to continue to do so for as long as it takes to beat the mandate. I encourage all of my colleagues to join me in this effort.

And when I say that, I want to be clear. I am not speaking to one side of the aisle or the other. I invite all to join me in this cause. Why? Well, because Americans overwhelmingly--regardless of whether they live in a red State or a blue State or a purple State, Americans overwhelmingly oppose this mandate.

According to a poll recently reported on in Axios--hardly a rightwing publication--revealed that 14 percent--just 14 percent--of Americans believe that the response to someone not receiving the vaccine should involve them losing their job.

Just 14 percent of Americans agree with President Biden that you should have to choose between keeping your job and getting a vaccine that might go against your religious beliefs or that might worsen a preexisting medical condition that has caused your doctor to advise you to be cautious in getting the vaccine.

These decisions are not those of the President of the United States to make. You see, he doesn't have that power. My copy of the Constitution says that the power to make law rests in this branch of government, the legislative branch, the Congress. And my copy of the Constitution says that he can't make law, which he essentially did when he purported to have and purported to plan to exercise the power unilaterally, acting alone, to require every worker at every employer that has more than 100 employees--more than 99 employees to get the vaccine or be fired.

This isn't right. Deep down, the American people know it isn't right. Deep down they know that this is not a partisan issue. This is an unabashed power grab by the President of the United States. It is not one that is of the sort that the American people will accept kindly.

I have said before, I am not sure I can think of a more egregious example of a President exercising power that is not his own in many decades.

This is, in some ways, reminiscent of President Harry Truman's decision to seize every steel mill in America in order to make sure that the output could be dedicated to the Korean war effort. The American people didn't smile upon that one. Neither did the Supreme Court of the United States, which, within weeks of President Truman's action on April 8, 1952, decided that he didn't have that authority.

Some may ask: Well, if it is so unconstitutional here, why hasn't the Supreme Court acted?

I will tell you why. Because President Biden hasn't had the basic decency to issue an order explaining a basis for his authority and providing a basis for someone to challenge the legitimacy of his authority to order every business with more than 99 employees--to force its entire workforce to get vaccinated. He hasn't had the decency to do that.

Consequently, no one can sue yet. Consequently, employers everywhere with more than 99 employees are forced to guess as to what it would look like. And in the meantime, their lawyers with good reason and their risk management departments and their human resources departments are understandably saying: We don't want to get caught flatfooted, especially because we have been threatened as employers with $70,000 per day, per person, mounting civil monetary penalties.

This would be crippling to any business.

So what are they doing?

Well, they are getting ahead of it. They are guessing as to what the most extreme version of the OSHA mandate might look like, and then they are exceeding that. And they are already in the process of threatening termination and, in some ways, in some cases, imposing it.

In many cases, they are not even having the decency to fire them. They are, instead, putting them on unpaid administrative leave. This is especially cruel because it renders them completely ineligible for unemployment.

So, Mr. President, I ask you: Is this moral? Is this just?

Setting aside for a moment the question of whether this is constitutional--and I assure you, unequivocally, it is not. But even setting aside that question, is it moral? Is it proper? Is it acceptable to do this to America's poor and middle class?

It is not.

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