As concerns over the Omicron variant increase, President Joe Biden has requested that businesses move forward with the administration’s vaccine and testing requirements.
“We’re asking businesses to step forward and do what’s right to protect our workers and to protect our communities, which is to put in place some sort of vaccination requirement or testing requirements for the workplace,” said a senior administration official.
The Biden administration recently signed an executive order that would give businesses with 100 or more employees until January 4 to require workers to be vaccinated or be subject to routine testing and have to wear masks indoors.
However, the mandate was suspended after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit halted the policy.
As a result of the executive order, Republican attorneys general and certain private businesses have sued to retract the policy.
Since then, the Biden administration requested a multidistrict litigation panel to consolidate the over two dozen lawsuits in a single court, which have now been transferred to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.
The Biden administration has asked the 6th Circuit to reinstate the mandate, especially as fears over a winter surge grow. It has also asked the court to speed up the process in which oral arguments could happen because “the lives and health of thousands of American workers are at stake.”
