JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Governor Mike Parson is promising legal action against what he calls “an unconstitutional federal overreach.”
This effort is in response to president Biden’s mandate to have businesses with over 100 employees either get vaccinated or get a weekly negative test.
A statement released by the Office of Governor Parson said:
This action would infringe on Missouri’s constitutional authority and exceeds the scope of the authority granted to either President Biden or OSHA. The President cannot legislate with the flick of his pen from the Oval Office, and OSHA cannot dictate personal health care decisions for Missourians. Missouri is not under an OSHA state plan, and Governor Parson will not allow state employees to be used to enforce this unconstitutional action.
Gov. Parson
“The first reaction, is that’s an overreach,” said Dan Mehan, in response to president Biden’s announcement last week, “it’s an intrusion on the relationship between the employer and employees.”
Mehan said the state has more than 3,700 employers with at least 100 or more employees.
“It’s a huge insult to the employer community,” said Mehan.
Mehan firmly believes encouragement is a better approach than mandating, “83% [of businesses we surveyed] are encouraging their employees to get a vaccination.”
For example, the commerce is doing a vaccine campaign, “the COVID stops here campaign,” Mehan explained, “if 70% of their employees are vaccinated, they get a certificate indicating that, called bronze. If 80-percent or more, they get a silver certificate. If 90 percent of 100 are vaccinated, they win the gold. While that’s an encouragement, and it’s positive, here you have the heavy hand of the federal government coming in with a penalty. And people just don’t like being told what to do.”
And he wants to make clear that the problem is with mandating what businesses can do and not about the vaccines themselves.
“We don’t want any mandate that says you have to get vaccinated, and we don’t want any mandate that says that an employer can’t say you gotta get vaccinated. It goes both ways,” said Mehan.
“This is not about freedom or personal choice. It’s about protecting yourself and those around you. The people you work with. The people you care about. The people you love” said president Biden at the announcement last week.