West Virginia state Senate President Craig Blair, surrounded by other republican lawmakers, said Tuesday a unified approach to how to deal with the virus and COVID restrictions is not there yet for the GOP.

Blair said he can't get the 21 senate votes needed to call a special session on vaccine mandates -- a special session that Governor Jim Justice does not want.

None of the Republican senators likes mandates, but the rapidly changing virus conditions that show more than 28,000 active cases now have made agreement a moving target.

“We've not stepped away, threw our hands in the air,” state Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, said. “As it changes day by day, it changes that negotiation.”

With the lack of votes for a special session, or to pass meaningful legislation if they had one, the Republican Caucus still asked West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to pursue legal action against President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for businesses with more than 100 employees.

"I'm calling on Patrick Morrisey, our A.G., take and utilize every means possible, as well as our governor to push back on the federal government,” Senate President Blair, R-Berkeley, said.

State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said there is a case to be made.

“Well, based on President Biden's announcement, we think we have an excellent chance of going in and prevailing,” Morrisey said. “We think what they're doing with respect to the employer mandate, in particular, that's quintessential federal overreach."

The Senate president said if the GOP lawmakers reach agreement among themselves, they will ask the governor to put the mandate issue on the call for the upcoming special session dealing with redistricting.

Blair declined to say how close he was to getting those 21 votes. The GOP lawmakers said they have received hundreds of calls and e-mail from people upset by the federal shot mandate.