Lankford leads in Senate's push against vaccine mandates

Dec. 10—Sen. James Lankford and other Republicans succeeded this week in pushing back on President Joe Biden's vaccine or testing mandate, something both Oklahoma's senators have fought over the last few months.

The Senate on Wednesday passed a resolution to repeal Biden's COVID-19 vaccine rules for private employers. The 52-48 vote was a victory for Republicans like Lankford who have been very vocal against Biden's mandate on employers.

In September, Lankford sent a letter to the president raising concerns with his vaccine or testing requirements on private employers, and urging him to reverse course.

Prior to Wednesday's vote on the resolution, Oklahoma's junior senator spoke at a press conference and said he believes this mandate on private employers is dangerous.

"We're having this conversation because Sept. 9, the president of the United States announced he was losing patience with the American people, and he was going to put a new demand on every single office in America, every workplace, that anyone who had 100 or more people in their company, every single person in that company had to be vaccinated because the president was losing patience with them," Lankford said.

He challenged the Senate to vote in favor of the resolutions to repeal this mandate.

"Do the people in this body believe that the president of the United States has the authority to declare any employee and any company of 100 or more to do what he wants? I say no, because we live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, and it's time for us to go on record on if we believe that or not," he said.

Although this resolution is unlikely to pass the House, this was a win for Lankford and other Republicans.

Lankford has worked to repeal Biden's mandate, from introducing the bill "Stop Vaccine Mandates Act" — which would have repealed the mandate on federal employers and contractors — to introducing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act to restrict The Pentagon from mandating vaccines for members of the National Guard.

So far those efforts have been unsuccessful. While this newest challenge to the order is unlikely to become law, it was a bipartisan rebuke of the mandate.

"The president of the United States cannot reach into every company and pick and choose who he wants hired and fired," Lankford told NBC News.

Oklahoma's senior Sen. Jim Inhofe, R., has also been a vocal opponent of Biden's mandate.

Inhofe voted in favor of the measure to repeal the mandate, which he says is hurting "real Oklahomans."

"The Biden administration has gone too far and it's time for it to stop," he said in a statement.

Reese Gorman covers politics and COVID-19 for The Transcript; reach him at rgorman@normantranscript.com or @reeseg_3.