Pharmacist Kim Nguyen administers a Moderna Spikevax COVID-19 vaccine at a CVS, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, in Cypress, Texas.
(Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle via AP)
San Antonio Express-News
Cayla Harris, Austin Bureau
The Texas House has approved a bill that would ban private businesses from requiring their employees to get a COVID vaccine.
The measure, which comes after three years of pressure from conservative lawmakers, passed the chamber on Wednesday by a vote of 91 to 54, with all Republicans and a handful of Democrats voting in favor.
“This is an important bill protecting the fundamental rights and freedoms and liberties of Texas employees, protecting the right to work, protecting their right to protect themselves,” said state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, who sponsored the legislation in the House.
He said the bill is not about deciding which vaccines are good or bad, or which vaccines someone should get, but rather about “who should decide.”
“I believe very strongly that that decision as to whether to get an immunization — specifically, according to this bill, the COVID-19 vaccine or its variants — I believe that that decision should be a very personal decision made in conjunction with someone's doctor and informed by medical expertise, informed by deeply held personal values,” Leach said.
The Senate passed the original bill earlier this month with a fine of up to $10,000 for violators, and the House amended it to increase the penalty to $50,000. The Senate will decide whether to keep that change before sending the legislation to Gov. Greg Abbott for his signature.
The bill gives enforcement authority to the Texas Workforce Commission, which would decide how to administer fines and whether businesses could require unvaccinated employees to instead wear personal protective gear or work from home. The bottom line, the bill supporters said, is that employees cannot lose their jobs or face repercussions for deciding not to get a vaccine.
Gov. Greg Abbott instituted a similar ban through executive order toward the beginning of the pandemic, which remained in effect until this summer because Abbott kept the state under a COVID-19 emergency order for three years. During the regular session, the Legislature prohibited local governments from instituting mask or vaccine mandates, but it didn’t have the votes to restrict private employers from doing the same.
Abbott then added the legislation to the call for the third special legislative session, which is currently underway. Lawmakers are also considering bills on border security and a private school voucher plan known as education savings accounts.
Democrats and some small business owners have said the vaccine ban may prevent them from protecting employees with pre-existing conditions — and largely addresses a problem that doesn’t exist in Texas.
“When we get on social media, this seems like Texas has a crisis going on with this, but as you saw in committee, the Texas Workforce Commission said in the last year, they've only received seven complaints in a state of 30 million,” said state Rep. John Bucy, D-Austin. “So I’m just trying to understand — is this truly a crisis that rises to our level that we need to be taking more seriously? Or is this just something with a lot of chatter around the world?”