Y’all Politics brings you a Bill of the Day from the Mississippi Legislature that just may pique your interest.
It is day one of the 2022 Mississippi legislative session and lawmakers are already actively filing bills to be considered in the weeks ahead.
Given the push back in Mississippi related to COVID vaccine mandates from the Biden Administration, it is no wonder that a bill would be filed in short order to challenge the federal requirements.
State Rep. Lee Yancey (R) has filed HB 231 to authorize public and private employee exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
The bill states that the U.S. government is mandating that employers take actions related to COVID vaccinations, including forcing an employee to be vaccinated against the employee’s will. Yancey notes in the bill that vaccination mandates are an overreach of authority which many employers and employees in Mississippi will soon be subject to with the vaccination mandates. He says Mississippi employees need to be protected from this type of overreach.
Yancey proposes offering employers an exemption process to the mandates by allowing the employee to produce a weekly negative COVID test or proof of immunity through the presence of antibodies certified by a licensed physician.
The bill creates the ability for funding to be available to assist employees in Mississippi with the costs associated with testing related to the vaccination mandate, including using COVID-19 relief funds distributed from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
