Oklahoma Republican Rep. Kevin Hern said Friday he would vote to defund the U.S. Department of Labor over the agency's COVID-19 workplace safety policies.
"I will not vote for any bill — let me repeat that — I will not vote for any bill that includes funding of any kind for the Department of Labor until this mandate is reversed," Hern said at a press conferenceoutside the Capitol in Washington, referring to a policy dictating that some U.S. employers require their unvaccinated workers to wear masks and regularly be tested for COVID-19.
"They say socialism is when the government controls the means of production," Hern said. "Well, right now, we've got a president who's imposing vaccine mandates on private businesses across America, telling job creators and business owners that the government knows better than they do."
Hern was flanked by a group of fellow House Republicans including Rep. Stephanie Bice, a fellow member of the Oklahoma delegation, who claimed vaccine requirements were harmful to national security.
Separately Friday, Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor announced he had filed litigation against the federal government for the policy, also referring to it as a "vaccine mandate."
"In Oklahoma, President Biden will not determine how an individual makes healthcare decisions for themselves and their families," O'Connor said in a statement. "The Biden Administration continuously uses federal overreach to strip away Americans’ constitutional rights and I will continue to defend the rule of law against this absurd abuse of power."
Labor Secretary Marty Walsh told PBS on Thursday that the rule was similar to others enforced by the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, and was meant to keep American workers safe. He said he was confident the rule would stand up in court.
