Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb directed the Indiana Department of Labor to work with Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita on a lawsuit challenging the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s vaccination mandate, according to a press release Thursday.
Holcomb’s statement comes in the wake of OSHA’s emergency temporary standard, which tells employers with more than 100 employees to require employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine or submit to semi-regular testing. OSHA said the standard will protect more than 84 million workers from COVID-19, but Holcomb said the government went too far with the mandate.
“This is an overreach of the government’s role in serving and protecting Hoosiers,” Holcomb said in the release. “While I agree that the vaccine is the tool that will best protect against COVID-19, this federal government approach is unprecedented and will bring about harmful, unintended consequences in the supply chain and the workforce.”
Holcomb’s comments reflect those of other Republican leaders, including Indiana Republican Party Chairman Kyle Hupfer, who said “the federal government has zero authority to force private business to impose this mandate on their employees” in a statement posted on Twitter.
