(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch.
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Upcoming bill would prohibit employer vaccine mandates in Iowa

['Katie Akin', 'More From Author', '- December']

Date: 2021-12-16 00:00:00


Iowa lawmakers have drafted a bill to prohibit employer vaccine mandates, members of the House State Government Committee confirmed Thursday.

Rep. Jon Jacobsen, R-Council Bluffs, led a task force of lawmakers who developed the proposal over the last several weeks. Lawmakers on the task force declined to provide a draft of the bill to the Iowa Capital Dispatch, but they said the legislation would prevent businesses from firing individuals who refuse a COVID-19 vaccination.

“Set up right now, you could not compel an employee to coercively, at the loss of job … be mandated to receive the mRNA (vaccine),” Jacobsen said.

The bill is a departure from legislation passed in October that allowed employers to impose vaccine mandates, but required them to accept a broad range of exemptions, including those without a medical expert sign-off. The current law also permits individuals who are fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine to collect unemployment.

Jacobsen pointed to recent federal court decisions on President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandates as the reason behind the change. Courts have issued injunctions against vaccination requirements for federal employees and contractors, health care workers and employees at large businesses.

“The legal environment has changed substantially, even since October 28th,” Jacobsen said, referring to the one-day marathon session in which the first law passed. “There have been four major decisions across the United States that indicate that this is not within the purview of the federal government.”

Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, R-Wilton, said “a majority of businesses” in Iowa have complied with the current law and granted the exemptions, but that some employers did not. The current law does not impose legal consequences on employers who refused to grant exemptions.

“Many have spit in the face of our law… There will be consequences in this new bill to a business saying, ‘We’re going to question your religious motives,'” Kaufmann said.

Anti-mandate activist groups argued the initial law did not go far enough to protect people who chose not to be vaccinated against COVID. Some said the law would actually encourage more vaccine mandates, as employers would have clearer guidance for enforcing one. Jacobsen said stakeholders from all groups, including those from anti-mandate groups, were invited to help craft the upcoming proposal.

There is a long road ahead for the bill after the Legislature convenes in January. It needs to win approval in the House and the Senate and a sign-off from Gov. Kim Reynolds, who has opposed the federal vaccine mandates. Kaufmann did not speculate how the majority party in Iowa would react to the proposal, but he said votes in the U.S. Senate and other state legislatures suggest it will be popular.

“The momentum is on the side of most, if not all Republicans, and at least some Democrats supporting it,” Kaufmann said.

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