For Contractors, Guidance on Ever-Evolving Federal Vaccine Mandate Makes Compliance Difficult
Federal contractors now have two months to comply for their employees to comply with the president’s recent executive order requiring COVID-19 vaccines.
So far, government vendors and other stakeholders have reacted to the federal vaccine mandate in a variety of ways.
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“The statute was enacted broadly to provide ‘economic and an efficient system of procurement and supply.’ The courts, if you look back on this, really read that as a broad authority,” said Justin Chiarodo, a partner in Blank Rome’s government contracts practice.
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Monday’s guidance from the administration, however, may ease those concerns slightly. Chiarodo said it may provide contractors, perhaps deliberately, more flexibility in complying with the mandate.
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“It’s a bit of executive action on the move, reacting to the feedback that’s coming out from the contractor community, contracting officers and federal agencies,” Chiarodo said. “But it is the kind of development that may dull the argument that this is in fact going to impact workers, it’s going to impact the minority or economically disadvantaged communities or lead to greater unemployment. These kinds of actions would theoretically give good responses to some of those points.”
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“For Contractors, Guidance on Ever-Evolving Federal Vaccine Mandate Makes Compliance Difficult,” by Nicole Ogrysko was published in Federal News Network on November 3, 2021.