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Tenney Leads NY Republicans in Calling on Governor Hochul to Remove Harmful Mandates on Essential Workers

March 25, 2022

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22) today led a letter to New York State Governor Kathy Hochul urging her to remove harmful mandates on essential workers in New York and to ensure that critical industries, such as healthcare and utilities, do not suffer from further staffing cuts. In the letter, Tenney and her colleagues from Congress and the New York State Legislature also urged Governor Hochul to ensure all those individuals terminated due to vaccine mandates be rehired or receive equivalent jobs to those they lost. Tenney was joined by House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik, and Reps. Lee Zeldin, Andrew Garbarino, and Chris Jacobs, as well as New York State Assembly Members John Salka, Christopher Friend, Matthew Simpson, Marjorie Byrnes, Joe Angelino, John Lemondes, Joe Giglio, Michael Norris, Ken Blankenbush, Jeff Gallahan, Steve Hawley, David McDonough, Phil Palmesano, Keith Brown, Chris Tague, and John Mikulin.

In August 2021, then-Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that all healthcare workers would be required to receive a vaccine against COVID-19 or forfeit their employment. Governor Hochul continued the implementation of this draconian mandate after Cuomo resigned in disgrace. Thousands of New York healthcare workers have been fired for non-compliance, resulting in a statewide healthcare staffing crisis, especially throughout upstate New York. In December, Governor Hochul called in National Guard troops to fill avoidable staffing shortages.

There is justified concern that if these vaccine mandates are applied to power and utility workers as well, it could cause staffing levels to fall below the minimum set by the New York State Public Service Department. This would risk leaving vast numbers of New Yorkers in the dark for an extended period during a large winter storm or other natural disaster.

On December 6, 2021, Tenney wrote to Hochul and urged her to rescind the healthcare worker vaccine mandate in the midst of a staffing crisis.

“Governor Hochul has waged a war on the basic right of New Yorkers to exercise discretion over their individual medical and employment decisions. Countless healthcare heroes have lost their jobs because of her overreaching mandates, and other essential workers risk the same fate if she continues down this ill-advised and unscientific path. I strongly encourage the Governor to support our essential workers, roll back all existing vaccine mandates, and ensure our critical industries can continue functioning without further staffing disruptions,” said Tenney.

“It is unbelievable that after all our New York State healthcare workers have gone through to carry us through the pandemic, Governor Hochul would continue to punish this critical workforce with harmful vaccine mandates. These vaccine mandates continue to cripple New York’s frontline healthcare workers and their ability to care for our communities by exacerbating staff shortages. I’m proud to stand up for New York’s healthcare workers by calling on Governor Hochul to end all vaccine mandates,” said Stefanik.

“Our essential workers have been nothing short of heroic over the past two years, especially during the pandemic’s earliest and darkest days. Regardless of the uncertainty, lack of essential resources at times and gruelingly long hours, they rose to the challenge over and over again. These heroes, especially our healthcare workers, helped us navigate some of the pandemic’s darkest days and saved lives. Governor Hochul’s healthcare worker vaccine mandate exacerbated the state’s hospital staff shortage crisis. Then she forced elective procedures to be cancelled on top of it all. It will only do more damage if she continues enforcement of her unnecessary, unscientific vaccine mandate. We shouldn’t be firing these essential workers. We should be thanking them for all they’ve done for our communities,” said Zeldin.

In part the lawmakers wrote, “…it is important that New York state act immediately to protect all our essential workers and ensure there is no disruption to utilities and services in our communities. This means New York should not be enacting any more COVID-19 vaccine mandates and should take steps to rollback existing ones. The state also needs to find ways to help those who lost their jobs due to vaccine mandates get new employment or get their previous job back. No person should lose employment, income, or access to services and facilities because of this personal medical decision.”

The full text of the letter is available here.

Dear Governor Hochul,

We are writing to you today in support of our essential workers across New York state. Throughout the pandemic these workers put their lives on the line, risking their health and wellness to keep our communities running and safe. However, after these praiseworthy commitments to duty, many of these same healthcare and utility workers are now facing termination under the misguided top-down government vaccine mandates instituted at the federal, state, and local levels. This threatens our communities’ access to healthcare, reliable power and water, as well as other essential services. In the face of this threat, we ask that you do not enact any additional vaccine mandates and immediately take steps in New York to rollback existing mandates that may prevent these essential workers from doing their jobs.

Throughout the past few months, our offices have talked with multiple healthcare providers, utilities, and essential industries regarding how the government mandates enacted related to COVID-19 threaten their ability to provide essential services to our communities. One of the most important examples is the power sector, where government vaccine mandates threaten the employment of line workers and other essential employees. Some utilities so far have had fewer than half their line workers report being vaccinated.

While thankfully the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the federal government’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s unlawful vaccine mandate, many of these workers could eventually fall under the stricter federal contractor mandate that does not even include a testing option. Even though the federal employee and federal contractor mandates have been stayed by the courts and are not currently being enforced, there is still the potential for these rules to come back into effect at a later date. This has the potential to cause many utilities in New York to fall below the staffing levels required in their minimum staffing agreements with the New York State Public Service Department. These staff shortages will weaken our essential services and risk leaving vast numbers of New Yorkers in the dark for extended periods of time whenever there is a large winter storm or other natural disaster. Power and services disruptions are not just an inconvenience but a life and death matter, especially in the winter months.

In response to these pressures, it is important that New York state act immediately to protect all our essential workers and ensure there is no disruption to utilities and services in our communities. This means New York should not be enacting any more COVID-19 vaccine mandates and should take steps to rollback existing ones. The state also needs to find ways to help those who lost their jobs due to vaccine mandates get new employment or get their previous job back. No person should lose employment, income, or access to services and facilities because of this personal medical decision.

We look forward to hearing your proposals on how we can keep these brave and committed employees at work and on the job.

Sincerely,

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