Bill To Limit Vaccine Mandates Filed In Wyoming Legislature
A bill that would attempt to limit employer vaccine mandates in Wyoming and place restrictions on vaccination requirements in Wyoming schools has been filed for the upcoming session of the Wyoming Legislature.
You can read House Bill 32 here. It's being sponsored by the Joint Labor, Health, and Social Services Interim Committee. Generally speaking, bills sponsored by committees have a better chance of winning final approval than do bills sponsored by individual lawmakers.
It's worth noting, however, that as a non-budget bill, the legislation will have to receive a 2/3 majority vote for introduction in both houses of the legislature.
Among other things, the legislation would ban employer mandates that workers have to be vaccinated as a "discriminatory or unfair labor practice."
The bill would not attempt to challenge federal law, as it does contain an exclusion if the requirement is "strictly based on federal law or rule."
Federal law takes primacy over state law according to the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
It would also allow the mandate in cases where:
''the employer can demonstrate that an unimmunized employee would create an undue hardship or pose a direct threat to the health or safety of persons in the workplace that cannot be eliminated or reduced by means of a reasonable accommodation.''
The bill would restrict new vaccine mandates in Wyoming schools as well, saying:
An immunization shall only be mandated after the expiration of a five (5) year period immediately following the beginning of the attendant federal post licensure vaccine safety monitoring period for pediatric patients as administered by the immunization safety office within the center for disease control.
The legislation would also require governmental entities and essential service providers "to offer reasonable accommodations as specified to persons unable or unwilling to provide proof of immunization"
The Wyoming Legislature is scheduled to convene in a month-long budget session in Cheyenne on February 14. The state alternates budget sessions with two-month general sessions, which are intended to cover topics that are not strictly budget-related.
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