OMB Announces 3.2 Million Federal Employees Complied with Vaccine Mandate
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced last week that 92 percent of the 3.5 million civilian and military federal employees had been vaccinated against COVID-19 by the mandate. White House Assistant Press Secretary Kevin Munoz has since reported the “vast majority” of federal employees are fully vaccinated, though the 92 percent count includes those who have only so far received half of their two-dose regiment.
The Agency for International Development (USAID) is the most vaccinated of the 24 cabinet agencies at nearly 98 percent, followed by the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
“As we have seen throughout the pandemic, federal employees remain ready to serve — with public health at the forefront. Nearly all federal employees are vaxxed – with a vaccine developed in part by their fellow federal employees. Civil servants hold positions of public trust and are meeting this moment. Feds are role models ready to tackle any challenge,” stated Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) in response to the news.
Nearly 110,000 federal employees have sought religious or medical exemptions from the mandate. An additional 175,000 will face disciplinary actions – this counseling effort will attempt to persuade employees to get vaccinated, and those who do not comply may face termination.
“At any point, if an employee gets their first shot or submits an exception request, agencies will pause further enforcement to give the employee a reasonable amount of time to become fully vaccinated or to process the exception request,” added OMB.
According to OMB's report, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) employees are least likely to have received the COVID-19 vaccine as compared to other federal agencies’ employees. The Social Security Administration (SSA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will also take disciplinary action against about five percent of their workforces, or roughly 15,000 more individuals, who do not comply with the order. More than five percent (about 3,500 employees) of the Department of the Interior’s (DOI) workforce will face disciplinary action due to noncompliance.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is among numerous departments taking swift disciplinary action. A suspension before Christmas and removal in January await unvaccinated and non-exempt DOJ employees.
Despite the Biden Administration's assurances that the mandate will not have any operational impacts, there has already been some disruption at NASA. Several facilities across the country experienced an organized "sick out" earlier this month to protest the mandate. Nyla Trumbach, a Stennis Space Center Test Operations Engineer, stated the protest forced NASA to delay the installation of the RS-25 engine, adding that involvement of rocket scientists in the "sick out" strengthened anti-mandate arguments.
Additionally, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (Task Force) revised guidance regarding on-site COVID-19 vaccination verification. Any Federal employee with a valid Personal Identity Verification (PIV) card can enter GSA-controlled facilities without providing proof of vaccination. Without a valid PIV card, onsite contractor employees entering the facility for any other reason will be considered visitors and must follow the procedures related to such visitors.
“We understand that your agencies may need to act on enforcement sooner for a limited number of employees, such as where there are additional or compounding performance or workplace safety issues under consideration, but in general, consistency across Government in further enforcement of the vaccine requirement after the start of the new calendar year is desired. We believe this approach is the best one to achieving our goal of getting the Federal workforce vaccinated,” stated Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja and OMB Deputy Director Jason Miller in a joint statement following the OMB release and Taskforce guidelines.
