The USDA will not enforce the White House order for federal employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19 while a court appeal is pending, said a spokesman on Monday. Last week, a federal judge in Texas issued an injunction against the order to get vaccinated or obtain a waiver.
As of Jan. 19, 88.6 percent of USDA employees are vaccinated and 9.7 percent have requested a medical or religious exemption, said the spokesman. The overall compliance rate of 98.3 percent indicated that 1.7 percent, or 1,300 of USDA’s 75,962 permanent employees, had not received at least one inoculation against the coronavirus or requested a waiver. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told the House Agriculture Committee last week that “we’re…encouraging them to either get vaccinated or to request accommodation and they still have time to do that.”
Termination is among the disciplinary steps that could be taken for noncompliance by federal employees, but the administration has said it would try persuasion first. The administration has appealed the district court ruling to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans.
The Agriculture Department “will not take any action to implement or enforce the vaccination requirement” until there is a resolution of the court case challenging the order, said the USDA spokesman. “This includes pausing all activities related to processing exemption requests and any disciplinary actions.”
Overall, 93 percent of federal employees have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine and 6 percent have requested exemptions.