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Governor Holcomb concerned about legislators’ proposed limits on private vaccine mandates

(Photo supplied/State Of Indiana)

Governor Holcomb is signaling concerns about legislators’ proposed limits on private vaccine mandates.

Holcomb says he’ll end Indiana’s 20-month health emergency next week if three provisions of his executive orders are added to state law. He says he’s pleased a proposed bill addresses all three. But the bill packages those provisions with new limits on vaccine requirements.

The bill would ban local schools and state universities from requiring vaccinations — including I-U, which already does. Businesses could still require workers to either get vaccinated or get tested regularly, but they’d have to honor requests for religious or medical exemptions, including for pregnancy or “anticipated pregnancy.” Workers who have had COVID-19 would be exempt from the requirement for six months. And unlike President Biden’s federally-issued vaccine-or-testing mandate, the bill doesn’t specify how often unvaccinated workers must be tested, and says the company, not the employee, must cover the cost.

In a brief Q-and-A session with reporters, Holcomb repeatedly declined to say whether he’d support those proposals. But his enthusiastic endorsement of the quick action on the provisions he’d requested stood in sharp contrast to the vaccine limits, where he repeatedly said there are “ongoing discussions” with legislators. He notes the House and Senate plan a joint committee hearing Tuesday, and says Hoosiers should take the opportunity to share their own concerns.

Holcomb had asked legislators to expand the range of people authorized to administer vaccinations, a step authorized for now by the governor’s executive orders under the emergency declaration. He’s also requested changing state law so Indiana doesn’t lose hundreds of millions of dollars in extra Medicaid and food stamp money if it ends the emergency — the change would link Indiana’s eligibility to the still-active federal emergency instead.

Holcomb says those changes are the final barriers to ending the emergency declaration. But he declined to say whether he’d be willing to sign the bill if it also includes the vaccine language.

The legislation technically isn’t a bill yet, but a preliminary draft. Legislators plan to introduce the formal bill on Monday, and waive the normal rules to ram it through in a single day to end the emergency as quickly as possible.

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4 comments

Charles U Farley November 23, 2021 at 12:14 pm

Neither schools, nor business, nor government should be allowed to require a alleged vaccine as a condition. Vax-19 requirements should be banned everywhere, period.

Anything less is a half measure. RINO Holcomb loves half measures, and seems to enjoy compromising the rights of Hoosiers away to big government.

Speaking of big government , the entire Federal grant program still needs to be abolished for 10th Amendment violations:

“He’s also requested changing state law so Indiana doesn’t lose hundreds of millions of dollars in extra Medicaid and food stamp money if it ends the emergency”

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Slacker06 November 23, 2021 at 12:35 pm

Of Course Tyrant Holcomb is concerned. It’s because without the fear put into The People by him and his stooges in the executive branch over the vax he cannot control us. I like Farley’s “alleged vaccine” comment. It is my body and my choice to get the vax or not. I also believe in scripture where we are said to be “fearfully and wonderfully made” and “created in the very image of God.” By sticking the Darth Fauci middle finger in the eye of God Almighty by ignoring the natural immunity we all have how can we expect his blessings on us? I fully support any and all efforts by The People through their elected representatives in the legislature to curtail executive branch over stepping their bounds. if the Tyrant wins his court case over limiting his emergency powers then expect an immediate Constitutional Amendment to do the same. VOTE FOR IT IF IT COMES TO THAT.

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Slacker06 November 23, 2021 at 12:37 pm

By the way, when Tyrant Holcomb disses the legislature he is dissing you and me. In our Republic We The People are in charge. He is merely a hireling subject to many controls. No one elected him Dopey King Holcomb did they?

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D-Rock November 24, 2021 at 8:39 am

Holcomb is a smart guy. He’s found a way to be a democrat governor in a red state.
1. Stick the word Republican in front of your name.
2. Pass the occasional pro-gun and pro-life legislation.
3. Criticize Biden
4. Act like a democrat in every other way imaginable.

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