07/01/2021

Amended Senate Bill 111

Last week, legislators considering an unrelated spending bill added an anti-vaccine amendment to the bill and hurriedly passed it in a floor vote. The amendment to Senate Bill 111, which concerns the allocation of $422 million in federal relief funds, would have prohibited any public or private entity from:

• Requiring any individual to receive a vaccine that has not been given full FDA approval; or,
• Requiring unvaccinated individuals to abide by any precautions or measures not also required of vaccinated people.

Obviously, this language would have posed a major problem for hospitals, nursing homes, and health care facilities treating vulnerable patients. Although the House passed the amended version of Senate Bill 111 and sent it back to the Senate for concurrence, the Senate effectively blocked the new version of the bill from moving forward by voting unanimously to put the federal relief funding into a different bill.

Members of the Senate have criticized the House for its efforts to legislate employment conditions of private employers and businesses. Additionally, Governor DeWine has stated his opposition to legislation that discourages people from being vaccinated or limits businesses from enacting protocol for the purposes of keeping their employees and clientele safe through vaccination.