Thursday, September 16, 2021: White House Safer Federal Workforce Task Force Greenlights Federal Executive Agencies to Impose Vaccination Mandates on Federal Contracts/Subcontracts Beyond Biden’s Federal Contractor Vaccination Mandate
We headlined one story in last week’s DE WIR “President Biden Mandates COVID-19 Vaccine for Certain Federal Contractors: Exceptions As Interesting As Who is Covered.” In that story, we reported a new Executive Order titled “Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors” (now numbered 14042). We reported that EO 14042 purported to require federal Government contractors and subcontractors to require their employees working on federal lands and in federal buildings to be vaccinated. Our story pointed out that the Executive Order covered certain federal contracts while exempting certain other classes of contracts. Executive Order 14042 also directed The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (established on President Biden’s first day in office) to provide further “guidance” for federal contractors and subcontractors by this coming Friday, September 24th.
In the meantime, however, the Task Force updated the FAQ portion of its website. Under the “Vaccine” tab, a partially new/partially updated section now appears titled “Federal Contractors and Visitors,” including two new questions and five updated answers to previous questions.
Of particular interest to our readers is this Q&A:
Can agencies incorporate vaccination requirements into contracts that are not covered by Executive Order 14042 (Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Contractors)?
A: Yes. Agencies are strongly encouraged to incorporate vaccination requirements into contracts that are not covered by Executive Order 14042, consistent with applicable law. This might include, for example, incorporating vaccination requirements into contracts in advance of when they are otherwise required by the Executive Order or incorporating requirements into contracts that are not covered by the Executive Order, such as contracts under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold. Implementation of such additional requirements should generally follow the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force’s guidance for implementing the vaccination requirement in Executive Order 14042.
As noted above, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force has yet to publish the “guidance” the above answer references.
PRACTICE TIP: Federal contractors will have to be vigilant to review EACH new federal contract it is proposing to sign to learn whether the contracting agency has exercised its discretion, beyond President Biden’s direction in Executive Order 14042, to require vaccinations of federal contractor/subcontractor employees.
In The Know
The White House COVID-19 Response Team, the General Services Administration (GSA), and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) lead the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force. Members include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Protective Service (FPS), the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the United States Secret Service (USSS).
The President created the Task Force to give the heads of federal agencies ongoing guidance to keep their employees safe and their agencies operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.