President Biden is requiring all federal employees and on-site contractors to attest their vaccination status; those who do not will be required to adhere to masking and social distancing protocols and stringent COVID-19 testing requirements.

The White House published a fact sheet on Thursday afternoon which detailed the breadth of the new policy which is designed to protect the federal workforce, offer additional incentives for unvaccinated people to get vaccinated, and provide an offensive against the Delta variant. 

In addition to the requirements imposed on federal employees and contractors who work on-site, some of the other actions that will flow from the new policy include:

1. Small and medium-sized businesses will now be reimbursed for offering their employees paid leave to get their family members, including their kids, vaccinated,

2. States, territories, and local governments will be called upon by the Federal government to do more to incentivize vaccination, including offering $100 to those who get vaccinated, 

3.  School districts nationwide will be asked to host at least one pop-up vaccination clinic over the coming weeks, which will support the vaccination of children age 12 and older, and 

4. Pharmacies in the federal pharmacy program will be directed to prioritize working with school districts across the country to host vaccination clinics at schools and colleges.       

Contractors that do business with the federal government should be aware of the fact that President Biden has said that the requirements associated with vaccine attestation should not apply just to federal workers and on-site contractors. In fact, the President has directed his team to take steps to apply similar standards to all federal contractors and to encourage employers across the private sector to do the same.

More to follow....