Roberts Comments on State Institutions Requiring COVID-19 Vaccines for Employees

Rep. Sean Roberts-R Hominy

OKLAHOMA CITY – Rep. Sean Roberts, R-Hominy, recently commented on two state universities in Oklahoma announcing that they will be requiring their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

In response to President Biden’s executive order from Sept. 9, 2021, The University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University have announced that they must require their employees to get the COVID-19 vaccination. Both universities announced that religious and medical exemptions will be considered, but employees who refuse vaccination will face disciplinary action. The schools stated that if they did not comply with this requirement they could lose their federal funding. Roberts said the following:

“The idea that the Biden administration can write up an executive order and mandate all employees of our state institutions to be vaccinated is not only unacceptable but unconstitutional. The Biden administration has no legal authority to require our state-run institutions to mandate vaccines for their employees. Not only is this a clear violation of inherent individual rights, but the 10th Amendment to the United States Constitution also states that ‘the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.’ Instead of complying with medical tyranny, if the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and The Oklahoma State Board of Regents are so scared to lose their federal funding, then they should utilize the funds appropriated to them by the Legislature to fight this federal overreach. If any state institutions are found to deny any vaccine exemptions, I believe we should look at what avenues the Legislature can utilize to cut state-appropriated funds to those institutions.”