Thankfully, the Office of Management and Budget has quickly issued guidance on the impact of yesterday’s federal court ruling enjoining the Biden Administration’s federal contractor vaccine mandate. The guidance, as reported on the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force website, states for existing contracts that include Executive Order 14042 implementing language:
The Government will take no action to enforce the clause implementing requirements of Executive Order 14042, absent further written notice from the agency, where the place of performance identified in the contract is in a U.S. state or outlying area subject to a court order prohibiting the application of requirements pursuant to the Executive Order . . .
The Task Force explains:
The Office of Management and Budget has issued guidance on implementing requirements of Executive Order 14042 while ensuring compliance with applicable court orders and injunctions, including those that are preliminary and may be supplemented, modified, or vacated, depending on the course of ongoing litigation.
Thus, it seems OMB has crafted this guidance to allow for potential changes in the applicability of the current injunction order and/or future litigation impacting the enforceability of the Executive Order. Remember, in addition to this nationwide injunction, there still remains the three-state injunction issued prior to yesterday’s order in a separate litigation challenging the Executive Order.
It is important to keep in mind however, that ” federal agency COVID-19 workplace safety protocols for Federal buildings and Federally controlled facilities still apply in all locations. Contractor employees working onsite in those buildings and facilities must still follow Federal agency workplace safety protocols when working onsite.”
As always we will continue to monitor the situation as provide regular updates.