BREAKING: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Signs Bill Banning Businesses From Imposing Vaccine Mandates On Employees

Forbes Breaking News

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) signs legislation banning private employers from imposing vaccine mandates on employees.

Transcript

00:00 of all Texans to make their own decisions about what health care they want to access

00:05 and what health care they want to reject.

00:09 What SB 7 does is it prohibits private employers from requiring employees to get a COVID vaccination.

00:18 Employers that violate this law are subject to a $50,000 fine as well as a lawsuit and

00:25 injunctive relief from the Texas Attorney General.

00:28 This law adds to the law that I already signed that prohibits state and local governments

00:35 from imposing COVID mandates.

00:37 It's long past time to put COVID behind us and restore individual freedom to all Texans.

00:46 [SIDE CONVERSATION]

01:10 >>Pans, man.

01:18 Well deserved.

01:20 [SIDE CONVERSATION]

01:49 >>I don't know if I can do my name that way.

01:53 [LAUGHTER]

01:59 >>Yes, sir.

02:00 >>SB 7 is now law in the state of Texas.

02:03 [APPLAUSE]

02:13 >>Once again, I want to thank not only Senator Milton and Representative Leach, but also

02:19 the members of the legislature who are behind us here today, as well as those who stood

02:24 with this issue every step of the way.

02:27 Because of their unification on such an important issue, that's exactly why I'm able to sign

02:33 SB 7 into law today.

02:35 With that, we'll take a few questions.

02:36 >>Governor, thank you for having us.

02:43 With HB 1 going to the court now, are you happy with the current version of the bill?

02:54 Would you be amenable to any amendments?

02:55 And what is the path forward to ensuring we can get an up and down vote on education savings

02:56 accounts and ensuring that is successful for you?

02:57 >>First, I want to thank the House for really devoting the time and energy and effort that

03:01 was needed to construct an extraordinarily effective bill that goes a long way to not

03:07 just addressing school choice, but also providing more funding for our schools, making our schools

03:12 safer, increasing teacher pay raises, doing things like putting an end to the STAR test

03:19 in Texas.

03:20 And so this is a comprehensive piece of legislation that is, I think, an outstanding piece of

03:25 legislation.

03:26 And we know how the process works, and that is we expect it to obviously go to the floor,

03:34 and then once the House passes it out, we'll see what the Senate does to it, and they'll

03:38 come together somewhere in the middle, I assume, along the way.

03:41 But I especially want to thank Chair Brad Buckley for his leadership and everything

03:48 that he's done.

03:49 He's been a tremendous leader, a tireless, persevering leader to get this legislation

03:56 into and out of committee, something that has not been done in decades in the state

04:01 of Texas.

04:02 >>Do you have a preference on the House version or the Senate version, where they split it

04:06 up?

04:07 >>We will need to see where the Senate comes into agreement with the House.

04:12 An impression I have, and that is that the Senate will be very close to where the House

04:16 is on the school choice component.

04:19 There's on all the funding programs and things like that, there's going to be issues here

04:24 and there that the House and Senate will work out.

04:26 >>Because of the issues we've seen with the House even getting to this point, do you think

04:31 then that the Senate should try and meet the House in the middle with HB1?

04:35 >>An impression I have is that the Senate really wants to see this legislation pass,

04:41 and they will work collaboratively with the House to make sure that it reaches my desk.

04:45 >>I have a question about the sign.

04:48 Are medical and nursing students covered by this law?

04:51 So I'm going to let the sponsors of that bill answer your question.

04:56 Go ahead.

04:57 >>This is the most comprehensive ban on COVID vaccine mandates in the nation.

05:03 It's five times stronger actually than Florida's bill, which is the next strongest, and it

05:08 covers prospective contractors and prospective employees, and that's part of what makes it

05:13 so broad.

05:14 Of course, an amendment was added by Representative Cain, which covers the word "benefit."

05:19 So "benefit" is an extremely broad word, which does cover medical students and interns and

05:24 fellows as well.

05:25 >>Tell me, if the House next week strips out the ESAs, what would your next move be?

05:31 >>So one thing I know about the House, and that is, for one, pretty much every member

05:38 of the House has people back home.

05:42 It could be families, it could be kids, it could be educators, who want to see this legislation

05:49 passed, because this legislation is going to benefit the voters and the residents in

05:55 each of the House members' districts.

05:58 But another thing I know about the House, and they know me well enough to know that

06:05 if they were to do something like that, for one, it probably wouldn't even meet with agreement

06:10 from the Senate.

06:11 There would be nothing that would ever meet my desk.

06:14 But if it did, of course, I would just have to veto it, and we would start all over again,

06:18 we'd be spending December here, maybe January here, maybe February here.

06:24 And I know one thing about both the House and Senate, they want to get out of here.

06:30 But they can get out of here in a way that truly does deliver very positive results for

06:38 families, educators, and everybody back home in everyone's district.

06:44 [Reporter] [inaudible]

06:50 For one, I feel good about the bill that's on a pathway to reach my desk, showing once

07:09 again Texas is doing more than any state has ever done in the history of America to address

07:14 Joe Biden's open border policies.

07:16 Second, I will tell you it's sad and unfortunate that Texas even has to do this, because we

07:21 have an administration that's refusing to enforce the laws, remembering that it was

07:25 just four years ago that we had the lowest illegal border crossings in 40 years.

07:30 But more directly to your point, and that is we have found already that there have been

07:36 multiple occasions where the Biden administration has sued either me or the state of Texas because

07:40 of actions were taken on the border, and occasions where Texas is suing the Biden administration

07:45 for what they are doing on the border.

07:47 So it would not surprise me at all to see this legislation also be the target of litigation

07:53 by the Biden administration.

07:54 The Biden administration will do whatever they can to deny Texas the ability to step

08:00 up and safeguard our state and our country, and to begin to try to impose some level of

08:06 control over the border that the Biden administration is not providing.

08:09 Thank you.

08:10 Thank you.

08:11 Thank you.

08:12 Thank you.

08:13 Thank you.

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