Martin Austermuhle
A member of the D.C. Council is proposing an emergency bill that would reinstate the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for businesses that Mayor Muriel Bowser lifted this week.
Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) started circulating a draft bill on Tuesday, just 24 hours after Bowser made her unexpected announcement to lift the month-old mandate that required many businesses to check that customers had gotten the vaccine.
Bowser said she was shifting away from the mandate — as well as lifting the indoor mask mandate as of March 1 — because COVID-19 cases and hospitalization rates have dropped dramatically since the omicron wave hit D.C. in December. She also said that the initial goal of the mandate — to encourage more people to actually get the vaccine — had been met and that the mandate was now showing diminishing returns.
But her decision drew immediate criticism from a number of lawmakers, including Nadeau, who said on Twitter on Monday that she was “so F-ing mad” at the mayor for her decision. (At-Large Councilmembers Christina Henderson and Robert White similarly expressed their opposition.) In a draft resolution that accompanies her bill, Nadeau further laid out her justification for reinstating the vaccine mandate.
“On February 14, 2022, without consulting with the Council of the District of Columbia, without warning, without giving reasons tied to the status of healthcare access in the District, and without regard for the needs of vulnerable residents, including young children and immunocompromised individuals, the Mayor announced that the proof of vaccination requirement established by her earlier order would no longer be in effect as of February 15, 41 2022,” the resolution reads. “The Mayor did so despite children younger than five being unable to access any COVID-19 vaccine, immunocompromised individuals still being at risk, long COVID still decimating District residents, and there being little access to treatments for COVID-19 available in the District.”
Nadeau’s resolution also cited testimony from the District’s State Epidemiologist, Dr. Anil Mangla, who said in a liquor board hearing last week said that the city is “nowhere near” the point it should be to lift either the vaccine or mask mandate. Bowser said Monday he was not speaking for the city.
Bowser’s office did not immediately return a request for comment on the bill.
If passed, Nadeau’s bill would represent the council’s most muscular and consequential rebuff of Bowser’s actions during the course of the two-year pandemic. Last November, when Bowser lifted the indoor mask mandate, an overwhelming majority of councilmembers objected — by writing a stern letter. They have taken some legislative actions, including requiring D.C. Public Schools to offer more students access to virtual learning.
Still, the bill faces a few logistical hurdles.
First, as an emergency bill it will require nine of 13 councilmembers’ support. Second, timing. The next scheduled legislative session for the council is on March 1. To speed the process along, Nadeau says she will ask D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson to call an emergency session this week. She could also sign on enough colleagues to force one to happen.
But even if the council were to pass the bill this week or next, Bowser would then have 10 days to sign or veto it. Should she choose to veto, the council would have to vote to override her. That would push the bill’s implementation into early March, meaning many businesses may be forced to pivot again.
In the meantime, a number of bars, restaurants, and other businesses have said they will keep their vaccine requirement in place. Businesses will also be allowed to choose to keep mask requirements in place once the city formally lifts its mandate next month.
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