On Tuesday Nebraska State Senators Ben Hansen and Robert Clements delivered a co-signed letter from 26 Nebraska State Senators to the Secretary of State’s office to request a special session. There is a growing concern that employers will require their employees to choose between their jobs or being vaccinated without regard to their good faith personal objections.
People have a variety of reasons for not wanting to take the COVID-19 vaccines, including natural immunity, medical conditions, and rights of religious or personal conscience.
The senators say any action that would force Nebraskans to leave the workforce risks undoing the progress that has been made to restore our economy. They say a special session would work to keep employees in Nebraska from losing their jobs because of COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Senators Hansen and Clements calling a special session is not to affect mask mandates, question the science of vaccines, prevent schools from mandating current vaccinations to attend K-12 schools, say whether vaccines in general are good or bad, support the effectiveness of varying treatments or to consider any other non-relevant topics.
They say it’s solely to discuss and adopt legislation to prohibit employers from mandating COVID-19 vaccines and legislation to prohibit governmental and/or educational entities from mandating COVID-19 vaccines as a condition of receiving services.
“The people have spoken, in overwhelming fashion. We need to do what we can to protect the livelihoods of Nebraskans who are at risk of losing their jobs if they exercise their choice not to receive a COVID vaccination,” Senator Hansen says.
Senator Clements says “Like many Nebraskans, I have a family member facing termination of employment because of the vaccine mandate. This puts a house mortgage at risk and could leave a family of six homeless. Employees should not be forced to choose between their livelihood and receiving a Covid-19 vaccine with no exceptions.”
After the state lawmakers file the paperwork, the Secretary of State’s office will then survey all senators to endorse a special session. At least 33 of the 49 senators are needed to trigger the special session.