Idaho’s House Business committee Tuesday advanced a bill which would bar employers from requiring workers to get a vaccine or asking an employee or potential employee about their vaccination status.
Bill sponsor, Charlie Shepherd (R-Pollock) says the legislation protects individual liberties.
“If protecting an individual is making a class, that’s problematic in itself. As government, I thought our first and foremost is to protect the individual,” Shepherd said, responding to a question from committee member Brooke Green (D-Boise).
House Bill 581, dubbed the 'Employee Medical Information Protection Act,' prohibits discrimination against employees for not being vaccinated for 'a coronavirus' or taking any vaccine available under an emergency use authorization, or refusing to disclose their vaccination status. It would punish businesses which do not comply with a misdemeanor charge and fine up to $1,000.
Committee Republicans, including Brent Crane (R-Nampa), praised the bill but said it didn't go far enough.
"There's more rights I'd like to extend if possible [but] I realize the wisdom in what you're trying to do in advancing the ball down the field," Crane told Shepherd.
The bill excludes healthcare workers and federal employees living in Idaho because a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling allows healthcare companies to require vaccinations. State law does not have jurisdiction over federal workers.
"If you find somewhere in that bill where it covers more than what I intended, and we get away with it, that's great," Shepherd told the committee.
Representative Steve Berch (D-Boise) singled out the bill’s prohibition on a requirement for future vaccines as well.
"If we pass a law which allows anyone to do anything they want, and spread a disease which could have a 20% mortality rate because it's their individual freedom to do it without any accountability for who they affect; that is not good law, that is not good public policy and that is not freedom for the person who is infected and who may die,” Berch said.
Shepherd said he would rather see businesses close than to be able to remain open by requiring a vaccine.
“I would rather have that happen and give time for someone like myself to come back up here and rewrite the law that protects the individual to the best of their ability rather than trample on our constitutional rights,” he said.
The bill advanced on a party-line vote to the house floor with a 'do-pass' recommendation. A separate bill banning government entities from requiring proof of vaccination or a test for any communicable disease in order to receive public services is expected to be taken up in the House State Affairs committee in the coming days.
