Federal Government Will Not Enforce the Contractor Vaccine Mandate Absent Further Notice

On August 31, 2022, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force announced that the Federal Government “will take no action to implement or enforce Executive Order 14042,” the contractor vaccine mandate, “to ensure compliance with an applicable preliminary nationwide injunction, which may be supplemented, modified, or vacated, depending on the course of ongoing litigation.”

This announcement follows the decision issued on August 26, 2022 by the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to limit the scope of the nationwide injunction issued by the District Court in Georgia v. Biden, S.D. Ga., 1:21-cv-163. Specifically, the Eleventh Circuit limited the nationwide injunction to the parties in Georgia, which include seven states and their agencies (Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah, and West Virginia), as well as members of the Associated Builders and Contractors.  

In light of this announcement, federal contractors should expect that the FAR clause implementing the requirements of the Executive Order will not be included in future solicitations and contracts, and the Federal Government will not take any action to enforce the clause where it has already been included in contracts or contract-like instruments, absent further written notice from the agency.