How OSHA Can Conjure Biden’s Soft Vaccine Mandate: Explained

President Joe Biden’s plan to require large private employers to mandate worker vaccinations or weekly Covid-19 testing, enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, brings new attention to the federal worker safety agency and to the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 that gives the agency its powers.

The administration’s initiative announced last week immediately drew the ire of Republican governors and attorneys general who roundly declared their intent to fight the upcoming rules in court.

Under the act, the U.S. labor secretary must consider “the urgency of the need for mandatory safety and health standards for ...