Bill preventing employer-mandated COVID-19 vaccines clears Texas Senate panel

Private employers in Texas could not require workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and attempts to do so could bring state sanctions under legislation advanced Tuesday by the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.

The measure, Senate Bill 7 by Galveston Republican Mayes Middleton, cleared the panel on a 6-3 party-line vote after sometimes emotional public testimony and anecdotes from two members who spoke about being immunocompromised due to undergoing kidney transplant surgery.

One of them, state Sen. Kelly Hancock, a Republican from the Fort Worth suburb of North Richland Hills, said he voted for the bill that was presented as an issue of "medical freedom" even as he alluded to certain high-specialty medical facilities that need to take extraordinary measures to protect the fragile health of patients.

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"We do all need to be aware as we provide freedom for some individuals, we're taking it away from others in this type of legislation," said Hancock, who in 2022 was the recipient of a donated kidney from his son-in-law. He also said he took the COVID-19 vaccine regimen on the advice of his doctors who said it would help protect him from the highly contagious and sometime deadly virus.

Sen. Borris Miles, a Houston Democrat who underwent kidney transplant surgery in 2019, voted against the bill. He worried that hospitals could find themselves in the position of allowing unvaccinated staff members to needlessly put patients at risk. His district also includes the Texas Medical Center, which bills itself as "the largest medical complex in the world."

"These are some of the top medical facilities and providers in the world, not just in Texas but in the world," Miles said. "I trust their judgment above ours in this chamber. Medical professionals matter."

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Middleton said he trusts ordinary Texans to make the choice for themselves without having to worry about losing their jobs.

"Individuals should not be able to make their personal decisions and have them overruled by vaccine mandates," he said. "This is about personal medical decisions regarding COVID vaccines, and those should be made by the individual without fear of retribution from their employer."

When Gov. Greg Abbott called lawmakers into the special legislative session that began Monday — and which was expected to focus largely on measures to let tax dollars be used for private education — he asked them to enact the prohibition on private employers requiring COVID-19 vaccinations. During the regular legislative session earlier this year, a similar measure covering the public sector was passed into law.

Under Middleton's bill, the Texas Workforce Commission could impose fines of up to $1,000 against employers that punish or otherwise sanction workers who decline to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The measure would also allow the state attorney general's office to take legal action against those employers.

Dr. James Widmer, a private practice clinic owner from Temple, asked the committee to give physicians and other medical professionals the option of setting their own workplace rules based on what's best for their patients.

"It is important for patients, including vulnerable patients seeking care from their physicians, to receive care in a healthy environment that minimizes disease risk," Widmer said. "Physicians and health care facilities need to have flexibility to act in the best interest of our patients and our staff."

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He said the major medical organizations in Texas are not seeking COVID-19 vaccination mandates, but they do want the ability to set their own policies that include employee and contractor exemptions for reasons of personal conscience and in cases when vaccines are considered medically inappropriate.

Sen. Bob Hall, a Republican from the East Texas town of Edgewood, said he does not trust the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and that no one should be forced to take them as a condition of employment. He expressed concerns that vaccine makers and some in the medical community were driven more by the prospect of quick profits than by public safety.

"Believe me, it is billions of dollars that the pharmaceutical companies are making in leading this effort," Hall said. "And that's where we need to protect the people protecting their individual liberties."

That argument rang true to Sheila Hemphill, the founder of the anti-vaccination group Texas Right To Know.

"If we allow our government to force medicate and inject us, we become livestock," Hemphill said.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.com and follow him on X, formerly called Twitter, @JohnnieMo.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Senate panel: No employer COVID vaccine mandates in Texas