Kevin McCarthy
@GOPLeader
·
3h
Today’s Democrat Party wants you to show a vax card in order to eat at a restaurant.
But they don’t want you to show an ID Card in order to vote.
A federal judge has stopped the Biden administration’s mask and vaccine requirement for Head Start programs in Texas.
Judge James Hendrix, U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Texas, issued a preliminary injunction on New Year’s Eve that prevents the federal government from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for Head Start staff and masks for children and adults in the program.
“It is undisputed that an agency cannot act without Congressional authorization,” Hendrix wrote.
Head Start is a federal program meant to help low-income children under the age of five prepare for school after pre-K.
The case at issue is a lawsuit by the State of Texas and the Lubbock Independent School District (LISD) against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other administrators of the Head Start program.
Hendrix determined that the power to issue such a sweeping mandate must derive from Congress, not an agency.
“A federal agency cannot act absent Congressional authorization. It cannot confer power upon itself,” the judge wrote.
“Congress has not spoken to the precise question at issue… State laws and regulations have long required that at least children be vaccinated against many communicable diseases. Congress could have spoken directly to the issue of vaccination, masking, or other precautions in the last year when passing other COVID-19-related legislation, but it did not and has not.”
Specifically, Hendrix interpreted federal law to grant HHS only the power to “modify” Head Start standards, not promulgate a new mandate. The statute governing Head Start allows the agency to regulate standards for finance, administration, and even health protocols for the physical facilities themselves, but not masks.
Furthermore, Hendrix wrote, the agency’s current authority does not allow it to regulate health standards for the children themselves as a condition of participation. In other words, the agency can modify standards for health screenings, but it has never made the screenings a requirement for children to be a part of Head Start.
Although the order is a clear win for Texas, it wasn’t quite what the state asked for. Texas and LISD originally sought a nationwide injunction that would have blocked the vaccine and mask mandates in all Head Start programs across the country.
In their original complaint, Texas and LISD said enforcement of the rule could lead to program closures by cutting staff, especially in poor or rural areas.