Federal Employees Face Vaccine Mandate Deadline Amid Thanksgiving Travel Surge

Strategic Insights -

Millions of federal employees and contractors, including those working at the Transportation Security Administration, face a Monday deadline to provide proof of full COVID-19 vaccination, ahead of the Thanksgiving travel period. President Joe Biden ordered the mandate in September, requiring two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or the single shot from Johnson & Johnson. The TSA, which screens millions of passengers, has seen a significant increase in travel over the weekend and projects millions more at airports for the holiday period.

Key Takeaways:

  • Approximately 60% of TSA workers had been vaccinated as of the agency's latest public update last month, with the goal of increasing this number significantly over the next few weeks.
  • Unvaccinated TSA employees could face discipline, including termination, if they do not comply with the order by Monday.
  • The TSA has made significant strides in compliance since the last update, with the compliance rate very high, according to spokesman Carter Langston.
  • TSA workers can lose their jobs for refusing to be vaccinated, but the agency will first attempt to resolve outstanding issues through conduct education and counseling.
  • Transportation Secretary Pete Bittigieg expects no significant impact on Thanksgiving travel, with his agency seeing numbers approaching 99% of people comply with vaccine requirements.
  • The American Federation of Government Employees has called on Biden to push the deadline back to Jan. 4 due to existing staffing challenges and concerns about exacerbating surges during the holiday travel season.

Statistics:

  • 60% of TSA workers had been vaccinated as of the agency's latest public update last month.
  • TSA projects screening approximately 20 million passengers at U.S. airports between Friday and next Sunday.
  • 99% of people in Bittigieg's agency have complied with vaccine requirements.
  • 700,000 federal employees, including 45,000 TSA employees, are represented by the American Federation of Government Employees.

Sources:

  • UPI (The White House, Timothy O'Connor)
  • Bloomberg (Carter Langston)
  • ABC's Good Morning America (David Pekoske)
  • WCBS-TV (David Pekoske)
  • NBC's Meet the Press (Pete Bittigieg)
  • American Federation of Government Employees (Everett Kelley)