Committee reviews bill to bar government vaccine mandates, seeks narrower language

The Industry, Business and Labor Committee heard from Allison Hicks, general counsel for the Public Health Division of the Department of Health and Human Services, on a memorandum comparing pre- and post-COVID statutory authority for the state health officer as lawmakers discussed Bill 1454, sponsored by Representative Donna Henderson.

Hicks told the committee she drafted the memorandum for Representative Shower and that it compares an April 2021 version of the statute with more recent changes. "The majority of the state health officer's authority is located in century code 23-01-05 related to orders," Hicks said, and she noted recent legislative changes that narrowed and then altered those powers, citing changes codified in statutes and several bills attached as exhibits to her memo.

The memo, Hicks said, shows that post-pandemic legislation limited the state health officer's ability to issue broad statewide written orders and added geographic limits and other constraints. She also called attention to other statutes adopted since 2021, including the provision commonly cited as 23-12-20 and later amendments that address vaccination-status requirements and emergency-use-authorizations.

Representative Donna Henderson, the bill…