Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen released the following statement regarding the Biden administration’s newly released Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) and interim final rule requiring businesses with more than 100 employees to enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy:

“If a president can unilaterally force people to submit to a medical procedure they don’t want, then there’s seemingly no limit to the federal government’s control over our lives. President Biden’s illegal mandate is an egregious overreach and sets the country down a dangerous path. Forcing these injections on Montanans at the threat of losing their jobs infringes on the rights of our state, individuals, and businesses. We’ve been preparing for this. I’ll be filing a lawsuit tomorrow to stop this lawless order in its tracks.”

The Biden administration’s injection mandate would apply to more than 142,000 Montana workers at businesses with more than 100 employees – more than one-third of the state’s private-sector – according to the Montana Department of Labor and Industry. However, the ETS states that OSHA is also considering a similar mandate for smaller businesses.