Lawmakers Push for More Vaccines for Federal Workforce

In a letter to Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Kathleen McGettigan and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky, several Democratic lawmakers from the National Capital Region, including Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) and Del. Eleanor Norton Holmes (D-DC), have requested that the federal government allocate vaccines for federal employees, especially those in the National Capital Region of Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland.

Many federal workers are concentrated in the National Capital Region. Lawmakers expressed concern that this concentration puts an unfair burden on state and local counties in the region.

Lawmakers and employees alike have expressed concern with the slow dispersal of the COVID-19 vaccine. Many federal workers are considered essential employees. Yet, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) effort to get frontline workers vaccinated led to just 900 vaccinations in one month out of a workforce of 230,000.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is experiencing a delay in administering vaccines as well, with many employees unaware that they have to go through a distinct process in order to be vaccinated. When TSA reached out to its workforce about signing up to be vaccinated, over 60% of employees did not respond. Many thought it was a phishing email. TSA did not reach back out to the workforce.

Patricia Bradshaw, TSA’s assistant administrator for human capital said on a call played for GovExec, “Our goal is all frontline employees will get vaccinated, but it’s taking longer than we had hoped.” Another TSA official stated, “The reality is we are still on our own for this.”

Other agencies that are struggling with vaccine rollout for their employees include Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Danielle Bennet, a spokeswoman for ICE, said that employees will also be eligible for early vaccine access through VA, though she did not elaborate further.

Other members of Congress would also like to see the vaccination process streamlined for federal employees. Rep. John Katko, (R-NY), the top Republican on the House Committee  on Homeland Security, and Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, “A scenario where individuals in DHS custody are prioritized for vaccination over our frontline federal law enforcement tasked with securing our border and enforcing immigration laws, as well as other frontline DHS personnel and American citizens, would likely prove … shocking and inequitable to the American people.”