Here is the Heritage Take on the top issues
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Biden Administration’s COVID Vaccine Mandate Will Not Stand <[link removed]> – The requirements that have come out from the Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration are
way out of its authority. This rule will not withstand legal scrutiny. As we have detailed in a comprehensive legal analysis, Congress did not grant OSHA any authority to establish a vaccine mandate. Even the Health and Human Services Department, which has regulatory jurisdiction over vaccines, does not have the authority to issue a general, nationwide vaccine mandate. The Biden administration is way out of bounds on this inappropriate overreach of government decision-making. Our nation has dealt with other pandemics, including polio and smallpox for which we have vaccines, without ever imposing a general vaccine mandate. Nor has any federal agency claimed authority for such a sweeping requirement. Even when Congress gave OSHA narrow authority to help health care facilities deal with bloodborne pathogens, the agency did not mandate that health care workers be immunized. Policymakers should focus on ending this pandemic with clear data that trusts Americans to make decisions about their health with their doctor, not insert their employer into
policing these decisions. Heritage expert: Doug
Badger <[link removed]>
The left’s radical talking points on schools is having the opposite effect <[link removed]> – Telling parents they are not wanted will not
motivate families to send their children back to assigned schools. Federal data shows that public school enrollment decreased by 3 million students this fall. Enrollment has dropped in Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, and in Maryland’s largest school district, Montgomery County, along with statewide declines across California and Wisconsin, to name just a few states. The pandemic may have led to the exodus, but how could messages that undermine parents make families more likely to send students back? State and local school boards across Alabama, Colorado, and Washington state have adopted proposals rejecting the discriminatory ideas in critical race theory and demanding that students not be taught that individuals from any race are superior or
inferior to anyone else. Legislators in 18 states even gave parents more freedom to choose how and where their children learn in 2021. Lawmakers created or expanded learning options such as education savings accounts, charter schools, and other private and public learning opportunities. These lawmakers are responding to student needs by affirming parents’ rights over their child’s learning experience. Heritage expert: Jonathan
Butcher <[link removed]>
Biden’s Climate Policy a Titanic Disaster in Waiting <[link removed]> – A far more productive and realistic approach would be to expand economic freedom at home and abroad and especially amongst developing countries. Decades of data from the Index of Economic Freedom clearly show that economic freedom goes hand in hand with economic growth, which is essential to environmental stewardship. In fact, climate-related deaths have fallen 96% over the last century, thanks to rapid economic growth and increased access to affordable, reliable energy. Rather than spending trillions that we do not have and making promises that cannot be kept, Congress and the administration should focus on implementing policies that reduce regulatory barriers to
energy innovation, streamline permitting and regulatory reviews, and promote pro-growth tax policy. Rather than urging our friends and allies to pursue policies that make their energy sectors more brittle and costly, the United States should be championing freer trade to get them the energy they need. Rather than naively taking China at its word, we should be pushing for transparency, reaffirming our commitment to human rights, and defending the sovereignty of neighboring nations against Chinese bullying. Heritage expert: Jim
Carafano
UN Expert Calls for Countries to Embrace Radical Gender
Theory <[link removed]> – Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the United Nation’s independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, delivered his latest report to the U.N. General Assembly last week that should set off alarm bells around the world. The report concludes that the world must choose between a path of “exclusionary narratives” advanced by “ultraconservative political leaders and religious groups” that perpetuate violence and discrimination, or a path of inclusivity guided by
“gender theory” and human rights. Gender theory is another woke ideology—an outgrowth of feminism and critical theory—which, among other things, considers the categories of “male” and “female” to be oppressive stereotypes. While these U.N. reports may seem like meaningless ivory tower rhetoric, they contribute to a growing body of quasi-legal documents that legislators and even Supreme Court justices can invoke, paving the way for radical progressive policy to re-enter American policy, law, and politics. Heritage expert: Grace
Melton <[link removed]>
New Book Explains ‘How the Left Changed the Way You Vote’ <[link removed]> – Unfortunately, many on the left are attempting to make election fraud easier by fighting laws that require an ID, a commonsense reform overwhelmingly supported by the American public. They’ve pushed to get noncitizens and jailed inmates to vote, and they oppose all efforts by election officials to certify the citizenship of registered voters through federal databases and other means. And they’ve sued states that have tried to clean up their voter rolls by removing individuals who have died, moved away, or are registered
multiple times in several states. The changes that were rammed through for the 2020 “COVID” election, including switching to universal all-mail elections or dramatically increasing the use of absentee mail-in ballots, are unwise and dangerous. Absentee ballots are the tools of choice of vote thieves
because they are the only ballots cast outside the supervision of election officials and outside the observation of poll watchers, destroying the transparency of the election process that is a fundamental hallmark of a healthy democracy. Absentee or mail-in ballots also have a much higher rejection rate than votes cast in a polling place since there are
no election officials present in someone’s home to answer questions or resolve any problems a voter may be having. Heritage expert: Hans von
Spakovsky
A Road Map for Fiscal Year 2022 Appropriations <[link removed]> –Congress has once again begun the fiscal year without completing the annual appropriations process. Congress should use the appropriations process as an opportunity to restore constitutional values and to protect Americans. The fiscal year 2022 spending bills must: (1) reject non-defense spending increases; (2) support the national defense; (3) retain existing pro-life and conscience-rights riders; (4) keep out damaging and divisive extraneous provisions; and (5) reject earmarks. Congress should not agree to a full-year appropriations package, unless each of these conditions is met. Heritage expert: Hans von
Spakovsky <[link removed]>

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