PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota House Republicans on Monday passed a completely rewritten version of a bill from Gov. Kristi Noem to allow employees to gain exemptions from their employer’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates, setting up a statehouse clash over the proposal.
House lawmakers, in a snub to the governor’s bill, rewrote it to allow employees to cite any objection of their conscience. Noem’s initial bill, which had passed the Senate, would allow employees to avoid mandates by citing either a medical exemption, religious grounds for refusal or a test showing antibodies against COVID-19 in the last six months.
President Joe Biden’s administration pushed vaccine mandates through employers last year to boost the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination rate and slow the spread of the coronavirus.
South Dakota Republicans have exchanged barbs for months over competing proposals to allow employees to gain exemptions from vaccination requirements, with a group of House conservatives pushing broader exemptions.
The intra-party squabble comes as the state’s vaccination rate of 60% of people fully vaccinated lags behind the nationwide rate of 65%.
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