Administration tells some agencies they can delay firings of unvaccinated federal employees until after the holidays

CNN

By Kaitlan Collins, CNN

The Office of Management and Budget is telling some agencies they can delay firing federal employees who refuse to get vaccinated until after the holidays, an official confirmed to CNN, as an “education and counseling period” continues in December.

An office spokesman said that period is the first step in their enforcement of the vaccine mandate implemented by President Joe Biden.

“Nothing has changed with respect to our deadline or our approach to the federal employee vaccination requirement,” an OMB spokesman told CNN in a statement. “The deadline was November 22, and we already have 96.5% compliance across a diverse workforce that is the largest in the United States. This is incredible progress and should serve as an example to employers across the board that vaccination requirements work.”

“We’ve also said the deadline is not a cliff and that our goal is to protect workers, not penalize anyone. That’s why we’ve encouraged agencies to continue the education and counseling period in December for the small number of employees not already in compliance, and delay most suspensions and removals until the new year. We’re seeing strong increase in compliance and believe this is the best approach to vaccinate more employees.”

ABC News first reported the move by OMB.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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