State Council of Regents Allows Religious Exemption from Vaccination Mandates, Still Undecided on Impact of Federal Mandate

The state board of regents voted to implement a religious exemption to President Joe Biden’s Sept. 9 executive order requiring federal contractors to implement vaccine and mask mandates for their workers.
The state board voted to allow employees to get religious exemptions from federal vaccine mandates, but they said they were still working on the impact of President Joe Biden’s impending tenure on people. vaccines and masks for federal contractors.
The regents have not yet made an announcement on how the federal decree applies to institutions governed by regents. Regents Chairman Mike Richards said they are still trying to determine whether the ordinance will apply.
âWe are working throughout the process to see exactly what this means for us. We want to comply with all state and federal laws, âRichards said. âIt’s a day-to-day process.
The new policy could be used by employees working in institutions governed by regents to waive a vaccination mandate, if implemented.
As previously stated by The Iowan Daily, under a new Iowa law signed by Governor Kim Reynolds last week, employees can to claim a medical or religious exemption from an employer’s vaccine mandate.
The policy adopted Thursday allows regents to develop a process to implement these exceptions, Richards said.
Richards said the regents will be the ones who interpret the law for the regent institutions, and they are working with Governor Kim Reynolds on the issue.
âRegents will continue to be the ones who interpret the law so that universities are in compliance with state and federal laws,â said Richards. “We work with the governor, we work with all of the state attorney general’s offices, in our own legal state and the federal government.”
Reynolds joined a lawsuit challenge Biden’s rules for federal contractors, and she announced Thursday that she would take “immediate action” to challenge the mandates of employers with more than 100 employees.
Overall, the board continues to work on interpreting Biden’s decree and is uncertain when an announcement will be made, Richards said.
âWe try to comply with both state and federal laws,â Richards said. âEvery day, we are working on it. This is one of the reasons we have taken this approach. There are enough different decisions that we want to have consistency throughout our regent system.