Former WA AG McKenna: Biden ‘within his rights’ on mask, vaccine orders

There are federal programs from President Biden with regards to both masks and vaccine distribution. They often involve Biden exerting sweeping authority, especially on a recently-enacted order requiring a mask on all public transport, along with discussions about using the military to take over vaccine distribution. But is this legal?

“I think it is,” said Rob McKenna, former state attorney general, on Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross. “Let’s start with the transportation question in the mask mandate. The reason that the order says you have to wear a mask when you’re in public transportation, and doesn’t address when you’re at the shopping center or a movie theater — the federal government has jurisdiction over public transportation but doesn’t have jurisdiction over local facilities.”

Mercer Island MD: How new single-dose vaccine could help get us to herd immunity

“So I think they’re imposing this mandate where they know that they, as the federal government, have the legal authority to require it,” he added.

The other issue is how extensive this legal authority is with regards to the vaccine. Can the administration, for example, send the military to set up vaccination centers, or invoke the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of needles and vaccines if these shortages persist?

“They clearly can invoke the Defense Production Act and he’s already moving in that direction, … not only to make sure there’s enough vaccine, but really, I think it’s even more about making sure that all the other equipment that you need to get the vaccine out is available in sufficient quantities,” McKenna explained. “… So he’s clearly within his rights there, and I hope they get on it because there appear to be some bottlenecks right now that are slowing down vaccine distribution.”

McKenna also believes that the federal government can take over vaccine distribution as well, since they are they ones entering into the contracts.

“I also think that they have the power to take over vaccine distribution as matter of law because the vaccines are being acquired through the federal government. As I understand, it’s the federal government which has entered into contracts with the vaccine makers to buy 100 million doses from Pfizer, 100 million doses from Moderna, and so forth,” he said.

Is the vaccine effective against the new strain of COVID?

“So if the federal government is the entity that’s acquiring the vaccine, they should maintain control over it,” he continued. “But what the Trump administration chose to do was use Operation Warp Speed to accelerate development of the vaccine and then production of the vaccine. But then they chose to leave it to the states to actually get the vaccine into people’s arms. I think the Biden administration could choose to go a different route as a matter of law.”

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Follow @http://twitter.com/Mynorthwest