Florida sues Biden and NASA over COVID vaccine mandate and says no one should pick ‘a jab or a job’ 

The state of Florida is reportedly suing President Joe Biden, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and other federal officials over the White House‘s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors.

In a lawsuit, a copy of which was given to DailyMail.com, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody allege Biden’s sweeping vaccine order will cause ‘imminent irreparable harm’ to Florida.

A spokesperson for DeSantis’ office told DailyMail.com that DeSantis believes ‘no one should have to choose between a jab and a job.’ 

Biden, Nelson, NASA, the Defense Department and several other White House officials from the Office of Management and Budget are all named as defendants in the suit. 

DeSantis argues that NASA, whose principal launch base is the Kennedy Space Center on Florida’s central Atlantic coast, ‘is and will continue to seek to impose the Biden administration’s unlawful requirements to Florida.’

‘Because Florida’s employees are generally not required to be vaccinated, the challenged actions threaten Florida with the loss of millions of dollars in future contracting opportunities and put undue pressure on Florida to create new policies and change existing ones, each of which threatens Florida with imminent irreparable harm,’ the lawsuit reads. 

DeSantis live streamed the public announcement of his lawsuit on Facebook today

The suit, first obtained by Fox, cites the ‘frequent contracts’ and ‘current contractual relationships’ the federal science agency has with DeSantis’ state. 

‘Because the government’s unlawful vaccine requirement seeks to interfere with Florida’s employment policies and threaten Florida with economic harm and the loss of federal contracts, the State seeks relief from this Court,’ it reads. 

Filed in a US district court in Tampa, the move is the latest blow against the Biden administration in a series of escalating tensions between the Democratic president and Republican governors who accuse him of overstepping his authority.

DeSantis spokesperson Christina Pushaw told DailyMail.com, ‘Governor DeSantis is committed to protecting Floridians’ jobs, including those who work for federal contractors. No one should have to choose between a jab and a job, or give up their bodily autonomy due to unlawful and unscientific edicts.’

The president’s mandate requires that all federal government workers be inoculated against COVID. Federal contractors are ordered to make sure all of their employees are vaccinated by December 8 at the latest. 

Nelson, a former astronaut that Biden appointed to helm NASA, was a Democratic senator from Florida until he was unseated by DeSantis’ predecessor, Governor-turned-Senator Rick Scott. 

One of the people named in the lawsuit is former astronaut Bill Nelson, the NASA Administrator who represented Florida in the US Senate until the Democrat was unseated by former Florida Governor Rick Scott, a Republican

DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House and NASA for comment.

The GOP governor’s lawsuit’s reportedly warns that the vaccine mandate could escalate to elected officials.

Its main argument is that the Biden administration is relying on a law that gives the commander-in-chief room to ‘prescribe policies and directives that the president considers necessary to carry out the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act (FPASA) of 1949 (FPASA). 

The law established the Government Services Administration (GSA) and was designed, in part, to increase the efficiency and economy of federal government operations with regard to the procurement, utilization and disposal of property, according to the GSA’s website.  

But Florida believes Biden’s government ‘misread’ the statute and claims it ‘does not authorize the government to use its contracts to impose social policy not authorized by Congress.’ 

‘Nothing in that statute authorizes such a radical intrusion on the personal autonomy of American workers – especially, as is the case here, when may of those workers are officials of a sovereign state,’ the lawsuit read.

Biden announced his sweeping vaccine mandates in early September (pictured at the US Capitol on Thursday)

They continue that even if the 1949 law could allow for the mandate, Biden’s order would still be illegal because the way it was enacted ‘violates fundamental principles of administrative and procurement law.’

DeSantis publicly announced the lawsuit in a press conference alongside Attorney General Moody at the Florida Air Museum on Thursday.

‘We just made very clear, as you now are in an era where there are very heavy-handed mandates being hung over people’s heads, that threatened to deprive them of the right to earn a living, that in the state of Florida you have the right to earn a living and it should not be denied to you based on these shots,’ he said.

He added of health care workers, ‘These people have been working the whole dog-gone time and now they’re going to be kicked to the curb? Give me a break.’  

DeSantis accused Biden of ‘turning normal contracting’ into health mandates. 

‘If you force this, there’s going to be an attrition of people who lose their jobs,’ he warned, adding that the country’s economy could not take a mass exodus – similar to the ‘Great Resignation’ that shook the country at the end of summer.

The COVID-19 pandemic saw a resurgence over the summer, mostly in states with low vaccination rates

Earlier this month DeSantis’ fellow Republican Governor Greg Abbott of Texas signed a state law banning private businesses from enacting vaccine mandates in response to the president’s order. 

In early September Biden announced that federal workers and contractors would no longer have the option of weekly COVID testing or a vaccine. He also required hospitals and other health care centers receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid also get staff vaccinated.

Biden also directed the Labor Department to draw up new guidelines requiring all private companies with 100 or more employees to either implement a vaccine mandate or a weekly testing system.

‘We have been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us. So please, do the right thing,’ Biden said in a televised address after the summer months saw COVID once again spiraling out of control, largely in states with low vaccination rates.

The sweeping order affects more than 100 million people, or roughly a third of the US workforce.