The U.S. Postal Service is not one of the agencies required to require vaccination against COVID-19 under President Joe Biden’s new executive order, a spokesman said Friday.
“COVID-19 vaccination requirements included in the White House executive order issued Sept. 9, 2021 for federal employees do not apply to the postal service,” a U.S. spokesman told The Epoch Times Postal Service or USPS. e-mail.
“As for the other vaccination rules that the federal government is expected to issue, the postal service does not comment until these rules are published and we have had the opportunity to review them,” he added.
Biden on Thursday ordered all federal employees the COVID-19 vaccine, with limited exceptions for approved medical or religious reasons.
“It is essential that federal employees take all available measures to protect themselves and prevent the dissemination of COVID-19 to their co-workers and members of the public,” Biden said in the order.
Biden said in Washington statements that the order “would require the vaccination of all federal employees of the executive branch, everything.”
An executive branch agency, as defined in § 105 of the U.S. Code “means an executive department, a government corporation, and an independent establishment.”
The postal service is an agency independent of the Executive Branch. It was created in 2006, replacing the U.S. Cabinet-level Post Office. A nine-person governing board elects the head of the postal service; board members are appointed by the president and require confirmation by the United States Senate.
More than 630,000 people work for the USPS.
The American Postal Workers Union (APWU) and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.
The union in a July statement responded to reports that the White House was studying mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 for federal workers.
“Maintaining the health and safety of our members is of the utmost importance. While the APWU leadership continues to encourage postal workers to get vaccinated voluntarily, it is not the role of the federal government to commission vaccines from the employees we represent, ”the union said.
“Issues related to COVID-19 vaccinations and workplace testing need to be negotiated with the APWU. At the moment, the APWU is opposed to enforcing COVID-19 vaccines in relation to U.S. postal workers, ”he added.
COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Zachary Stieber covers American news, including political and judicial cases. He started at The Epoch Times as a New York subway reporter.