Jun 24, 2021 3 min read

More than a few years back, the federal government learned how easy it was to force states to comply with mandates that were outside the realm of national control – withhold highway funding.

This mild form of extortion was used to make the states pass mandatory seatbelt legislation and raise the drinking age across the land to 21.

While we agree that both of these are worthy causes, neither is really in the jurisdiction of Washington – so Congress simply said, don’t pass these laws, and your state will lose essential funding to maintain roads and highways.

And it worked.

Our state legislature seems to be taking a page out of that playbook, threatening to strip colleges and universities – most of which are private institutions – if they dare to protect their campuses by requiring vaccination against COVID-19 as a condition for entry.

The financial back door the legislature has chosen is the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, which in some form or another puts money in the coffers of practically every institution of higher education in the commonwealth.

And we thought private enterprise was supposed to be able to think for itself.

We’re understanding of the fact the legislature does not want to mandate COVID vaccines as long as it remains under an emergency use authorization.

But we are surprised it is Republicans who are loathe to celebrate one of the crowning achievements of the Trump administration – Operation Warp Speed is a promise kept for the former president, who pushed to make sure vaccines were available, quickly and safely, to end the pandemic as soon as possible.

Senate Bill 618 would bar state, county and local governments, as well as school districts and colleges that receive public funding, from requiring people to get vaccinated in order to get service.

The legislation was amended on the Senate floor to add language that would also bar the secretary of health from issuing public health orders for people who aren’t sick or haven’t been exposed to an infectious disease.

This would hamstring the state in the event of an infectious disease breakout.

The lawmaking branch – presumably knowing a veto is coming, and likely not having the votes to override it – should be doing what we heard them say they wanted to do throughout the pandemic: work as a team with the governor to do what is best for the state.

We believe private businesses have an absolute right to protect themselves by freely choosing to require patrons to partake in reasonable safety precautions.

We disagree with mandatory “vaccine passports” as nearby New York has forced upon residents.

But, we believe individuals should have the right to obtain and carry one from a trusted third party, thus being able to engage with the private entities that request it.

We continue to encourage everyone who is eligible to get a vaccine – and put this pandemic behind us. And we think Harrisburg should be echoing the same message.