Tennessee state senator seeks special session on Biden's vaccine mandate

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tennessee State Senator Dawn White (R – Murfreesboro) has written a letter to the lieutenant governor, asking for a special session in response to President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.

The mandate from President Biden will require companies with 100 employees or more to require vaccinations or weekly COVID-19 tests. The same will be required of federal workers or people with government contracts.

In a letter to Lt. Governor Randy McNally, White requests a special session to “take a strong stand to aggressively push back against federal overreach.” She shared a copy of the letter on Twitter.

“I am hereby requesting that the legislature be called back into special session so that we can promptly address these and a number of issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” White wrote.

White isn’t the only Tennessee legislator to seek a special session to push back on COVID mitigation protocols. Last month, House Speaker Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) asked the governor to call a special session in an attempt to block school districts from implementing mask mandates.

Gov. Bill Lee instead decided to sign an executive order, which allows parents to opt-out of mask mandates in schools.

COVID IN TENNESSEE

Though COVID hospitalizations have skyrocketed in recent weeks, overnight data from the Tennessee Department of Health shows those numbers are seeing a slight improvement.

However, earlier this week, TDH reported more than 15,000 new COVID cases from Sept. 10 alone, making it the worst day of the pandemic in terms of new cases. Last week, the state saw the highest number of new COVID cases reported in one week since the beginning of the pandemic.