Sen. Cotton Fears CDC’s New Vaccine Schedule for Children Will Lead to School Vaccine Mandate

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) questions U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland as he testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about oversight of the Department of Justice, in Washington, on Oct. 27, 2021. Tasos Katopodis-Pool/Getty Images

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) has commenced an action to see if Congress can block the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new vaccine schedule for children and adolescents, saying he’s concerned that schools will use the guidelines to impose a vaccine mandate.

In a May 16 letter (pdf), the lawmaker asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to undertake an analysis on whether a recent CDC immunization schedule update qualifies as an official “rule” for the purpose of the Congressional Review Act.

The change in question came in February when the CDC modified the vaccine schedule to recommend COVID-19 vaccine doses for infants as young as six months.

If determined to be part of the federal rulemaking process, Congress may repeal the new vaccination schedule.

“The CDC’s modification of the vaccine schedule is irresponsible given the low mortality rates of adolescents with COVID-19 and the unknown long-term side effects of the vaccine,” Cotton said in a press release regarding his request.

“I fear their recommendation with be used to justify a vaccine mandate in schools across the country. The GAO’s ruling will help put every member of Congress on record about the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for children,” said Cotton.

A representative for Cotton’s office told The Epoch Times that because the lawmaker is concerned about public schools across the country’s reliance on the CDC’s guidelines, he hopes to hold the agency accountable as far as his office allows.

“Many school districts across the country use the CDC’s recommendations as the basis of state and local vaccine mandates,” Cotton’s press secretary said. “If the CDC’s recommendation is that the action qualifies as a rule, he intends to fight that through the Congressional Review Act.”

The Congressional Review Act (CRA) is a 1990s-era law that gives Congress the authority to rescind federal rules created by the executive branch through the rulemaking process.

This was found needful by Congress due to the federal rulemaking process offering executive agencies, such as the ATF and Treasury Department, greater authority to establish policies that would ordinarily originate from the legislative process.

Under the CRA, the agency proposing the rule must submit a report containing a copy of the proposed rule to both chambers of Congress and the Comptroller General.

If the GAO discovers that the CDC’s vaccination schedule falls under that progress, Congress would have the power to reverse the CDC’s decision.

The GAO confirmed to The Epoch Times that they received the request saying: “From here, it goes through a regular review process before any decisions are made. This usually takes a week or so.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the CDC for comment.