D.C. Council member Brianne Nadeau said Tuesday that she will introduce emergency legislation reinstating a mandate for city businesses to check the vaccination status of customers before allowing entry.
The Ward 1 Democrat wants Council Chair Phil Mendelson to call a special session of the legislative body so that consideration of her bill doesn’t have to wait to occur until March 1, the next scheduled meeting, WTOP reported.
Emergency legislation, under council rules, must have nine votes and have no cost attached to it in order to be passed.
Nadeau rapped Mayor Muriel Bowser for nixing the mandate on Monday, telling WTOP that it made people feel safe “to go out to dinner, to go out for drinks, to go to the movies, to go shopping, because they haven’t had to worry about whether other people in that space are vaccinated.”
Council member Robert White (D-At Large), who is challenging Bowser for mayor in the upcoming primary election, also criticized the move.
“The vaccine mandate is working,” White tweeted Monday. “Cases are just starting to go down and ending it now is premature. The vaccine mandate made it possible for many families, including mine, to feel a little comfort and calmed the anxiety of frontline workers and immunocompromised folks.”