On August 26, 2022, a split ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit voted to bar enforcement of the federal contractor vaccine mandate in the seven states that sued — Georgia, Alabama, Idaho, Kansas, South Carolina, Utah and West Virginia, as well as members of Associated Builders and Contractors or any of their subcontractors on federal projects.

However, on August 31, 2022, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force announced that the Federal Government “will take no action to implement or enforce Executive Order 14042,” the contractor vaccine mandate, “to ensure compliance with an applicable preliminary nationwide injunction, which may be supplemented, modified, or vacated, depending on the course of ongoing litigation.”

Based on this decision by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force, all federal contractors, regardless of company location or association membership, should expect that the FAR clause implementing the requirements of the Executive Order will not be included in future solicitations and contracts, and the Federal Government will not take any action to enforce the clause where it has already been included in contracts or contract-like instruments, absent further written notice from the agency.

Please click below to review NECA’s full legal alert.