Governor Noem’s bill on vaccine mandates—Senate Bill 211—was passed Tuesday by the Senate Commerce and Energy Committee on a vote of 8 to 1. The only opposition came from Democrat Senator Red Dawn Foster.
The committee approved some minor changes to the bill that were not opposed by the governor. But no action was taken to address the significant problems that we’ve covered in previous posts from Mandate Free SD here and here.
During committee discussion Senator Jim Stalzer shared that he had visited with the governor earlier on the issue of vaccine mandates and stated,
“…this [bill], pretty much in a nutshell, is what she told us she could accept.” He went on to say, “If we were to strike the lines that a couple of them [i.e., the bill’s critics] have mentioned, I think we could lose the governor’s support for her own bill.”
It was clear during the committee discussion that several senators were unimpressed with the legislation, for different reasons. But there was also little appetite for making amendments, no doubt due to the perception that the governor would veto a bill that included significant changes.
Governor Noem appears to be delivering an ultimatum to lawmakers: they can accept her weak bill, or they’ll get nothing at all. It’s disappointing that the medical freedom of South Dakota’s working families takes a distant second place to the agendas of the Chamber of Commerce and hospital lobbyists.
The governor’s staff aide, Katie Hruska, tried to present the bill as a middle ground between those who want continued vaccine mandates and those who want to ban mandates completely. But this lukewarm approach didn’t appease the zealots who support coerced injections. Dean Krogman, lobbyist for the South Dakota State Medical Association, testified against SB 211, though his reasons for opposition were mostly incoherent.
The entire Senate will be voting on SB 211 next week. It is critical to press the Senators for amendments to this bill. Watch for action alerts coming to your email in the coming days. It will be important to connect with them in emails, cracker barrels and phone calls over the weekend.
Thankfully, lawmakers have introduced other bills that provide more sweeping protections against coercive vaccine mandates than what the governor’s bill includes. We look forward to mobilizing grassroots support for these important proposals.