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Workplace whistleblowers and a fear of losing federal funds are expected to play vital roles in ensuring compliance with COVID-19 vaccine mandates ordered by President Joe Biden's administration for U.S. businesses, nursing homes and hospitals, according to experts, Reuters reported. Biden announced last Thursday that his administration will enforce the vaccine mandates starting on Jan. 4. The rules apply to employers with at least 100 workers, federal contractors and employees of nursing homes and other health care facilities that receive reimbursements under the Medicare and Medicaid government health care programs. On Saturday, a federal appeals court suspended the new vaccine and testing requirements for private companies while the court considers it in more depth. It gave the Justice Department until late Monday to respond. The portion of the mandate for the health care sector is not affected by Saturday's ruling. If the rule goes into effect, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which enforces work safety rules, is not likely to immediately swoop in to ensure that vaccination and testing rules are being followed, experts said. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the regulator for the two federal health programs, does not typically survey accredited health care providers unless there is a complaint or a need for recertification, according to Sandy DiVarco, a partner at the firm McDermott Will & Emery who represents health care providers. Since patients and clients do not have access to staff vaccination records, those complaints would likely come from another staff member, DiVarco added.

Business groups, state attorneys general and religious organizations have promised swift court challenges to try to block the vaccine-and-testing mandate unveiled yesterday by the Biden administration, according to a Reuters analysis. President Joe Biden has said the country’s patience is growing thin with the 30% of Americans who are not fully vaccinated, and the rule is aimed at ensuring safe workplaces. The vaccine requirement is being imposed through a rarely used process that has a history of being blocked by judges. Imposed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the rule requires all businesses with at least 100 employees to ensure they are vaccinated or submit to weekly testing and wearing a face covering. OSHA rules typically take seven years to develop. This rule is being issued through an emergency temporary standard (ETS), a process that allows OSHA to address a “grave danger” and is aimed at protecting against that hazard. Prior to an ETS issued in June that applied to health care settings, OSHA had issued nine emergency temporary standards since it was set up in 1971. Of those, six were challenged in court and only one survived unscathed: a standard issued in 1978 aimed at exposure to acrylonitrile, a chemical used in rubber manufacturing. A group of 24 Republican attorneys general warned in September that they would go to court to fight what they said was an illegal mandate. They argued OSHA’s power to issue an emergency rule was limited to workplace hazards such as industrial chemicals, not a widely circulating virus. They also accused the Biden administration of usurping the power to regulate health care, which has traditionally been left to states. Industry, religious and civil liberty groups have also said they plan to sue because they expect the rule to be a burden on businesses or amount to an unconstitutional power grab.

The timetable for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to bring up Democrats’ health care, education and climate package slipped to Friday after lawmakers hit snags on immigration and the state and local tax deduction, the Wall Street Journal reported. The California Democrat initially told House Democrats in a closed-door meeting yesterday that she hoped the House would vote on the bill later that day, then vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill on Friday. Progressives have been blocking the roughly $1 trillion infrastructure bill until they are satisfied with the language in the social-spending and climate-change bill. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said late yesterday that the House would instead take up both pieces of legislation as soon as today, again pushing back on Democrats’ efforts to advance much of President Biden’s agenda through Congress. While the infrastructure bill would go to Mr. Biden for his signature after House passage, the nearly $2 trillion health care, education and climate bill will face likely changes in the Senate.

New orders for U.S.-made goods unexpectedly rose in September, though manufacturing remains constrained by input shortages, Reuters reported. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday that factory orders increased 0.2% in September. Data for August was revised down to show orders rising 1.0% instead of 1.2% as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast factory orders unchanged. Orders gained 17.6% on a year-on-year basis. Manufacturing, which accounts for 12% of the economy, is being driven by still-strong demand for goods despite spending shifting back to services. Businesses are rebuilding depleted inventories, but shortages of labor and raw materials stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic remain challenges. The widespread shortages restrained economic growth to its slowest pace in more than a year in the third quarter. An Institute for Supply Management survey on Monday showed that manufacturing activity slowed in October, with all industries reporting record-long lead times for raw materials.

House Democrats aren’t planning to include a measure raising the U.S. debt ceiling as part of President Joe Biden’s estimated $1.75 trillion tax-and-social-spending bill, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said, Bloomberg News reported. The stance would remove one avenue for averting a showdown with Republicans over the debt ceiling in the coming months that could lead to the U.S. missing payments to workers, beneficiaries or bondholders. Republicans led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have vowed not to cooperate on another short-term debt-ceiling suspension as they did last month and say Democrats must raise the limit on their own given their significant spending plans. Adding a debt-ceiling increase to the Biden bill, which may see a House vote this week, could have resolved any uncertainty over a potential U.S. payment default sometime between December and February. Under Senate rules, the budget reconciliation vehicle that Democrats are using to advance Biden’s economic agenda could also be used to raise the debt ceiling. Addressing the issue in this way would let Democrats, if they stay unified, pass the measure without any Republican votes and avoid a GOP filibuster.

The passage of President Biden’s sweeping economic plan could shorten the time frame in which Congress must act to avert a debt default even as Democrats remain divided over how to raise the borrowing limit, The Hill reported. The U.S. last week exhausted the $480 billion in new debt authorized by a bipartisan deal last month and may need to raise or suspend the ceiling shortly after December begins. The Treasury Department has already begun taking “extraordinary measures” to avert a default, but Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned it may not be able to do so beyond Dec. 3. While budget experts say the Treasury Department should be able to keep the U.S. solvent beyond that date, a provision of the bipartisan infrastructure deal could accelerate that countdown. The $1.1 trillion measure would transfer $118 billion from the Treasury’s General Fund to the Highway Trust Fund. It’s unclear when Treasury would have to make that transfer, but doing so before a debt ceiling increase would deplete cash that could be used to avert a default.

House Democrats are looking to pass both the social spending and bipartisan infrastructure bills as early as Tuesday, a leadership aide told The Hill. An aide for Democratic leadership told Axios that committees were notified by House leaders that they had to finish any changes on the spending bill by Sunday and that the House Rules Committee could meet as soon as Monday to mark it up. An aide told The Hill that committees have until Sunday to make revisions to the social spending bill's text and that both bills could be voted on as early as Tuesday, though the aide noted that the schedule was “not set in stone yet.” “Pens down Sunday for committees to make any changes for revised text. Then Rules would meet as soon as Monday, floor as soon as Tuesday. Schedule not set in stone yet,” the aide said. The projected deadline comes after progressives scored another win earlier this week to delay a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Small businesses are having increasing difficulty finding job candidates with the skills they need, a new survey found, the Washington Examiner reported. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and MetLife survey reported that 49% of small businesses now say they are struggling to find qualified workers, a number that is up sharply from June, when 34% said the same. Additionally, 46% said it is either somewhat hard or very hard to find candidates with the right amount of experience, up from 35% in June. Small businesses also reported double-digit increases when asked about difficulty finding enough talent to fill open positions and their ability to compete for candidates with larger businesses in their area.