In its ruling in National Federation of Independent Business, et al. v. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, et al., the court granted the applications to stay the OSHA rule mandating that employers with at least 100 employees require covered workers to receive a COVID–19 vaccine or undergo weekly testing.

In Joseph R. Biden, Jr., President of the United States, et al. v. Missouri, et al., the court ruled the government’s vaccine mandate for workers at federally funded health care facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid can take effect.

 January 4, 2022 – SHORTLINER

High Court to Rule on Vax-or-Test Order

The Supreme Court will decide if elements of the White House plan to mandate vaccinations or regular COVID testing in some workplaces will stand.

The court will hold a hearing this Friday (Jan. 7) to review numerous legal challenges against two of the vaccine mandates.

President Biden earlier this year ordered OSHA to impose an emergency temporary standard (ETS) that requires employers with 100 or more employees to ensure all workers are vaccinated against COVID-19 or mask in the workplace and submit to regular testing.

Also being considered at the hearing will be a mandate addressing health care facilities that employ workers paid through Medicare and Medicaid programs.

A mandate requiring federal contractors and subcontractors to assure workers are vaccinated is not included on the agenda of the Supreme Court hearing, but enforcement of that order remains blocked by a preliminary injunction.

Among opponents of the mandates are 27 state attorneys general and governors, business and religious coalitions, and national industry associations such as the National Retail Federation, the American Trucking Associations and the National Federation of Independent Business.

At least until the hearing, the mandates are in effect. It is possible that justices will decide then to stay the orders until they issue a decision.

In the meantime, states that operate OSHA-approved workplace safety programs must by Friday notify the federal OSHA organization how they will proceed with the ETS. The deadline to begin enforcement is January 24.
In remaining states, OSHA will move to implement the ETS.

Employers with more than 100 employees are encouraged to monitor legal developments, review and update COVID-19 protocols related to vaccines and testing, communicate with employees, and decide how to best implement testing for the unvaccinated.

Sources: EHS Today, Pioneer Equipment Dealers Association

Coronavirus surge hits factory workforces just as they struggle with supply-chain issues and rising costs.

According to a Wall Street Journal article, the Omicron variant’s spread among U.S. factory workers is slowing operations and stretching staff for manufacturers, leading some to consider unconventional, and sometimes expensive, solutions to keep operating.

Executives told the WSJ that mounting absences among workers are bringing masks back to some factory floors, while manufacturers shuttle available workers to jobs and plants where they are most needed. Companies are also redoubling recruiting efforts to fortify workforces already worn thin by high turnover in a tight job market.

The speed at which the highly contagious variant is spreading has stunned some executives, who said they had grown increasingly confident over recent months that their companies had navigated the worst of the pandemic. The apparent decreasing severity of the variant is providing some hope that the number of cases will lighten and the effect on companies will abate in coming weeks. Some sidelined workers are quarantining at home as a precaution.

The surge in Covid-19 absenteeism threatens to deepen problems of supply-chain and transportation bottlenecks and delayed deliveries. A stretch of depleted workforces and lower production volumes also could fuel further cost increases and drive consumer inflation. Already, domestically made material input costs for manufacturers have grown at the fastest rate since the 1970s, up nearly 30% in November from a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Late last month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its voluntary recommendations that people isolate themselves for five days if they no longer show symptoms after being infected with Covid-19 and then wear a mask for the next five days, down from 10 days of isolation previously.

While the hope was that 2022 would get better, for some manufacturers it’s starting off in a mess.

The funds have “attracted the attention of individuals and organized criminal networks” world-wide, the agency said in a news release, though its estimate of stolen benefits represents just a fraction of the trillions of dollars in government relief provided since last year.

The Secret Service said it would work closely with a variety of federal agencies—including the Labor Department and Small Business Administration, which have key roles tracking and administering relief funds—to investigate and recover fraudulently disbursed funds.

The Justice Department separately said earlier this month that its fraud section has prosecuted over 150 defendants in more than 95 criminal cases stemming from fraud schemes involving the Paycheck Protection Program, which has been the centerpiece of the federal government’s pandemic aid to small businesses.

In a separate estimate recently released, the Labor Department said about $87 billion in unemployment benefits might have been paid improperly, “with a significant portion attributable to fraud.”

Lawmakers have consistently raised concerns about fraud in the SBA’s aid offerings, particularly the COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster program, which provides small businesses with loans and emergency grants. The SBA distributed more than $3.1 billion in loans and $550 million in grants to potentially ineligible recipients through those programs between March and November 2020, the agency’s inspector general said in a November report.

“SBA’s lack of adequate front-end controls to determine eligibility contributed to the distribution” of the funds to the potentially ineligible recipients, the report said.

The SBA’s inspector general previously also warned of potential fraud and abuse in the Paycheck Protection Program. The $961 billion program, which closed to new applications in May, offered small businesses forgivable loans issued through financial institutions and guaranteed by the SBA. It received bipartisan support for getting money out to businesses quickly. Citing the use of antifraud measures at the financial institutions that issued the loans, lawmakers have broadly raised fewer concerns about fraud in the PPP compared with the economic-injury programs.

The SBA under the Biden administration has said it implemented additional safeguards across its pandemic programs to better protect against fraud.

The Secret Service said its estimate is based on public reports issued by internal government watchdogs, with the bulk of the potentially misused funds stemming from fraud tied to unemployment insurance. Those analyses are based on 2020 activity and could overstate the amount of actual fraud or theft, in part because they also include mistaken payments to ineligible recipients who are not necessarily bad actors.

Source: Wall Street Journal

As of Friday, more than 150 coronavirus cases had been reported in Guangdong province, a key manufacturing and exporting hub in southern China.

Ports in Guangdong issued notices last week suspending vessels from entering ports without advance reservations. The ports are only accepting bookings for export-bound containers.

Major shipping companies have warned clients of vessel delays, changes to port call schedules, and the possibility of skipping some ports altogether.

As of Friday, more than 50 container vessels were waiting to dock in the Outer Pearl River Delta, where the ports are located, according to Refinitiv data. That compares to around 20 vessels in the same period last year and more than in February 2020, when ports were paralyzed by the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in China.

Source: Reuters

Twenty companies are registered at that address, with names like Organic Ohio Berries LLC and Garlic Farming LLC. Those companies won government approval for loans and grants intended to support small businesses hurt by the pandemic.

In all, the owner of the home and his family members created 72 companies with agrarian-sounding names at three Cleveland-area addresses and then used them to get approval for loans and grants totaling $7.2 million from the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, state and federal records show.

There’s no sign of agricultural activity at any of the locations, or that any of the companies were active before Feb. 1, a requirement for pandemic aid. None of them was registered with the Ohio Secretary of State’s office before May.

A lawyer for Zaur Kalantarli, the owner of the home, has acknowledged that at least some of the loans were questionable and may have to be repaid. The lawyer said he contacted federal prosecutors in Ohio and brought the matter to their attention after Kalantarli received a media inquiry about the loans and contacted the lawyer.

The Kalantarli loans are the latest sign of mismanagement in the SBA’s $212 billion disaster-relief program, which the agency’s inspector general warned in July was beset by “potentially rampant fraud.”

The disaster-relief program has distributed 3.6 million loans worth $192 billion to small businesses since March, as well as 5.8 million grants that don’t have to be repaid totaling $20 billion. It’s distinct from the SBA’s $525 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which relied on banks to distribute forgivable loans meant to cover payroll.

A $750 million computer program set up by the SBA in April was supposed to flag suspicious disaster-aid applications, but current and former SBA workers, as well as outside fraud investigators, have described widespread fraud that the computers had failed to catch. Even a person posing as President Donald Trump made off with a $5,000 grant.

A spokesperson for the SBA said the agency wouldn’t comment on individual borrowers but that it “takes very seriously its stewardship of taxpayer funds and is committed to mitigating risks of fraud, waste and abuse.”

Source: Bloomberg

The center employs a doctor and eight healthcare operators and will be responsible for treating workers and their families affected by COVID-19.

Built in three weeks, the unit is equipped with remote patient monitoring, data analytics on diagnostics and medicine management, high-flow oxygen machines, remote consultations using augmented reality, data availability across the globe for e-consults, and an AI-enabled X-ray imaging system.

Member since 2017 |

Growing evidence suggests that the self-certification vetting process created an opportunity for people to take advantage of the program’s open-door design, the report says.

The SBA’s inspector general found “tens of thousands” of companies that received PPP loans when they were ineligible, the report says. This could include corporations created after the pandemic arrived, businesses that had more than 500 employees and companies that owe the federal government money, hence are named in a do-not-pay database.

Some eligible companies may have received more than they should have.

The FBI has opened several hundred PPP-related investigations that involve almost 500 suspects and hundreds of millions of dollars, the report says. The U.S. Justice Department already has charged 73 defendants in fraud cases related to PPP.

The Treasury Department in September received 2,495 suspicious-activity reports involving business loans from banks and other depository institutions, more than the total for any year dating back to 2014, according to public data.

Many other PPP loans are falling into a gray area in which businesses received one despite seeing revenue increase during the pandemic. Prosecutors are probing some of those cases but finding it difficult to bring charges, in part because Congress set a low bar for obtaining the funds, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the matter.

Prosecutors face hurdles in proving business owners lied when they said they needed money in the pandemic’s chaotic early days—even if profits kept coming in later, officials said.

“This is about doing the right thing for our farmers, exhibitors, stakeholders and the broader community in terms of health and safety—which is our top priority,” said Anthony Bush, co-chair of the 2021 Commodity Classic representing the National Corn Growers Association. “After careful deliberation among our farmer-leaders and industry partners, the COVID-19 restrictions would prevent us from delivering the type of high quality experience Commodity Classic attendees and exhibitors have come to expect and enjoy for the past 25 years.”

The 2022 Commodity Classic is scheduled for March 10-12 in New Orleans.

Source: Commodity Classic

“After working with the Tulare County Health Department and other officials, it has become evident that given health and safety restrictions from the State of California, holding a live, international event is not responsible in February,” said Jerry Sinift, International Agri-Center® CEO.

The International Agri-Center® Board of Director’s decision to cancel the 2021 World Ag Expo® was not taken lightly, and comes after months of research and evaluation of future trends and known constraints. The decision was finalized earlier than the initial November deadline to provide exhibitors, attendees, volunteers, concessionaires, contractors, and local businesses time to adjust their Tulare farm show plans.

The cancellation of World Ag Expo® comes as another negative effect of COVID-19 for the International Agri-Center®, exhibitors, non-profit food vendors, attendees, area hotels, restaurants, and other associated businesses.

Attendees are encouraged to follow World Ag Expo® social media channels and watch their email inboxes for more information on World Ag Expo® projects throughout 2020 and 2021. They can join the World Ag Expo® email list to stay up-to-date at http://bit.ly/WAEupdates.

World Ag Expo® staff will reach out to exhibitors concerning fees and more options for 2021 starting Wednesday, September 16.

The 2022 World Ag Expo® is scheduled for February 8-10 at the International Agri-Center® in Tulare, CA.