The federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care workers cannot go into effect in Texas, a federal judge ruled this week. The Department of Health and Human Services’s (HHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the mandate last month despite not having clear authority from Congress to do so, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Trump nominee, said in a 31-page ruling on Dec. 15 entering a preliminary injunction. The Biden administration has cited the Social Security Act as enabling it to impose the mandate, which would force every health care employer in the nation that accepts Medicare or Medicaid funding to fire unvaccinated workers if it’s not blocked by Jan. 4, 2022. Sections of the act do let the health secretary make rules, but the law does not mention vaccines. “Defendants cite statutory provisions authorizing the HHS secretary to condition funding on facility maintenance standards,” Kacsmaryk wrote. “Mandating …