Even as the Army reported a 25% shortage in recruitment numbers, Biden administration officials are refusing to relinquish policies that require troops to receive the COVID-19 shot, which lawmakers on Capitol Hill say is exacerbating the recruiting problem, decreasing operation readiness, and ignoring litigation challenges and legitimate exemption requests.
On September 28, the House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin requesting clarification on the Defense Department’s (DOD) position on its COVID-19 vaccine mandate policy for all service members in light of President Biden’s September 19 pronouncement to CBS News’s Scott Pelley that “the pandemic is over.”
“Pandemic restrictions have been lifted across the country and state and federal courts have enjoined enforcement of employment-based vaccine mandates,” the letter noted, which was signed by 26 congressmen. “It is our understanding that members of the Armed Forces are now one of only a few groups in the Executive Branch still subject to termination for failure to take the vaccine.”
As Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) has observed, the number of servicemen and women who have declined to get the COVID-19 shot is substantial. Up to “100,000 of our soldiers and military service persons are subject to being discharged from the military right now,” he told Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch.” . . . . (Read the rest of the article)
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