According to a new report, House Democrats will join House Republicans in opposing the mandate for military service personnel to receive the COVID-19 vaccination.
The yearly defense policy measure, the National Defense Authorization Act, would eliminate the COVID-19 vaccination mandate for military personnel.
The House is set to vote on the measure on Friday.
While the measure repeals the vaccination mandate for US military, it does not restore service members who were dismissed or had their benefits reduced because they refused to get inoculated against the coronavirus.
Last week, Republican legislators sent a letter to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell protesting the vaccine mandate and opposing invoking cloture on the NDSAA unless an amendment was voted on to prohibit expulsion of service members who did not receive the COVID vaccine and to reinstate those expelled from the service over the vaccine mandate with back pay.
They went on to say that over 3400 service men were fired from the military for refusing the COVID-19 immunization.
The legislators’ vote comes soon after the White House reaffirmed its support for keeping the vaccination mandate in place.
“Secretary Austin’s been very clear that he opposes the repeal of that vaccine mandate, and the president actually concurs with the secretary that we need to continue to believe that all Americans, including those in the armed forces, should be vaccinated and boosted for COVID 19,” White House spokesman John Kirby stated.
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