Four Republican senators voted alongside Democrats refusing to reinstate military troops that were discharged after not receiving the Covid vaccine. Republican Senators Mitt Romney (UT), Susan Collins (ME), Bill Cassidy of (LA) and Mike Rounds (SD) voted in objection to allowing thousands of troops to reenlist, saying, “it is not Congress’s place to intervene in the chain of command and set a precedent for military personnel to ignore direct orders.” Covid vaccine mandates, said Cassidy, “were direct orders from commanding officers.”
From The Daily Caller:
The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps have separated at least 8,400 active duty and reserve troops for spurning the Department of Defense’s (DOD) August 2021 requirement that all servicemembers receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to information the DOD provided to the DCNF. While the bicameral defense bill released late Tuesday directs the Pentagon to rescind the mandate, it stopped short of requiring the military to restore discharged troops to their prior positions or provide reparations. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas reintroduced a portion of the AMERICANS Act, which revoked the Department of Defense’s vaccination mandate, that was left out of the final NDAA text ahead of the vote Thursday. “It is absolutely unacceptable that the Biden administration is trying to coerce our men and women in uniform to violate their conscience and religious beliefs, let alone on an issue as polarizing as the COVID-19 vaccine. The AMERICANS Act will ensure that these and similar efforts to politicize our military on this issue are blocked,” Cruz said in a statement after introducing the act with his Republican co-sponsors in May.
