Members of the conservative Freedom Caucus are urging Republican leaders to postpone their vote on the massive annual defense authorization bill until next year unless its demands, like repealing the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, are met.
The group is also calling for the establishment of a special inspector general to scrutinize U.S. involvement in Ukraine as part of a list of four core demands for the NDAA.
“Republicans must demand that the NDAA: (1) fully repeals the vaccine mandate and allows service members involuntarily discharged to be reinstated without penalty; (2) ends the contamination of our military by radical Leftist ‘woke’ ideologies and the prioritization of politics over combat readiness; (3) halts wasteful spending on ‘Green New Deal’ pet climate projects; and (4) establishes a Special Inspector General on U.S. involvement in Ukraine,” the letter said.
The Freedom Caucus blasted the Biden administration for continuing to coerce service members to comply with experimental Covid vaccine mandates despite Joe Biden’s admission that the “pandemic is over.”
“On September 18, 2022, President Biden admitted ‘the pandemic is over.’” Yet, the President and his “woke” Pentagon continue to force an experimental and largely ineffective vaccine onto America’s military personnel, and thousands of our best and bravest service members face involuntary discharges for refusing on religious or medical grounds – and the Department of Defense Inspector General has raised serious concerns regarding the wholesale denial of vaccine mandate exemption requests,” the group wrote in a letter to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday.
“Furthermore, even while President Biden’s policies are pushing highly trained and experienced personnel out of the military, every service branch is struggling to meet its recruitment goals. This is irrational and unacceptable,” the letter states.
Upon the GOP winning majorities in the House or Senate following the midterm elections, a new Congress can revise the annual National Defense Authorization Act, the group said.
“Congressional Republicans still have the opportunity to stand in defense of our Nation’s military – if we stand united,” the letter states. “Just as they did in July, Democrats will need Republican votes to pass the NDAA, and the House Freedom Caucus urges all Republicans to hold the line to force Democrats to reverse the policies of President Biden undermining our Nation’s military and its combat readiness, starting with the vaccine mandate.”
The Senate began its debate on the NDAA on Tuesday. A final vote on the legislation is expected after the midterm elections.
“The measure would then be reconciled in conference with the House version of the NDAA, which passed in June in a 329-101 vote, with 39 Democrats and 62 Republicans voting against the legislation,” the Hill reports.
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The Freedom Caucus opposed that bill over similar concerns about the vaccine mandate and what it called the “prioritization of ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’ over combat readiness.”
Now, the group is also calling for the establishment of a special inspector general to scrutinize U.S. involvement in Ukraine as part of a list of four core demands for the NDAA.
“Republicans must demand that the NDAA: (1) fully repeals the vaccine mandate and allows service members involuntarily discharged to be reinstated without penalty; (2) ends the contamination of our military by radical Leftist ‘woke’ ideologies and the prioritization of politics over combat readiness; (3) halts wasteful spending on ‘Green New Deal’ pet climate projects; and (4) establishes a Special Inspector General on U.S. involvement in Ukraine,” the letter said.
If those are not met, the Freedom Caucus said, Republicans should delay passage until after the start of the next Congress, when the group hopes to have “a new Republican Majority to comprehensively rework the NDAA to serve America’s service members instead of Leftist political agendas.”
Election analysts widely believe that Republicans are favored to win back the House and that control of the Senate is a toss-up.
Hundreds of service members across all military branches have been discharged over their refusal to comply with Covid vaccine mandates.
Most of the members that applied for religious exemptions were denied and then punished or discharged.
“About 16,000 service members have applied for an exemption to Biden’s vaccine mandate over the past year. Fewer than 20 exemptions have been approved — the Marine Corps has granted six conscientious objections; the Air Force, nine, and the Navy has granted one exemption for a reserve sailor on the condition he must be fully vaccinated if he is called up to active-duty service,” the New York Post reports. “Everyone else who applied was either denied, and then punished or discharged, or left in limbo while the application makes its way through the administrative ranks.”
It’s unclear how many service members are suffering from Covid vaccine injury.
While thousands of Americans were banned from serving their country for refusing to comply, and with Democrats using the military as a “social justice” experiment, recruitment is the lowest its been in years.
The Army fell about 15,000 soldiers, or 25%, short of its recruitment goal in 2022, Army Times reported last week.
“According to officials, the Marine Corps, which usually goes into each fiscal year with as much as 50% of its recruiting goal already locked in, has only a bit more than 30%. And the Air Force and the Navy will only have about 10% of their goals as they start the new fiscal year. The Air Force usually has about 25%,” the publication notes.
