Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) is pushing for an end to the discharge of service members who do not wish to be fully vaccinated per the Biden administration’s military COVID vaccine mandate, she said in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Wednesday.
“We’re continuing to push this. When you have a military that is not meeting either its recruitment numbers or its end strength numbers, then it is imperative that we look at this,” Blackburn, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.
“We are reaching out to different members trying to make certain that they are fully aware of what we are trying to do, and working with leadership to make certain that we protect the men and women in uniform,” she said.
So far, the administration’s vaccine mandate has led to the discharge of more than 8,000 American service members, with more than 60,000 potentially on the chopping block, at a time of historic recruitment difficulties.
“This does not make sense, that you would continue to remove people for not getting the shot,” she said.
Blackburn has proposed two amendments to the annual defense authorization bill, which authorizes Pentagon activities and spending for 2023, and has passed every year for more than 60 years straight.
One amendment would end the discharge of troops until the services meet their recruitment goals. The Army notably failed to meet its recruitment goal for 2022 by at least 10,000 soldiers and is expecting difficulties meeting its goal in 2023.
The other amendment would allow the approximately 60,000 Army National Guard and Reserve members who are not vaccinated to continue receiving their benefits and pay, which the Biden Pentagon has halted since the vaccination deadline on June 30.
Blackburn argued the vaccine does not prevent the spread of COVID.
“You can get the COVID vaccine, but it does not prohibit you from getting COVID. And this has been proven time and again from people who have been double-vaxxed and boosted, but they still come down with COVID,” she said.
“To dismiss these men and women in the military, in the Guard, in the reserves, at our academies because they did not get a shot, is ridiculous. And it’s imperative that we stand up and protect our men and women in uniform,” she added.
She said troops were probably pleased to hear former President Donald Trump — who announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2024 — say he would end the mandate and rehire all discharged troops with an apology and back pay.
“I would guess that our military members were pleased to hear that, because President Biden has said the pandemic is over. And for this emergency order to stay in place, for the restrictions on our military to stay in place, it’s something that causes a lot of question by our, from our military families,” she said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mandated in August 2021 that all service members be fully vaccinated with two doses of a vaccine.
Hundreds of service members in the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps have fought back with lawsuits, with several lawsuits winning injunctive relief for those who filed for religious exemptions from the vaccine. There has been no such relief in the Army yet.
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