End of the road? Pentagon’s COVID vaccine mandate in danger as opposition mounts



Nearly four months ago, the Biden administration drove past an off-ramp that offered a chance to rethink and possibly scrap its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for U.S. troops.

Instead, Pentagon leaders have doubled down on the requirement and are barreling toward a head-on collision with Congress. Lawmakers are seeing a major annual defense spending bill as an effective way to strong-arm the Defense Department into relaxing the policy, reinstating thousands of service members who were kicked out over their refusal to get the shot and giving those troops the backpay they lost.

The high-stakes confrontation, some legal specialists say, could have been avoided. They argue that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Aug. 11 coronavirus guidance — which stated there was “significantly less risk of severe illness” than earlier in the pandemic, when the military mandate was enacted — could have offered the Pentagon a way to back away from a policy that faces legal challenges and is losing political support in Washington.

Even high-profile Democrats, such as House Armed Services Committee Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, say they’re open to a discussion about whether the mandate should be rolled back. Similar debates are reportedly underway in the Senate.

Those discussions are taking place behind the scenes as negotiators hash out the path forward for the $847 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Key Republicans say they’re willing to stand in the way of the bill unless the Pentagon budges on the vaccination requirement, which is responsible for pushing thousands of troops out of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

So far, the Biden administration and its chief top defense officials are standing their ground.


SEE ALSO: CDC says mask-wearing still a good idea to prevent trifecta of viruses


“We lost a million people to this virus,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters over the weekend. “A million people died in the United States of America. We lost hundreds in DOD. So this mandate has kept people healthy.

“I support continuation of vaccinating the troops,” said Mr. Austin, echoing other comments from top defense officials in recent days.

The White House initially seemed open to a compromise, with administration officials saying as recently as Sunday that President Biden informed congressional leaders he would consider lifting the mandate. But the White House slammed that door shut on Monday, offering a full-throated endorsement of the policy despite its increasingly grim prospects for survival.

“Secretary Austin has 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 National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday.

In the end, the administration may have little choice but to compromise. Incoming House Speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed over the weekend that the NDAA won’t move forward without a provision lifting the policy. And if Democrats are in fact willing to budge on the mandate, perhaps in exchange for other concessions from Republicans, an NDAA that repeals the military vaccine mandate could clear both chambers of Congress.

“We’re working through … the national defense bill. We will secure lifting that vaccine mandate on our military,” Mr. McCarthy, California Republican, told Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program. “Because what we’re finding is, they’re kicking out men and women that have been serving. … That’s the first victory of having a Republican majority, and we’d like to have more of those victories, and we should start moving those now.”


SEE ALSO: U.S. sees post-Thanksgiving rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations


That position has strong support among a group of Republicans in the Senate, including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, two lawmakers who traditionally have been on different sides of many key foreign policy and defense debates. Mr. Graham and Mr. Paul, along with 11 other Republican senators, wrote in a letter to GOP leaders last week that they are willing to block the NDAA unless the mandate is reversed.

“The Department of Defense COVID-19 vaccine mandate has ruined the livelihoods of men and women who have honorably served our country,” they wrote. “The effects of this mandate are antithetical to the readiness of our force, and the policy must be revoked.”

Doubling down

Since the military’s vaccination deadlines passed last December, the ramifications for America’s military have been stark. At least 1,841 soldiers have been kicked out of the Army for refusing the vaccine, according to the service’s latest figures. In the Navy, the number is 2,064. The Marine Corps has been the hardest hit, with 3,717 Marines ousted after their refusal to get the shot, the service said in a Dec. 1 press release.

The policy seemed destined for trouble as other corners of society relaxed vaccination requirements and as court cases challenging the Pentagon mandate mounted. Several of those cases have resulted in wins for unvaccinated service members, protecting them against punishment from military services after their requests for religious vaccine waivers were denied.

As those legal challenges mounted heading into last summer, critics say the Defense Department could have seized on the CDC’s August guidance to change course before committing itself to a legal and political fight it appears destined to lose.

“Up until Aug. 11, if you pushed back on anyone in the DOD involved with policy, they would say, ‘Well, we’re just following CDC guidance. … That was a moment when DOD could have said, ‘We’ve been following the CDC all along. They’ve now changed their guidance, so we’re no longer mandating this.’ They didn’t do that,” said R. Davis Younts, a Pennsylvania attorney representing service members who have refused the vaccine, including some who have sued the Defense Department over the policy.

“There is a question of what an off-ramp looks like and how you justify what you’ve done,” Mr. Younts told The Washington Times. “You’re talking thousands of people kicked out over something that does not provide protection from infection and transmission. Looking for that off-ramp that saves face, Aug. 11 — I pinned that date on my calendar. That was a great opportunity. You missed it.”

While still stressing the importance of vaccines, the Aug. 11 guidance relaxed quarantine rules — including for the unvaccinated — and lightened other rules that had become a part of American life for more than two years.

“We’re in a stronger place today as a nation, with more tools — like vaccination, boosters and treatments—to protect ourselves, and our communities, from severe illness from COVID-19,” CDC official Greta Massetti said in the Aug. 11 statement. “We also have a better understanding of how to protect people from being exposed to the virus, like wearing high-quality masks, testing and improved ventilation. This guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives.”

— Joseph Clark contributed to this article, which is based in part on wire-service reports.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.





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