One of the better aspects of seeing the Biden administration in the national rear-view mirror is the return to some sanity for our service men and women. One aspect of this lies in a bill now in consideration, sponsored by, among others, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) that promises not only reinstatement but also back pay for American servicemen and women who were discharged for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
A pair of Republicans are introducing legislation that would offer service members who were fired over the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate a chance to get their jobs back and receive back pay.
The AMERICANS Act, put forth by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and freshman Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-N.C., bans the Pentagon from instituting any additional COVID-19 vaccine mandates without congressional approval.
It would offer reinstatement to any service member discharged solely for their refusal of the COVID vaccine and credit them for the time of their involuntary separation for retirement pay.
It would also restore the rank of anyone who was demoted over the vaccine mandate, offering them back pay and benefits for any compensation they lost as a result of their demotion.
For those who do not want to rejoin service, it would restore their discharge to “honorable” to restore their GI Bill and health care benefits.
The bill would return rank and benefits to a considerable number of service members who were unfairly discharged over this matter.
In August 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced a requirement that troops take the COVID-19 jab for “readiness” purposes. That order was rescinded in January 2023 after lawmakers directed the Pentagon to do so in the annual defense policy bill Congress passed for that year.
More than 8,400 troops were separated in the year and a half that the order was in effect. Thousands of others sought religious or medical exemptions.
There is a long-standing precedent to require some immunizations before deployment, but those are normally for regional issues, like malaria; in World War 2 in the Pacific, the American armed services were required to take atabrine as malaria prophylaxis. Before deploying for Operation Desert Storm, American troops were given a controversial anthrax vaccine, which may be linked to serious side effects.
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In the case of COVID-19, however, not only was this a requirement not for deployment but for retention in the service, it was also an experimental vaccine using new technology that was distributed under an emergency use exemption. The Pentagon, as noted above, was directed to rescind the requirement, but until now no measures were taken to reinstate or recompense the service members who were expelled for refusing the shot.
Senator Cruz took to his X account to announce the bill:
Service members who refused the COVID “jab” would get their jobs back and back pay, too, under new GOP bill.https://t.co/fr7KGeHnTN
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 17, 2025
It’s unclear how many service members will choose reinstatement after being treated so badly by the Biden administration, but at least this bill offers some compensation for the men and women who were so badly affected by this policy.