GOP bill grants service members discharged over vaccine mandate education benefits
Mike Brest
A group of House Republicans is looking to ensure that U.S. service members who were discharged over refusing to receive the coronavirus vaccine still have access to the educational benefits of serving their country.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin mandated all U.S. military members get the initial vaccine back in August 2021, and he rescinded the policy on Tuesday after Congress repealed it in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act. The department kicked out roughly 8,400 service members who refused to get the vaccine or get an exemption request approved while the policy was in effect.
Video Embed
IRAN COULD BE ‘CONTRIBUTING’ TO WAR CRIMES IN UKRAINE, WHITE HOUSE ALLEGES
Rep. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI) introduced legislation on Wednesday that would provide every service member who was discharged for refusing the vaccine eligible for the Montgomery and Post-9/11 GI Bill education benefits. Currently, those service men and women who received a general discharge under honorable conditions and involuntarily separated are frequently not eligible for those benefits.
“There’s still a lot of support from the members,” he told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “That, I think, is a result of what they’re hearing in the districts and from some of their constituencies that they are just very uncomfortable with the way this thing was handled.”
He introduced the legislation in the last Congress, and while it did not pass, Fitzgerald said he believes there’s more support for the bill this time around.
Those service members should be entitled to the educational benefits of serving despite not following a direct order from the secretary due to the uniqueness of a pandemic, the Wisconsin Republican continued.
“That wasn’t on the table when they signed their contract in the recruiter’s office, that they would be subject to something that I think could be,” Fitzgerald said. “Hopefully, we never live through a pandemic situation [again], but it’s so unique that I think it should have been handled differently.”
Austin, in a memo to senior Pentagon leaders, announced the rescinding of the mandate on Tuesday. In it, he noted that over 2 million service members and 96% of the active duty and reserve forces have been fully vaccinated to meet the mandate’s now-defunct requirement. The secretary also said the department will continue to encourage its people to get the vaccine.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Secretary Austin has been very clear,” Fitzgerald admitted. “And maybe that’s his role in this whole thing to say a lawful order is a lawful order, but I think there should have been some — this is so unique. It probably should have been given more consideration from the first day.”
House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost (R-IL), along with Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), Jim Baird (R-IN), Barry Moore (R-AL), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Brian Mast (R-FL), and Wesley Hunt (R-TX), are co-sponsors of the legislation.