Recently, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) introduced new legislation that would reinstate troops who were discharged over the Biden administration’s previous vaccine mandate. The bill would also protect unvaccinated troops, cadets, and midshipmen from being reprimanded for their vaccination status.
Roy said in a statement:
“Thanks to the hard work of many of my Republican colleagues, the Biden administration’s disastrous COVID-19 vaccine mandate was finally ended. But there is more work to be done. Republicans must fight to permanently end these mandates and make whole all the service members harmed by President Biden’s senseless policies. I’ve introduced the Service Restoration Act to do just that.”
The bill, titled the Service Restoration Act, would prohibit any federal funds being used to require a member of the military, a cadet, or midshipman at a service academy to receive a vaccine. It would also prohibit any adverse actions taken against them on the basis of not wanting to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Within the bill, the term “adverse action” is defined as involuntary separation, demotion, discipline, retaliation, disparate treatment, a requirement to wear a mask, residing in sub-standard housing, or enduring sub-standard conditions, travel restrictions, and deployment restrictions.
Furthermore, the bill would reinstate troops discharged over the Biden administration’s now-repealed vaccine mandate at their former rank and pay at the time they were discharged. It would also remove any negative references on their records that resulted from punishment based on their vaccination status.
The bill would upgrade the characterizations of those discharged over the mandate to “honorable,” meaning they would be eligible to receive certain veterans benefits they would not receive with a lesser “dishonorable” discharge, such as GI Bill benefits.
Despite Republicans forcing Biden to rescind the vaccine mandate, military commanders still had the discretion to punish and discharge service members on the basis of their vaccination status.
Breitbart reported:
Although Republicans forced the Biden administration to rescind its vaccine mandate order, the Pentagon had left open the ability of commanders to take actions against troops based solely on their vaccination status, as previously reported by Breitbart.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin released a memo this month that rescinded the mandate, but it allowed commanders to “consider, as appropriate, the individual immunization status of personnel in making deployment, assignment, and other operational decisions, including when vaccination is required for travel to, or entry into, a foreign nation.”
It also left the possibility of troops being separated from the military who did not apply for some sort of exemption — religious, medical, or administrative.
It said, “No individuals currently serving in the Armed Forces shall be separated solely on the basis of their refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccination if they sought an accommodation on religious, administrative, or medical grounds.”
Rep. Chip Roy first touted the “Service Restoration Act” within the House Armed Services Committee in early 2022. See a video of Rep. Roy below, criticizing vaccine mandates.
The bill stated in its summary:
This bill prohibits the use of federal funds to require a member of the Armed Forces to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. The bill also prohibits adverse action (e.g., punishment) being taken against a member of the Armed Forces solely on the basis that the member refuses to receive a COVID-19 vaccination.
Individuals who were involuntarily separated from the Armed Forces solely on the basis of their refusal to receive a COVID-19 vaccination must be reinstated in the grade they held prior to the separation. In computing retired or retainer pay, the military department concerned must include the time between the involuntary separation and reinstatement of the individual.
The military department concerned must expunge adverse actions or references to involuntary separation related to the refusal to receive a COVID-19 vaccination from an individual’s service record.
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