Press Releases

Today, Rep. Jim Banks (IN-03), Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Military Personnel, passed three amendments in the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act offering redress to servicemembers unjustly discharged due the Biden administration’s partisan COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Rep. Banks’ Service Restoration amendment prohibits DoD from taking adverse action against troops based solely on their refusal to receive Covid-19 vaccines and lets soldiers discharged for vaccine refusal reenter the service as if they had just taken leave for study. Read it HERE.

Rep. Banks’ Board of Corrections Priority Review for Covid Separations amendment direct DoD’s Boards of Correction to grant requests from unvaccinated, discharged servicemembers discharged to change their reason for discharge and re-entry codes. Read it HERE.

Rep. Banks’ Covid Reinstatement Process amendment requires DOD to set up a reinstatement process for troops discharged for Covid vaccine refusal at their prior rate/grade and requires DOD to contact every member discharged due to Covid for possible reinstatement. Read it HERE.

Background:

DOD discharged over 8,000 servicemembers over its COVID mandate during a recruitment crisis and 8-16,000 unvaccinated servicemembers could still face disciplinary action.

The DoD IG found that the DoD did not individually review religious accommodation requests, as required by federal law, and instead issued blanket denials for the vast majority of religious exemption requests.

The Biden DoD continues to stand behind its disastrous COVID mandate. At a Military Personnel Hearing this year, DoD’s Under Secretary testified to Rep. Banks that “natural immunity is not something we believe in,” and the Army kept its vaccine directive for nearly a month after the Congress’s rescission deadline, and only revoked the directive after they received a letter from Rep. Banks.