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.
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 That order was rescinded in January 2023 after lawmakers directed the Pentagon to do so in the annual defense policy bill Congress passed for that year.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.
Austin’s repeal did not require the Pentagon to reinstate troops separated because of the mandate and stipulated that commanders would still have the authority to consider troops’ immunization status when making decisions on deployments or other assignments. He added that 96% of U.S. forces had taken the vaccine.
‘Our military is still dealing with the consequences of the Biden administration’s wrongful COVID-19 vaccine mandate,’ Cruz said in a statement. ‘The AMERICANS Act would provide remedies for servicemembers whom the Biden Department of Defense punished for standing by their convictions. It’s the right thing to do.’
‘The Biden Administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate wasn’t about science or readiness—it was about control,’ said Harrigan. ‘As a Green Beret, I’ve seen the sacrifices our service members make firsthand, and I will not stand by while their honor is tarnished.’
The legislation is in line with a pledge President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, made on Tuesday to re-recruit those who parted ways with the military over the vaccine.
‘Service members who were kicked out because of the experimental vaccine,’ Hegseth told lawmakers, ‘they will be apologized to. They will be reinstituted with pay and rank.’
Trump told supporters over the summer he would ‘rehire every patriot who was fired from the military’ because of the mandate.
Pentagon leadership considered offering back pay to troops after the vaccine mandate was rescinded in early 2023, but it never came to fruition.
Republicans have long railed against the vaccine mandate and the separations it caused, arguing it was a detriment to morale at a time of major recruitment issues. Pentagon leaders argued that their forces had been required to get vaccines for years, particularly if they deployed overseas.