US Congressmen Mike Johnson on Friday introduced legislation to reform the Defense Department's policies related to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for service members, including a requirement to keep rather than let unvaccinated employees go in the future
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd June, 2022) US Congressmen Mike Johnson on Friday introduced legislation to reform the Defense Department's policies related to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for service members, including a requirement to keep rather than let unvaccinated employees go in the future.
The legislation, dubbed The AMERICANS Act, requires the US Defense Secretary to "make every effort to retain members of the armed forces who are not vaccinated against COVID-19," the text of the bill said.
The bill would also change the discharge status to "honorable" for those employees who separated from the military based solely on their decision to receive a COVID-19 injection.
In addition, the bill requires� the Defense Secretary to submit to Congress a report on the number of religious exemptions for against the COVID-19 vaccine submitted by service members as well as how many were approved and denied.
Defense Department data shows that only 58 religious-based exemption requests have been granted out of approximately 22,000 applications, Johnson reportedly told US media prior to introducing the bill.
Johnson has characterized the US government's vaccine mandate as being plainly unconstitutional and clearly unworkable.
