A pair of letters from Republican lawmakers in each chamber was sent to congressional leadership Friday pledging to oppose government funding legislation without a motion to defund President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate.
While the president’s vaccine mandate for large private employers was struck down by the Supreme Court in January, mandates remain in place for medical workers, military personnel, and federal staff.
“While some will say the escalating situation in Ukraine justifies ignoring the tyranny of vaccine mandates to ensure funding of defense, the fact is Americans – including our troops – continue to suffer,” wrote 39 House Republicans led by Texas Rep. Chip Roy to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. “It is particularly troubling for the President to ask thousands of these troops to amass in Eastern Europe while simultaneously finger-wagging at them to get a politicized vaccine or be fired.”
In December, the Marine Corps announced more than 200 members in its ranks were discharged for their refusal to comply with the administration’s medical coercion.
Lawmakers said they would oppose moves to fast-track a government funding bill to meet the March 11 deadline without a vote to defund the vaccine mandates.
In the Senate, members of the upper chamber led by Utah Sen. Mike Lee called into question the effectiveness of Biden’s vaccine requirement in mitigating the spread of Covid-19 while the administration ignores immunity from prior infection.
“These COVID-19 vaccine mandates amount to a serious abuse of both federal power and executive authority. They also further strain the economic and social pressures our society currently faces, while completely ignoring existing evidence-based data on natural immunity from previous COVID-19 infection,” senators wrote. “Further, evidence-based research has conclusively shown that vaccination does not stop the spread of COVID-19.”
In December, Drs. Harvey Risch, Robert Malone, and Byram Bridle, three leading experts in epidemiology and immunology, outlined why “Forcing People Into COVID Vaccines Ignores Important Scientific Information” for The Federalist.
“Rapidly waning vaccine efficacy and COVID-19 surges in countries and regions with high vaccination rates — including Israel, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and now Europe, as well as high-vaccination U.S. states like Vermont — are evidence that vaccinated individuals can spread COVID-19 at rates comparable to the unvaccinated,” the trio of scientists explained. “Multiple studies have shown that viral load in vaccinated individuals with COVID-19 is the same as in the unvaccinated.”
The Biden administration, however, has kept its mandates in place.
“At the very least,” senators promised, “we will require a roll call vote on an amendment that defunds the enforcement of these vaccine mandates for the spending period covered by the government funding measure.”
