Mandates have been egregiously wrong and unconstitutional from the start, and they have hurt many families. Let’s pray that they be eliminated.

From The Epoch Times. The U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 6 included a provision that terminates the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate in its defense funding bill.

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The new National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) (pdf) states that “Not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall rescind the mandate that members of the Armed Forces be vaccinated against COVID-19 pursuant to the memorandum dated August 24, 2021, regarding ‘Mandatory Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination of Department of Defense Service Members.’”

“Make no mistake: this is a win for our military,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in a statement.

But he called for the administration to go further by reenlisting any member who has been removed over vaccine refusal.

“In the United States, the number of new servicemembers joining the military is reaching a near record low. The United States needs a strong military to protect our country against the growing threats facing our nation,” they said. “We are pleased that the final conferenced bill includes language mirroring our amendments’ efforts to protect troops from being fired due to Biden’s COVID vaccine mandate without fair appeal and to the harm of service readiness.”

The House Rules Committee released the text of the bill days after Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, revealed that lawmakers were discussing an end to the vaccine mandate.

“I was a very strong supporter of the vaccine mandate when we did it, a very strong supporter of the Covid restrictions put in place by DoD and others,” Smith told Politico. “But at this point in time, does it make sense to have that policy from August 2021? That is a discussion that I am open to and that we’re having.”

A group of senators, including Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), also celebrated the move.

Mandate ‘Isn’t Worth it’

The costs to replace each member who has been discharged due to their refusal to get vaccinated—the military has denied en masse requests for religious exemptions—and other consequences, such as the impact on morale, shows the mandate “isn’t worth it,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Lee was one of 20 GOP senators who announced in late November that they would vote against the NDAA unless it included the termination of the mandate. …

White House Opposition

A veto-proof majority may be required to axe the mandate, which was announced in August 2021 by the Biden administration in the name of “military readiness.”

The White House told news outlets that McCarthy raised the issue during the meeting but that the administration wanted to keep the mandate in place.

“Leader McCarthy raised this with the President, and the President told him he would consider it,” a White House spokesperson said. “The Secretary of Defense has recommended retaining the mandate, and the President supports his position. Discussions about the NDAA are ongoing.” …

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(Excerpt from The Epoch Times. Photo Credit: Canva)