It’s about time.
Sen. Jim Inhofe released a copy of the letter he sent to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Monday calling on the Pentagon to immediately suspend the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for troops and contractors until Congress is briefed on readiness impacts from the mandate:
Yesterday, I sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin calling on him to suspend the vaccine mandate and answer specific questions about the readiness impacts of the Biden administration’s mandate.
— Sen. Jim Inhofe (@JimInhofe) October 19, 2021
Inhofe writes, “Combined with the uncertainty and burden the vaccination mandate places on industry, this administration will do more damage to the nation’s security than any external threat”:
.@JimInhofe writes @SecDef, calls for suspension of DOD's vaccine mandate. "Combined with the uncertainty and burden the vaccination mandate places on industry, this administration will do more damage to the nation’s security than any external threat."
1/https://t.co/WM3SjNuZiR— Andrew Clevenger (@andclev) October 19, 2021
And:
“The lack of strategic foresight in the implementation of the COVID vaccination mandate is inexcusable. Plainly stated, no service member, Department of Defense civilian or contractor supporting the Department should be dismissed due to failure to comply with the mandate until the ramifications of mass dismissal are known. With an ever shrinking candidate pool, hastily executed policies such as this work to further diminish the ability of the Department to tap into the finite resource of people critical to national security. The mass attrition of personnel and further shirking of the defense industrial base at this time would only serve to hinder our ability to project power and compete against near-peer adversaries.”
"The lack of strategic foresight in the implementation of the COVID vaccination mandate is inexcusable. Plainly stated, no service member, Department of Defense civilian or contractor supporting the Department should be dismissed due to failure to comply with the mandate…"
2/
— Andrew Clevenger (@andclev) October 19, 2021
"…until the ramifications of mass dismissal are known. With an ever shrinking candidate pool, hastily executed policies such as this work to further diminish the ability of the Department to tap into the finite resource of people critical to national security. …"
3/
— Andrew Clevenger (@andclev) October 19, 2021
"… The mass attrition of personnel and further shrinking of the defense industrial base at this time would only serve to hinder our ability to project power and compete against near-peer adversaries."
4/4
— Andrew Clevenger (@andclev) October 19, 2021
The full letter is available here:
At a time when our adversaries continue to increase their quantitative and qualitative advantage against our forces, we should seek to ensure that no policy, even unintentionally, hinders military readiness.
My full letter below: pic.twitter.com/i4216az3fQ
— Sen. Jim Inhofe (@JimInhofe) October 19, 2021
***
