Matt Gaetz Accuses Lloyd Austin Of Causing 'Tremendous Harm' With Vaccine Mandate

gentleman Mr Gates is recognized I would simply observe that George Washington was also a believer in natural immunity whether people who had had smallpox and could demonstrate it the Readiness of the force was put above any type of mandate or requirement our secretary of defense currently doesn't seem to have that same belief and the consequence has been devastating for our military I'm voting for Mr Jackson's Amendment and all the Amendments that allow for a reinstatement and additional remedies that we'll Define here for our service members because we're not a stronger military as a consequence of this vaccine mandate when we've asked people in forced posture hearings again and again before this committee are we stronger without the hundreds of Pilots without the special operators without the people in the guard and the reserves that have been driven out time and again they indicate the parts of our mission that suffer as a result of that so this is about readiness and it's about undoing the tremendous harm that's been done to these service members by uh frankly very ill supported vaccine mandate I yield back chair not recognizes the ranking member thank you Mr chairman I the military could also be asked if they think a military is stronger if the service members think orders are optional I think they would all be pretty unanimous in saying no if you can't have service members who are following orders you're going to be decidedly weaker second I want to want to emphasize the point that Mr Ryan made this affects at the moment exactly two as I understand it service Academy members and in both instances the Secretary of Defense has exercised their option to waive this requirement so this is a solution in search of a problem and then lastly we don't really want to relitigate we've had the last two years are arguing over the COV the covid vaccine mandates but it is absolutely undeniable that vaccination saved I don't know thousands hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide and reduce the spread of the disease there is simply no debate that the vaccine had that impact and that was the Judgment that was made into the small sponsor of this amendment's point once the pandemic was done it didn't make sense at that point to have the vaccine mandate that's what I said last year it's a rational approach in the height of the pandemic with everything that was going on it made an enormous amount of sense to have the Mandate it was a carefully considered decision and I think the most offensive thing about this debate is the implication that it was political believe me the military didn't want to do this all right they didn't want to lose these service members and start an argument but the science told them this what was was going to best protect the force so they made that decision and then a number of people ignored it not that many actually so they decided that there had to be consequences for ignoring that order that's what they did that's the way the military is supposed to run when the circumstances changed this Committee in Congress recognized that and we moved the Mandate but we can all agree that when we did that the pandemic was done it was an entirely different set of circumstances as I said this is really about does this committee want to tell service members that they don't have to obey lawful orders I don't think we should so I oppose this amendment as well I yield back is there any further discussion there's no further debate questions on the amendment offered by Mr Jackson those in favor will say aye aye opposed no no no then share the eyes have it all right the uh we will now consider log number 3276 by Mr Mills for what Purp ity vote is requested on Mr Jackson's Amendment and uh it will be postponed now what we we will now consider log number 3276 by Mr Mills I reserve the right to object to this amendment uh for what purpose does the gentleman from Florida seek recognition uh thank you Mr chairman I'd like to bring the amendment to the table 37-26 thank you Mr chairman I first want to approach the fact that many of us could not have seen if we're seeing circumstances which occurred when we did have the covet outbreak but I think it's arguable to say that in many ways it was handled very poorly when it came to our United States military and our armed forces and as a result of that we've seen an absolute purging of our United States military as a result of this up to 8 600 to add into the already 25 000 deficit my Amendment would prevent the Department of Defense from forcing our service members who were unconstitutionally removed from the military to not have their actual signing bonuses be forced to be paid back the idea that these members who signed up to actually serve are armed forces and not serve the political agendas of others are now being forced to pay back their signing bonuses is absolutely absurd this amendment is necessary to prevent the Department of Defense from doubling down on their wrongful treatment of our service members and for those who declined the coveted vaccine service members were already wrongfully forced to take the vaccine and then after they refused was removed altogether I look forward to bringing this up on the floor and as a result of the scoring system which is very fortunate I will have to withdraw the falling Amendment with that I yield back I think the gentleman Florida I strongly support his Amendment but we do have a scoring problem so I appreciate his withdrawal of it we will now consider amendment number 35 57 R1 by Mr gates for what purpose does the gentleman seek recognition I have an amendment at the desk will the clerk please distribute the amendment without objection and reading of the Amendments dispense with the chair recognizes gentleman from Florida for the purpose of explaining his Amendment thank you Mr chairman when we had the Secretary of Defense before us I asked him whether or not he would be able to develop a plan to bring back to the committee so that we had active re-engagement and re-enlistment of those who were harmed by the vaccine mandate he said he could write that plan so this directs him to do that that's the amendment Mr chairman is

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Length: 6min 40sec (400 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 24 2023