U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, is leading an effort to reverse actions taken against military service members through a U.S. Department of Defense COVID-19 vaccine mandate, including protecting religious freedom.
Cruz filed the Allowing Military Exemptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots (AMERICANS) Act of 2025 in the U.S. Senate with multiple cosponsors.
The seven-page bill includes language from an amendment he filed to the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023, which was defeated by Senate Democrats and three Republican senators who joined them, The Center Square reported.
The 2023 NDAA terminated the DOD COVID-19 vaccine mandate, an ultimatum Republicans made in order to pass it. But it didn’t help service members who’d already been punished, demoted and discharged after their religious accommodation request (RAR) exemptions to the mandate were denied. Those who weren’t discharged still faced “cruel and unusual punishment,” demotion and dishonorable discharge, according to attorneys with Liberty Counsel representing service members who sued over the mandate, The Center Square reported.
Members of the Coast Guard were still seeking relief in a lawsuit filed by Thomas More Society, who two years after the mandate were still being denied promotions because they wouldn’t comply. TMS Senior Counsel Steve Crampton told The Center Square, “The hypocrisy of those leading the military and the continued discrimination against those with deeply held religious beliefs is that people who want to serve their country are being railroaded out of the services.”
In another example, a former Marine who was discharged after his RAR was denied was charged $17,878.23 by the USMC, the remaining balance of a bonus he was given for reenlisting, and was required to repay it, The Center Square reported.
Additionally, more than 60,000 National Guard and Reserve soldiers were told by the U.S. Army that they’d lose pay, benefits and “adverse administrative actions, including flags, bars to service, and official reprimands” if they didn’t comply with the mandate.
Even after the mandate was rescinded, all four military branches continued to deny RARs, according to reports filed in Liberty Counsel’s case, The Center Square reported.
Throughout years of litigation, federal judges repeatedly chastised and rebuked military leaders in their respective cases, The Center Square reported. In one case, Judge Steven Merryday said Navy and Marine Corps leaders must comply with federal law because it applies to “everyone from the President to a park ranger … from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to a military recruiter – even if they don’t like it and even if they don’t agree with it. The Free Exercise Clause and RFRA are the law of the land.”
Judges in other districts agreed with him, issuing similar injunctions against the mandate.
“Our military is still dealing with the consequences of the Biden administration’s wrongful COVID-19 vaccine mandate,” Cruz said. “I led the successful charge for Congress to repeal that mandate, and there is still more to be done.”
The bill reverses actions taken against more than 8,400 service members who “were discharged, their benefits stripped, their careers ruined – not because they failed to serve with honor, but because of a political overreach that had no place in our armed forces,” U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan, R-NC, a Green Beret who filed the companion bill in the House, said.
The bill would require the DOD to offer reinstatement to any service member who was involuntarily separated solely because of their COVID-19 vaccine status. It would credit service members with retirement pay backdated to their involuntary separation. It would restore their rank if they were demoted, compensate them for all pay and benefit losses, and make whole those who were forced to repay bonuses or didn’t receive them because of their vaccine status or discharge.
It would change the status of their discharge from general to honorable if it was solely implemented because of their COVID-19 vaccine status and require the DOD to expunge all adverse actions from their records related to COVID-19 vaccine status.
It would require the DOD to make every effort to retain service members who didn’t get the COVID-19 shots and offer them the same professional development, promotion, and leadership opportunities equal to that of their peers.
It would also require the DOD to enforce a COVID-19 vaccine exemption process for service members, including for natural immunity, a relevant underlying health condition, or sincerely held religious beliefs.
Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch rebuked lockdown policies and COVID-era mandates, saying they were the “greatest intrusions on civil liberties in the peacetime history of this country.”
