Pentagon says repealing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate in defense bill is a 'mistake'

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby says "repealing the vaccine mandate is a mistake."

This comes in response to Republicans, emboldened by their new House majority next year, pushed a bill that would remove the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the the U.S. military.

The effort would be rescinded under the annual defense bill heading for a vote this week in Congress

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy personally lobbied President Joe Biden in a meeting last week to roll back the mandate.

The vaccine provision is one of the more acrimonious differences in the annual defense bill that the House is looking to wrap up this week and send to the Senate.

It sets policy and provides a roadmap for future investments. It’s one of the final bills Congress is expected to approve before adjourning, so lawmakers are eager to attach their top priorities to it.

Service members and the Defense Department's civilian workforce would get a 4.6% pay increase, according to a summary of the bill released Tuesday night.

The legislation also requires a review of the rate of suicide in the Armed Forces since Sept. 11, 2001, broken down by service, occupational specialty and grade. It also requires the defense secretary to rescind the COVID-19 vaccination mandate.

Military leaders acknowledge that the vaccine requirement is one of several factors contributing to their recruiting struggles. It may dissuade some young people from enlisting, but officials don't know how many. This year the Army missed its recruiting goal by about 25%, while the other services scraped by.

The reasons, however, are complex. Two years of the pandemic shut off recruiters’ access to schools and events where they find prospects, and online recruiting was only marginally successful.

Finding recruits is made more difficult by the ongoing nationwide labor shortage and the fact that only about 23% of young people can meet the military’s fitness, educational and moral requirements - with many disqualified for medical issues, criminal records, tattoos and other things.