Republicans seek to review Pentagon’s handling of COVID vaccine religious exemption requests
May 14, 2025
Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Rick Scott of Florida, Katie Britt of Alabama and Mike Lee of Utah have revealed a bill they say will right some of the wrongs faced by service members during the Covid-19 vaccine mandates.
According to the Christian Post, the Reaffirming Every Servicemember’s Trust Over Religious Exemptions (RESTORE) Act mandates that the Department of Defense (DOD) audit the religious accommodation requests (RARs) it received.
The board is tasked with identifying American service members who faced unjust penalties for refusing the vaccine and is directed to, “ensure their career and personnel records are corrected, restoring their honor and opportunities.”
The bill comes 4 years after the DOD mandated the Covid-19 vaccine for all U.S. service members and is accused of treating “inconsistently and with overwhelming rejection” the tens of thousands of religious exemptions submitted.
According to the Christian Post, roughly 28,000 RARs were submitted across all branches but only 400 of those were approved.
Between 18,000-20,000 service members who submitted religious exemption requests and stayed in the service, faced negative performance evaluations, were denied promotions and, in some cases, coerced into vaccination despite acting in good faith under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
If enacted, the RESTORE Act would authorize corrective action including backdated promotions, lost pay and retirement contributions, restoration of Date of Rank and expungement of adverse actions from personnel records.
Senator Lee said, “Thousands of military service members were punished for declining the COVID-19 vaccine, some for religious reasons that are protected by the Constitution. The RESTORE Act corrects these injustices by awarding the promotions and pay stolen from our courageous men and women in uniform by the Biden administration.”
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