U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas introduced legislation requiring the Department of Defense to create a Special Review Board to audit the service-wide handling of religious accommodation requests related to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
The Reaffirming Every Servicemember’s Trust Over Religious Exemptions (RESTORE) Act would task the review board with identifying servicemembers who were unjustly penalized and correcting their career and personnel records.
“American servicemembers are still facing unjust consequences for personal religious decisions that caused them to reject the Biden administration’s coercive COVID-19 vaccine mandates,” said Cruz on Wednesday.
He explained that the RESTORE Act would correct the wrongs done to many servicemembers who were “denied promotions” and received “negative performance reviews.”
Specifically, the bill seeks to “restore fairness to service members who filed religious accommodation requests and ensure their career progression is justly reviewed.”
Additionally, within 60 days of a service member’s case resolution, corrective remedies, including restoration of date of rank, lost pay, and retirement contributions as well as backdated promotions, must be delivered.
Transparency assurances would mandate quarterly reporting to the Senate and House Armed Services Committees and a final inspector general audit.
U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, who joined Cruz in introducing the new legislation, stated that “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.”
U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson (R–Amarillo) introduced companion legislation in the House.
