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Floor Speech

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Mr. STAUBER. Mr. Speaker, recently, a grassroots group of servicemembers created a survey called the ``Congressional Survey of Accountability, Truth, and Freedom.'' The survey includes over 60 pages of testimony from nearly 600 servicemembers describing the discriminatory treatment they have received from the Department of Defense in their attempts to receive a religious or medical exemption from COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

Experienced servicemembers are facing an unfair choice: Get the shot against their personal or religious beliefs in order to continue their patriotic service in defense of our freedoms or sacrifice their military careers and risk the benefits that help their families make ends meet.

I am aware that certain branches of the military are self-reporting information on religious and medical exemptions. However, it is important that there is a detailed, congressionally mandated report that requires the Department of Defense to be as transparent as possible regarding their denials of religious and medical exemptions.

My amendment would require the DOD to report every 60 days on the number of religious and medical exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine requirement requested and denied and the reasons for such denials; the number of members denied an exemption who then complied with the requirement and got the shot against their beliefs; and the number of members denied an exemption who did not comply and were separated from service. We need to bring to light just how many servicemembers have been coerced to get the vaccine or forced to separate and for what reasons.

This mandate is putting our national security at risk for no good reason, and I am certain this amendment will prove that.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support my amendment.

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