{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases/icymi-rep-issa-fox-news-op-ed-bidens-vaccine-mandate-will-decimate-our", "ICYMI: Rep. Issa Fox News Op-Ed - Biden's vaccine mandate will decimate our military", "2021-12-15", "2021", "2021-12", "Republican", "House", "CA", "Darrell Issa", "I000056", "issa.house.gov", "issa", "https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON D.C. - Today, Congressman Issa published an op-ed in Fox News outlining how President Biden's vaccine mandate threatens to throw tens of thousands of U.S. active-duty service members out of the military.\n\nThe full op-ed can be viewed HERE or below:\n\nBiden's vaccine mandate will decimate our military\n\nby Congressman Darrell Issa\n\nDecember 15, 2021, is the deadline for every active-duty member of the Army to comply with President Biden\u2019s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. This follows earlier deadlines for the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.\n\nIt is also the day that may set into motion one of the most grievous injuries ever perpetrated upon our military by its Commander in Chief.\n\nWhy? Because President Biden is threatening to discharge every member of the military who expresses a religious exemption or nothing more than a cautionary reluctance to immediately obey his sweeping vaccine mandate. This would be as unnecessary as it is unjustified.\n\nAccording to recent data from the Department of Defense, well more than 90 percent of every military branch has received a vaccination \u2013 with Navy and Air Force personnel surpassing a vaccination rate of 95 percent. That is a vaccination rate far greater than not only the nation at large (72 percent), but also any state in the nation (Vermont has the nation\u2019s highest vaccination rate at 75 percent.)\n\nBut that\u2019s not good enough for President Biden. He is declaring an unacceptable failure perhaps the most successful health utilization program in our nation\u2019s history.\n\nThat\u2019s why my colleagues and I also wrote to President Biden today and called on him not to be careless with the clear Constitutional powers of his office and abuse his authority as the Commander in Chief. It is well past time for this Administration \u2013 which has already profoundly let down our men and women in uniform with its disastrous and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan \u2013 to turn back from its reckless campaign of brinksmanship that he and his Administration have undertaken against our best and brightest.\n\nEvery day, another member of our military contacts my office seeking a way to ward off President Biden ending their career. They\u2019re at a loss to understand the extent to which they\u2019re being targeted by this White House.\n\nThey\u2019re not dissidents in our ranks. They\u2019re warfighters and battle strategists, engineers and linguists, and soldiers and scholars. But they\u2019re also fathers and mothers to children who need them and daughters and sons to parents who burst with pride at their service to our country.\n\nThey are acting on the principles drilled into them throughout their career, and they don\u2019t deserve to immediately lose their commissions or careers because of it.\n\nBut that\u2019s what is about to happen.\n\nAs of today, however, as many as 50,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are on the brink of being dismissed from service for disagreeing with the Biden mandate or seeking a religious exemption. Some have informed me that instead of being thrown out, they will quit the duty they love, give up the mission they have trained for, and separate from their brothers in arms whose lives they swore to protect \u2013 and who swore to protect theirs.\n\nA final point about why this is so important.\n\nThink about the myriad Biden vaccine mandates on private sector employees, health care professionals, the federal workforce, and its contractors.\n\nAll were challenged successfully by a union, a lobby, a business interest, even attorneys general from more than a dozen states. All were stayed, delayed, or halted.\n\nOnly the military vaccine mandate remains unchanged, barreling towards its devastating toll.\n\nEvery one of those service members stepped forward in the prime of their lives, volunteered to defend this country, and fight for all of us when we need it. Now, when they need it, who will fight for them?\n\nMilitary personnel have no lobby. No union rep. No chamber of commerce. There is no court and no cover for them.\n\nThey only have their honor. And they only have us.\n\nMr. President: That ought to be enough. End this mandate.\n\nDarrell Issa is the Representative of California\u2019s 50th Congressional District. The District encompasses the central and northeastern parts of San Diego County and a portion of Riverside County, including the communities of Fallbrook, San Marcos, Valley Center, Ramona, Escondido, Santee, Lakeside, El Cajon, Temecula, and the mountain and desert areas of the San Diego-Imperial County line. Issa served as the Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform from 2011-2015.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:37:48Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://issa.house.gov/media/press-releases/icymi-rep-issa-fox-news-op-ed-bidens-vaccine-mandate-will-decimate-our"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.480574021115899, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}