{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/2025/7/psi-chairman-johnson-writes-to-secretary-hegseth-about-dod-s-efforts-to-assist-service-members-wrongfully-terminated-under-biden-s-covid-19-injection-mandate", "PSI Chairman Johnson Writes to Secretary Hegseth about DoD\u2019s Efforts to Assist Service Members Wrongfully Terminated Under Biden\u2019s COVID-19 Injection Mandate", "2025-07-31", "2025", "2025-07", "Republican", "Senate", "WI", "Ron Johnson", "J000293", "www.ronjohnson.senate.gov", "ronjohnson", "https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 On Tuesday, Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) sent a letter to Department of Defense (DoD) Secretary Pete Hegseth requesting a briefing on the DoD\u2019s efforts to apologize, reinstate, and provide back pay to service members who were terminated after refusing to take the COVID-19 injection.\n\nIn 2021, then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin issued a COVID-19 vaccine mandate which resulted in the termination of approximately 8,700 active-duty service members who refused the injection.\n\n\u201cThis dismissal of thousands of brave men and women from the military was a despicable act that damaged our armed forces,\u201d the chairman wrote.\n\nTuesday\u2019s letter follows a Daily Caller article about former service members who are reportedly still waiting to be made whole following the Biden administration\u2019s disastrous COVID-19 vaccine mandate.\n\nDuring the first few days of President Trump\u2019s second term, he issued an executive order enabling these wrongfully discharged service members to revert to their former rank and receive full back pay, benefits, bonus payments, or compensation. In February 2025, Sec. Hegseth announced that service members could seek reinstatements and back pay.\n\n\u201cI have no doubt that you are committed to assisting our service members, which is why I want to bring to your attention a July 24, 2025 Daily Caller article that featured several former military personnel who have still not received back pay after being terminated for refusing the injection,\u201d Chairman Johnson wrote to Secretary Hegseth.\n\nRead more about Chairman Johnson\u2019s letter in Daily Caller.\n\nThe full text of the letter can be found here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T14:40:33Z"]], "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://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/2025/7/psi-chairman-johnson-writes-to-secretary-hegseth-about-dod-s-efforts-to-assist-service-members-wrongfully-terminated-under-biden-s-covid-19-injection-mandate"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.6434819661080837, "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"}