{"id":1492004,"date":"2022-05-25T16:14:48","date_gmt":"2022-05-25T20:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1492004"},"modified":"2022-05-25T16:14:52","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T20:14:52","slug":"sen-marco-rubio-introduces-bill-to-end-punishment-of-military-academy-members-over-covid-19-vaccine-refusal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sen-marco-rubio-introduces-bill-to-end-punishment-of-military-academy-members-over-covid-19-vaccine-refusal\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Marco Rubio Introduces Bill To End Punishment Of Military Academy Members Over COVID-19 Vaccine Refusal"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">32<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsen-marco-rubio-introduces-bill-to-end-punishment-of-military-academy-members-over-covid-19-vaccine-refusal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1492004&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a bill on Wednesday to protect military academy cadets from punishment over declining the COVID-19 vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>The Defending Freedoms of Conscience for Cadets and Midshipmen Act would keep cadets from being punished or refused commission over COVID-19 vaccine non-compliance.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is outrageous to punish young men and women who want nothing more than to serve their nation,\u201d\u00a0Rubio <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rubio.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm\/press-releases?id=FC62C7EE-E133-47FB-8A3D-B4E3CA07FCA9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>. \u201cThese are the types of ridiculous, unnecessarily punitive measures that discourage patriotic Americans from joining the military. The Academy should stop playing politics and focus on preparing cadets and midshipmen for their future service.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kansas Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, a co-sponsor of the bill, also expressed his frustration over the Biden administration\u2019s punishment of military academy cadets over the vaccine.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJoe Biden\u2019s outrageous and plain mean-spirited vaccine tyranny knows no bounds \u2013 now punishing aspiring heroes who have earned the honor of joining the officer ranks,\u201d\u00a0Marshall said.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m thankful to Senator Rubio for leading this effort to protect these patriotic Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Fellow co-sponsor and Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith referred to the current punishments as government overreach.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe decision to end promising military careers solely based on a COVID vaccine seems punitive and another example of clumsy government overreach,\u201d Hyde-Smith said in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe cadets and midshipmen at our service academies are among the brightest in the country, and they shouldn\u2019t be dismissed so flippantly,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>The act would specifically clarify that cadets and midshipmen cannot be denied graduation for not being vaccinated against COVID-19, and prevent cadets and midshipmen from being dismissed from their service academy as a result of refusing to be vaccinated.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the newly proposed law would keep\u00a0any cadet who is not allowed to commission due to their COVID-19 vaccination status from being subject to repayment claims.<\/p>\n<p>The act follows the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/air-force-cadets-to-receive-degree-no-commission-over-covid-19-vaccine-refusal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a> of three U.S. Air Force Academy cadets who refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine being informed that they will not receive a commission as military officers when they graduate, according to the academy.<\/p>\n<p>Air Force Academy spokesman Dean Miller shared the information in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Miller\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/covid-health-united-states-government-and-politics-education-c8debc71373ab4b4390980b12072ef5a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>\u00a0that the three cadets \u201cwill not be commissioned into the United States Air Force as long as they remain unvaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A fourth cadet was previously listed among those excluded, but has since decided to be vaccinated in order to become an officer.<\/p>\n<p>The Air Force is the only military academy currently refusing to commission cadets due to COVID-19 non-compliance, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n<p>Colorado Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, whose district includes the Air Force Academy, expressed his concern.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was extremely disappointed to hear that the United States Air Force Academy is planning to deny these four cadets the opportunity to graduate and serve our nation because of their request to uphold their tightly held religious beliefs,\u201d Lamborn said in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2022\/may\/18\/air-force-academy-cadets-face-expulsion-repayment-\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmerica was founded on the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which encompasses protecting the religious rights of the individual. That includes those who put on the uniform and volunteer to serve our nation. It is imperative that our military leaders uphold the constitutional rights of these cadets,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a bill on Wednesday to protect military academy cadets from punishment over declining the COVID-19 vaccine. The Defending Freedoms of Conscience for Cadets and Midshipmen Act would keep cadets from being punished or refused commission over COVID-19 vaccine non-compliance. \u201cIt is outrageous to punish young men and women who &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":325,"featured_media":1492029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1492004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1492004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1492029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1492004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1492004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1492004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}