Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC— This week, Rep. Jodey C. Arrington (TX-19) joined multiple efforts pushing back against President Biden’s authoritarian vaccine mandates. Rep. Arrington joined two letters specifically raising concerns about the mandate, with the first focusing on impacts on military readiness at the Department of Defense and the second focusing on how these mandates will harm Border Patrol agents already struggling with the unprecedented crisis at the southern border. More information about these letters is included below. 

Rep. Arrington joined Rep. Doug Lamborn (CO-5), Rep. Jim Banks (IN-3), and 45 of their House colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin calling for the immediate suspension of the vaccine mandate. The letter further outlines concerns about its impact on military readiness and the defense industrial base. Servicemembers from Dyess Air Force Base, located in Abilene in the Congressman’s Congressional District, have voiced grievances with the mandate and its adverse effect on the base. 

Excerpts of this letter are included below: 

“At a time when strategic competition with our near-peer rivals is accelerating, your vaccine mandate will materially damage our military’s capacity to “fight tonight” and generate or reconstitute forces, while hamstringing the defense industrial bases’ ability to meet the demands of our warfighters.” 

Read the full text of this letter here.

Rep. Arrington also joined Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY-21), House Border Security Caucus Chair Rep. Brian Babin (TX-36), and 59 of their House colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden about the harm the vaccine mandates are doing to Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents who are stretched thin dealing with the Biden Administration’s self-inflicted border crisis. 

In the letter, the Representatives also request that the vaccine mandate for Border Patrol agents be suspended, data on agent’s vaccination rates and natural immunity, actions taken to protect agents and Americans from COVID positive illegal immigrants, and a determination of the impact of mass-termination of Border Patrol agents on our national security. 

Excerpts of this letter are included below: 

“We have serious concerns about your vaccine mandate for Federal employees and how it will impact the already understaffed and overworked United States Border Patrol and our overall national security. Given your administration’s open border policies and failure to invest in adequate border security, we are facing the worst border crisis in our nation’s history — a crisis that will only be exacerbated by your vaccine mandate.”

Read the full text of this letter here.

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Congressman Jodey Arrington is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives serving the Nineteenth Congressional District of Texas. He serves as a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.