FRANKLIN, Tennessee – U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) provided an update on the status of their federal legislation aimed at saving the jobs of National Guard soldiers who refused the COVID-19 vaccine as part of a press gaggle held at an event supporting Tennessee Senate Majority Jack Johnson’s re-election campaign.
Blackburn and Green have both sponsored legislation in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House, respectively, that will pull the funding from enforcement of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on National Guard soldiers.
The Tennessee Star was able to ask Senator Blackburn and U.S. Representative Green to give a status update on their efforts.
Senator Blackburn spoke about her efforts to gain support in the U.S. Senate.
“I’m talking with the leadership of Senate Armed Services to see if we can build that bipartisan support for this. The pandemic is over. There is no need for guardsmen and women to be removed from service for not taking the vaccine,” she said.
“What we have learned is that the vaccine does not prohibit you from getting COVID. So this is just something that is common sense. [I’m] Heading back to D.C. tomorrow and we are going to continue working on the bill to see if we can quickly move it forward. Would like to be able to – again, [gain] the bipartisan support,” she added.
Green talked about his efforts in the U.S. House.
“I did the same thing with the House side, an amendment to the NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] that should hit the floor next week. It is basically to pay these guys, that is essentially what’s been done,” he said.
Green had strong words for the Biden administration’s enforcement of the mandate.
“You take 60,000 – its four divisions. It’s four divisions worth of people out of the National Guard. It is the stupidest thing on the planet when you’ve got a [unintelligible] threat in China, you’ve got Russia invading Ukraine. It is insane. No sane commander-in-chief takes four divisions out of the workforce. Marsha has it on her side, we have it on the House side. It has to be fixed,” the U.S. representative emphasized.
Another reporter asked Blackburn and Green how they plan to get bipartisan support. “They don’t want to work with you,” she noted.
Senator Blackburn replied, “You’re not going to get it if you’re not trying and there are so many pieces of legislation that we’ve moved forward.”
“I just recently had a piece clear the Senate that was bipartisan. There are more things being done on a bipartisan basis I think than people realize. With the NDAA work that we have been doing with Armed Services, there is a lot of bipartisanship. We’re going to continue to push,” the senator added.
“There are Democrats who – under their breath – do not want this to happen. If we can tag it on the NDAA as Marsha said, there’s a chance we can make this happen,” Green added.
“I never would have thought in a million years my amendment to the NDAA to pull Chinese manufactured goods out of the PX [Post Exchange] would pass, but a Democrat jumped on that bill and made it pass. You will be surprised sometimes what happens. We’re going to fight the fight and I thank Marsha for her leadership on the other side of the building,” he said.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, Truth Social, and Parler.
Photo “Marsha Blackburn” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0. Photo “Mark Green” by Congressman Mark Green. Background Photo “Tennessee National Guard” by Tennessee National Guard.
Appreciate the narrative reporting ! I grew up in Nashville but live in Texas now. Still Republican I found this site and am always impressed with the accurate information. Yea!!!!