North Carolina’s freshman congressman, a Green Beret veteran, and Texas’ third-term junior senator have introduced legislation reversing Biden administration policies in the military tied to the COVID-19 vaccine.
U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan’s AMERICANS Act, filed Thursday morning, would reinstate 8,400 service members he says were wrongfully discharged. It clears their records, restores benefits and “ensures no future administration can weaponize mandates against our armed forces,” a release says.
The acronym is short for the formal title of Allowing Military Exemptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots Act of 2025.
Harrigan’s release said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, would have companion legislation in the upper chamber. At time of publication, more information on his bill was yet to be made available.
Republicans, led by President-elect Donald Trump, have long said throughout the election campaign the action was coming.
“This mandate wasn’t about science or readiness – it was about control,” Harrigan said in the release. “Thousands of patriots were cast aside by the very nation they swore to defend, stripped of their careers, their benefits, and their dignity – not because they failed to serve honorably, but because of political overreach.”
He emphasized it wasn’t just about restoration; it’s preventative in future administrations.
“It ensures,” Harrigan said, “no administration can ever again use its power to undermine the honor and integrity of our armed forces.”
Cruz, in the release, said the consequences of President Joe Biden’s actions with vaccine mandates are still impacting readiness for armed forces. Retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin was secretary of the Defense Department at the time of the Aug. 23, 2021, decision.
“Even though I led the successful charge for Congress to repeal that mandate, there is still more work to be done,” Cruz said in the Harrigan release. “The AMERICANS Act would provide remedies for servicemembers whom the Biden Department of Defense punished for standing by their convictions. It’s the right thing to do.”
Harrigan is a graduate of West Point twice deployed to Afghanistan. Before Congress, he had been a businessman producing American-made defense products.
Cruz, with Ivy League degrees from Princeton (undergrad) and Harvard Law, has worked in the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and served as solicitor general of Texas. The worksheet includes nine oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court.
