White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Monday said President Biden will sign the $847 billion National Defense Authorization Act, ending days of speculation about whether he would support the measure despite his opposition to its repeal of the U.S. military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Ms. Jean-Pierre said the president will sign the bill later this week, but did not provide a specific day. She said that every defense budget bill has included provisions that the administration doesn’t support.
“Clearly the president was opposed to rolling back the vaccine mandate but we saw Republicans in Congress would rather fight against the health and well-being of the troops,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said.
She noted that more than 98% of active duty troops are vaccinated, meaning most of the military is already in compliance with the mandate.
As recently as Friday, the White House had dodged questions about how Mr. Biden will handle the NDAA. White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby declined to answer reporters” questions about the NDAA.
“The president still supports the secretary of defense’s position that repealing the mandate is not in the best interest of our troops. It’s not in the best interest of our military. It is a health and readiness issue,” Mr. Kirby said Friday.
The Senate passed the NDAA last week by an 83-11 vote, raising questions about whether Mr. Biden would risk the national defense budget to save his military vaccine mandate.
The bill included an additional $45 billion beyond the $802 billion that Mr. Biden requested.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.