[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 192 (Tuesday, November 2, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H6083]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             OPPOSING DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE VACCINE MANDATE

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the 
Department of Defense's vaccine mandate.
  My district is home to the Sierra Army Depot in Lassen County, which 
uses a large contingent of civilian military contractors. Sierra Army 
Depot repairs equipment, salvages old tanks and armored carriers for 
platforms that are still serviceable.
  Over the past year, the depot has served as the Army's global storage 
and distribution center for COVID-19 testing kits and personal 
protective equipment. As a Nation, we leaned on the Sierra Army Depot, 
and other similar ones around the country, to protect our 
servicemembers while they were busy protecting us. They put it on the 
line during the worst of the pandemic and didn't question it.
  Now, the Biden administration is planning to fire hundreds of these 
contractors because they have not made the personal choice to be 
vaccinated with emergency-use vaccines, two of which are still under 
emergency-use authorization.
  After a year, putting the weight of the Army on this workforce, 
asking them to work overtime and get the job done, and take the risks 
we did not know about a year and a half ago, the President is going to 
fire them? Is that really the kind of message we want to send to our 
military?

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