Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., told Newsmax Thursday that the annual defense spending bill known as the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) should be signed into law without the controversial COVID-19 vaccine requirement for members of the military.
"To my understanding, Kevin McCarthy was at the White House with President [Joe] Biden in the last couple days. They're conferencing this National Defense Authorization Act that everybody's talking about right now," Mast said during an appearance on Newsmax's "Spicer & Co."
"And my understanding is that he got President Biden to agree and Nancy Pelosi to agree that in the NDAA moving forward — this one that will go to the president's desk in all likelihood — that there will be a removal of the vaccine mandate and that, in addition to that, there will be a 'study' to determine how many people were, in fact, kicked out of the military because of this or affected negatively because of this and what has to be done to make them whole."
"So it's not an exact requirement to reinstate them into the military, but is that what it takes to make them whole. And Congress will be looking at that is my understanding in this moment," the Florida Republican added.
When asked why Biden changed his mind on requiring COVID-19 vaccines for service members, Mast said he "would hope the factor for the president" would be "common sense."
"You're talking about a president that how long ago said, 'Look, COVID's over,'" the Sunshine State congressman said. "So if you're going to say that, why wouldn't you accept the military bill that says no more vaccine mandate?"
Mast went on to explain that the House already passed the NDAA, but the Senate did not pass their own version of the bill.
"So what they're actually doing is taking the House version and then taking their Senate provisions and kind of dropping them into the House version, and then they'll send it back to everybody for a vote," he said.
The Operation Enduring Freedom veteran also said that the COVID-19 vaccine mandate contributed significantly to the recruiting deficit in the military.
"I can tell you as somebody that's about to assess high schoolers to go into the service academies — and we're getting ready for people to graduate high school in the spring and go off to the military — those recruiting numbers are absolutely down across the board for officers and enlisted," he said. "For the families that were speaking to me about it, that was a major concern: the wokeness in the military and that their kids were going to have to get a vaccine for something they're basically not affected by."