Greene Seeks to Reinstate Pilots Fired Due to COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates
WASHINGTON — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has introduced legislation in the House aimed at reinstating pilots who were fired or forced to resign due to COVID-19 vaccination mandates.
A companion bill is being sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan.
While there is no official accounting of how many pilots would be eligible for reinstatement if the bill passes and is signed into law, estimates are that they number in the hundreds, though they are spread over a large number of airlines.
Nearly all major U.S. passenger airlines implemented vaccine mandates during the coronavirus pandemic in order to comply with an executive order signed by President Joe Biden in 2021 requiring federal contractors to be vaccinated.
Greene tried to get her reinstatement proposal included as an amendment in last summer’s Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill, but the effort failed after 83 of her fellow Republicans voted with nearly all Democrats in the chamber against it.
Only one House Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, voted for the measure at the time.
Greene is now trying to rally her colleagues behind the stand-alone bill, arguing that many pilots found themselves forced out of their livelihoods simply because they wanted to make their own health care decisions and refused to get the COVID vaccine.
“I am proud to co-lead this bill with Sen. Marshall to bring justice to the pilots who were forced out of their livelihoods for bravely refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine,” Greene said in a written statement.
“These pilots were denied their medical freedom and lost their jobs because of the tyrannical mandates. This bill will hold airlines accountable by requiring them to reinstate those pilots who were unjustly fired,” she said.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
