Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Latest to Buck Pentagon's Vaccine Mandate for National Guard

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said Thursday that he will refuse to enforce the Department of Defense's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the state's National Guard.

In a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Thursday, Abbott noted that in October he told the the state's adjutant general to comply with an executive order he signed prohibiting vaccine mandates within the state of Texas.

Abbott wrote that under the order, Major General Tracy R. Norris, the adjutant general of the Texas National Guard, "will not punish any guardsman in Texas for choosing not to receive the vaccine."

"If unvaccinated guardsmen suffer any adverse consequences within the State of Texas, they will have only President [Joe] Biden and his Administration to blame," Abbott said.

According to Military Times, in late November, Austin said that members of the National Guard who aren't vaccinated won't be eligible for federal training or pay.

"This willingness to hollow out the National Guard is unconscionable in the face of growing global threats and a border crisis created by the Biden Administration," Abbott wrote.

"The State of Texas will not enforce this latest COVID-19 vaccine mandate against its guardsmen. If the federal government keeps threatening to defund the Texas National Guard, I will deploy every legal tool available to me as Governor in defense of these American heroes," he added.

In response to Newsweek's request for comment on Abbott's letter, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense said: "The department doesn't have a response, beyond saying that we've received the letter and will respond in due course."

Other Republican governors have also spoken out against the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for members of the National Guard.

In a joint letter to Austin on December 14, GOP Governors Mark Gordon, of Wyoming; Mike Dunleavy, of Alaska; Kim Reynolds, of Iowa; Tate Reeves, of Mississippi; and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska argued that "setting punishment requirements for
refusing to be COVID-19 vaccinated, and requiring separation from each state National Guard if unvaccinated are beyond your constitutional and statutory authority."

The governors said that U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that "the National Guard is under the command and control of the Governor of each state unless those members are called to active service."

In a statement on Tuesday, Reynolds said: "It's unconscionable to think the government will go so far as to strip these honorable men and women of the nation's top duties if they don't comply."

"They protect the very freedoms that the federal government apparently doesn't believe they too deserve," the governor added.