Democrats and Republicans on the House and Senate Armed Services Committees have agreed to drop the COVID-19 vaccine mandate from the annual defense bill despite President Biden's opposition.
The new language of the bill without the vaccine mandate has to be adopted by the full House and Senate to become law.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had maintained that the National Defense Authorization Act would not move forward with the vaccine mandate included. The California Republican confirmed the mandate has been removed from the legislation in a statement on Tuesday evening.
