I
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 271
To provide for greater accountability with respect to Federal activities and
expenditures relating to COVID–19, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY11, 2023
Mr. E
STESintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on Edu-
cation and the Workforce, the Judiciary, Armed Services, and Oversight
and Accountability, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within
the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
A BILL
To provide for greater accountability with respect to Federal
activities and expenditures relating to COVID–19, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Restoring Normalcy 4
in America Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. HHS COVID–19 STUDY. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Health and 7
Human Services shall conduct a study on— 8
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(1) the effectiveness of vaccines licensed under 1
section 351 of the Public Health Service Act (42 2
U.S.C. 262) or authorized for emergency use under 3
section 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cos-4
metic Act (21 U.S.C. 360bbb–3) in providing immu-5
nization against COVID–19 (including any addi-6
tional doses of such a vaccine to be administered 7
after the primary series of doses); 8
(2) the effectiveness of treatments approved 9
under section 505 of the Federal Food, Drug, and 10
Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 355), licensed under sec-11
tion 351 of the Public Health Service Act (42 12
U.S.C. 262), or authorized for emergency use under 13
section 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cos-14
metic Act (21 U.S.C. 360bbb–3) to treat COVID– 15
19; 16
(3) the rate of transmission of SARS–CoV–2 17
throughout the United States, beginning on the first 18
day of the emergency period (as defined in section 19
1135(g)(1)(B) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 20
1320b–5(g)(1)(B))); 21
(4) the level of preparedness of the United 22
States for future pandemics; and 23
(5) the cause and origins of the COVID–19 24
pandemic. 25
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(b) REPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 1
of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit 2
to the Congress a report on the findings of the study con-3
ducted under subsection (a). 4
(c) F
UNDING.—Of the amounts made available to the 5
Secretary of Health and Human Services in appropria-6
tions Acts that remain unobligated as of the date of the 7
enactment of this Act, the Secretary may use not more 8
than 3 percent of such funds to carry out this section. 9
SEC. 3. TERMINATION OF EMERGENCY USE AUTHORITY 10
FOR COVID–19 PREVENTION AND TREAT-11
MENT. 12
Effective on the date of the enactment of this Act, 13
the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting 14
through the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, may not 15
authorize under section 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, 16
and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 360bbb–3) for emergency 17
use any drug, biological product, or device for use in the 18
prevention or treatment of COVID–19. 19
SEC. 4. COVID–19 FUNDING AUDIT. 20
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Comptroller General of the 21
United States shall conduct an audit of all Federal fund-22
ing made available to the Secretary of Health and Human 23
Services, the Commissioner of Food and Drugs, and the 24
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-25
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tion for programs and activities relating to COVID–19. 1
Such audit shall include— 2
(1) an accounting of the amount of such funds 3
that have been obligated or expended, disaggregated 4
by agency and activity; and 5
(2) an accounting of any such funds that re-6
main unobligated and available for rescission. 7
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than one year after the date 8
of the enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General of 9
the United States shall submit to the Congress a report 10
on the findings of the audit conducted under subsection 11
(a). 12
SEC. 5. UNLAWFUL EMPLOYMENT PRACTICE UNDER TITLE 13
VII OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 FOR 14
FAILURE TO OFFER RE-EMPLOYMENT TO EM-15
PLOYEES DISCHARGED FOR FAILURE TO RE-16
CEIVE A VACCINATION AGAINST COVID–19. 17
For purposes of section 703(a) of title VII of the Civil 18
Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2003–2(a)), it shall be an 19
unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail to 20
give on request full consideration for, and to offer a posi-21
tion at the pay and level equal to the applicable pre-dis-22
charge pay and level, of employment to an individual pre-23
viously discharged from employment by such employer 24
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based on such individual’s failure to receive a vaccination 1
against COVID–19. 2
SEC. 6. COVID–19 VACCINATION STATUS AND PLACES OF 3
PUBLIC ACCOMMODATION. 4
Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 5
2000a et seq.) is amended as follows: 6
(1) In section 201, by inserting after ‘‘on the 7
ground of race, color, religion,’’ the following: ‘‘fail-8
ure to receive a vaccination against COVID–19,’’. 9
(2) In section 202, by inserting after ‘‘on the 10
ground of race, color, religion,’’ the following: ‘‘fail-11
ure to receive a vaccination against COVID–19,’’. 12
SEC. 7. COVID–19 VACCINATION STATUS AND FEDERALLY 13
ASSISTED PROGRAMS. 14
Section 601 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 15
U.S.C. 2000d) is amended by inserting ‘‘failure to receive 16
a vaccination against COVID–19,’’ before ‘‘race, color,’’. 17
SEC. 8. COVID–19 VACCINATION STATUS AND EMPLOY-18
MENT. 19
(a) R
EINSTATEMENT OF MEMBERS OF THE ARMED 20
F
ORCESINVOLUNTARILYSEPARATED FORREFUSINGTO 21
R
ECEIVE AVACCINATIONAGAINSTCOVID–19.— 22
(1) R
EINSTATEMENT.—At the request of a cov-23
ered individual, the Secretary concerned shall— 24
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(A) reinstate the covered individual as a 1
member of the Armed Force concerned, in the 2
same rank and grade the covered individual 3
held at the time of separation from the Armed 4
Force concerned; and 5
(B) expunge from the military service 6
record of the covered individual any reference to 7
adverse action against the covered individual 8
solely on the basis of the refusal of the covered 9
individual to receive a vaccination against 10
COVID–19. 11
(2) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 12
(A) The term ‘‘adverse action’’ includes in-13
voluntary separation, demotion, and discipline. 14
(B) The term ‘‘covered individual’’ means 15
an individual who was involuntarily separated 16
from an Armed Force solely on the basis of the 17
refusal of such individual to receive a vaccina-18
tion against COVID–19. 19
(C) The term ‘‘Secretary concerned’’ has 20
the meaning given such term in section 101 of 21
title 10, United States Code. 22
(b) R
EINSTATEMENT OF FEDERALEMPLOYEESIN-23
VOLUNTARILYSEPARATED FOR REFUSINGTORECEIVE 24
COVID–19 V
ACCINE.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Any individual removed from 1
the civil service (as that term is defined in section 2
2101 of title 5, United States Code) solely on the 3
basis of the refusal of the individual to receive a vac-4
cination against COVID–19 may, at the discretion 5
of the individual, be reinstated to a civil service posi-6
tion at the same grade or level, and same rate of 7
pay, as the position from which the individual was 8
so removed. 9
(2) O
THER MATTERS.—Any notation of an ad-10
verse action with respect to such removal in the per-11
sonnel record file of such an individual shall be re-12
moved. 13
(c) U
NLAWFULEMPLOYMENT PRACTICEUNDER 14
T
ITLEVII OF THECIVILRIGHTSACT OF1964 FORFAIL-15
URETORECEIVE AVACCINATIONAGAINSTCOVID–19.— 16
For purposes of section 703 of title VII of the Civil Rights 17
Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2003–2), it shall be an unlawful 18
employment practice for an employer— 19
(1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any 20
individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any 21
individual with respect to his compensation, terms, 22
conditions, or privileges of employment, based on 23
such individual’s failure to receive a vaccination 24
against COVID–19; or 25
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(2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees 1
or applicants for employment in any way which 2
would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of 3
employment opportunities or otherwise adversely af-4
fect his status as an employee, based on such indi-5
vidual’s failure to receive a vaccination against 6
COVID–19. 7
Æ
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