I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1671
To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for a presumption of
service-connection under the laws administered by the Secretary of Vet-
erans Affairs for certain diseases associated with the COVID–19 vaccine
that become manifest during the one-year period following the receipt
of the vaccine, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY27, 2025
Mr. D
AVIDSON(for himself, Mr. NEHLS, Mr. MASSIE, Mrs. MILLERof Illinois,
Mr. G
OSAR, Mr. WEBERof Texas, and Mr. FALLON) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs,
and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, 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 con-
cerned
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for a
presumption of service-connection under the laws admin-
istered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs for certain
diseases associated with the COVID–19 vaccine that be-
come manifest during the one-year period following the
receipt of the vaccine, 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
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Justice for Vaccine 2
Injured Veterans Act of 2025’’. 3
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 4
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 5
(1) On August 24, 2021, Secretary of Defense 6
Lloyd Austin issued a memorandum titled, ‘‘Manda-7
tory Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination of De-8
partment of Defense Service Members’’. 9
(2) This memorandum stated, ‘‘I therefore di-10
rect the Secretaries of the Military Departments to 11
immediately begin full vaccination of all members of 12
the Armed Forces under DoD authority on active 13
duty or in the Ready Reserve, including the National 14
Guard, who are not fully vaccinated against 15
COVID–19’’. 16
(3) In December 2022, the Department of De-17
fense reported that ‘‘98 percent of active duty serv-18
ice members and 96 percent of the total force have 19
been vaccinated’’ from COVID–19. 20
(4) As a result of this memorandum, more than 21
8,400 members of the Armed Forces were forced out 22
of the military for refusing to get the COVID–19 23
vaccine. 24
(5) On January 10, 2023, Secretary Austin was 25
forced to rescind this memorandum as a requirement 26
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of section 525 of the James M. Inhofe National De-1
fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (Pub-2
lic Law 117–263). 3
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-4
gress that the actions referred to in subsection (a) that 5
were taken by the Department of Defense under the Biden 6
administration caused irreparable harm to the health and 7
readiness of the United States Armed Forces. 8
SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS PRESUMP-9
TION OF SERVICE-CONNECTION FOR CER-10
TAIN DISEASES ASSOCIATED WITH COVID–19 11
VACCINE. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 11 of 13
title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 14
end the following new section: 15
‘‘§ 1120A. Presumption of service-connection for cer-16
tain diseases associated with COVID–19 17
vaccine 18
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—For the purposes of section 1110 19
of this title, and subject to section 1113 of this title, a 20
disease specified in subsection (b) becoming manifest in 21
a member of the Armed Forces who, during the period 22
beginning on August 24, 2021, and ending on January 23
10, 2023, received a COVID–19 vaccine under orders shall 24
be considered to have been incurred in or aggravated dur-25
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ing active military, naval, air, or space service, notwith-1
standing that there is no record of evidence of such disease 2
during the period of such service. 3
‘‘(b) C
OVEREDDISEASES.—The diseases specified in 4
this subsection are the following: 5
‘‘(1) Myocarditis. 6
‘‘(2) Pericarditis. 7
‘‘(3) Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syn-8
drome. 9
‘‘(4) Guillian-Barre Syndrome. 10
‘‘(5) Any other disease for which the Secretary 11
determines that a presumption of service connection 12
is warranted based on a positive association with the 13
COVID–19 vaccine. 14
‘‘(c) C
ONGRESSIONAL NOTICEREQUIREMENT.—If 15
the Secretary determines that an additional disease should 16
be specified pursuant to subsection (b)(4), the Secretary 17
shall submit to the Committees on Veterans Affairs’ of 18
the Senate and the House of Representatives notice of 19
such determination. 20
‘‘(d) R
EPORT.—Not later than 60 days after the date 21
of enactment of the Justice for Vaccine Injured Veterans 22
Act of 2025, and every 60 days thereafter for the subse-23
quent four year-period, the Secretary shall submit to the 24
Committees of Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the 25
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House of Representatives a report that contains each of 1
the following: 2
‘‘(1) The total number of claims for compensa-3
tion under this chapter related to a disease associ-4
ated with the COVID–19 vaccine. 5
‘‘(2) The status of each such claim, 6
disaggregated by— 7
‘‘(A) the number of claims that were ap-8
proved; 9
‘‘(B) the number of claims that were de-10
nied and for which the claimant took no further 11
action; 12
‘‘(C) the number of claims that were de-13
nied and for which the claimant filed a supple-14
mental claim; 15
‘‘(D) the number of claims that were de-16
nied and for which the claimant requested a 17
higher level review; and 18
‘‘(E) the number of claims that were de-19
nied and for which the claimant filed an appeal 20
to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. 21
‘‘(3) The total number of such claims that, as 22
of the date of the submission of the report, had been 23
submitted but were pending a decision. 24
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‘‘(e) PUBLICACCESS TOREPORTS.—The Secretary 1
shall make each report required by subsection (d) publicly 2
available, including by making publicly available on an ap-3
propriate website of the Department each such report to-4
gether with such additional information or comments as 5
the Secretary considers appropriate to provide context for 6
the report. 7
‘‘(f) COVID–19 V
ACCINEDEFINED.—In this section, 8
the term ‘COVID–19 vaccine’ means vaccine licensed 9
under section 351 of the Public Health Service Act (42 10
U.S.C. 262) or authorized for emergency use under sec-11
tion 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act 12
(21 U.S.C. 360bbb–3) for immunization against the virus 13
responsible for COVID–19.’’. 14
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 15
at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting 16
after the item relating to section 1120 the following new 17
item: 18
‘‘1120A. Presumption of service-connection for certain diseases associated with
COVID–19 vaccine.’’.
Æ
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