Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB1671 Compare Versions

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Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 1671
5	5	To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for a presumption of
6	6	service-connection under the laws administered by the Secretary of Vet-
7	7	erans Affairs for certain diseases associated with the COVID–19 vaccine
8	8	that become manifest during the one-year period following the receipt
9	9	of the vaccine, and for other purposes.
10	10	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
11	11	FEBRUARY27, 2025
12	12	Mr. D
13	13	AVIDSON(for himself, Mr. NEHLS, Mr. MASSIE, Mrs. MILLERof Illinois,
14	14	Mr. G
15	15	OSAR, Mr. WEBERof Texas, and Mr. FALLON) introduced the fol-
16	16	lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs,
17	17	and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be
18	18	subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
19	19	of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
20	20	cerned
21	21	A BILL
22	22	To amend title 38, United States Code, to provide for a
23	23	presumption of service-connection under the laws admin-
24	24	istered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs for certain
25	25	diseases associated with the COVID–19 vaccine that be-
26	26	come manifest during the one-year period following the
27	27	receipt of the vaccine, and for other purposes.
28	28	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
29	29	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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32	32	•HR 1671 IH
33	33	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
34	34	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Justice for Vaccine 2
35	35	Injured Veterans Act of 2025’’. 3
36	36	SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS. 4
37	37	(a) F
38	38	INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 5
39	39	(1) On August 24, 2021, Secretary of Defense 6
40	40	Lloyd Austin issued a memorandum titled, ‘‘Manda-7
41	41	tory Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination of De-8
42	42	partment of Defense Service Members’’. 9
43	43	(2) This memorandum stated, ‘‘I therefore di-10
44	44	rect the Secretaries of the Military Departments to 11
45	45	immediately begin full vaccination of all members of 12
46	46	the Armed Forces under DoD authority on active 13
47	47	duty or in the Ready Reserve, including the National 14
48	48	Guard, who are not fully vaccinated against 15
49	49	COVID–19’’. 16
50	50	(3) In December 2022, the Department of De-17
51	51	fense reported that ‘‘98 percent of active duty serv-18
52	52	ice members and 96 percent of the total force have 19
53	53	been vaccinated’’ from COVID–19. 20
54	54	(4) As a result of this memorandum, more than 21
55	55	8,400 members of the Armed Forces were forced out 22
56	56	of the military for refusing to get the COVID–19 23
57	57	vaccine. 24
58	58	(5) On January 10, 2023, Secretary Austin was 25
59	59	forced to rescind this memorandum as a requirement 26
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62	62	•HR 1671 IH
63	63	of section 525 of the James M. Inhofe National De-1
64	64	fense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (Pub-2
65	65	lic Law 117–263). 3
66	66	(b) S
67	67	ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-4
68	68	gress that the actions referred to in subsection (a) that 5
69	69	were taken by the Department of Defense under the Biden 6
70	70	administration caused irreparable harm to the health and 7
71	71	readiness of the United States Armed Forces. 8
72	72	SEC. 3. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS PRESUMP-9
73	73	TION OF SERVICE-CONNECTION FOR CER-10
74	74	TAIN DISEASES ASSOCIATED WITH COVID–19 11
75	75	VACCINE. 12
76	76	(a) I
77	77	NGENERAL.—Subchapter II of chapter 11 of 13
78	78	title 38, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 14
79	79	end the following new section: 15
80	80	‘‘§ 1120A. Presumption of service-connection for cer-16
81	81	tain diseases associated with COVID–19 17
82	82	vaccine 18
83	83	‘‘(a) I
84	84	NGENERAL.—For the purposes of section 1110 19
85	85	of this title, and subject to section 1113 of this title, a 20
86	86	disease specified in subsection (b) becoming manifest in 21
87	87	a member of the Armed Forces who, during the period 22
88	88	beginning on August 24, 2021, and ending on January 23
89	89	10, 2023, received a COVID–19 vaccine under orders shall 24
90	90	be considered to have been incurred in or aggravated dur-25
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93	93	•HR 1671 IH
94	94	ing active military, naval, air, or space service, notwith-1
95	95	standing that there is no record of evidence of such disease 2
96	96	during the period of such service. 3
97	97	‘‘(b) C
98	98	OVEREDDISEASES.—The diseases specified in 4
99	99	this subsection are the following: 5
100	100	‘‘(1) Myocarditis. 6
101	101	‘‘(2) Pericarditis. 7
102	102	‘‘(3) Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syn-8
103	103	drome. 9
104	104	‘‘(4) Guillian-Barre Syndrome. 10
105	105	‘‘(5) Any other disease for which the Secretary 11
106	106	determines that a presumption of service connection 12
107	107	is warranted based on a positive association with the 13
108	108	COVID–19 vaccine. 14
109	109	‘‘(c) C
110	110	ONGRESSIONAL NOTICEREQUIREMENT.—If 15
111	111	the Secretary determines that an additional disease should 16
112	112	be specified pursuant to subsection (b)(4), the Secretary 17
113	113	shall submit to the Committees on Veterans Affairs’ of 18
114	114	the Senate and the House of Representatives notice of 19
115	115	such determination. 20
116	116	‘‘(d) R
117	117	EPORT.—Not later than 60 days after the date 21
118	118	of enactment of the Justice for Vaccine Injured Veterans 22
119	119	Act of 2025, and every 60 days thereafter for the subse-23
120	120	quent four year-period, the Secretary shall submit to the 24
121	121	Committees of Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and the 25
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124	124	•HR 1671 IH
125	125	House of Representatives a report that contains each of 1
126	126	the following: 2
127	127	‘‘(1) The total number of claims for compensa-3
128	128	tion under this chapter related to a disease associ-4
129	129	ated with the COVID–19 vaccine. 5
130	130	‘‘(2) The status of each such claim, 6
131	131	disaggregated by— 7
132	132	‘‘(A) the number of claims that were ap-8
133	133	proved; 9
134	134	‘‘(B) the number of claims that were de-10
135	135	nied and for which the claimant took no further 11
136	136	action; 12
137	137	‘‘(C) the number of claims that were de-13
138	138	nied and for which the claimant filed a supple-14
139	139	mental claim; 15
140	140	‘‘(D) the number of claims that were de-16
141	141	nied and for which the claimant requested a 17
142	142	higher level review; and 18
143	143	‘‘(E) the number of claims that were de-19
144	144	nied and for which the claimant filed an appeal 20
145	145	to the Board of Veterans’ Appeals. 21
146	146	‘‘(3) The total number of such claims that, as 22
147	147	of the date of the submission of the report, had been 23
148	148	submitted but were pending a decision. 24
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151	151	•HR 1671 IH
152	152	‘‘(e) PUBLICACCESS TOREPORTS.—The Secretary 1
153	153	shall make each report required by subsection (d) publicly 2
154	154	available, including by making publicly available on an ap-3
155	155	propriate website of the Department each such report to-4
156	156	gether with such additional information or comments as 5
157	157	the Secretary considers appropriate to provide context for 6
158	158	the report. 7
159	159	‘‘(f) COVID–19 V
160	160	ACCINEDEFINED.—In this section, 8
161	161	the term ‘COVID–19 vaccine’ means vaccine licensed 9
162	162	under section 351 of the Public Health Service Act (42 10
163	163	U.S.C. 262) or authorized for emergency use under sec-11
164	164	tion 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act 12
165	165	(21 U.S.C. 360bbb–3) for immunization against the virus 13
166	166	responsible for COVID–19.’’. 14
167	167	(b) C
168	168	LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 15
169	169	at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting 16
170	170	after the item relating to section 1120 the following new 17
171	171	item: 18
172	172	‘‘1120A. Presumption of service-connection for certain diseases associated with
173	173	COVID–19 vaccine.’’.
174	174	Æ
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