I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 511
To provide remedies to members of the Armed Forces discharged or subject
to adverse action under the COVID–19 vaccine mandate.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY16, 2025
Mr. H
ARRIGAN(for himself, Mr. KENNEDYof Utah, Mr. OGLES, Mr.
H
AMADEHof Arizona, Mr. STUTZMAN, Mr. WIED, Mrs. LUNA, Mr.
K
NOTT, Mr. HARRISof North Carolina, Mr. NEHLS, Mr. MOOREof West
Virginia, Mr. O
NDER, Mr. BARRETT, Mr. EDWARDS, Mr. MURPHY, Mr.
S
ELF, Mr. DOWNING, Mr. JACK, Mr. SCHMIDT, Mr. MESSMER, Mr.
M
CGUIRE, Mr. HARIDOPOLOS, and Mr. RULLI) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services A BILL
To provide remedies to members of the Armed Forces dis-
charged or subject to adverse action under the COVID–
19 vaccine mandate.
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 ‘‘Allowing Military Ex-4
emptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New 5
Shots Act of 2025’’ or the ‘‘AMERICANS Act’’. 6
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SEC. 2. REMEDIES FOR MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES 1
DISCHARGED OR SUBJECT TO ADVERSE AC-2
TION UNDER THE COVID–19 VACCINE MAN-3
DATE. 4
(a) L
IMITATION ON IMPOSITION OF NEWMAN-5
DATE.—The Secretary of Defense may not issue any 6
COVID–19 vaccine mandate as a replacement for the 7
mandate rescinded under section 525 of the James M. 8
Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 9
2023 absent a further Act of Congress expressly author-10
izing a replacement mandate. 11
(b) R
EMEDIES.—Section 736 of the National Defense 12
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (Public Law 117– 13
81; 10 U.S.C. 1161 note prec.) is amended— 14
(1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘
TO 15
OBEY LAWFUL ORDER TO RECEIVE ’’ and insert-16
ing ‘‘
TO RECEIVE’’; 17
(2) in subsection (a)— 18
(A) by striking ‘‘a lawful order’’ and in-19
serting ‘‘an order’’; and 20
(B) by striking ‘‘shall be’’ and all that fol-21
lows through the period at the end and insert-22
ing ‘‘shall be an honorable discharge.’’; 23
(3) by redesignating subsection (b) as sub-24
section (g); and 25
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(4) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol-1
lowing new subsections: 2
‘‘(b) P
ROHIBITION ONADVERSEACTION.—The Sec-3
retary of Defense may not take any adverse action against 4
a covered member based solely on the refusal of such 5
member to receive a vaccine for COVID–19. 6
‘‘(c) R
EMEDIESAVAILABLE FOR ACOVEREDMEM-7
BERDISCHARGED OR SUBJECT TOADVERSEACTION 8
B
ASED ONCOVID–19 STATUS.—At the election of a cov-9
ered member discharged or subject to adverse action based 10
on the member’s COVID–19 vaccination status, and upon 11
application through a process established by the Secretary 12
of Defense, the Secretary shall— 13
‘‘(1) adjust to ‘honorable discharge’ the status 14
of the member if— 15
‘‘(A) the member was separated from the 16
Armed Forces based solely on the failure of the 17
member to obey an order to receive a vaccine 18
for COVID–19; and 19
‘‘(B) the discharge status of the member 20
would have been an ‘honorable discharge’ but 21
for the refusal to obtain such vaccine; 22
‘‘(2) reinstate the member to service at the 23
highest grade held by the member immediately prior 24
to the involuntary separation, allowing, however, for 25
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any reduction in rank that was not related to the 1
member’s COVID–19 vaccination status, with an ef-2
fective date of reinstatement as of the date of invol-3
untary separation; 4
‘‘(3) for any member who was subject to any 5
adverse action other than involuntary separation 6
based solely on the member’s COVID–19 vaccination 7
status— 8
‘‘(A) restore the member to the highest 9
grade held prior to such adverse action, allow-10
ing, however, for any reduction in rank that 11
was not related to the member’s COVID–19 12
vaccination status, with an effective date of re-13
instatement as of the date of involuntary sepa-14
ration; and 15
‘‘(B) compensate such member for any pay 16
and benefits lost as a result of such adverse ac-17
tion; 18
‘‘(4) expunge from the service record of the 19
member any adverse action, to include non-punitive 20
adverse action and involuntary separation, as well as 21
any reference to any such adverse action, based sole-22
ly on COVID–19 vaccination status; and 23
‘‘(5) include the time of involuntary separation 24
of the member reinstated under paragraph (2) in the 25
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computation of the retired or retainer pay of the 1
member. 2
‘‘(d) R
ETENTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF 3
U
NVACCINATED MEMBERS.—The Secretary of Defense 4
shall— 5
‘‘(1) make every effort to retain covered mem-6
bers who are not vaccinated against COVID–19 and 7
provide such members with professional develop-8
ment, promotion and leadership opportunities, and 9
consideration equal to that of their peers; 10
‘‘(2) only consider the COVID–19 vaccination 11
status of a covered member in making deployment, 12
assignment, and other operational decisions where— 13
‘‘(A) the law or regulations of a foreign 14
country require covered members to be vac-15
cinated against COVID–19 in order to enter 16
that country; and 17
‘‘(B) the covered member’s presence in 18
that foreign country is necessary in order to 19
perform their assigned role; and 20
‘‘(3) for purposes of deployments, assignments, 21
and operations described in paragraph (2), create a 22
process to provide COVID–19 vaccination exemp-23
tions to covered members with— 24
‘‘(A) a natural immunity to COVID–19; 25
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‘‘(B) an underlying health condition that 1
would make COVID–19 vaccination a greater 2
risk to that individual than the general popu-3
lation; or 4
‘‘(C) sincerely held religious beliefs in con-5
flict with receiving the COVID–19 vaccination. 6
‘‘(e) T
ERMINATION OFOBLIGATIONTOREPAYBO-7
NUSES OFMEMBERSSEPARATED FORREFUSINGCOVID– 8
19 V
ACCINE.— 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—A former member of the 10
Armed Forces who was separated from the Armed 11
Forces because the former member refused to obtain 12
a COVID–19 vaccine shall be released for any obli-13
gation to repay any bonus received by the former 14
member. 15
‘‘(2) R
EIMBURSEMENT OF REPAYMENTS .—A 16
former member of the Armed Forces described in 17
subsection (a) who, before the date of the enactment 18
of this Act, repaid any portion of a bonus described 19
in that subsection shall be reimbursed for such re-20
payment. 21
‘‘(f) A
PPLICABILITY OFREMEDIESCONTAINED IN 22
T
HISSECTION.—The prohibitions and remedies described 23
in this section shall apply to covered members regardless 24
of whether or not they sought an accommodation to any 25
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Department of Defense COVID–19 vaccination policy on 1
any grounds.’’. 2
Æ
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