119th Congress Armed Forces and National Security
S. 117: AMERICANS Act
Introduced
- Introduced (completed)
- Passed Senate (not reached)
- Passed House (not reached)
- To the President (not reached)
- Became law (not reached)
Summary
This bill prohibits the Department of Defense (DOD) from issuing any COVID-19 vaccine mandate as a replacement for the rescinded vaccine mandate of August 24, 2021, unless the mandate is expressly authorized by Congress. The bill also provides that DOD must establish an application process for remedies for members of the Armed Forces who were discharged or subject to adverse action under the rescinded mandate.
Any administrative discharge of a member on the sole basis of a failure to receive a COVID-19 vaccine must be categorized as an honorable discharge, and DOD is prohibited from taking any adverse action against such a member for that reason.
DOD must try to retain unvaccinated members and provide such members with professional development, promotion and leadership opportunities, and consideration equal to that of their peers.
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Additionally, DOD may only consider the COVID-19 vaccination status of members in making certain decisions (e.g., deployments in countries where it is the law) and must establish a process to provide exemptions to certain members for such decisions.
Members who were separated from the Armed Forces for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine are not required to repay any bonuses and must be reimbursed if they repaid any portion of a bonus prior to this bill's enactment.
This bill applies to all members of the Armed Forces, regardless of whether they sought an accommodation to any DOD COVID-19 vaccination policy.
Written by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.
Roll calls
No roll call votes have been held on this bill.
Amendments
No amendments were offered to this bill.
Cosponsors
- Marsha Blackburn R-TNOriginal
- Ted Budd R-NCOriginal
- Katie Britt R-ALOriginal
- Michael Crapo R-IDOriginal
- John Cornyn R-TXOriginal
- Steve Daines R-MTOriginal
- John Hoeven R-NDOriginal
- Joshua Hawley R-MOOriginal
- Ron Johnson R-WIOriginal
- Mike Lee R-UTOriginal
- James Risch R-IDOriginal
- Rick Scott R-FLOriginal
- Tim Sheehy R-MTOriginal
- Jim Justice R-WV
Who scored on this bill
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History
- Introduced in the Senate by Ted Cruz.
Show the full action history (2 actions)
- Introduced in Senate
- Read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services.