{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://davidson.house.gov/2024/5/rep-warren-davidson-introduces-the-justice-for-vaccine-injured-veterans-act", "Rep. Warren Davidson Introduces The Justice For Vaccine Injured Veterans Act", "2024-05-02", "2024", "2024-05", "Republican", "House", "OH", "Warren Davidson", "D000626", "davidson.house.gov", "davidson", "https://davidson.house.gov/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u2014 Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) introduced the Justice For Vaccine Injured Veterans Act today, alongside 22 other House colleagues. This legislation allows service members to receive disability compensation for any vaccine injuries they may have developed under the Department of Defense\u2019s unjust COVID-19 mandate.\n\n\"COVID-19 posed limited risks to young, fit, healthy people. Nevertheless, Joe Biden\u2019s Department of Defense mandated that our nation\u2019s warriors be vaccinated or forced out. Sadly, some of them have become vaccine-injured veterans due to adverse effects. Our nation has a moral obligation to care for them. This bill makes that happen.\u201d said Rep. Davidson (R-OH)\n\nThe Justice For Vaccine Injured Veterans Act is cosponsored by Reps. Griffith, Crane, Bishop, Posey, Moore (AL), Nehls, Weber, Biggs Harshbarger, Massie, Greene, Rosendale, Steube, Mast, Burlison, Miller (IL), Dunn, Boebert, Carey, Fallon, Luna, and Gosar.\n\nBackground:\n\nIn August 2021, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a memorandum entitled, \u201cMandatory Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination of Department of Defense Service Members.\u201d This memo demanded the full vaccination of all members of the Armed Forces.\n\nMore than 8,400 service members refused to comply with this mandate and were forced out of the military. In addition, reasonable exemptions from the vaccine mandate, such as religious beliefs, were virtually all ignored or rejected. However, Secretary Austin called this mandate \u201cenormously successful\u201d as they hit a 98 percent vaccination rate by December 2021.\n\nIn January 2023, Secretary Austin was forced to rescind this memorandum. Nevertheless, service members who complied with the vaccines were susceptible to potential side effects of the vaccine.\n\nThis legislation corrects this injustice and allows service members to be made whole by:\n\nAmending 38 USC Chapter 11 to add certain COVID-19 vaccine-related injuries as presumptive conditions. If an individual has a presumptive condition, then they only need to meet the service requirements for the presumption.\n\nAny service member or veteran who received the COVID-19 vaccine, during the timeframe of the DOD mandate, and subsequently developed myocarditis, pericarditis, Guillan-Barre syndrome, or thrombosis within one year of their vaccination will be presumed eligible for disability compensation.\n\nThe Secretary of Veterans Affairs also has the option to add other conditions if they notify the appropriate congressional committees.\n\nThis legislation requires the Secretary to report on the total number of claims submitted and the status of such claims every 60 days.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T18:12:30Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://davidson.house.gov/2024/5/rep-warren-davidson-introduces-the-justice-for-vaccine-injured-veterans-act"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7748999632894993, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}