Official Summaries

Allowing Military Exemptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots Act of 2025 or the AMERICANS Act

This bill prohibits the Department of Defense (DOD) from issuing any COVID-19 vaccine mandate as a replacement for the rescinded vaccine mandate of August 24, 2021, unless the mandate is expressly authorized by Congress.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process for remedies for members of the Armed Forces who were discharged or subject to adverse action under the rescinded mandate.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.

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.

Current Full Text

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 117 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 117

   To provide remedies to members of the Armed Forces discharged or 
     subject to adverse action under the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            January 16, 2025

   Mr. Cruz (for himself, Mrs. Blackburn, Mrs. Britt, Mr. Budd, Mr. 
  Cornyn, Mr. Crapo, Mr. Daines, Mr. Hawley, Mr. Hoeven, Mr. Lee, Mr. 
 Risch, Mr. Scott of Florida, Mr. Sheehy, and Mr. Johnson) introduced 
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee 
                           on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To provide remedies to members of the Armed Forces discharged or 
     subject to adverse action under the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Allowing Military Exemptions, 
Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots Act of 2025'' or the 
``AMERICANS Act''.

SEC. 2. REMEDIES FOR MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES DISCHARGED OR SUBJECT 
              TO ADVERSE ACTION UNDER THE COVID-19 VACCINE MANDATE.

    (a) Limitation on Imposition of New Mandate.--The Secretary of 
Defense may not issue any COVID-19 vaccine mandate as a replacement for 
the mandate rescinded under section 525 of the James M. Inhofe National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 absent a further Act of 
Congress expressly authorizing a replacement mandate.
    (b) Remedies.--Section 736 of the National Defense Authorization 
Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (Public Law 117-81; 10 U.S.C. 1161 note prec.) 
is amended--
            (1) in the section heading, by striking ``to obey lawful 
        order to receive'' and inserting ``to receive'';
            (2) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) by striking ``a lawful order'' and inserting 
                ``an order''; and
                    (B) by striking ``shall be'' and all that follows 
                through the period at the end and inserting ``shall be 
                an honorable discharge.'';
            (3) by redesignating subsection (b) as subsection (g); and
            (4) by inserting after subsection (a) the following new 
        subsections:
    ``(b) Prohibition on Adverse Action.--The Secretary of Defense may 
not take any adverse action against a covered member based solely on 
the refusal of such member to receive a vaccine for COVID-19.
    ``(c) Remedies Available for a Covered Member Discharged or Subject 
to Adverse Action Based on COVID-19 Status.--At the election of a 
covered member discharged or subject to adverse action based on the 
member's COVID-19 vaccination status, and upon application through a 
process established by the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary shall--
            ``(1) adjust to `honorable discharge' the status of the 
        member if--
                    ``(A) the member was separated from the Armed 
                Forces based solely on the failure of the member to 
                obey an order to receive a vaccine for COVID-19; and
                    ``(B) the discharge status of the member would have 
                been an `honorable discharge' but for the refusal to 
                obtain such vaccine;
            ``(2) reinstate the member to service at the highest grade 
        held by the member immediately prior to the involuntary 
        separation, allowing, however, for any reduction in rank that 
        was not related to the member's COVID-19 vaccination status, 
        with an effective date of reinstatement as of the date of 
        involuntary separation;
            ``(3) for any member who was subject to any adverse action 
        other than involuntary separation based solely on the member's 
        COVID-19 vaccination status--
                    ``(A) restore the member to the highest grade held 
                prior to such adverse action, allowing, however, for 
                any reduction in rank that was not related to the 
                member's COVID-19 vaccination status, with an effective 
                date of reinstatement as of the date of involuntary 
                separation; and
                    ``(B) compensate such member for any pay and 
                benefits lost as a result of such adverse action;
            ``(4) expunge from the service record of the member any 
        adverse action, to include non-punitive adverse action and 
        involuntary separation, as well as any reference to any such 
        adverse action, based solely on COVID-19 vaccination status; 
        and
            ``(5) include the time of involuntary separation of the 
        member reinstated under paragraph (2) in the computation of the 
        retired or retainer pay of the member.
    ``(d) Retention and Development of Unvaccinated Members.--The 
Secretary of Defense shall--
            ``(1) make every effort to retain covered members who are 
        not vaccinated against COVID-19 and provide such members with 
        professional development, promotion and leadership 
        opportunities, and consideration equal to that of their peers;
            ``(2) only consider the COVID-19 vaccination status of a 
        covered member in making deployment, assignment, and other 
        operational decisions where--
                    ``(A) the law or regulations of a foreign country 
                require covered members to be vaccinated against COVID-
                19 in order to enter that country; and
                    ``(B) the covered member's presence in that foreign 
                country is necessary in order to perform their assigned 
                role; and
            ``(3) for purposes of deployments, assignments, and 
        operations described in paragraph (2), create a process to 
        provide COVID-19 vaccination exemptions to covered members 
        with--
                    ``(A) a natural immunity to COVID-19;
                    ``(B) an underlying health condition that would 
                make COVID-19 vaccination a greater risk to that 
                individual than the general population; or
                    ``(C) sincerely held religious beliefs in conflict 
                with receiving the COVID-19 vaccination.
    ``(e) Termination of Obligation To Repay Bonuses of Members 
Separated for Refusing Covid-19 Vaccine.--
            ``(1) In general.--A former member of the Armed Forces who 
        was separated from the Armed Forces because the former member 
        refused to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine shall be released for any 
        obligation to repay any bonus received by the former member.
            ``(2) Reimbursement of repayments.--A former member of the 
        Armed Forces described in subsection (a) who, before the date 
        of the enactment of this Act, repaid any portion of a bonus 
        described in that subsection shall be reimbursed for such 
        repayment.
    ``(f) Applicability of Remedies Contained in This Section.--The 
prohibitions and remedies described in this section shall apply to 
covered members regardless of whether or not they sought an 
accommodation to any Department of Defense COVID-19 vaccination policy 
on any grounds.''.
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