A viral meme that's been popping up on social media claimed Congress has introduced a bill that required people to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
The claim in the meme is that H.R. 6666 would give $100 billion to schools, churches and medical buildings, but only if they “agree by contract” that they will only allow people into their facilities who have had COVID-19 vaccinations.
The post goes on to state that the legislation is on Congress.gov, essentially inviting the reader to check for themselves.
But anyone who follows through and reads the bill for themselves would quickly find out the post isn’t true.
THE QUESTION
Is there an H.R. 6666 giving money to facilities that agree by contract to only allow people with COVID-19 vaccinations into their buildings?
THE ANSWER
No. While there is an H.R. 6666 under consideration, and it is providing money to various facilities, it’s doing so for testing and contract tracing but with no mention of vaccines.
WHAT WE FOUND
H.R. 6666, the so-called COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone (TRACE) Act - is on Congress.gov like the post claims and is legislation about COVID-19 that has been introduced. All of that is accurate.
However, the contents of the bill are very different from what the post portrays.
The bill states that the Secretary of Health and Human Services “may award grants to eligible entities to conduct diagnostic testing for COVID–19, to trace and monitor the contacts of infected individuals, and to support the quarantine of such contacts.” The bill goes on to explain that this will be accomplished by mobile health units and “testing individuals and providing individuals with services related to testing and quarantine at their residences.”
There are requirements a potential grantee must meet to receive the funding, but they don’t involve vaccines. To receive funding, an applicant must be providing a service in a COVID-19 hot spot or a medically under-served community. The grants must also be distributed to both urban and rural areas.
The facilities that can receive this funding include academic medical centers, nonprofit organizations (including faith-based organizations), colleges or universities, high schools or any other type of entity the Secretary of Health and Human Services deems eligible for the purpose of this proposal. So yes, schools, churches and medical buildings can receive this funding, but only for the purposes of testing, contact tracing and quarantining.
Finally, the bill does propose putting aside $100 billion for this purpose. It makes no mention of how much money would go to an individual facility or entity.
Nowhere in the bill are vaccines, let alone mandatory vaccines that funding is contingent on, mentioned. The money in the bill is supposed to be used primarily for testing, contact tracing and quarantining.
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