Senators introduce bill ahead of ACIP’s meeting tomorrow to revisit hepatitis B, other childhood shots
This year, HHS Secretary replaced all 17 non-partisan experts on CDC’s top vaccine committee, attacked settled science
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper, Angela Alsobrooks, Richard Blumenthal, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Martin Heinrich, Andy Kim, Ed Markey, Adam Schiff, and Chris Van Hollen introduced the Family Vaccine Protection Act to protect Americans’ access to vaccines and to safeguard proven science from recent Trump administration efforts to undermine vaccines. The senators’ bill comes as the CDC’s top vaccine panel meets tomorrow to discuss – and potentially vote on – updates to the childhood vaccine schedule, including the hepatitis B vaccine.
“Vaccine decisions should be grounded in facts – not conspiracy theories,” said Hickenlooper, member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee. “This administration’s senseless attacks on science erodes Americans’ trust in public health and undermines families’ access to safe vaccines. Our bill protects science and restores Americans’ confidence that vaccine recommendations are rooted in data, not politics.”
“I became the first Senator to call on RFK Jr. to resign or be fired because he is unqualified and his dangerous agenda was clear from day one: politicize our life-saving immunization schedule. In the meantime, I will fight tooth and nail to keep our families healthy and safe despite the Secretary’s efforts to the contrary. That’s why the Senate must pass our Family Vaccine Protection Act – to protect families from vaccine-preventable diseases,” said Alsobrooks.
“This legislation protects access to essential vaccines and counters the Trump Administration’s senseless corruption of science. By prioritizing conspiracy theories over science, Trump is depriving Americans of basic public health. Vaccines save lives—it’s simple. Americans need them,” said Blumenthal.
“I’m proud to be joining my colleagues in introducing the Family Vaccine Protection Act. For decades, Americans have counted on ACIP for safe, reliable, and science-backed guidance on vaccines. Now, thanks to Secretary Kennedy’s reckless actions and continued vaccine skepticism, families are faced with conspiracy theories and confusion,” said Blunt Rochester, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. “This bill builds upon our work to defend health and safety amidst Secretary Kennedy’s dismantling of our public health institutions and norms. As we enter the peak of the flu season, families in Delaware and across our nation need clarity. It’s long past time to get politics out of public health.”
“Americans expect our public health decisions to be guided by facts and science in order to keep families and children safe from preventable diseases. Instead at every turn Donald Trump and RFK Jr. have undermined Americans’ health and safety by installing vaccine skeptics and deniers in key roles, and jeopardizing children’s access to lifesaving vaccines,” said Schiff. “I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing the Family Vaccine Protection Act to fight back against Trump’s war on science and health care, and to ensure all communities have access to the preventative care they need.”
The bill codifies the structure and practices of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a 60-year-old federal panel at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommends who should get vaccines and when. It strengthens transparency into how vaccine guidance is developed and adopted, reinforces science-based decision-making, and ensures accountability in the nation’s vaccine process.
ACIP’s recommendations inform which vaccines are covered by insurers and government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Vaccines for Children, which provides free vaccines to more than half of the children in the U.S.
The senators’ legislation comes after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Jr. undermined the ACIP and replaced all 17 non-partisan scientific experts with ideologues who have a history of undermining vaccines. Two weeks after RFK Jr. replaced all of the committee’s members, the new ACIP announced plans to revisit the childhood vaccine schedule, putting access to vaccines that children have received for decades, such as hepatitis B and polio, in danger. The new ACIP also invited a known vaccine denier and conspiracy theorist to speak on vaccines, and then made recommendations based solely on her pseudoscience-filled presentation.
This attack on settled vaccine science comes as the U.S. faces the highest total number of measles cases in 33 years, including the first measles deaths in the country in a decade.
Specifically, the Family Vaccine Protection Act would:
- Establish guardrails to ensure vaccines remain accessible to all:
- Protect the role of ACIP recommendations in programs like the Vaccine for Children Program and ensure that health insurance plans provide cost-free coverage for vaccines recommended by ACIP.
- Codify current rigorous, science-based processes for recommending vaccines:
- Set a timeline for new vaccine consideration by ACIP
- Require that both the CDC Director and HHS Secretary adopt such recommendations if supported by a majority of the scientific evidence.
- Strengthen the independence of the Advisory Committee:
- Write the role of ACIP into statute and specify its structure, its membership selection processes, meeting frequency, and expertise requirements to protect it from dissolution or undue interference by the HHS secretary.
- Ensure the Secretary cannot unilaterally make or withdraw vaccine recommendations contrary to the advice of scientific experts:
- Require the HHS secretary to adopt the official vaccine decision as set by ACIP
- Require the secretary to publish the basis for the agency action, including an explanation as to how the action is supported by the best available, peer-reviewed scientific evidence, if the secretary chooses to depart from an ACIP recommendation.
Hickenlooper has been a fierce critic of the admin’s senseless attacks on American science. He called out RFK Jr.’s latest efforts to undermine Americans’ access to safe vaccines, helped launch an investigation into RFK Jr.’s decision to replace the ACIP experts, raised alarm about the mass firings at HHS, and demanded answers on how the firing of IVF researchers at the CDC will impact families seeking fertility treatment.
Earlier this year, he also questioned RFK Jr. on his public anti-science views and plans regarding transparency in NIH studies during RFK Jr.’s HELP confirmation hearing. Hickenlooper voted no on RFK Jr.’s nomination.
The bill is endorsed by the American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Physicians, The American Public Health Association and The Infectious Disease Society of America.
Representatives Frank Pallone and Kim Schrier introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.
Full text of the bill is available HERE.
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