6/7/2021 UPDATE
Dear Texas NVIC Advocacy Team Members,
We just wanted to reach out and let you know the great news that Governor Abbott just tweeted that he plans to sign SB 968 BANNING COVID-19 VACCINE PASSPORTS IN TEXAS today! Because the bill was passed by such a large margin, this goes into effect immediately. This means, yes, you can stop calling the Governor now.
His tweet said: “I’m signing a law today that prohibits any business operating in Texas from requiring vaccine passports or any vaccine information. Texas is open 100% without any restrictions or limitations or requirements.”
What Protections are Included in Section 10 of SB 968:
All government entities in Texas are prohibited from issuing a vaccine passport, vaccine pass, or other standardized documentation to certify an individual’s COVID-19 vaccination status or to publish or share a person’s COVID-19 vaccine record for a purpose other than health care.
All businesses in Texas are prohibited from requiring a customer to provide any documentation certifying the customer’s COVID-19 vaccination or post-transmission recovery on entry to, to access, or to receive service from the business. A business that fails to comply, is not eligible to receive a grant or enter into a contract payable with state funds.
Each appropriate state agency shall ensure that businesses in Texas comply and they may require compliance as a condition for a license, permit, or other state authorization necessary for conducting business in Texas.
What the new law does NOT cover is a prohibition on COVID-19 vaccine employer mandates.
Getting employee protections from mandated COVID-19 vaccines into law will be a high priority for us during any special sessions called. Please stay in touch with emails from us about this in the coming weeks.
Today is the last day of work for the brave workers at Baytown Houston Methodist Hospital who are being fired for not taking the COVID-19 vaccine. If you are close by the Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital, please go to the back parking lot tonight, June 7th, about 7:30 pm to show support as Jennifer Hamburg-Bridges and many others exit the facility on their last shift. Many showed up to testify in favor of SB 1669 and now we need to support them. Here is the request she posted yesterday on her Facebook page:
“Hey I'm desperately asking for everyone's help to come show up and support and spread this message like crazy today! Tomorrow is our last day for now. I want them to know we made this decision on our own accord and we are proud of it! At the end of my shift tomorrow around 7:30 at night I will be joined by many other staff members who made the same decision. We will walk out together in a group very proudly! And I'm asking anybody in the public who wants to come show their support to please join us in the back parking lot of Baytown Methodist. We will be coming out the back main entrance behind the building. Please come and show your support and cheer us on. This is an extremely emotional time. I want Methodist to know the public is behind us. Let everyone you know who is willing to show up tomorrow night. Thank you so much! I appreciate any and all support ![😊]()
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Texans from across the state truly came together to advocate to protect their rights to be free to make a personal decision about COVID-19 vaccination free from punishment, discrimination or segregation for declining to take the vaccine.
We are sending a huge heartfelt thank you to the dedicated legislators and staff who made this happen, and to everyone who attended a hearing, testified, visited with a legislator, made a phone call or sent an email, or prayed.
The passage of SB 968 in Texas and SB 2006 in Florida, has already had an impact for the better for consumers as Royal Caribbean Cruise lines has said it won’t make people boarding from Texas or Florida get a COVID-19 vaccine. (See http://NVICAdvocacy.org for history of these bills).
Recent Media Coverage: https://www.kxan.com/news/texas-politics/gov-greg-abbott-texas-businesses-will-be-forbidden-from-requiring-proof-of-vaccination/
If you want to share this post on social media, please use this link:
https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Resources/NewsletterArchives/HelpPassNoCOVID19VaccinePassportorMandates.aspx
Sincerely,
Dawn Richardson, Director of Advocacy
National Vaccine Information Center
http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org
https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Members/ContactUs.aspx
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) works diligently to prepare and disseminate our legislative advocacy action alerts and supporting materials. We request that organizations and members of the public forward our alerts in their original form to assure consistent and accurate messaging and effective action. Please acknowledge NVIC as originators of this work when forwarding to members of the public and like-minded organizations. To receive alerts immediately, register at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, a website dedicated to this sole purpose and provided as a free public service by NVIC.
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5/31/2021 UPDATE
Texas Legislature Passes a Vaccine Passport Ban For COVID-19 Vaccines!
As the 2021 Texas legislative session comes to a close on this Memorial Day, Texans can be grateful that freedom from COVID-19 vaccine passports is just one step away from becoming a state law.
Senator Lois Kolkhorst amended her bill, SB 968, with the COVID-19 vaccine passport ban. The bill has passed the Senate and the House fully with just a day to spare. Next it gets sent to Governor Greg Abbott who will have 20 days to sign the bill, veto it, or allow it to become law without a signature. Please see the action request below to contact Governor Abbott to encourage him to sign SB 968.
What Protections are Included in Section 10 of SB 968:
All government entities in Texas are prohibited from issuing a vaccine passport, vaccine pass, or other standardized documentation to certify an individual’s COVID-19 vaccination status or to publish or share a person’s COVID-19 vaccine record for a purpose other than health care.
All businesses in Texas are prohibited from requiring a customer to provide any documentation certifying the customer’s COVID-19 vaccination or post-transmission recovery on entry to, to access, or to receive service from the business. A business that fails to comply, is not eligible to receive a grant or enter into a contract payable with state funds.
Each appropriate state agency shall ensure that businesses in Texas comply and they may require compliance as a condition for a license, permit, or other state authorization necessary for conducting business in Texas.
What did not pass this session was a prohibition on COVID-19 vaccine employer mandates. That protection was amended into another bill in the Senate, HB 4272, but House conference committee legislators, heavily lobbied by industry, removed it. Getting employee protections from mandated COVID-19 vaccines into law will be a high priority for us during any special sessions called.
Texans from across the state came together to advocate to protect their rights to be free to make a personal decision about COVID-19 vaccination free from punishment, discrimination or segregation for declining to take the vaccine.
We are sending a heartfelt thank you to the dedicated legislators and staff who made this happen, and to everyone who attended a hearing, visited with a legislator, made a phone call or sent an email, or prayed.
Action Needed:
For the next three weeks, to help get this over the finish line, please send a message to Governor Greg Abbott on the web contact form https://gov.texas.gov/contact asking him to SIGN SB 968 and tell him why no vaccine passports is important to your family. Also please start calling him at (512) 463-2000 from 9am-5pm starting on Tuesday June 1st asking him to sign SB 968. Governor Abbott has stated that “these vaccines are always voluntary and never forced” and we hope that he offers his signature to SB 968 to make this a reality in Texas law.
Sincerely,
Dawn Richardson, Director of Advocacy
National Vaccine Information Center
http://NVIC.org and http://NVICAdvocacy.org
https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Members/ContactUs.aspx
The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) works diligently to prepare and disseminate our legislative advocacy action alerts and supporting materials. We request that organizations and members of the public forward our alerts in their original form to assure consistent and accurate messaging and effective action. Please acknowledge NVIC as originators of this work when forwarding to members of the public and like-minded organizations. To receive alerts immediately, register at http://NVICAdvocacy.org, a website dedicated to this sole purpose and provided as a free public service by NVIC.
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EMERGENCY ALERT TO HELP PASS PROHIBITION OF VACCINE PASSPORTS AND FORCED AND COERCED COVID-19 VACCINATION BY GOVERNMENT, EMPLOYERS AND BUSINESS
ACTION NEEDED NOW, SATURDAY MAY 29th ASAP TO CALL AND EMAIL LEGISLATORS
MEDICAL TRADE LOBBY TRYING TO GET HOUSE CONFERNCE COMMITTEE MEMBERS TO STRIP AMENDED PROTECTIONS IN HB 4272
Dear Texas NVIC Advocacy Team Members,
It is absolutely critical if you want to live your life in Texas without COVID-19 vaccine passports and forced COVID-19 vaccines for your job or to enter a business, you need to hit the ground running on Saturday Morning May 29th contacting some Texas legislators and to get this message to as many family and friends that you can to do the same.
This will not take long and it is absolutely critical since session ends Monday May 31st, time is running out, and the next session isn’t for another 2 years! Don’t regret tomorrow what you could have done today!
Thanks to everyone’s calls and emails and testimony, and some amazing legislators, even though SB 1669 did not make it out of committee, 2 bills have been amended with protections to stop vaccine passports and coerced or forced vaccination with COVID-19 vaccines.
SB 968, is a pandemic preparedness bill that Senator Kolkhorst amended in the Senate to prohibit vaccine passports, stop the government from sharing vaccine information to third parties, and prevent businesses from asking your COVID-19 vaccination status to gain access or services. While this is very good, this bill unfortunately does not go far enough and prevent employers from mandating vaccines. It passed the Senate and the House. Some minor amendments were added in the House and the Senate just received the bill and we are waiting to see if those changes will be approved by the Senate or the bill will go to conference committee. Nothing to do here yet, but be ready for an update.
The following bill is the one where we need your action.
HB 4272: is an unfavorable unnecessary huge expansion of the childhood state vaccine tracking system to include all adults. This system requires tracking of COVID-19 vaccines without consent or ability to remove data.
If this bill passes, registry data can be used to determine who didn’t get a COVID-19 vaccine since everyone who gets the vaccine is required to be in there. Anyone having access to the registry will be able to use the data to discriminate against you.
Also, the bill requires the vaccine provider to ask the adult or parent to consent to the registry but there are NO PENALTIES for vaccine providers who lie or make a careless mistake putting a person in the registry who didn’t give consent.
The bill was amended in the senate with all the positive and protective language in SB 968 and it was additionally amended to prohibit an employer from firing or refusing to hire an employee based on COVID-19 vaccination status.
The House is refusing to accept these amendments forcing the provisions of the bill to get debated in a conference committee. If the House gets its way, this bill will be reduced to a DANGEROUS AND INTRUSIVE VACCINE TRACKING SYSTEM NOW ALSO INCLUDING ADULTS THAT IS REQUIRED TO TRACK EVERY COVID-19 VACCINE GIVEN WITHOUT CONSENT AND KEEP IT FOR 7 YEARS WITH NO WAY OUT.
Without the Senate amendments, this tracking system will be able to be used to force or coerce COVID-19 vaccines by those who have access to the registry. Doctors will be able to use the information in the registry to deny health care treatment to those who don’t want a COVID-19 vaccine unless the Senate Amendments are kept. Also, without the Senate amendments, employers can make COVID-19 vaccines conditional for employment.
ACTION NEEDED
1) Email and call members of the HB 4272 Conference Committee and tell them:
a. Kill HB 4272 expanded vaccine tracking if the Senate amendments to prohibit COVID-19 vaccine passports and required COVID-19 vaccines by businesses and employers are removed. Law-abiding healthy citizens should not lose their jobs or be segregated and discriminated against for not taking a COVID-19 vaccine.
b. HB 4272 should be killed because the adult expansion and new consent procedures of the state vaccine tracking registry can be used by doctors and vaccine providers to illicitly put everyone in this state surveillance database because there are no penalties for putting you in if you don’t give consent. Doctors and vaccine providers should have penalties and liability for any problems caused to a person put into the registry without their consent.
c. Without these protections prohibiting businesses or employers from denying access or service based on COVID-19 vaccination status, anyone who has access to the registry, including doctors and health care facilities, will be able to use the required data in vaccine tracking registry to discriminate or deny health care treatment to patients refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine much like they did to people who wouldn’t take a COVID-19 test or wear a mask.
d. These amended protections are needed because SB 968 doesn’t protect employees and Governor Greg Abbott’s Executive Order GA 35 falls short at meaningful protection against COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The executive order does not prohibit employers or businesses not funded by the government from requiring vaccines and it allows the government and businesses to require vaccines once the Emergency Use Authorization goes away when the vaccines are fully licensed by the FDA. Moderna is already seeking full FDA approval, and Pfizer announced it would seek full approval in the first half of 2021. This registry will be used to enforce those mandates.
e. Texans deserve NO Forced COVID-19 Vaccinations, NO Vaccine Passports, No Exceptions!
EMAIL: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
(call after 11:30 a.m. since floor sessions start at 1:00 p.m.)
Senator Kolkhorst, (512) 463-0118
Senator Blanco, (512) 463-0129
Senator Hall, (512) 463-0102
Senator Hughes, (512) 463-0101
Senator Perry, (512) 463-0128
Representative Klick, (512) 463-0599
Representative Howard, (512) 463-0631
Representative Jetton, (512) 463-0710
Representative Oliverson, (512) 463-0661
Representative Zwiener, (512) 463-0647
2) Email and call Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, [email protected], and call after 11:30 am Saturday (floor session starts at 1:00 p.m.) phone (512) 463-0001 and tell him to kill HB 4272 expanding the vaccine tracking system to adults if the Senate Amendments to prohibit COVID-19 vaccine passports and forced COVID-19 vaccines by businesses and employers are removed. You can use the talking points above.
3) Call Governor Greg Abbott, phone (512) 463-2000 from 9am-5pm and send the message on the web contact form https://gov.texas.gov/contact to VETO HB 4272 if the Senate amendments to prohibit COVID-19 vaccine passports and forced COVID-19 vaccines by businesses and employers are removed. You can use the talking points above.
4) Please forward this email to family and friends. This alert is also posted at: https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Resources/NewsletterArchives/HelpPassNoCovid19VaccinePassportorMandates.aspx
5) Text friends and family the following: EMERGENCY ALERT TO HELP PASS PROHIBITION OF VACCINE PASSPORTS AND FORCED AND COERCED COVID-19 VACCINATION BY GOVERNMENT, EMPLOYERS AND BUSINESS. ACTION NEEDED NOW, SATURDAY MAY 29th ASAP TO CALL AND EMAIL LEGISLATORS. For more information: https://nvicadvocacy.org/members/Resources/NewsletterArchives/HelpPassNoCovid19VaccinePassportorMandates.aspx