Under the University Forced Vaccination Student Injury Mitigation Act, filed by Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) on Tuesday, colleges and universities that imposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates on campuses would be required to pay for the costs or be at risk of losing federal funds from the Education Department.

“If you are not prepared to face the consequences, you should have never committed the act,” Rosendale said in a statement. “Colleges and universities forced students to inject themselves with an experimental vaccine knowing it was not going to prevent COVID-19 while potentially simultaneously causing life-threatening health defects like Guillian-Barre Syndrome and myocarditis. It is now time for schools to be held accountable for their brazen disregard for students’ health and pay for the issues they are responsible for causing.”

Under the legislation, students could seek reimbursement for medical costs through a formal request that includes a record of COVID-19 vaccination, certification from a medical provider that the vaccine caused some sort of disease, and a detailed account of medical expenses.

Diseases covered by the legislation include myocarditis, pericarditis, thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome, Gullian-Barre Syndrome, and other diseases that the secretary of education determines are associated with a COVID-19 vaccine.

Colleges would then be required to accept requests and pay the costs within 30 days. Universities can challenge requests for being fraudulent or containing insufficient evidence.

The legislation comes as at least 17 colleges and universities still require COVID-19 vaccines for enrollment, according to data from No College Mandates. Now, lawmakers and anti-mandate groups are looking for accountability for students who experienced adverse reactions but were not given opportunities to opt out of the enrollment requirements.

“College students were stripped of their fundamental right to bodily autonomy and informed consent when colleges imposed some of the most coercive and restrictive vaccination policies,” Lucia Sinatra, co-founder of No College Mandates, said in a statement thanking Rosendale. “Countless college students have been injured by Covid-19 vaccinations.”

At least two House Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors to the legislation, including Reps. Eli Crane (R-AZ) and Bill Posey (R-FL).

“No student in the United States should face crippling medical costs because of an experimental vaccine their school forced them into receiving,” Crane said. “We must hold institutions to account for continuing to inflict COVID-era idiocy on their student body, and that’s exactly what this bill would accomplish. I’m proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation to help rectify this unjustified overreach.”

It is not yet clear whether the bill will be brought up for a vote when the House returns in November. However, even if it does pass the House, the legislation would face an uphill battle in a Democratic-led Senate.

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