Congress moves to strip vaccine makers of liability protection, opening decades of litigation
H.R. 4668 — End the Vaccine Carveout Act · Filed by Paul Gosar (R-AZ) · 30 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 23, 2025 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill eliminates the liability shield that currently protects vaccine manufacturers and administrators from lawsuits over vaccine injuries. It allows people to sue manufacturers and administrators directly in state or federal court for damages from vaccine-related injuries or deaths, removes time limits on filing claims, and repeals the election mechanism that previously forced injured parties to choose between the federal compensation program or a lawsuit. It also excludes COVID-19 vaccines from emergency-use liability protections.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is the repeal of statutory liability shields and the restoration of common-law tort remedies against vaccine manufacturers. While framed as ending a 'carveout,' it functionally deregulates vaccine liability by removing the no-fault federal compensation program and replacing it with fault-based litigation.
- Section (b) excludes COVID-19 vaccines from emergency-use liability protections under Section 319F-3, creating a separate liability regime for one vaccine type unrelated to the bill's core repeal of the general vaccine liability shield.
What the text implies
- Removal of the 36-month statute of limitations for vaccine injury claims and the 24-month limit for vaccine-related deaths creates indefinite liability exposure for manufacturers, potentially affecting vaccine development and pricing decisions decades after deployment.
- Elimination of the federal no-fault compensation program shifts burden of proof to injured parties to establish manufacturer negligence or defect in court, raising litigation costs and barriers to recovery compared to the current administrative process.
- The bill retroactively applies to injuries that occurred before enactment (Section 2116(b)(B)), potentially reopening settled claims and creating massive tail liability for manufacturers of vaccines administered years ago.
- Exclusion of COVID-19 vaccines from emergency-use liability protections while other vaccines retain some federal program access creates a two-tier liability system, potentially chilling future pandemic vaccine development.
- Removal of the election mechanism (Section 2121) means injured parties can no longer choose the faster, more certain federal program; they must litigate, increasing transaction costs and reducing predictability for both claimants and manufacturers.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Injured parties gain a direct right to sue manufacturers for damages, which may increase compensation and accountability. However, the removal of the federal compensation program's no-fault structure and time certainty may leave some injured parties worse off if they cannot prove manufacturer negligence in court, and the shift to litigation may increase costs and delays for claimants.
Who stands to gain
- personal injury law firms
- vaccine injury litigation bar
- contingency-fee attorneys
Named in the bill
vaccine manufacturers, vaccine administrators, National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, Public Health Service Act, Section 2111, 2115, 2116, 2121, 2122, 2123, 2134, Section 319F-3, Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, U.S. Court of Federal Claims
Where it stands
30 cosponsors: 30 Republicans.
- Jul 23, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 23, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $321,377 in lobbying spend. A filing names 13 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.
Paul Gosar, the sponsor, reported $87,570 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Associated General Contractors of America — $216,377 on 1 filing
- University of Oregon — $55,000 on 1 filing
- University of Illinois — $50,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (6,654 characters) on Jun 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress moves to strip vaccine makers of liability protection, opening decades of litigation” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr4668 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.