The House of Representatives just passed House Resolution 550, also known as the “Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2021.”
The purpose of this bill is to get funding for “immunization system data modernization and expansion.”
Couched in more ambiguous terms such as “expand, enhance, and improve immunization information systems,” it essentially means that the government wants to be able to track who has and who has not been vaccinated.
As the bill officially defined it, “immunization information system’ means a confidential, population-based, computerized database that records immunization doses administered by any health care provider to persons within the geographic area covered by that database.”
This sounds like something that would only be backed by Democrats, but a healthy minority of Republican representatives voted in favor of this bill as well.
While 214 Democrats voted yes, 80 Republicans joined them in supporting the bill, as the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives reported.
Surprisingly, representatives for Kentucky, Florida, Nebraska and Texas were among some of the Republicans that voted in favor of passing the bill.
These representatives voted to allow $400 million in taxpayer funding to go toward tracking vaccine rates.
The bill is a large point of contention for some House members.
Republican Rep. Jefferson Van Drew of New Jersey voted no and spoke out strongly against the bill.
“This bill is another attempt by House Democrats to extend their government overreach by tracking unvaccinated individuals and recording personal health decisions made by the American people,” Van Drew said, Insider NJ reported.
“There is no reason that $400 million in taxpayer dollars should be used to fund a program that creates a database to store citizens private medical information regarding vaccination status,” he said.
“This majority in Congress is doing everything in their power to seize control of Americans and exert federal control in every aspect of our daily lives. We see time and time again Democrats wasting taxpayer dollars on legislation like this.”
Van Drew said that Democrats should be focusing instead on inflation, rising gas prices and the supply chain crisis.
“As legislators, we should be ensuring Americans are able to put food on the table and that shelves are stocked for the holidays, not spending more money to create an unnecessary and useless program,” he said.
The bill’s main sponsor, Democratic Rep. Ann Kuster from New Hampshire, said that the bill is meant to help health care providers and patients.
“These systems can allow providers to keep vaccines and supplies in stock, prevent over – or under – vaccination, remind patients when they are due for a recommended vaccine, and identify areas with low vaccination rates to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines,” she said in a statement.
But there should be some hesitation over increasing government abilities to track individuals, even if it is as well-protected and secure as the bill’s supporters say.
Like Republican Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois (who voted no) noted, this could allow the federal government to “track” unvaccinated Americans who could then “be targeted and forced to comply with [President Joe] Biden’s crazy ‘global vaccination’ vision.”
“These systems are designed to allow for the sharing of crucial information and maintenance of records. Do we really trust the government to protect our medical records?” Miller told Breitbart News.
“The bill’s author even bragged in her press release that these systems will help the government remind patients when they are due for a recommended vaccine and identify areas with low vaccination rates to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines. This was clearly a legislative tool to enforce vaccine mandates and force their Orwellian rules onto those who do not comply.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.