[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2316 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 2316
To reduce the salary of the Director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to provide for an audit of the
correspondence, financial statements, and policy memoranda within the
Office of the Director during the COVID-19 outbreak, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 1, 2021
Mrs. Greene of Georgia introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To reduce the salary of the Director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to provide for an audit of the
correspondence, financial statements, and policy memoranda within the
Office of the Director during the COVID-19 outbreak, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Fire Fauci Act''.
SEC. 2 FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci, M.D., earned
$434,312 in 2020.
(2) Dr. Fauci is not only the highest paid doctor in the
Federal Government, but the highest paid of any of the
4,000,000 Federal employees, including the President.
(3) Part IV of the Executive Schedule generally caps
government salaries at $172,500, but Dr. Fauci's salary is much
higher due to an exception put in place to make Federal
salaries for doctors and scientists more competitive with the
private sector.
(4) The role of the Director of the NIAID is to ``provide
scientific leadership, policy guidance, and overall operational
and administrative coordination for the Institute''.
(5) NIAID is funded by American taxpayer dollars and, as
part of the National Institutes of Health, seeks to apply
scientific knowledge to ``enhance health, lengthen life, and
reduce illness and disability''.
(6) Dr. Anthony Fauci has continually failed to provide
Americans with accurate information about the COVID-19 pandemic
and has shown distrust in the American private sector and
American ingenuity.
(7) In March 2020, Dr. Fauci told Americans not to wear
masks, noting: ``There's no reason to be walking around with a
mask. When you are in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask
might make people feel a little bit better and it might even
block a droplet, but it is not providing the perfect protection
that people think that it is. And, often, there are unintended
consequences--people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep
touching their face.''.
(8) Now, more than a year later, he is telling Americans to
continue quarantining as much as possible and to wear a mask,
maybe even into the year 2022.
(9) According to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the vaccines have been ``highly effective'' at
preventing infection. Research from Johns Hopkins Medicine has
shown that the vaccine is 95 percent effective, and also works
to prevent serious illness in the 1 in 20 people who may
contract COVID-19 after being vaccinated. Over 100,000,000
vaccines have now been administered, and some studies show that
those who have already contracted COVID-19 may only need 1 dose
of the vaccine to prevent reinfection rather than the 2
prescribed. Despite these outcomes and his previous comments,
Dr. Fauci has reversed course and is now sounding the alarm on
COVID-19 variants, commenting: ``The way we can counter [the UK
variant], which is a growing threat in our country, is to do
two things: to get as many people vaccinated as quickly and as
expeditiously as possible with the vaccine that we know works
against this variant and, finally, to implement the public
health measures that we talk about all the time . . . masking,
physical distancing and avoiding congregant settings,
particularly indoors.''.
(10) Dr. Fauci also now claims that herd immunity will
require 80 to 85 percent of Americans to get the vaccine.
(11) Dr. Fauci did not believe that American companies such
as Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson would be able to
produce an effective vaccine. In August 2020, he stated that
the vaccine might only be 50 percent effective.
SEC. 3. SALARY LIMITATION.
Section 401 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 281) is
amended by adding at the end the following:
``(i) Rate of Pay of Director of NIAID.--
``(1) Reduction.--For all pay periods commencing after the
date of enactment of this Act, the annual rate of pay of the
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases shall be reduced to $0.
``(2) No adjustment.--Paragraph (1) applies only until a
new Director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases is appointed by the President and confirmed
by the Senate, excluding Dr. Anthony Fauci, M.D.''.
SEC. 4. TRANSPARENCY AUDIT FOR THE OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR OF THE NIAID.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the
Comptroller General of the United States shall complete an audit of the
digital correspondence, policy memoranda, and financial transactions
within the Office of the Director of the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases during the period of October 1, 2019, through
December 31, 2021.
(b) Report to Congress.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 1 year after the audit
required pursuant to subsection (a) is completed, the
Comptroller General--
(A) shall submit to the Congress a report on the
results of such audit; and
(B) shall make such report available to the Speaker
of the House of Representatives, the majority and
minority leaders of the House of Representatives and
the Senate, and any other Member of Congress who
requests the report.
(2) Contents.--The audit report under subsection (a) shall
include--
(A) a detailed description of the digital
correspondence (including text messages and emails) of
the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases from October 1, 2019, through
December 31, 2021;
(B) financial transactions approved by the Director
of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases from October 1, 2019, through December 31,
2021; and
(C) any memoranda or policy reports written within
the Office of the Director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases related to the COVID-19
virus outbreak.
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