Fire Fauci Act

I 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 dur- ing the COVID–19 outbreak, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fire Fauci Act’’. 4 SEC. 2 FINDINGS. 5 Congress finds the following: 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:21 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2316.IH H2316 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2316 IH (1) The Director of the National Institute of 1 Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. An- 2 thony Fauci, M.D., earned $434,312 in 2020. 3 (2) Dr. Fauci is not only the highest paid doc- 4 tor in the Federal Government, but the highest paid 5 of any of the 4,000,000 Federal employees, includ- 6 ing the President. 7 (3) Part IV of the Executive Schedule generally 8 caps government salaries at $172,500, but Dr. 9 Fauci’s salary is much higher due to an exception 10 put in place to make Federal salaries for doctors 11 and scientists more competitive with the private sec- 12 tor. 13 (4) The role of the Director of the NIAID is to 14 ‘‘provide scientific leadership, policy guidance, and 15 overall operational and administrative coordination 16 for the Institute’’. 17 (5) NIAID is funded by American taxpayer dol- 18 lars and, as part of the National Institutes of 19 Health, seeks to apply scientific knowledge to ‘‘en- 20 hance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and 21 disability’’. 22 (6) Dr. Anthony Fauci has continually failed to 23 provide Americans with accurate information about 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:21 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2316.IH H2316 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2316 IH the COVID–19 pandemic and has shown distrust in 1 the American private sector and American ingenuity. 2 (7) In March 2020, Dr. Fauci told Americans 3 not to wear masks, noting: ‘‘There’s no reason to be 4 walking around with a mask. When you are in the 5 middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make 6 people feel a little bit better and it might even block 7 a droplet, but it is not providing the perfect protec- 8 tion that people think that it is. And, often, there 9 are unintended consequences—people keep fiddling 10 with the mask and they keep touching their face.’’. 11 (8) Now, more than a year later, he is telling 12 Americans to continue quarantining as much as pos- 13 sible and to wear a mask, maybe even into the year 14 2022. 15 (9) According to the Centers for Disease Con- 16 trol and Prevention, the vaccines have been ‘‘highly 17 effective’’ at preventing infection. Research from 18 Johns Hopkins Medicine has shown that the vaccine 19 is 95 percent effective, and also works to prevent se- 20 rious illness in the 1 in 20 people who may contract 21 COVID–19 after being vaccinated. Over 22 100,000,000 vaccines have now been administered, 23 and some studies show that those who have already 24 contracted COVID–19 may only need 1 dose of the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:21 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2316.IH H2316 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2316 IH vaccine to prevent reinfection rather than the 2 pre- 1 scribed. Despite these outcomes and his previous 2 comments, Dr. Fauci has reversed course and is now 3 sounding the alarm on COVID–19 variants, com- 4 menting: ‘‘The way we can counter [the UK vari- 5 ant], which is a growing threat in our country, is to 6 do two things: to get as many people vaccinated as 7 quickly and as expeditiously as possible with the vac- 8 cine that we know works against this variant and, 9 finally, to implement the public health measures that 10 we talk about all the time . . . masking, physical 11 distancing and avoiding congregant settings, particu- 12 larly indoors.’’. 13 (10) Dr. Fauci also now claims that herd im- 14 munity will require 80 to 85 percent of Americans 15 to get the vaccine. 16 (11) Dr. Fauci did not believe that American 17 companies such as Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & 18 Johnson would be able to produce an effective vac- 19 cine. In August 2020, he stated that the vaccine 20 might only be 50 percent effective. 21 SEC. 3. SALARY LIMITATION. 22 Section 401 of the Public Health Service Act (42 23 U.S.C. 281) is amended by adding at the end the fol- 24 lowing: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:21 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2316.IH H2316 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2316 IH ‘‘(i) RATE OF PAY OF DIRECTOR OF NIAID.— 1 ‘‘(1) REDUCTION.—For all pay periods com- 2 mencing after the date of enactment of this Act, the 3 annual rate of pay of the Director of the National 4 Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases shall be 5 reduced to $0. 6 ‘‘(2) NO ADJUSTMENT.—Paragraph (1) applies 7 only until a new Director of the National Institute 8 of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is appointed by 9 the President and confirmed by the Senate, exclud- 10 ing Dr. Anthony Fauci, M.D.’’. 11 SEC. 4. TRANSPARENCY AUDIT FOR THE OFFICE OF THE 12 DIRECTOR OF THE NIAID. 13 (a) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi- 14 sion of law, the Comptroller General of the United States 15 shall complete an audit of the digital correspondence, pol- 16 icy memoranda, and financial transactions within the Of- 17 fice of the Director of the National Institute of Allergy 18 and Infectious Diseases during the period of October 1, 19 2019, through December 31, 2021. 20 (b) REPORT TO CONGRESS.— 21 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 22 the audit required pursuant to subsection (a) is com- 23 pleted, the Comptroller General— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:21 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2316.IH H2316 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 2316 IH (A) shall submit to the Congress a report 1 on the results of such audit; and 2 (B) shall make such report available to the 3 Speaker of the House of Representatives, the 4 majority and minority leaders of the House of 5 Representatives and the Senate, and any other 6 Member of Congress who requests the report. 7 (2) CONTENTS.—The audit report under sub- 8 section (a) shall include— 9 (A) a detailed description of the digital 10 correspondence (including text messages and 11 emails) of the Director of the National Institute 12 of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from October 13 1, 2019, through December 31, 2021; 14 (B) financial transactions approved by the 15 Director of the National Institute of Allergy 16 and Infectious Diseases from October 1, 2019, 17 through December 31, 2021; and 18 (C) any memoranda or policy reports writ- 19 ten within the Office of the Director of the Na- 20 tional Institute of Allergy and Infectious Dis- 21 eases related to the COVID–19 virus outbreak. 22 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:21 Jun 02, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2316.IH H2316 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS