Trump bars federal funding for schools with COVID-19 mandates

Health Care

The Big Story

Trump pushes to defund schools requiring COVID-19 vaccination

President Trump signed an executive order Friday stripping funding from schools and other educational organizations that require students and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Trump directed newly confirmed Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as well as the head of the department of Education, to end COVID vaccine mandates, report on institutions that don't comply and develop a system to cut off federal funding.

The executive order fulfills a promise Trump made repeatedly on the campaign trail, when he pledged to strip funding from schools that require vaccines and masks and vowing to now allow COVID vaccine mandates.

Trump also previously signed an order to reinstate military service members who were dismissed for refusing the Pentagon’s own coronavirus vaccine mandate.

No states have any current COVID-19 vaccine mandates in K-12 schools. The order also doesn’t mention other childhood vaccines that schools across the country require, like diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, mumps and rubella.

Trump has demonstrated a shifting stance on COVID-19 vaccines as he and his allies have been quick to claim credit for the work of Operation Warp Speed under his first administration while at the same time decrying pro-vaccine rhetoric.

The day before Trump issued this executive order, Kennedy — a prominent and longtime vaccine skeptic — was confirmed as HHS head. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Center for Countering Digital Hate listed Kennedy as among the top spreaders of online anti-vaccine content.

Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care newsletter, we’re Nathaniel Weixel, Joseph Choi and Alejandra O'Connell-Domenech — every week we follow the latest moves on how Washington impacts your health.

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