Dan Crenshaw responds to criticism of vaccine database vote

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Austin, TX, 1 hour ago – At a campaign event on Sunday, Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX-02) hit back at unhappy critics of his votes funding vaccine database systems and military spending.

“We have crooks among us. Not here in this room, I mean in the Conservative movement, ”Crenshaw said as he joined congressional candidates Wesley Hunt and Morgan Luttrell on stage for a“ fireside chat ”at a northwest restaurant. of Harris County.

Last week, Crenshaw was one of 80 House Republicans who joined Democrats to vote for the Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2021 (HR 550), which allocates $ 400 million to states to upgrade update immunization information systems (IIS).

“You heard online that 80 Republicans voted to follow you in a vaccine database,” Crenshaw told more than 200 people. “If that sounds too ridiculous to be true, it probably isn’t.”

Following the passage of HR 550, Crenshaw and other Republican members of the Texas delegation came under heavy criticism for supporting what many fear is a national vaccine database that would allow the federal government to track and possibly punish unvaccinated citizens. But Crenshaw vigorously contested this characterization of the bill.

“Unfortunately, a lot of Republicans you trust are lying to you. They want you to believe they’ve stood up to a “new vaccine database”. But they are lying. There is no new database, ”Crenshaw said in a written statement to the Texan.

Instead, Crenshaw notes that the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) passed by Congress “without a single GOP vote” last March had already included funding for existing vaccine databases at the level of the GOP. ‘State, but without any guarantee or limitation on the data collected.

“We just made the current databases… secure against federal government tracking. “

Critics point to the wording of the bill authorizing grants to improve “the secure two-way exchange of immunization record data between federal, state, local, tribal and territorial government entities and non-government entities.”

The author of the bill, Representative Ann Kuster (D-NH-02) said in a press release that the HR 550 would “strengthen the security of the two-way exchange”, but also said that the systems could also be used to “remind patients when they need a recommended vaccine.

However, Republicans who voted for HR 550 say the legislation requires all states receiving funds to strengthen cybersecurity and prevent existing state systems from sharing individual vaccine data with the federal government.

“It is explicitly designed to improve data security and privacy protection. Republicans were rightly worried about this, which is why the HR 550 was designed with clear privacy guarantees to fix it, ”Crenshaw said in a statement to the Texan. “We did not want the authoritarian governors of the blue states to pass personal information about the vaccination to the [Centers for Disease Control] CDC, or have a hacker steal personal vaccine data. “

All 50 states maintain vaccine databases, and the Texas Department of State Health Services offers voluntary participation in a vaccine registry known as ImmTrac2. Since the introduction of the new vaccines, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) has tracked COVID-19 vaccination status and reports that nearly 70% of the state’s population is fully vaccinated.

DSHS reports aggregated demographics to the CDC and is already notifying individuals when they need to receive a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine via text message.

Other Texas Republicans who supported HR 550, Michael Burgess (R-TX-26), John Carter (R-TX-31), Tony Gonzales (R-TX-23) and Michael McCaul (R-TX-10) , were also criticized for supporting HR 550.

Crenshaw notes that he has introduced legislation prohibiting federal agencies from requiring passports for vaccines for interstate commerce, and has supported other resolutions opposing vaccine warrants.

Under the Trump administration, the US Department of Health and Human Services provided $ 20 million to community-level immunization information systems to help “track immunization progress, help clinicians contact high-risk patients and help identify patients who should receive the second dose of the vaccine. vaccine.”

In addition to his vote on IIS funding, Crenshaw has also lashed out at groups who accused him of supporting “red flag” laws that attempt to deny the possession of guns to certain citizens in Canada. due to mental health issues that were incorporated into a proposed military spending measure.

“The truth was that this was not the final bill and there was already an agreement that there would be no such provisions in the final bill. We’re currently voting on the final bill this week, and guess what? No red flag laws in there, ”Crenshaw said, adding that he was the only member of Congress to have a bill banning red flag laws at the federal level.

“On this particular lie, the crooks went ahead, the Gun Owners of America, because they were trying to raise money,” Crenshaw added.

Last month Jameson Ellis, who had planned to run in the 8th Congressional District until the latest redistribution cards put him in Congressional District 2, announced he would challenge Crenshaw in the Republican primary. of 2022. A small business owner, Ellis has expressed strong opposition to the red flag laws.

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