Legislative Update
The Vaccine Injury Compensation Modernization Act (H.R. 5142) was introduced in 2023 as a sweeping reform proposal for the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) — the federal system that compensates individuals injured by vaccines. Although it gained strong support from the Vaccine Injured Petitioners Bar Association (VIPBA) and advocacy groups, the bill ultimately died in committee during the 118th Congress and never became law.
If it had passed, it would have represented the most significant modernization of the VICP since its creation in 1986. We will cover it here anyway, as an indication of how the lawmakers are looking at the VICP and what changes may be on the horizon, in the coming years.
The Act aimed to make the compensation process faster, fairer, and more accessible to vaccine-injured individuals. One of its central goals was to reduce the massive case backlog by increasing the number of special masters — the judges who preside over vaccine cases in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims — and by allowing them to serve longer terms. These changes were intended to help process petitions more efficiently and ease delays that have left many claimants waiting years for resolutions.
Another major reform would have transferred all COVID-19 vaccine injury claims from the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP) to the VICP. The CICP, created for public health emergencies, has been widely criticized for its lack of transparency, limited compensation, absence of a formal appeals process, and restrictive statute of limitations. By moving COVID-19 vaccine cases under the VICP, the bill sought to ensure claimants could access more generous compensation, legal representation, and a judicial process that allows for hearings, appeals, and the recovery of pain-and-suffering damages.
The Act also proposed to expand eligibility by including all adult vaccines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), ensuring that adults—not just children—would be covered for vaccine-related injuries. It would have extended the statute of limitations for filing claims from three to five years and raised the compensation caps for death and pain-and-suffering damages, indexing them to inflation so that future awards would adjust automatically. The existing cap of roughly $250,000 would have risen to approximately $600,000, reflecting decades of inflation since the program’s inception.
To improve accountability and transparency, the bill required special masters to submit annual reports detailing their caseloads, pending cases, and average decision times. It also directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to create an action plan for resource allocation and backlog reduction.
Had it passed, the Vaccine Injury Compensation Modernization Act would have significantly strengthened the legal and financial protections for individuals injured by vaccines—particularly those affected by the COVID-19 vaccination rollout. However, the bill was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Health, where it stalled and ultimately died without a vote.
As of now, the VICP continues to operate under the original framework of the 1986 Act, with unchanged compensation limits, deadlines, and procedures. The Modernization Act remains a symbol of ongoing efforts to reform a system designed to balance vaccine confidence with justice for those who experience rare but serious vaccine injuries.