I 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 5903 
To address Federal employees who comply with Executive Order 14043, 
and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 5, 2021 
Mr. JACOBS of New York (for himself, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. BABIN, Mr. 
CRAWFORD, Mr. TIFFANY, Mr. BURCHETT, Mr. JOHNSON of South Da-
kota, Mr. CALVERT, Mrs. MILLER-MEEKS, and Mr. ISSA) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Re-
form 
A BILL 
To address Federal employees who comply with Executive 
Order 14043, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Having Employees Re-
turn to Duty Act’’ or the ‘‘HERD Act’’. 
SEC. 2. EXECUTIVE ORDER 14043. 
(a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 
(1) the terms ‘‘agency’’ and ‘‘employee’’ have 
the meanings given the terms in section 3 of the Ex-
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ecutive Order, except that the term ‘‘agency’’ does 
not include the Department of Defense; 
(2) the term ‘‘covered employee’’ means an em-
ployee who has complied with the requirements of 
the Executive Order; and 
(3) the term ‘‘Executive Order’’ means Execu-
tive Order 14043 (86 Fed. Reg. 50989; relating to 
requiring Coronavirus Disease 2019 vaccination for 
Federal employees). 
(b) REQUIREMENT.— 
(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 
beginning on the date that is 60 days after the date 
of enactment of this Act, the head of each agency 
shall, with respect to each covered employee em-
ployed by the agency, require the covered employee 
to work from the duty station of the covered em-
ployee, and to work the hours worked by the covered 
employee, as of February 15, 2020. 
(2) EXEMPTIONS.— 
(A) NEWLY HIRED EMPLOYEES.—If a cov-
ered employee was not employed by the applica-
ble agency as of February 15, 2020, the re-
quirements under paragraph (1) shall apply to 
the covered employee with respect to the duty 
station and hours of the individual who occu-
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pied the position of the covered employee, as of 
that date. 
(B) SIGNIFICANT COMMUNITY SPREAD.— 
The head of an agency may implement different 
policies than, or supplemental policies to, the 
requirements under paragraph (1), including by 
requiring social distancing at a particular work-
site, if the agency head finds that— 
(i) there is substantial transmission of 
COVID–19 within a community in which 
the requirements of that paragraph would 
otherwise be carried out, as determined by 
the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention; and 
(ii) implementing those different or 
supplemental policies will not degrade the 
level of service that the agency provides to 
the public. 
(C) IMMUNOCOMPROMISED
EMPLOYEE.— 
No 
covered 
employee 
that 
is 
immunocompromised shall be required to be 
physically present at a duty station under the 
requirements under paragraph (1). 
Æ 
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