Save Local Business Act This bill provides that a person may be considered a joint employer in relation to an employee under federal labor law only if such person directly, actually, and immediately (and not in a limited and routine manner) exercises significant control over the essential terms and conditions of employment. Such control may by demonstrated by hiring and discharging employees, determining individual employee rates of pay and benefits, day-to-day supervision of employees, assigning individual work schedules, positions, and tasks, and administering employee discipline.
Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act This bill expedites payment of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and eligibility for Medicare coverage for those with metastatic breast cancer (i.e., breast cancer that has spread to other sites in the body). Specifically, the bill eliminates the 5-month waiting period for SSDI benefits and the subsequent 24-month waiting period for Medicare coverage for individuals with metastatic breast cancer. Under current law, individuals generally must wait five months after the onset of disability to begin receiving SSDI benefits and an additional 24 months to become eligible for Medicare.
Fairness for Farm Workers Act This bill extends overtime pay protections to agricultural workers. The bill requires employers, beginning in 2022, to compensate agricultural workers for hours worked in excess of their regular hours (i.e., 55 hours in 2022, 50 hours in 2023, 45 hours in 2024, and 40 hours in 2025) at not less than one and one-half times the employee's regular rate. For employers with 25 or fewer employees, the overtime pay requirements begin in 2025. These overtime pay requirements do not apply, as under current law, to employees who are the parent, spouse, child, or other member of the employer's immediate family. The bill also repeals the exemption from overtime pay requirements for employers in various agriculture-related industries, including certain small farms, irrigation projects, sugar processing, and cotton ginning and compressing.
I am Vanessa Guillén Act of 2021 This bill addresses the policies and procedures of the Department of Defense (DOD) for cases or allegations of sex-related offenses.
Student Loan Marriage Penalty Elimination Act of 2021 This bill allows married couples filing a joint tax return to apply the $2,500 limitation on the tax deduction for student loan interest separately to each spouse.
Israel Sovereignty Reassurance Act of 2021 This bill prohibits using funds made available to the Department of State for FY2022 to implement, administer, or enforce any policy that rescinds the U.S. recognition of the Golan Heights as part of Israel.
Homes for Every Local Protector, Educator, and Responder Act of 2021 or the HELPER Act of 2021 This bill establishes a program administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide mortgage assistance to law enforcement officers, elementary and secondary school teachers, firefighters, or other first responders. Specifically, these individuals may be eligible for a one-time mortgage on a primary family residence with no down payment and no monthly mortgage insurance premium.
Stop CRT Act This bill grants Executive Order 13950 the force and effect of law. That order prohibits federal agencies and contractors from advancing specified policies or training related to race or sex.
Nurses for Under-Resourced Schools Everywhere Act or the NURSE Act This bill establishes a demonstration grant program through which the Department of Education must award matching funds to increase the number of school nurses in public elementary and secondary schools served by a local educational agency in which at least 20% of students are eligible to participate in the school lunch program.
Hot Cars Act of 2021 This bill requires safety measures in passenger cars to reduce injuries or deaths from heatstroke and other harms to occupants of unattended vehicles. Specifically, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) must issue a motor vehicle safety standard that requires certain new passenger motor vehicles to include a system that detects and warns of the presence of an unattended occupant in the passenger compartment. The NHTSA must issue the final rule prescribing the safety standard within two years after the enactment of this bill, with full compliance with the standard required not later than two years after the rule is issued. After the standard is issued, the Department of Transportation must periodically contract with an independent third party to study retrofitting passenger motor vehicles with technologies and products that detect and warn when there is an unattended occupant in the passenger compartment. The study must identify relevant technologies and products to retrofit vehicles and provide recommendations about testing such technologies and products. Information about the performance of the technologies and products must be published on the NHTSA's website.
Health Equity and Access under the Law for Immigrant Women and Families Act of 2021 or the HEAL Immigrant Women and Families Act of 20 21 This bill extends Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program coverage to individuals lawfully present in the United States who otherwise meet eligibility requirements. Individuals granted federally authorized presence also are required to maintain minimum essential health insurance coverage and are eligible for health insurance exchanges, reduced cost sharing, premium subsidies, and premium tax credits.
Nurse Staffing Standards for Patient Safety and Quality Care Act of 2021 This bill requires hospitals to implement and submit to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a staffing plan that complies with specified minimum nurse-to-patient ratios by unit. Hospitals must post a notice regarding nurse-to-patient ratios in each unit and maintain records of actual ratios for each shift in each unit. The bill also requires hospitals to follow certain procedures regarding how ratios are determined and other staff are prohibited from performing nurse functions unless specifically authorized within a state's scope of practice rules, among other requirements. HHS must adjust Medicare payments to hospitals to cover additional costs attributable to compliance with these ratios. Nurses may object to, or refuse to participate in, an assignment if it would violate minimum ratios or if they are not prepared by education or experience to fulfill the assignment without compromising the safety of a patient or jeopardizing their nurse's license. Hospitals may not (1) take adverse actions against a nurse based on the nurse's reasonable refusal to accept an assignment; or (2) discriminate against individuals for good faith complaints relating to the care, services, or conditions of the hospital or related facilities. HHS may impose civil monetary penalties on hospitals violating the ratio requirements and must publish the names of such hospitals. The bill provides stipends to the nurse workforce loan repayment and scholarship program and expands the nurse retention grant program to include nurse preceptorship and mentorship projects.
