Veterans Cannabis Use for Safe Healing Act This bill prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from denying a veteran any VA benefit due to participation in a state-approved marijuana program. For veterans participating in these approved programs, the VA must ensure its health care providers (1) discuss marijuana use with such veterans and adjust treatment plans accordingly, and (2) record such use in the veterans' medical records. Under the bill, the VA shall authorize physicians and other VA health care providers to provide recommendations to veterans who are residents of states with approved programs.
American Innovation and Jobs Act This bill revises and expands the deductibility of research and experimental expenditures to allow immediate expensing of such expenditures. It also allows the amortization over a period of at least 60 months of certain other types of research and experimental expenditures not treated as expenses. The bill increases the maximum amount eligible for the tax credit for new and small businesses and increases to 20% the rate of the credit for business startups.
Trade Security Act of 2021 This bill revises provisions related to the adjustment of U.S. imports due to a national security threat. The bill allows Congress to block a presidential import adjustment through a joint resolution. This provision retroactively applies to adjustments made on or after July 1, 2018. However, it shall not apply to specified steel and aluminum import adjustments. The Department of Defense (currently, the Department of Commerce) must investigate the national security threat of a U.S. import, and report to the President the results of that investigation. Commerce must provide recommendations regarding such imports upon request by the President.
Report and Educate About Campus Hazing Act or the REACH Act This bill requires institutions of higher education (IHEs) that participate in federal student-aid programs to report hazing incidents and implement hazing education programs. Specifically, the bill requires each IHE to disclose hazing incidents that were reported to campus officials in its annual security report. The bill defines the term hazing to mean any intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed by a student, or a former student, of an IHE against another student (regardless of that student's willingness to participate), that (1) is connected with an initiation into, an affiliation with, or the maintenance of membership in an organization that is affiliated with the IHE (e.g., an athletic team); and (2) contributes to a substantial risk of physical injury, mental harm, or degradation or causes physical injury, mental harm, or personal degradation. In addition, each IHE must implement a comprehensive program to prevent hazing, which must include information on hazing awareness, hazing prevention, and the IHE's policies on hazing.
Open and Responsive Government Act of 2021 This bill limits the extent to which federal agencies may exempt information from requests to disclose agency records under the Freedom of Information Act, including prohibiting the withholding of a portion of an otherwise responsive record on the basis that the portion is nonresponsive.
This bill revises the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. Under the program, the Environmental Protection Agency issues permits to discharge pollutants into waters of the United States. The bill extends the maximum term for NPDES permits issued to states or municipalities from 5 to 10 years.
Rim of the Valley Corridor Preservation Act This bill adjusts the boundary of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in California as depicted on a specified map to include the Rim of the Valley Unit. The Rim of the Valley Unit, and any lands or interests acquired by the United States and located within its boundaries, shall be administered as part of the recreation area. The Department of the Interior may acquire only through exchange, donation, or purchase from a willing seller any nonfederal land within the boundaries of the Rim of the Valley Unit.
Grand Canyon Protection Act This bill withdraws 1,006,545 acres of federal lands in Arizona, including any land or interest in land acquired by the United States after enactment of this bill, from entry, appropriation, and disposal under the public land laws; location, entry, and patent under the mining laws; and operation of the mineral leasing and geothermal leasing laws and mineral materials laws.
Water Recycling Investment and Improvement Act This bill makes permanent, and otherwise revises, the Bureau of Reclamation's grant program for the funding of water recycling and reuse projects. Specifically, the bill removes priority under the program for projects in areas that, in the preceding four-year period, have been (1) identified as experiencing severe, extreme, or exceptional drought; or (2) designated as a disaster area by a state. Additionally, the bill increases through FY2025 the authorization of appropriations for the program and otherwise revises provisions related to program funding.
Clearing Lines along Electrical At-Risk Zones Act This bill revises requirements related to vegetation management practices and forest management activities. The bill redefines hazard trees as trees that come within 50 feet (rather than 10 feet, as under current law) of an electric power line. Hazard trees are subject to certain management activities under current law. A vegetation management, facility inspection, and operation and maintenance plan shall describe processes for consultation with private landowners with respect to hazard trees identified for removal. Such plans must be approved according to specified deadlines. The bill generally excludes specified forest management activities from certain environmental assessment and environmental impact statement requirements. Specifically, the bill excludes from these requirements (1) the development and approval of a vegetation management, facility inspection, and operation and maintenance plan; and (2) the implementation of routine activities conducted under such a plan. The use of this exclusion shall not be subject to extraordinary circumstances procedures.
Combustion Avoidance along Rural Roads Act or the CARR Act This bill exempts wildfire mitigation activities conducted within 300 feet of a road from all laws governing environmental review of proposed agency actions or protection of endangered or threatened species. Mitigation activities are those that are conducted by Department of the Interior or the Department of Agriculture on federal land that is administered by the National Park System, the Bureau of Land Management, or the Forest Service. Mitigation activities include forest thinning, hazardous fuel reduction, prescribed burning, and vegetation management.
This resolution supports the designation of Eddie Bernice Johnson Black Women in Science and Technology Month.
