Conservation Funding Protection Act This bill requires the Department of the Interior to hold at least two region-wide oil and gas lease sales per year in the Gulf of Mexico. Each lease sale must include areas in the Central Gulf of Mexico Planning Area and the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area. In addition, the bill establishes deadlines for completing environmental reviews of the lease sales.
Improving Confidence in Veterans' Care Act This bill prescribes oversight requirements for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) regarding health care professionals at VA medical centers. Specifically, the bill requires the VA to ensure each VA medical center consistently compiles, verifies, and reviews specified documentation for each VA health care professional (including contractors). The VA shall ensure that specified health care professionals hold an active Drug Enforcement Administration registration. Each VA medical center must implement (1) monitoring of the performance and quality of the health care delivered by each health care professional at the center, and (2) reviews of such care if an individual notifies the VA of any potential concerns relating to a failure to meet generally accepted standards of clinical practice. The bill imposes notification requirements in situations where the VA substantiates a concern relating to the clinical competency of, or quality of care delivered by, a current or former VA health care professional. The VA is prohibited from entering into a settlement agreement relating to an adverse action against a VA health care professional if such agreement includes terms that require the VA to conceal certain information from the employee's personnel file. Such prohibition does not apply to adverse actions determined to be prohibited personnel practices. The VA must provide mandatory training, at least biannually, to employees of each medical center who are responsible for specified tasks (e.g., those who are responsible for compiling, validating, or reviewing the credentials of VA health care professionals).
Reducing Antiquated Permitting for Infrastructure Deployment Act or the RAPID Act This bill modifies review requirements for deployment of a small personal wireless service facility and establishes a presumption related to the deployment of wireless facilities on properties owned by an Indian tribe or a Native Hawaiian organization. Specifically, the bill exempts the deployment of a small personal wireless service facility from specified environmental and historic preservation review requirements. The bill also establishes a rebuttable presumption that a wireless provider has completed a request for review if an Indian tribe or a Native Hawaiian organization has received certain completed forms with information reasonably necessary to ascertain whether historic properties of religious and cultural significance may be affected by the deployment of new or collocated wireless facilities.
This resolution requests that the President transmit to the House of Representatives documents related to the amount of funding that was provided in specified laws regarding COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) and is currently unspent. The specified laws include the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020; the Families First Coronavirus Response Act; the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act); the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act; and Division N of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021.
This resolution impeaches President Donald John Trump for high crimes and misdemeanors. Specifically, the resolution sets forth an article of impeachment stating that President Trump incited an insurrection against the government of the United States. The article states that prior to the joint session of Congress held on January 6, 2021, to count the votes of the electoral college, President Trump repeatedly issued false statements asserting that the presidential election results were fraudulent and should not be accepted by the American people or certified by state or federal officials; shortly before the joint session commenced, President Trump reiterated false claims to a crowd near the White House and willfully made statements to the crowd that encouraged and foreseeably resulted in lawless action at the Capitol; members of the crowd, incited by President Trump, unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol and engaged in other violent, destructive, and seditious acts, including the killing of a law enforcement officer; President Trump's conduct on January 6, 2021, followed his prior efforts to subvert and obstruct the certification of the presidential election, which included a threatening phone call to the Secretary of State of Georgia on January 2, 2021; President Trump gravely endangered the security of the United States and its institutions of government, threatened the integrity of the democratic system, interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and imperiled a coequal branch of government; and by such conduct, President Trump warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold U.S. office.
Protecting Providers Everywhere in America Act or the PPE in America Act This bill makes temporary changes to the management of the inventory of diagnostic testing supplies and personal protective equipment in the Strategic National Stockpile. Through FY2026, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must source a certain amount of those products from domestic manufacturers. Additionally, HHS must periodically assess and take steps to manage the inventory of those products. This includes, as appropriate, transfers or sales to federal agencies and health care facilities. The bill also provides HHS with additional authorities to manage the inventory. For example, HHS may enter into arrangements with manufacturers to establish revolving stockpiles to mitigate the risk of products expiring. HHS must report on its efforts to maintain the stockpile's inventory of testing supplies and personal protective equipment.
"Six Triple Eight" Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021 This bill directs the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate to arrange for the award of a Congressional Gold Medal in honor of the women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion (commonly known as the Six Triple Eight) in recognition of their pioneering military service, devotion to duty, and contributions to increase the morale of personnel stationed in the European theater of operations during World War II. The medal shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution and made available for display and research.
Work Opportunity Tax Credit and Jobs Act This bill makes the work opportunity tax credit permanent.
Public Water Supply Invasive Species Compliance Act of 2021 This bill addresses transfers between Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana of water that contains invasive species. The bill exempts certain water transfers between public water supplies in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana from prohibitions on illegal trade of plants and wildlife. Specifically, the prohibitions do not apply to covered water transfers containing prohibited species if the species are present in both public water supplies before the transfer, the water is subject to effective mitigation measures, and the water is transferred directly between the supplies; or the water is transferred in a closed conveyance system, such as a pipe system, and sent directly to treatment facilities where the species will be destroyed. The costs of the mitigation measures must be borne by the entity that sells the water for financial gain. Finally, the bill establishes notification requirements for water transfers.
Pre-existing Conditions Protection Act of 2021 This bill reestablishes requirements for private health insurance plans with respect to preexisting conditions, guaranteed enrollment, and discrimination based on health-related factors if they are repealed by another law. In such event, the bill prohibits private health insurance plans from (1) limiting or excluding benefits covering preexisting conditions; (2) denying enrollment to employers or individual applicants, subject to specified limits; (3) establishing rules for eligibility based on an individual's health status; or (4) requiring an individual to a pay higher premium than similarly situated individuals enrolled in the plan based the individual's health status. The bill also prohibits plans from collecting genetic information in connection with issuing health insurance and provides requirements for workplace wellness programs connected to health insurance.
Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act This bill allows individual and corporate taxpayers a tax credit for cash contributions to tax-exempt scholarship-granting organizations for elementary and secondary education expenses. It imposes a cap of $5 billion on the amount of contributions that qualify for a tax credit. The bill directs the Department of Education, in coordination with the Department of the Treasury, to establish, host, and maintain a web portal that (1) lists all eligible scholarship-granting organizations; (2) enables contributions to such organizations; (3) provides information about the benefits of this bill; and (4) enables a state to submit and update information about its programs and scholarship-granting organizations, including information on student eligibility and allowable educational expenses.
Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act This bill limits which orphan drugs may be granted a market exclusivity period by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (Generally, an orphan drug is one that is not economically viable because of the rarity of the disease that it treats; the sponsor of an FDA-designated orphan drug may be granted various incentives, such as a seven-year period in which the FDA may not grant market approval to a different sponsor for the same drug to treat the same disease.) Under this bill, if a drug is designated as an orphan drug on the basis that there is no reasonable expectation that the sponsor will recover the costs of developing and distributing the drug from U.S. sales, the drug shall be granted the seven-year exclusivity period only if the sponsor demonstrates that there is no reasonable expectation that it will recover such costs specifically within its first 12 years of U.S. sales of the drug. This requirement shall also apply retroactively to an orphan drug that was granted such an exclusivity period before this bill's enactment. When deciding whether an orphan drug meets this requirement, the FDA shall consider the sales of all drugs from the sponsor that are covered by the same orphan drug designation.
