Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith

Maddy summaryThis bill changes U.S. immigration law to make certain fraud convictions deportable without requiring a minimum fraud loss amount. It targets immigrants (aliens) convicted of fraud against any private individual, fund, corporation, or government entity, removing the previous threshold for deportation. It also adds provisions to revoke citizenship for naturalized citizens convicted of such fraud crimes, requiring courts to cancel their naturalization certificates. The changes apply to fraud committed on or after September 30, 1996, if not previously charged before the bill's enactment.

Maddy summarySRES 288 is a Senate resolution condemning recent ideologically motivated attacks on Jewish individuals, including a violent assault in Boulder, Colorado, on June 1, 2025, and other incidents like the attack on Israeli Embassy staff in Washington, D.C., and fires at the Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence. The resolution formally expresses the Senate’s condemnation of these acts as part of a growing pattern of antisemitism and politically motivated violence. It reaffirms the Senate’s commitment to protecting peaceful assembly and religious practice, while urging federal, state, and local law enforcement to thoroughly investigate such incidents and calling on community leaders to publicly oppose antisemitism. This resolution has no legal effect but serves as a formal statement of the Senate’s position.

Maddy summaryThis bill requires the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide cost-share grants covering 70% of the expenses for farmers and eligible schools to retrofit agricultural tractors with rollover protection structures (ROPS) - safety cages that prevent injury if a tractor flips. It directly affects agricultural producers and specific educational institutions, including vocational schools, colleges with agricultural programs, and secondary schools offering agricultural training. The grants cover costs for purchasing, transporting, and installing ROPS that meet SAE safety standards and include seatbelts, with higher coverage if costs exceed $500. Funding of $725,000 annually from 2027-2031 will support these grants, administered through a designated program manager.

Maddy summaryThe Roadway Safety Modernization Act of 2025 requires states to integrate proven safety tools like predictive analytics and telematics into highway safety planning and freight programs. It directs state highway agencies to use these technologies to identify high-risk road segments, evaluate crash causes, and improve safety project effectiveness. The bill also mandates the Transportation Department to issue guidance on data privacy, tool validation, and transparency for these safety technologies. This directly affects state transportation departments and freight operators who must adopt these data-driven approaches in their safety planning under federal highway programs.

Maddy summaryThis bill creates a new payroll tax deduction for qualifying small businesses, allowing them to deduct 12% of wages paid to designated low-wage employees. It directly affects small businesses meeting specific criteria: those with no more than 15 full-time employees, meeting gross receipts limits, and certifying compliance. The deduction applies only to the lowest-wage full-time employees (excluding high earners), with the number of eligible employees decreasing annually (starting at 10 in 2026 and ending at 4 in 2033). The provision expires after 2033 and applies to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025.

Sentencing Accountability For Exploitation Act or the SAFE Act This bill directs the U.S. Sentencing Commission to review and amend its guidelines and policy statements applicable to federal criminal offenses involving the production, receipt, transport, shipment, or distribution of child sexual abuse material to (1) account for the actual and potential harm from the offense and changes since the last amendments with respect to the typical offense behavior and modern technologies, and (2) better reflect the spectrum of offender culpability.

Stop Sextortion Act This bill criminalizes threats to distribute child sexual abuse material to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress. This practice is commonly referred to as sextortion . The bill also increases criminal penalties for related offenses that involve the use of child sexual abuse material to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress. Specifically, the bill establishes new federal criminal offenses for threatening to distribute child pornography or a visual depiction of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct with intent to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress. An offense, or an attempt or conspiracy to commit the offense, is subject to criminal penalties. Additionally, the bill increases the maximum prison term for various offenses involving the sexual exploitation of children if those offenses involve the use of child pornography or a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct with intent to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress.

Ending Coercion of Children and Harm Online or the ECCHO Act This bill establishes a federal framework to combat the online coercion of minors to commit harm. The bill creates new criminal offenses, expands reporting of instances involving the online coercion of minors, facilitates the prosecution of offenders, and expands protections for minors who testify in court. Specifically, the bill makes it a crime to intentionally coerce a minor to commit suicide (or attempt to); kill someone (or attempt to); kill a pet, emotional support animal, service animal, or horse (or attempt to); physically harm an individual (including the minor), pet, emotional support animal, service animal, or horse; or commit (or attempt to commit) arson or certain other acts such as doxxing or swatting. A violation (or conspiracy or attempt to commit a violation) is subject to a fine, a prison term, or both. The bill requires electronic communication service providers and remote computing service providers to report instances of online coercion of minors to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children via the CyberTipline. The bill facilitates the federal prosecution of offenses committed by (1) individuals as part of a child exploitation enterprise, and (2) minors in certain circumstances. The bill extends various protections for minors who testify in court (e.g., certain privacy protections) to those who are victims of or witnesses to crimes involving mental injury (i.e., psychological or intellectual harm to a child) or the negligent treatment of a child.

Maddy summaryThe Back the Blue Act of 2025 creates new federal criminal offenses for killing or assaulting law enforcement officers, judges, and certain public safety personnel (including firefighters and first responders) while they are on duty or because of their official status. It increases penalties for these crimes, including minimum 10-year prison terms for killing officers and longer sentences for assaults causing serious injury, with the death penalty possible for killings. The bill also adds a "flight to avoid prosecution" provision for those fleeing to evade charges for killing officers, expands law enforcement officers' rights to carry firearms in certain circumstances, and limits federal habeas corpus relief for individuals convicted of killing law enforcement officers. This legislation directly affects law enforcement officers, judges, and public safety personnel, as well as individuals who commit violence against them.

Maddy summaryThis bill increases the tax exclusion for capital gains when selling a primary residence. It doubles the exclusion amount from $250,000 (for single filers) to $500,000 and from $500,000 (for married couples) to $1,000,000. The bill also adds an inflation adjustment for amounts after 2025, tying future increases to the cost-of-living adjustment. It directly affects homeowners who sell their primary residence and would otherwise owe tax on profits exceeding the previous limits. The changes apply to sales after the bill's enactment date.