This joint resolution eliminates new, more stringent energy conservation standards for commercial refrigerators, freezers, and refrigerator-freezers. Under the joint resolution, such equipment is no longer required to comply with the new standards. Specifically, the joint resolution nullifies the rule titled Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Refrigerators, Freezers, and Refrigerator-Freezers and published by the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy on January 21, 2025. Under the rule, the office adopted new energy conservation standards for commercial refrigeration equipment to achieve the maximum improvement in energy efficiency that is technologically feasible and economically justified. The rule required the equipment to comply with the those standards by January 22, 2029.
H.J. Res. 42 is a congressional disapproval resolution that voids a Department of Energy (DOE) rule on appliance energy efficiency standards. The resolution specifically targets the DOE's 2024 rule requiring certification, labeling, and enforcement for energy-efficient appliances and commercial equipment. By disapproving this rule under federal law (5 U.S.C. § 801), the resolution prevents the rule from taking effect, meaning appliance manufacturers and retailers would not need to comply with its requirements. This resolution directly affects the implementation of the DOE's energy conservation program for consumer products and commercial equipment.
H.J.Res. 24, enacted May 9, 2025, disapproves a Department of Energy (DOE) rule establishing energy efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and freezers. This resolution, passed under the Congressional Review Act, blocks the rule (published December 23, 2024) from taking effect, meaning the DOE’s proposed standards will have no legal force. The action directly affects commercial food equipment manufacturers and businesses using such cooling systems by preventing the implementation of new energy conservation requirements.
This resolution blocks a Department of Energy rule that would have set new energy efficiency standards for gas-fired instant water heaters. It prevents the rule from taking effect, meaning appliance manufacturers would not have to meet the proposed efficiency requirements. The rule, submitted in December 2024, directly affected manufacturers of these water heaters and consumers purchasing them. Congress approved this disapproval through a joint resolution passed on May 9, 2025.
This joint resolution nullifies requirements for persons effectuating decentralized financial (DeFi) transactions to report certain information regarding digital asset sales to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Specifically, the joint resolution nullifies the requirements included in the rule titled Gross Proceeds Reporting by Brokers That Regularly Provide Services Effectuating Digital Asset Sales and issued by the IRS on December 30, 2024. Decentralized finance refers to the suite of financial activities and services that are facilitated by cryptocurrency and intended to be conducted without any sort of reliance on traditional financial tools or intermediaries.
Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 This act provides continuing FY2025 appropriations for federal agencies and extends various expiring programs and authorities. DIVISION A--FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2025 Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2025 This division provides continuing FY2025 appropriations to federal agencies for the remainder of FY2025 and extends various expiring programs and authorities. It is known as a continuing resolution (CR) and prevents a government shutdown that would otherwise occur if the FY2025 appropriations bills have not been enacted when the existing CR expires on March 14, 2025. The CR funds most programs and activities at the FY2024 levels. It also includes several additional provisions that increase or decrease funding for various programs compared to FY2024 levels. For more information, see CRS Report R48517, Section-by-Section Summary of the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2025 (Division A of P.L. 119-4) DIVISION B--HEALTH This division extends several expiring programs and authorities related to public health, Medicare, and Medicaid. TITLE I--PUBLIC HEALTH EXTENDERS (Sec. 2101) This section extends through FY2025 funding for the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program, the Community Health Center Fund, and the National Health Service Corps. The Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program supports education and training of medical students in primary care residency programs in community-based ambulatory patient care centers. The Community Health Center Fund supports (1) grants for outpatient health care facilities that serve medically underserved populations; and (2) the National Health Service Corps, which provides scholarships and student loan repayment awards to health care providers who agree to work in areas with health care provider shortages. (Sec. 2102) This section extends funding through FY2025 for the Special Diabetes Program for Type I Diabetes and the Special Diabetes Program for Indians. (The Special Diabetes Program for Type I Diabetes supports research on the prevention and cure of Type I diabetes, and the Special Diabetes Program for Indians supports diabetes treatment and prevention for tribal populations.) (Sec. 2103) This section extends through FY2025 the authority that allows states and tribes to request the temporary reassignment of state and local health department personnel who are funded through certain federal programs to immediately address a public health emergency. It also extends through FY2025 provisions that prohibit the disclosure of information about Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) programs that could compromise national security (e.g., information regarding biomedical threats). The section extends through FY2025 provisions that authorize HHS to engage with developers of medical countermeasures, and that provide for related antitrust exemptions, for the purpose of furthering product development. Additionally, the section extends through FY2025 the National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters, the National Advisory Committee on Seniors and Disasters, and the National Advisory Committee on Individuals with Disabilities and Disasters. It also extends through FY2025 the authority of HHS to directly appoint candidates to positions within the National Disaster Medical System if HHS determines the number of personnel in the system is insufficient to address a public health emergency or potential public health emergency. (The National Disaster Medical System is a partnership between HHS, the Department of Defense, and other federal departments that responds to public health and other emergencies, including by deploying medical response teams.) TITLE II--MEDICARE (Sec. 2201) This section extends through FY2025 certain increased payment adjustments for low-volume hospitals under Medicare's inpatient prospective payment system. (Sec. 2202) This section extends through FY2025 the Medicare-Dependent Hospital Program, which provides additional payments to certain small rural hospitals that have a high proportion of Medicare patients. (Sec. 2203) This section extends through FY2025 certain increased payment adjustments for ground ambulance services in rural and other areas under Medicare. (Sec. 2204) This section extends through FY2025 funding for certain Medicare quality-measurement activities. (Sec. 2205) This section extends through FY2025 funding for state health insurance programs, area agencies on aging, aging and disability resource centers, and technical assistance related to outreach and enrollment with respect to Medicare and other programs. (Sec. 2206) This section extends through FY2025 certain minimum adjustments to the work geographic index with respect to payments for physician services under Medicare. (Sec. 2207) This section extends through FY2025 certain telehealth flexibilities under Medicare. Specifically, the section (1) removes geographic restrictions on originating sites (i.e., the location of the beneficiary); (2) allows the home of the beneficiary to serve as the originating site for all services; (3) allows audiologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists to furnish telehealth services; (4) allows federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to serve as the distant site (i.e., the location of the health care practitioner); (5) delays implementation of certain in-person evaluation requirements for mental health telehealth services; (6) expands coverage to include audio-only services for evaluation and management and behavioral health services; and (7) allows, for purposes of hospice care recertification under Medicare, physicians and nurse practitioners to fulfill the requirement of a face-to-face encounter with the hospice patient via telehealth. (Sec. 2208) This section extends through FY2025 the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program under Medicare. (The program allows hospitals to treat certain patients from emergency departments or inpatient hospital beds at home.) (Sec. 2209) This section extends through FY2025 coverage under the Medicare prescription drug benefit of prescription oral antiviral drugs that were authorized in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. (Sec. 2210) This section increases funding for the Medicare Improvement Fund beginning in FY2026. (Sec. 2211) This section extends by two months the sequestration that applies to Medicare payments in FY2032. TITLE III--HUMAN SERVICES (Sec. 2301) This section extends through FY2025 the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education Program. This program supports projects to implement sexual risk avoidance education that teaches participants to voluntarily refrain from nonmarital sexual activities. (Sec. 2302) This section extends through FY2025 the Personal Responsibility Education Program. This program provides grants to states to (1) educate young people about abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and (2) support pregnant youth and mothers under the age of 21. (Sec. 2303) This section extends through FY2025 the Family-to-Family Health Information Centers Program, which is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration. The program awards grants to family-run organizations to support the provision of information and peer support to families of children with special health care needs. TITLE IV--MEDICAID This section delays reductions to Medicaid disproportionate-share hospital (DSH) allotments until FY2026. (DSHs are hospitals that receive additional payments under Medicaid for treating a large share of low-income patients.) DIVISION C--OTHER MATTERS This division extends several expiring programs and authorities through FY2025. (Sec. 3101) This section extends authorities related to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s whistleblower program. (Sec. 3102) This section extends the authority of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice to take certain actions to mitigate a credible threat to certain facilities or assets from an unmanned aircraft system (UAS). These include certain facilities that are located in the United States and identified as high-risk and a potential target for unlawful UAS activity. (Sec. 3103) This section extends the special assessment on nonindigent persons or entities convicted of certain offenses involving sexual abuse or human trafficking. The assessment funds programs for human trafficking survivors. (Sec. 3104) This section extends the authority for DHS’s National Cybersecurity Protection System and related reporting requirements. The system authorizes multiple activities by DHS to help defend federal agencies from cyberthreats. (Sec. 3105) This section extends, the temporary scheduling order issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration to place fentanyl-related substances in schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. (Sec. 3106) This section exempts the budgetary effects of Divisions B and C of this act from (1) the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010, (2) the Senate PAYGO rule, and (3) certain budget scorekeeping rules.
This joint resolution (SJRES 11) directs Congress to disapprove a specific rule issued by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) concerning "Protection of Marine Archaeological Resources," which was published in the Federal Register on September 3, 2024 (89 Fed. Reg. 71160). The resolution blocks the rule from taking effect, meaning it will have no legal force or authority. This action directly affects activities regulated under the rule, such as offshore energy projects that may impact marine archaeological sites like shipwrecks or submerged cultural resources. The resolution uses the statutory process under Chapter 8 of Title 5, U.S. Code, to override the agency's regulation without creating new policy.
HJRES 35 is a congressional resolution disapproving an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule that established procedures for emissions charges on petroleum and natural gas systems. Specifically, it targets the EPA’s November 2024 rule titled "Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems: Procedures for Facilitating Compliance, Including Netting and Exemptions," which would have required companies to pay fees based on emissions. The resolution, passed by both chambers in February 2025, nullifies the rule, preventing it from taking effect. This directly affects oil and gas companies subject to the EPA’s emissions regulations, removing a specific compliance mechanism they would have faced.
Laken Riley Act This act requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain certain non-U.S. nationals ( aliens under federal law) who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, assault of a law enforcement officer, or any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury to another person. The act also authorizes states to sue the federal government for decisions or alleged failures related to immigration enforcement. Under this act, DHS must detain an individual who (1) is unlawfully present in the United States or did not possess the necessary documents when applying for admission; and (2) has been charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or admits to having committed acts that constitute the essential elements of the above crimes. The act also authorizes state governments to sue for injunctive relief over certain immigration-related decisions or alleged failures by the federal government if the decision or failure caused the state or its residents harm, including financial harm of more than $100. Specifically, the state government may sue the federal government over a decision to release a non-U.S. national from custody; failure to fulfill requirements relating to inspecting individuals seeking admission into the United States, including requirements related to asylum interviews; failure to fulfill a requirement to stop issuing visas to nationals of a country that unreasonably denies or delays acceptance of nationals of that country; violation of limitations on immigration parole, such as the requirement that parole be granted only on a case-by-case basis; or failure to detain an individual who has been ordered removed from the United States.
The D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act transfers administrative control of the 174-acre Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus from the federal government to the District of Columbia. This allows the District to develop the campus for residential, commercial, and public purposes, including designating at least 30% as "Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Park" for recreation. The District must pay all transfer and development costs, maintain public access to the Anacostia River, and follow specific environmental and development requirements. The transfer is for a minimum of 99 years, with provisions for federal reversion if the District fails to meet requirements. The bill also repeals the 1957 Stadium Act and terminates a 1988 lease agreement.
HR 82, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, repeals two provisions that reduce Social Security benefits for certain government workers. It eliminates the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which cuts spousal or survivor benefits for people with pensions from jobs not covered by Social Security (like federal or state government roles), and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which lowers retirement benefits for those with similar pensions. The law takes effect for benefits paid after December 2023, requiring the Social Security Administration to adjust benefit calculations to remove these reductions. This change directly affects public-sector employees who previously had their Social Security benefits reduced due to their government pensions.
# Summary of Water Resources Development Act of 2024
This document is a comprehensive legislative bill (Water Resources Development Act of 2024) that establishes numerous provisions related to water resources management across the United States. The key themes and provisions include:
## Primary Focus Areas
- **Water Supply, Conservation, and Drought Resiliency**: The Act establishes a priority for water supply, conservation measures, and drought resiliency efforts at water resources development projects (Section 1161-1162).
- **Tribal Partnerships**: Creates enhanced Tribal partnership programs (Sections 1140-1141) allowing Indian Tribes to directly carry out eligible projects with specific implementation guidelines.
- **Infrastructure Management**: Addresses systemwide improvement frameworks for flood control works (Section 1146) and establishes requirements for remote operations at Corps dams (Section 1149).
## Key Provisions
- **Federal Interest Determinations**: Streamlines the process for determining Federal interest in studies (Section 1142).
- **Watershed Assessments**: Expands the list of designated watersheds for assessment (Section 1143).
- **Hurricane & Storm Damage Reduction**: Provides flexibility with easements for hurricane and storm damage reduction projects (Section 1145).
- **Recreation Management**: Updates the challenge cost-sharing program for recreation facilities (Section 1153) and retention of recreation fees (Section 1154).
- **Data Management**: Calls for improved water data integration and sharing (Section 1155).
- **Reporting Requirements**: Establishes detailed reporting and oversight mechanisms for numerous reports (Section 1150).
## Special Emphasis
- **Drought Resiliency**: The Grace F. Napolitano Priority for Water Supply, Water Conservation, and Drought Resiliency Act of 2024 (Sections 1160-1162) prioritizes drought resiliency efforts across water resources projects.
- **Covered Communities**: Provides special considerations for projects serving communities in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Guam, and other territories (Section 1148).
- **Invasive Species Control**: Includes provisions for controlling aquatic plant growths and invasive species (Section 1144).
## Implementation Requirements
- The Act includes specific deadlines for guidance updates (Section 1150(c)).
- Establishes authorization of appropriations for various programs (Sections 1141, 1152).
- Creates reporting requirements to Congress on the status of various water resources projects and studies.
This legislation represents a comprehensive approach to modernizing water resources management in the United States, with special attention to drought resiliency, tribal partnerships, infrastructure maintenance, and environmental protection.
