The Consumer Advocacy and Protection Act of 2026 amends the Consumer Product Safety Act to increase the maximum civil penalty for individual violations from $100,000 to $250,000. The bill removes the previous statutory cap that limited total penalties for related series of violations to $15 million, allowing for higher cumulative fines in cases involving multiple infractions. Additionally, it requires the Consumer Product Safety Commission to adjust these penalty amounts annually based on inflation using the Consumer Price Index. These changes directly affect manufacturers and distributors of consumer products by raising the financial stakes for non-compliance with safety regulations.
The Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act requires employers to provide covered employees with at least one hour of paid annual leave for every 25 hours worked, capped at a maximum of 80 hours per year. Employees may use this leave for any reason without disclosing the specific purpose, and they are permitted to carry over up to 40 unused hours to the following year. The bill prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who take this leave or from counting it as an absence under no-fault attendance policies. Enforcement is handled by the Department of Labor, which can investigate complaints and file lawsuits, while employees also have the right to sue in court for damages and attorney’s fees if their rights are violated.
The GHOST Act prohibits ticket resellers from selling, offering for sale, or advertising event tickets unless they have actual physical or virtual possession of them. This legislation directly affects secondary market sellers by targeting "speculative ticketing," a practice where tickets are listed before the seller has secured them. The Federal Trade Commission is tasked with enforcing these rules and must establish a public website within 180 days for consumers to report violations. Violators face significant civil penalties, including daily fines of at least $15,000 and additional charges based on the number of tickets sold or their total value. State attorneys general are also authorized to bring civil actions on behalf of residents to seek injunctions, compliance, and damages.
The Presidential Tax Accountability and Audit Integrity Act prohibits the Treasury Secretary from honoring any agreements, waivers, or orders that affect federal tax matters involving the President, their immediate family members, or closely associated business entities during the President's term in office. The bill applies retroactively to instruments created after January 20, 2025, ensuring that tax assessment periods for these individuals do not expire until three years after the President leaves office. To ensure transparency, the Treasury Department is required to submit reports to Congress and make them publicly available within seven days of any such instrument being identified, with additional updates every thirty days. These disclosures are permitted under federal tax privacy laws specifically to identify the affected taxpayers and detail the actions taken to enforce their tax obligations.
The Kids Online Safety Act (S 1748) requires major social media platforms, online video games, and other "covered platforms" to implement specific safety features for minors (under 17). These features include default privacy settings that limit harmful design features like infinite scrolling and auto-play, parental controls for managing minors' accounts, and restrictions on advertising illegal products to minors. The bill also mandates annual transparency reports about how platforms are used by minors and requires platforms to provide clear notices about their content algorithms. It creates a Kids Online Safety Council to advise Congress on online safety issues for children. The law applies to platforms with more than 10 million monthly users in the U.S. and takes effect 18 months after enactment.
The No Payoffs for Pardons Act requires individuals who receive presidential clemency to file financial disclosure reports if they provided gifts or payments worth at least $10,000 to the President, their family members, or related political entities in exchange for that clemency. These reports must detail the nature and value of the benefits provided and will be made publicly available by the Department of Justice, with penalties including fines and imprisonment for those who willfully fail to comply or submit false information. Additionally, the bill updates federal bribery laws to explicitly include executive clemency as a bribe and extends the statute of limitations for prosecuting such bribery cases to ten years. By mandating transparency around the exchange of money for pardons, the legislation aims to prevent the misuse of the pardon power while leaving the President's actual decision-making authority on granting clemency unchanged.
The RCORP Authorization Act establishes a new program to provide funding for preventing, treating, and recovering from opioid and other substance use disorders in rural areas. This program allows the Health Resources and Services Administration to award grants to states, tribal organizations, and other eligible entities for up to five years. The funds can be used for planning, implementing evidence-based treatment models, addressing emerging public health issues, and providing technical assistance, but they cannot be used to buy or improve real property. The legislation authorizes $165 million annually for each fiscal year from 2027 through 2031 to support these efforts.
The Lori Jackson-Nicolette Elias Domestic Violence Survivor Protection Act expands federal firearm restrictions to include individuals subject to any domestic violence restraining order, including temporary or emergency orders issued without the abuser's presence. It broadens the legal definition of an "intimate partner" to cover dating partners and other relationships protected by state laws, closing previous loopholes that allowed some abusers to keep guns. The bill also creates a federal grant program for states and tribes to fund the removal, storage, and return of firearms from individuals subject to these orders, requiring them to partner with local domestic violence service providers to ensure victim safety.
This bill establishes the Green New Deal for Public Schools Act, which creates new funding streams to help U.S. public schools, including those run by the Bureau of Indian Education, become environmentally sustainable and resilient to climate change. It directs billions of dollars toward retrofitting existing school buildings to be energy-efficient and zero-carbon, constructing new green schools, and hiring local educators and support staff to improve school environments and community partnerships. The legislation also mandates that a significant portion of funds be used in environmental justice communities to address inequities, while requiring contractors to pay prevailing wages and prioritize hiring from local and historically disadvantaged groups. Additionally, the bill sets up a new office within the Department of Education to coordinate these efforts and ensures that schools can serve as community centers during disasters by upgrading infrastructure for power, water, and internet access.
The Restoring Justice for Workers Act prohibits employers from requiring workers to sign agreements that force them to resolve disputes through individual arbitration rather than in court or as part of a group. It bans retaliation against employees who refuse to arbitrate and mandates that any post-dispute arbitration agreements be truly voluntary, requiring plain language explanations, a 45-day waiting period, and written consent. The bill also amends the National Labor Relations Act to make it illegal for employers to enter into or enforce contracts that prevent workers from joining together to file joint or class-action lawsuits regarding workplace rights. These changes apply to all workers, including independent contractors, and take effect immediately upon enactment.
The Audit the Pentagon Act requires the Department of Defense to reduce its funding by 2 percent if it fails to receive a clean financial audit for a given year. This penalty applies to all departments, agencies, and elements within the Pentagon starting after fiscal year 2024. The withheld money is distributed proportionally across various programs and projects, while the remaining funds are sent to the Treasury to help reduce the national deficit.
The FORK Act of 2026 creates a pilot program to provide grants for purchasing, retrofitting, or repairing vehicles used to deliver summer meals to children. These grants are intended for service institutions, such as schools or community organizations, and will prioritize applicants in areas with high poverty, outside major metropolitan regions, or serving many students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Each eligible recipient can receive up to $100,000 for a one-year term, with a limit of 10% of funds allowed for administrative costs. The program authorizes $1 million per year for fiscal years 2027 through 2029 and requires recipients to report on the number of sites served and children fed, with a final report due to Congress four years after the program begins.
