Homecare for Seniors Act This bill allows tax-exempt distributions from health savings accounts (HSAs) to be used for qualified home care. Qualified home care means a contract to provide three or more of the following services in the residence of the service recipient assistance with eating, assistance with toileting, assistance with transferring, assistance with bathing, assistance with dressing, assistance with continence, and medication adherence. The Department of Health and Human Services must carry out a campaign to increase public awareness of the in-home service expenses that are eligible for tax-free distribution from HSAs.
Protecting America's Workers Act This bill expands the coverage of requirements governing workplace safety and health to include protection for federal, state, and local government employees. However, the bill does not cover working conditions otherwise covered by federal requirements for mine safety and health. The bill revises requirements governing worker protection, including by expanding protections for whistle-blowers, such as protections for employees who refuse to perform work because they reasonably believe the work would result in serious injury or illness and for employees who aid inspections; directing employers to furnish a hazard-free place of employment to all individuals performing work, not just employees; directing employers to report work-related deaths or certain injuries, illnesses, or hospitalizations; requiring the Department of Labor to investigate fatalities or significant incidents in the workplace; establishing rights for victims, or representatives of victims, with respect to inspections or investigations of work-related bodily injuries or deaths; setting the permitted period for employers to correct serious, willful, or repeated violations while citations for the violations are being contested; increasing civil and criminal penalties for certain violations; expanding enforcement requirements relating to state occupational safety and health plans; expanding requirements for workplace health hazard evaluations by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; and requiring Labor to provide training programs concerning employee rights and employer responsibilities.
Railroad Employee Equity and Fairness Act or the REEF Act This bill permanently exempts payments made from the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Account from sequestration. Sequestration is a process of automatic, usually across-the-board spending reductions under which budgetary resources are permanently cancelled to enforce specific budget policy goals. Currently, this exemption ends 30 days after the termination of the COVID-19 national emergency period.
Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act This bill reauthorizes through FY2026, revises, and establishes grants and activities to promote access to broadband internet and other telecommunication services. The bill addresses digital equity and inclusion through grants and by requiring studies on barriers to adoption of broadband services and related matters. The bill addresses broadband affordability and access. It (1) reauthorizes and expands various programs that subsidize or otherwise support broadband services for eligible households, schools and libraries, and tribal lands and populations; and (2) establishes a program for expanding broadband service for underserved areas and community support organizations (e.g., schools and religious organizations). Additionally, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must award grants and take other actions to expand programs that verify an individual's eligibility for subsidized services. The bill addresses broadband data collection, disclosure, and sharing. The FCC must (1) issue rules regarding the collection of pricing data and labels that disclose information about broadband plans to consumers, and (2) collaborate and share data with federal agencies and other stakeholders. The bill makes financing (e.g., low-interest loans) available to communities and public-private partnerships for broadband infrastructure investments. Additionally, the Department of Transportation must require states to install conduits for broadband cables as part of certain highway projects. The bill also sets up a task force on nationwide dig once requirements (i.e., policies or practices to minimize excavations of highway rights-of-way when installing telecommunications infrastructure). Further, the bill preempts state laws that prohibit certain telecommunications service providers (e.g., public providers) from providing high-speed broadband services.
Defending Veterans' Second Amendment Rights Act This bill prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs from transmitting personally identifiable information of veterans or their beneficiaries to the national instant criminal background check system utilized by licensed importers or dealers of firearms solely on the basis that a veteran has a service-connected disability.
Ghost Guns Are Guns Act This bill broadens the definition of firearm for purposes of federal firearms laws. Specifically, it includes as a firearm any combination of parts designed or intended to be used to convert a device into a firearm and from which a firearm may be readily assembled.
Saudi Arabia Accountability for Gross Violations of Human Rights Act This bill imposes visa-blocking sanctions on specified foreign persons determined to have played a role in the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, and it requires the Department of State to report on incidents of arbitrary detention, violence, and state-sanctioned harassment by Saudi Arabia against U.S. citizens and their family members. The bill also requires the State Department to make publicly available a report that describes whether and how a concurrence with Saudi Arabia for U.S. security assistance will avoid identifying the United States with governments that deny human rights and fundamental freedoms to their people.
Ending Qualified Immunity Act This bill eliminates the defense of qualified immunity in civil actions for deprivation of rights. Qualified immunity is a judicially created doctrine that protects government employees or those acting with state authority from being held personally liable for constitutional violations. The bill provides that under the statute allowing a civil action alleging deprivation of rights under color of law, it shall not be a defense or immunity to any such action that (1) the defendant was acting in good faith or believed that his or her conduct was lawful at the time it was committed; (2) the rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution or federal laws were not clearly established at the time of their deprivation; or (3) the state of the law was such that the defendant could not reasonably have been expected to know whether his or her conduct was lawful.
Ensuring Quality Access to Legal Defense Act of 2021 or the EQUAL Defense Act of 2021 This bill establishes and modifies certain programs that support the delivery of public defense services (i.e., legal services for criminal defendants who cannot afford counsel). Specifically, the bill directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to award grants to state and local governments, tribal organizations, and public defender offices for public defense. A grant recipient must use the grant to establish a data collection process, develop workload limits, and satisfy specified compensation requirements (e.g., pay parity between public defenders and prosecutors). The bill also directs DOJ to award grants to nonprofits and government organizations to train public defenders, court-appointed attorneys, and contract attorneys. Additionally, a state that receives Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program funds must annually submit to DOJ information related to the legal representation of defendants in criminal cases. Finally, it reauthorizes through FY2025 the student loan repayment program for prosecutors and public defenders and otherwise revises the program, including by increasing the maximum benefit amount.
Pandemic Heroes Compensation Act of 2021 This bill allows essential workers and their family members to file claims and receive compensation for harm or death suffered as a result of COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019). A Special Master appointed by the Department of Justice must review claims submitted and determine if a claimant is eligible for compensation, the extent of the harm to the claimant, and the amount of compensation to be awarded.
Mental Health Justice Act of 2021 This bill creates a grant program for states and local governments to train and dispatch mental health professionals to respond, instead of law enforcement officers, to emergencies that involve people with behavioral health needs. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) must manage the program in consultation with the Department of Justice (DOJ). SAMHSA may cancel grants that increase incarceration or institutionalization. Grantees must use funds for purposes including de-escalation and anti-racism training. The Department of Health and Human Services and the DOJ must evaluate this program.
Do No Harm Act This bill prohibits the application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) to specified federal laws or the implementation of such laws. Currently, RFRA prohibits the government from substantially burdening a person's exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, except in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest when using the least restrictive means. Under the bill, RFRA is inapplicable to laws or the implementation of laws that protect against discrimination or the promotion of equal opportunity (e.g., the Civil Rights Act of 1964); require employers to provide wages, other compensation, or benefits, including leave; protect collective activity in the workplace; protect against child labor, abuse, or exploitation; or provide for access to, information about, referrals for, provision of, or coverage for, any health care item or service. The bill prevents RFRA from being used to deny (1) goods or services the government has contracted, granted, or made an agreement to provide to a beneficiary of or participant in a program or activity funded by such government contract, grant, agreement, or other award; or (2) a person's full and equal enjoyment of a government-provided good, service, benefit, facility, privilege, advantage, or accommodation. In order for a person to assert a RFRA claim or defense in a judicial proceeding, the government must be a party to the proceeding.
