United States · United States Congress · 1 April 2025
Servicemembers and Veterans Empowerment and Support Act of 2025 This bill modifies and implements policies and procedures related to Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care and benefits for veterans who have experienced military sexual trauma (MST), which is generally defined as physical assault of a sexual nature, battery of a sexual nature, or sexual harassment that occurred while the veteran was serving in the military. In the case of any veteran who claims that a covered mental health condition (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder) based on MST was incurred or aggravated by active service, the VA must consider (1) a diagnosis of the condition by a mental health professional, (2) a medically proven link between current symptoms and MST, and (3) credible corroborating evidence that MST occurred. The VA may not deny a veteran's claim of compensation for a covered mental health condition based on MST without first (1) advising the veteran that nonmilitary evidence and behavioral evidence may constitute credible corroborating evidence, and (2) allowing the veteran an opportunity to furnish the corroborating evidence or advise the VA of potential sources of such evidence. The Veterans Benefits Administration must conduct an annual special focus review on the accuracy of the processing of claims for disability compensation for disabilities relating to MST. Additionally, the bill (1) expands eligibility for MST counseling and treatment to former members of the reserve components regardless of duty status, and (2) requires various outreach by the VA to inform potentially eligible individuals about MST care.
United States · United States Congress · 1 April 2025
Reentry Act of 2025 This bill allows for Medicaid payment of medical services furnished to an incarcerated individual during the 30-day period preceding the individual's release. The Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Payment and Access Commission must report on specified information relating to the accessibility and quality of health care for incarcerated individuals, including the impact of the bill's changes.
United States · United States Congress · 1 April 2025
Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025 This bill imposes penalties on certain persons (individuals and entities) if the President determines that the Russian government or a person acting at Russia's direction is involved with (1) refusing to negotiate a peace agreement with Ukraine; (2) violating a negotiated peace agreement; (3) initiating another invasion of Ukraine; or (4) overthrowing, dismantling, or seeking to subvert the Ukrainian government. If the President makes such a determination, the bill requires certain actions including the President must impose visa- and property-blocking sanctions on specified persons such as the Russian president, certain Russian military commanders, and any foreign person that knowingly provides defense items to the Russian armed forces; the President must increase the rate of duty on all goods and services imported from Russia into the United States to at least 500% relative to the value of such goods and services; the President must increase the rate of duty on all goods and services imported into the United States from countries that knowingly engage in the exchange of Russian-origin uranium and petroleum products to at least 500% relative to the value of such goods and services; the Department of the Treasury must impose property-blocking sanctions on any financial institution organized under Russian law and owned wholly or partly by Russia, and any financial institution that engages in transactions with those entities; and the Department of Commerce must prohibit the export, reexport, or in-country transfer to or in Russia of any U.S.-produced energy or energy product.
United States · United States Congress · 31 March 2025
Hunger-Free Future Act of 2025 This bill prohibits any reevaluation or update to the Thrifty Food Plan (TFP) by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) that results in an increase in food insecurity (i.e., an increase in the number of households that lack adequate food as a result of having insufficient money and other resources to acquire food). As background, USDA created the TFP (the cost of purchasing a nutritionally adequate low-cost diet), which is used to determine maximum monthly benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). USDA calculates the cost of the TFP (i.e., the market basket of goods) each year to account for food price inflation. Under a provision of the 2018 farm bill, USDA must reevaluate the market basket of goods every five years based on current food prices, food composition data, consumption patterns, and dietary guidance.
United States · United States Congress · 31 March 2025
Seniors’ Access to Critical Medications Act of 2025 This bill temporarily expands flexibilities under the Stark law (i.e., the Physician Self-Referral Law) for certain physicians who dispense covered outpatient drugs under the Medicare prescription drug benefit at the physician's office location (e.g., through an integrated pharmacy). The Stark law generally prohibits physicians from referring patients to receive services that are payable under Medicare or Medicaid from entities in which the physician or an immediate family member has a financial relationship. Specifically, the bill allows, from 2026-2030, physicians to dispense such drugs from the physician's office, including through in-person pickup by a caregiver or via mail, if (1) the physician prescribed the drug, (2) the beneficiary has an ongoing relationship with the physician, (3) the beneficiary had at least one face-to-face visit with the physician in the prior year, and (4) the physician bills for the drug. These requirements also apply to physicians within the same group practice. The Government Accountability Office must report on pharmacies or pharmacy networks that dispense significantly more covered drugs under the Medicare prescription drug benefit after the bill's enactment, the extent to which such pharmacies and networks are owned by physicians or integrated into physician practices, and the common characteristics of these types of arrangements.
United States · United States Congress · 31 March 2025
Community Wood Facilities Assistance Act of 2025 This bill makes changes to grant programs administered by the Forest Service to promote wood products. Specifically, the bill reauthorizes through FY2030, modifies, and renames the Community Wood Facilities Grant program. Currently named the Community Wood Energy and Wood Innovation Program, this program provides competitive grants to fund a portion of the capital costs for installing community wood energy systems or building innovative wood products facilities. Modifications to the program include increasing the maximum grant amount per facility, increasing the portion of a project's cost that may be covered by a grant, and changing the grant selection criteria. The bill also modifies the Wood Innovation Grant Program, which provides grants to develop and expand the market for innovative wood products. Specifically, the bill increases the portion of a project's cost that may be covered by such a grant. The bill also modifies both programs to prioritize grants for the construction, use, or retrofitting of forest products manufacturing.
United States · United States Congress · 31 March 2025
Nutrition Counseling Aiding Recovery for Eating Disorders Act of 2025 or the Nutrition CARE Act of 2025 This bill provides for Medicare coverage of medical nutrition therapy services for individuals with eating disorders. Such services must be furnished by a registered dietitian or nutrition professional pursuant to a referral from a physician, psychologist, or other authorized mental health professional.
United States · United States Congress · 31 March 2025
Arts Education for All Act This bill expands arts education and programming for children in early education, K-12 students, and juveniles and adults in the criminal justice system. Specifically, the bill allows Child Care and Development Block Grant funding to be used for additional activities, including arts programming. Additionally, the bill addresses arts programming in elementary and secondary schools by directing each state educational agency to include information on arts programming in its state plan, including how it will integrate arts education instruction into the curriculum and increase the number of arts teachers in schools; requiring state report cards to include information on arts courses; requiring local educational agency (LEA) plans to describe how the LEA will encourage the use of arts education to improve student achievement; and allowing certain funds to be used for professional development for arts teachers. The bill directs the National Center for Education Research to carry out research on the use of arts and arts education in elementary and secondary schools, including in low-performing schools. Further, the National Center for Education Statistics must compile data on arts education. The National Assessment of Educational Progress must include a specified arts assessment. The bill requires a state's juvenile justice and delinquency plan to describe how the state will coordinate services and activities for juvenile justice and delinquency prevention with arts agencies and arts organizations. Additionally, grants for adult offender reentry demonstration projects may be used for facilitating arts education.
United States · United States Congress · 31 March 2025
Hot Foods Act of 2025 This bill expands the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to permit the use of SNAP benefits to purchase hot foods or hot food products ready for immediate consumption.
United States · United States Congress · 31 March 2025
Dairy Nutrition Incentive Program Act of 2025 This bill directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a dairy nutrition incentive program to develop and test methods to increase the purchase and consumption of dairy under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Specifically, the program must provide an incentive to SNAP benefit recipients for the purchase of naturally nutrient-rich dairy, which the bill defines to include fluid milk, yogurt, and cheese made from cow's milk. To carry out the program, USDA must enter into cooperative agreements with, or provide competitive grants to, state or local governments and nonprofit organizations for projects. The bill provides funding for the program for each fiscal year. USDA must provide for an independent evaluation of each project that measures, to the maximum extent practicable, the effect of incentives on purchases of naturally nutrient-rich dairy by SNAP recipients. Projects currently carried out by the USDA Healthy Fluid Milk Incentives (HFMI) program must be transitioned to the new dairy nutrition incentive program; the bill repeals the HFMI program one year after USDA certifies that the transition is complete.
United States · United States Congress · 27 March 2025
Honor Farmer Contracts Act This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to unfreeze funding for agreements and contracts and prohibits USDA from closing certain offices and service centers without notifying Congress in advance. Specifically, USDA must (1) unfreeze funding for, and implement, all agreements and contracts entered into by USDA prior to the bill's enactment; and (2) pay all related past due amounts owed by USDA as rapidly as possible. Further, the bill prohibits USDA from canceling a signed agreement or contract with a farmer or an entity providing assistance to farmers (unless the farmer or entity is not in compliance with the terms and conditions of the contract). Finally, the bill prohibits USDA from closing Farm Service Agency county offices, Natural Resources Conservation Service field offices, or Rural Development Service Centers without providing written notice and a justification to Congress at least 60 days before the closure.
United States · United States Congress · 27 March 2025
No Hungry Kids in Schools Act This bill directs the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish an option for states to utilize a statewide Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) for USDA school meal programs. As background, the CEP allows eligible schools, groups of schools, and school districts the option to offer free breakfast and lunch to all enrolled students without collecting household applications. Specifically, USDA must establish a statewide CEP option that may be used by a state agency. The state agency must provide state (nonfederal) funding to local educational agencies to reimburse applicable schools at the free reimbursement rate for 100% of the meals served. Eligibility for the statewide CEP must be based on a statewide calculation of the percentage of identified enrolled students, regardless of a school's local educational agency. Further, the bill lowers the CEP participation threshold for a statewide CEP to an identified student percentage (ISP) of zero, from a minimum of 25% under current regulations. The ISP is the percentage of students who are eligible for free school meals without a household application, primarily those who are directly certified through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In addition, the bill specifies that the reimbursement multiplier for school meals remains at the current level of 1.6. The reimbursement multiplier is used to calculate how many meals will be reimbursed at the free meal rate.
United States · United States Congress · 26 March 2025
Food Secure Strikers Act of 2025 This bill allows certain striking workers and their households to maintain their eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Specifically, the bill provides that a household that would otherwise be eligible to participate in SNAP is eligible for benefits if any member of the household is on strike because of a labor dispute. Current law generally prohibits a household from participating in SNAP if any member of the household is on strike unless the household was eligible for SNAP immediately prior to the strike. Also, under current law, households are not eligible for an increased SNAP allotment as a result of the decreased income of a striking member of the household. The bill expands SNAP eligibility for households with striking workers by repealing both of these restrictions. The bill also allows a government employee who is dismissed for striking and their household to maintain SNAP program eligibility. Specifically, current law prohibits certain individuals who voluntarily and without good cause quit a job from participating in SNAP. Further, a federal, state, or local government employee who participates in a strike against the government that results in their dismissal is considered to have voluntarily quit without good cause. The bill eliminates the provision that considers the dismissed government employee to have voluntarily quit without good cause, thereby allowing the employee and their household to maintain SNAP program eligibility if they are otherwise eligible for the program.
United States · United States Congress · 26 March 2025
Raise the Age Act of 2025 This bill establishes new restrictions on the sale or transfer of certain semiautomatic firearms to individuals under 21 years of age. Specifically, this bill makes it unlawful for a licensed gun dealer, importer, manufacturer, or collector to sell or deliver a semiautomatic center-fire rifle or semiautomatic center-fire shotgun that has (or has the capacity to accept) an ammunition feeding device with a capacity of more than five rounds to an individual who the licensee knows or has reasonable cause to believe is under age 21. The prohibition does not apply if the individual under age 21 is a full-time law enforcement officer or active-duty member of the Armed Forces. The bill also requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation to report on the operation of its public access line, including a description of information sharing protocols and recommendations for improving such protocols.
United States · United States Congress · 25 March 2025
Protecting Students with Disabilities Act This bill prohibits the use of appropriated funds to eliminate the Department of Education's (ED's) oversight of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). (The IDEA authorizes grant programs that support special education and early intervention services for children with disabilities. Currently, the IDEA is administered by the Office of Special Education Programs in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in ED.) Specifically, the bill prohibits the use of appropriated funds to eliminate, consolidate, or otherwise restructure any office within ED that administers or enforces programs under the IDEA. Further, appropriated funds may not be used to (1) terminate, reassign, or alter the responsibilities of any personnel of any such office; or (2) contract with, or delegate to, any entity outside of ED to administer or enforce IDEA programs. (On March 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities , calling for the closure of ED and giving authority over education to the states. Further, the Trump Administration has announced plans to transfer ED's oversight of services for students with disabilities to the Department of Health and Human Services.)
United States · United States Congress · 25 March 2025
John W. Walsh Alpha-1 Home Infusion Act of 2025 This bill provides for Medicare coverage of treatment for alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) deficiency (a protein deficiency that raises the risk of lung and other diseases). Specifically, the bill provides for coverage of at-home augmentation therapy for beneficiaries with emphysema as a result of severe hereditary AAT deficiency. Treatment must be provided through qualified home infusion therapy suppliers; beneficiaries must be under the care of a physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant.
United States · United States Congress · 25 March 2025
Fair Access In Residency Act of 2025 or the FAIR Act of 2025 This bill requires hospitals that receive graduate medical education (GME) payments under Medicare to report certain information about the composition of their medical residency training programs. Specifically, hospitals must provide to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (1) the number of applicants for residencies who are from osteopathic medical schools and from allopathic medical schools, (2) the number of applicants who are accepted from each of these types of medical schools, and (3) an affirmation that the hospital considers applicants from each of these types of medical schools and accepts specified related examination results, as appropriate. Hospitals that do not provide this information are subject to a 2% reduction in their GME payments. The CMS must post the information it receives on a public website.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 2025
This bill reauthorizes and modifies the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Integrated Ocean Observation System (IOOS). (The IOOS is made up of radar, gliders, buoys, vessels, and different models and forecasts that collect data points to monitor and report on conditions along the nation's coasts and in marine waters.) Specifically, the bill reauthorizes the IOOS through FY2030. The bill also directs the Interagency Ocean Observation Committee (which coordinates interagency planning, budgeting, and assessments for the system) to develop requirements and processes for regional offices and federally funded projects of the agencies of the committee to collaborate with the regional coastal observing systems for data sharing at regional levels.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 2025
This joint resolution provides that the Equal Rights Amendment, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, was ratified by three-fourths of the states and is therefore a valid constitutional amendment, regardless of any time limit that was in the original proposal. The Equal Rights Amendment was originally proposed to the states in 1972. The original proposal included a deadline for ratification of March 22, 1979; Congress subsequently extended the deadline to June 30, 1982. Although the requisite 38 states have ratified the amendment, three of these states did so after the deadlines, and five states subsequently rescinded their ratifications. The status of the amendment has been the subject of litigation.
United States · United States Congress · 21 March 2025
Wastewater Infrastructure Pollution Prevention and Environmental Safety Act or the WIPPES Act This bill requires entities responsible for the labeling or retail packaging of certain premoistened, nonwoven wipes (e.g., baby wipes, cleaning wipes, or personal care wipes) to label such products clearly and conspicuously with the phrase Do Not Flush and accompanying symbol as depicted under specified industry guidelines. The Federal Trade Commission must enforce these requirements and may issue regulations to implement the bill.
United States · United States Congress · 18 March 2025
Innovative Feed Enhancement and Economic Development Act of 2025 or the Innovative FEED Act of 2025 This bill provides for the regulation of zootechnical animal food substances as food additives. The bill defines zootechnical animal food substance as a substance that is added to the food or drinking water of animals and that affects only the animal's gastrointestinal tract, with the intended purpose of affecting the byproducts of the animal's digestion, reducing foodborne pathogens, or altering the animal's gastrointestinal biome. The definition does not include substances that are used to treat or prevent diseases in animals, hormones, or active ingredients of animal drugs. Labels for zootechnical animal food substances must include a disclaimer that the substance may not be used to treat or prevent diseases in animals.
United States · United States Congress · 18 March 2025
Protecting Access to Ground Ambulance Medical Services Act of 2025 This bill extends the specialized rate increase for Medicare payment of ground ambulance services in rural areas for an additional three years (until January 1, 2028).
United States · United States Congress · 18 March 2025
Feed Hungry Veterans Act of 2025 This bill expands eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for certain disabled veterans, including those determined to be catastrophically disabled. In addition, those disabled veterans who are eligible for SNAP under this bill are exempt from the general SNAP work registration and employment and training requirements. The bill takes effect on October 1, 2030.
United States · United States Congress · 14 March 2025
Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2025 This bill reauthorizes through FY2029 a diesel emissions reduction program under which the Environmental Protection Agency provides grants, rebates, or loans for replacing diesel engines or retrofitting the engines with pollution control technologies.
United States · United States Congress · 11 March 2025
Metastatic Breast Cancer Access to Care Act This bill expedites payment of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits and eligibility for Medicare coverage for those with metastatic breast cancer (i.e., breast cancer that has spread to other sites in the body). Specifically, the bill eliminates the 5-month waiting period for SSDI benefits and the subsequent 24-month waiting period for Medicare coverage for individuals with metastatic breast cancer. Under current law, individuals generally must wait 5 months after the onset of disability to begin receiving SSDI benefits and an additional 24 months to become eligible for Medicare.
![Official portrait of Rep. Pingree, Chellie [D-ME-1]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/p000597_200.jpg)