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![Official portrait of Rep. Ferguson, A. Drew, IV [R-GA-3]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/116_rp_ga_3_ferguson_a_200.jpg)
United States · Official source
824 records where Rep. Ferguson, A. Drew, IV [R-GA-3] is listed as a sponsor, author, or other actor. Search with topics and years
United States · United States Congress · 14 March 2023
Chiropractic Medicare Coverage Modernization Act of 2023 This bill expands Medicare coverage of chiropractic services to include all services provided by chiropractors, rather than only subluxation corrections through manual manipulation of the spine.
United States · United States Congress · 14 March 2023
Lower Energy Costs Act This bill provides for the exploration, development, importation, and exportation of energy resources (e.g., oil, gas, and minerals). For example, it sets forth provisions to (1) expedite energy projects, (2) eliminate or reduce certain fees related to the development of federal energy resources, and (3) eliminate certain funds that provide incentives to decrease emissions of greenhouse gases. The bill expedites the development, importation, and exportation of energy resources, including by waiving environmental review requirements and other specified requirements under certain environmental laws, eliminating certain restrictions on the import and export of oil and natural gas, prohibiting the President from declaring a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing (a type of process used to extract underground energy resources), directing the Department of the Interior to conduct sales for the leasing of oil and gas resources on federal lands and waters as specified by the bill, and limiting the authority of the President and executive agencies to restrict or delay the development of energy on federal land. In addition, the bill reduces royalties for oil and gas development on federal land and eliminates charges on methane emissions. It also eliminates a variety of funds, such as funds for energy efficiency improvements in buildings as well as the greenhouse gas reduction fund.
United States · United States Congress · 9 March 2023
Beagle Brigade Act of 202 3 This bill provides statutory authority for the National Detector Dog Training Center that is operated by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) of the Department of Agriculture. The center trains dogs to inspect passenger baggage, cargo, mailed packages, and vehicles to detect foreign pests and diseases that threaten domestic agriculture and natural resources. The bill also requires APHIS to report to Congress on (1) current and emerging threats to domestic agricultural and natural resources from foreign pests and diseases, and (2) recommendations to improve the center's capabilities and procedures.
United States · United States Congress · 9 March 2023
Prescription Information Modernization Act of 2023 This bill allows health care providers to receive prescribing information for drugs electronically rather than in paper form from manufacturers. Manufacturers must still give providers the option to continue to receive or request the information in paper form. Additionally, the Food and Drug Administration must hold a public workshop to discuss with stakeholders how to optimize the format, accessibility, and usability of prescribing information.
United States · United States Congress · 8 March 2023
Black Vulture Relief Act of 2023 This bill allows livestock producers and their employees to take certain actions against black vultures to protect livestock. (Black vultures are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.) Specifically, livestock producers and their employees may (1) take (i.e., capture, kill, disperse, or transport) a black vulture that they reasonably believe will cause death, injury, or destruction to livestock; or (2) in the course of taking or attempting to take the black vulture, cause injury to the bird. Livestock producers and their employees must submit an annual report to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on black vultures taken under this bill. The FWS must make this reporting form available on its website. Currently, the FWS has a permit process under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act for the taking of black vultures.
United States · United States Congress · 8 March 2023
Freedom To Invest in Tomorrow's Workforce Act This bill allows the use of funds in a qualified tuition program (commonly known as a 529 account) to pay for expenses associated with obtaining or maintaining recognized postsecondary credentials.
United States · United States Congress · 7 March 2023
Dentist and Optometric Care Access Act of 2023 or the DOC Access Act of 20 23 This bill prohibits private health insurance plans from setting rates for items and services, except for dental cleanings, provided by a doctor of optometry, of dental surgery, or of dental medicine for which the plan does not pay a substantial amount. Additionally, an agreement between a plan and such a doctor for limited scope dental or vision benefits may last longer than two years only with the prior acceptance of the doctor for each term extension. Plans also may not restrict such a doctor's choice of laboratories or suppliers. Such doctors may elect to waive the application of the payment amount and choice of laboratories provisions of this bill. The bill does not supersede state laws regarding health insurers and dental or vision benefit plans.
United States · United States Congress · 7 March 2023
Sultana Steamboat Disaster Commemorative Coin Act of 2023 This bill directs the Department of the Treasury to mint and issue not more than 100,000 $5 gold coins, 500,000 $1 silver coins, and 750,000 half-dollar clad coins emblematic of the Sultana steamboat explosion that occured on April 27, 1865, on the Mississippi River. All surcharges received by Treasury from the sale of such coins must be paid to the Sultana Historical Preservation Society for the purpose of establishing, operating, and maintaining a museum.
United States · United States Congress · 1 March 2023
Military Spouse Hiring Act This bill expands the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) to include the hiring of a qualified military spouse. (The WOTC permits employers who hire individuals who are members of a targeted group such as qualified veterans, ex-felons, or long-term unemployment recipients to claim a tax credit equal to a portion of the wages paid to those individuals.) A qualified military spouse is any individual who is certified by the designated local agency as being (as of the hiring date) a spouse of a member of the Armed Forces.
United States · United States Congress · 1 March 2023
Saving Us from Pandemic Era Resistance by Building a Unified Global Strategy Act of 2023 or the SUPER BUGS Act of 2023 This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to seek to enter into arrangements with foreign countries, multilateral organizations, and other appropriate entities to facilitate the development and commercialization of qualified pandemic or epidemic products, which include drugs, biological products, and medical devices. HHS shall report to Congress a strategy for achieving this goal.
United States · United States Congress · 1 March 2023
Parents Bill of Rights Act This bill establishes various rights of parents and guardians regarding the elementary or secondary school education of their children. Local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools must comply with the requirements of the bill in order to receive federal education funds. Specifically, the bill requires schools to notify parents and guardians of their rights regarding the education of their children. These rights include the right to review the curriculum of their child's school; know if the state alters its challenging academic standards; meet with each teacher of their child at least twice each school year; review the budget, including all revenues and expenditures, of their child's school; review a list of the books and other reading materials in the library of their child's school; address the school board of the LEA; receive information about violent activity in their child's school; and receive information about any plans to eliminate gifted and talented programs in the child's school. Additionally, the bill directs each LEA to post on a publicly accessible website (or otherwise widely disseminate to the public) the curriculum for each elementary and secondary school grade level. The LEA must also include in its annual report card the overall budget of the LEA and the budget for each elementary and secondary school. The bill also provides for additional family educational and privacy rights, including by prohibiting schools from selling student information for commercial or financial gain.
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 2023
Fair and Open Competition Act or the FOCA Act This bill prohibits federal construction contracts or controlling documents for federally supported construction projects from requiring or prohibiting project labor agreements. Such documents also may not discriminate against or give preference to a bidder or contractor who signs or refuses to sign a project labor agreement. An agency may exempt a project from this prohibition to avert an imminent threat to public health or safety or to serve the national security.
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 2023
Facilitating Innovative Nuclear Diagnostics Act of 2023 This bill establishes separate payment requirements for diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals under the Medicare prospective payment system for hospital outpatient department services. The bill's requirements apply to diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals that have an average daily cost of $500 or more in 2024 and as adjusted based on a specified fee schedule factor in each year thereafter.
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 2023
National Right-to-Work Act This bill repeals those provisions of the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act that permit employers to make an agreement with a labor union to require employees to join such union as a condition of employment. Currently, at least 27 states have enacted laws prohibiting employers from compelling employees to become members of a union as a condition of employment.
United States · United States Congress · 24 February 2023
Broadband Stock Acquisition in Local Exchanges Act or the Broadband SALE Act This bill allows an exclusion from gross income, for income tax purposes, of gain from the sale or exchange of the entire interest in a wholly-owned rural incumbent local exchange carrier. A rural incumbent local exchange carrier is a carrier that serves (1) an area where it was required to provide communications services by a specified date to any customer regardless of cost, and (2) an area other than an urbanized area with not fewer than 50,000 people and a core where there are not fewer than 1,000 people per square mile. The bill requires recapture of tax for income from the sale or exchange of stock in a carrier not held for at least one year. The bill allows an investment tax credit for 30% of expenditures to purchase, maintain, or improve property to provide voice telephone service or broadband internet access in rural empowerment zones.
United States · United States Congress · 24 February 2023
Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act This bill addresses fraud and overpayments of pandemic unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, including by providing incentives for states to investigate and recover overpayments of these benefits. Specifically, the bill allows states to retain 25% of any recovered fraudulent overpayments. These retained funds may be used for modernizing unemployment compensation systems and information technology, reimbursing administrative costs, hiring fraud investigators and prosecutors, and for other program integrity activities. Additionally, the bill allows states to retain 5% of any overpayments of regular and extended UI benefits. A state must, in order to retain these overpayments, certify that it has met certain conditions for data matching. Next, the bill extends from 3 to 10 years the time during which states can recover overpayments of pandemic UI benefits. Further, the bill extends flexibilities for states to hire temporary staff on a noncompetitive basis to identify, pursue, and recover fraudulent overpayments. The bill also extends from 5 to 10 years the statute of limitations for federal criminal charges or civil enforcement actions related to UI fraud. Finally, the bill repeals a section of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (as amended by the American Rescue Plan of 2021) that provided funding for UI program integrity activities.
United States · United States Congress · 21 February 2023
Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2023 This bill revises requirements for milk provided by the National School Lunch Program of the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Currently, schools participating in the program must provide milk that is consistent with the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans; USDA regulations require milk to be fat-free or low-fat and allow milk to be flavored or unflavored. The bill modifies these restrictions and instead permits schools to offer students whole, reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free flavored and unflavored milk. In addition, schools currently participating in the program must provide meals that meet certain nutrition requirements; USDA regulations require that the average saturated fat content of the meals offered must be less than 10% of the total calories. Under the bill, USDA must revise these requirements to increase the allowable average saturated fat content of a meal to account for milk fat included in whole milk.
United States · United States Congress · 21 February 2023
This resolution supports the designation of National FFA Week. It also (1) recognizes the important role of the National FFA Organization (Future Farmers of America) in developing the next generation of leaders who will change the world, and (2) celebrates the 90th anniversary of the iconic FFA jacket.
United States · United States Congress · 17 February 2023
Everett Alvarez, Jr., Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2023 This bill provides for the award of a Congressional Gold Medal to Everett Alvarez, Jr. in recognition of his service to the nation.
United States · United States Congress · 17 February 2023
250th Anniversary of the United States Marine Corps Commemorative Coin Act This bill directs the Department of the Treasury to mint and issue not more than 50,000 $5 gold coins, 400,000 $1 silver coins, and 750,000 half-dollar clad coins emblematic of the 250th anniversary of the United States Marine Corps. All surcharges received by Treasury from the sale of such coins must be paid to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation and shall only be used for the purposes of supporting the mission of the Marine Corps Heritage Center.
United States · United States Congress · 17 February 2023
Shirley Chisholm Congressional Gold Medal Act This bill provides for the posthumous presentation of a Congressional Gold Medal in commemoration of Shirley Chisholm, in recognition of her activism, independence, and groundbreaking achievements in politics, including election as the first African American woman in Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 14 February 2023
This resolution honors the life and legacy of Henry Louis Aaron for his accomplishments on and off the baseball field and for defying racism and breaking down racial barriers in the fight for equality.
United States · United States Congress · 14 February 2023
Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act This bill prohibits the Department of the Treasury from requiring a financial institution to report the transfers into and out of a financial account. This prohibition does not apply to laws or regulations in effect on January 1, 2023.
United States · United States Congress · 14 February 2023
Protect Farmers from the SEC Act This bill prohibits the Securities and Exchange Commission from requiring the disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions related to agricultural products.
United States · United States Congress · 10 February 2023
Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act of 2023 This bill repeals provisions under the Stark law (i.e., the Physician Self-Referral Law) that limit, for purposes of Medicare participation, self-referrals by newly constructed or expanded physician-owned hospitals.
United States · United States Congress · 10 February 2023
TCJA Permanency Act This bill makes permanent provisions affecting individual and business taxpayers that were enacted in 2017 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025. The bill makes permanent reductions in individual and capital gain tax rates. The bill increases the standard tax deduction for individual taxpayers. It also increases and modifies the child tax credit and raises the contribution base for the tax deduction for charitable contributions. The bill allows additional contributions to ABLE accounts (tax-exempt accounts designed to enable individuals with disabilities to save and pay for disability-related expenses). It exempts from taxation combat zone benefits of members of the Armed Forces serving in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and limits the deduction for moving expenses to active duty members of the Armed Forces. Additionally, the bill expands the types of elementary and secondary school expenses eligible for payment from qualified tuition programs (529 programs); lowers to $750,000 the amount of mortgage debt eligible for an interest expense tax deduction; reinstates after 2024 the exclusion of income from the gross income of student loan borrowers for loan debt discharged due to death or total and permanent disability; makes permanent the limitation on the tax deduction for state and local taxes and denies a deduction for foreign real property taxes; makes permanent the tax deduction of the income of certain pass-through business entities; repeals the tax deduction for personal tax exemptions and the exclusion of employer-provided bicycle commuter fringe benefits; terminates certain miscellaneous itemized tax deductions; doubles the estate and gift tax exemption amount; and makes permanent the increase of the alternative minimum tax exemption amount for individual taxpayers.
United States · United States Congress · 9 February 2023
Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2023 This bill expands federal enforcement of criminal offenses related to organized retail crime. Organized retail crime typically refers to large-scale retail theft and fraud by organized groups of professional shoplifters, or boosters, who make money by stealing merchandise and reselling it for a fraction of the retail cost. First, with respect to criminal offenses involving the transportation of stolen property across state lines and the sale or receipt of stolen goods, the bill broadens the scope of conduct that qualifies as offenses. Additionally, the bill makes the offenses predicate offenses (i.e., underlying offenses) for prosecutions under the federal money laundering statute and authorizes the criminal forfeiture of any property representing or traceable to the gross proceeds obtained as a result of an offense or a conspiracy to commit an offense. Second, with respect to criminal offenses involving theft from an interstate or foreign shipment, the bill makes an offense an underlying offense for prosecution under the federal money laundering statute and authorizes the criminal forfeiture of any property representing or traceable to the gross proceeds obtained as a result of an offense or a conspiracy to commit an offense. Finally, the bill establishes a center—the Organized Retail Crime Coordination Center—within the Department of Homeland Security to coordinate the federal law enforcement activities related to organized retail crime.
United States · United States Congress · 9 February 2023
Tanning Tax Repeal Act of 2023 This bill repeals the excise tax on indoor tanning services.
United States · United States Congress · 9 February 2023
Broadband Grant Tax Treatment Act This bill excludes from gross income, for income tax purposes, certain broadband grants made for broadband deployment.
United States · United States Congress · 9 February 2023
Caribbean Border Counternarcotics Strategy Act This bill provides statutory authority for the requirement for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) to include a Caribbean Border Counternarcotics Strategy in its National Drug Control Strategy. This strategy must include measures for preventing the illegal trafficking of drugs through the Caribbean region into the United States, including measures to combat drug trafficking and drug-related violent crime in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The bill also revises ONDCP's authorization to (1) add definitions for state and for United States to specify that its authorization includes U.S. territories and possessions, and (2) revise the definition for supply reduction to ensure that the National Drug Control Strategy includes efforts to disrupt the financial networks of drug trafficking organizations.
United States · United States Congress · 9 February 2023
IRS Funding Accountability Act This bill delays for a 60-day period funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforcement activities enacted by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (except for eliminating return processing backlogs and reducing call wait times) until an annual spending plan for such activities is submitted to the congressional tax and appropriation committees. Congress may enact a joint resolution of disapproval of the spending plan before the end of the 60-day period requiring the IRS to submit a new spending plan. The IRS and the Department of the Treasury must make quarterly reports to the committees on expenditures for enforcement activities. The bill requires reductions in IRS appropriations for any failure to submit required reports.
United States · United States Congress · 9 February 2023
Outpatient Surgery Quality and Access Act of 2023 This bill establishes and modifies certain requirements relating to Medicare payments for ambulatory surgical center (ASC) services. Specifically, the bill (1) requires the payment system for ASC services to feature certain positive annual adjustments equivalent to those made with respect to hospital outpatient department (OPD) services; (2) revises quality reporting requirements to permit publicly available, side-by-side comparisons of quality measures for ASCs and OPDs in the same geographic area; and (3) requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), when excluding requested procedures from the list of those approved to be performed in ASCs, to cite specified reasons for doing so. With respect to excluding procedures from the approved list for ASCs, the CMS may not cite as a basis for exclusion that a procedure can only be reported using an unlisted surgical procedure code. (Physicians sometimes use unlisted codes when performing new procedures or services if no existing code is adequately descriptive.) The bill also limits the copayment amount for ASC services under Medicare to that of the inpatient hospital deductible.
United States · United States Congress · 7 February 2023
This resolution condemns Iranian state-sponsored terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens and officials and Iranian dissidents. The resolution also expresses support for the people of Iran who are legitimately defending their rights for freedom against repression and condemns the killing of Iranian protesters by the Iranian regime.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 2023
Help Ensure Lower Patient Copays Act or the HELP Copays Act This bill requires health insurance plans to apply certain payments made by, or on behalf of, a plan enrollee toward a plan's cost-sharing requirements. Specifically, plans must apply third-party payments, financial assistance, discounts, product vouchers, and other reductions in out-of-pocket expenses toward the requirements.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 2023
Freight Rail Assistance and Investment to Launch Coronavirus-Era Activity and Recovery Act of 2023 or the Freight RAILCAR Act of 2023 This bill provides a new tax credit through 2025 for 10% of freight railcar fleet modernization expenses (i.e., railcar replacement and modernization expenses for meeting fuel efficiency and performance standards). The bill provides that no more than 2,000 freight railcars per taxpayer may be taken into account for purposes of determining the credit in a taxable year. The Department of the Treasury must report to Congress on the credit to provide information on the number of times the credit was claimed and the number of railcars scrapped or built as a result of the credit.
United States · United States Congress · 2 February 2023
Preventive Health Savings Act This bill requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), upon receiving a request from Congress, to determine if proposed legislation would reduce spending outside of the 10-year budget window through the use of preventive health and preventive health services. If CBO determines that the legislation would result in substantial spending reductions from the use of preventive health and preventive health services, a description and estimate of the spending reductions must be included in CBO projections.
United States · United States Congress · 2 February 2023
This joint resolution nullifies the rule titled Revised Definition of "Waters of the United States," which was submitted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency on January 18, 2023. The rule specifies which bodies of water fall under the scope of the Clean Water Act and are thereby under federal jurisdiction. The 2023 rule replaced a 2020 rule that included a narrower definition of waters of the United States .
United States · United States Congress · 2 February 2023
Deter Obnoxious, Nefarious, and Outrageous Telephone Calls Act of 2023 or the DO NOT Call Act of 202 3 This bill increases and establishes criminal penalties, which include imprisonment for up to one year, for an intentional violation of the restrictions on automated telephone marketing and messaging. In addition, a person may be imprisoned for up to three years for an aggravated violation of such restrictions if the person (1) previously has been convicted of such an offense, (2) initiates a certain high volume of such calls during specified periods of time, (3) commits the offense in the furtherance of a felony, or (4) causes losses of at least $5,000 during any one-year period to one or more persons. The bill also increases from $10,000 to $20,000 the fine for intentionally transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller identification information.
United States · United States Congress · 2 February 2023
Guaranteeing Independent Growth Act or the GIG Act This bill establishes a statutory test for determining if an individual who performs services for another person should be classified as an independent contractor rather than an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. Specifically, an individual is likely to be considered an independent contractor if the individual providing services exercises substantial control over key aspects of the service and earns profits or incurs losses based on the individual's own initiative or resource management. The Department of Labor may also consider secondary factors when determining if an individual should be classified as an independent contractor, including (1) whether the services require specialized training or skills that are not provided by the recipient of the services, and (2) whether the services are performed on a continuous basis.
United States · United States Congress · 1 February 2023
Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act This bill prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from transmitting certain information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) utilized by licensed importers or dealers of firearms. Specifically, the bill prohibits the VA from transmitting personally identifying information of a veteran or a beneficiary to the NICS solely on the basis that such veteran or beneficiary has an appointed fiduciary to manage their benefits, unless there is an order or finding of a judicial authority that such veteran or beneficiary is a danger to themselves or others.
United States · United States Congress · 1 February 2023
Supply Chain Disruptions Relief Act This bill modifies the treatment of liquidations of new motor vehicle inventory as qualified LIFO (last in first out accounting method) inventory. It allows new motor vehicle dealers to elect to wait until the end of 2025 to replace their inventory for purposes of determining income attributable to the sale of such inventory during 2020 and 2021.
United States · United States Congress · 31 January 2023
Disaster Reforestation Act This bill sets forth a special rule for the tax deduction for casualty losses of uncut timber (including pre-merchantable timber). It provides that in losses of any uncut timber from fire, storm, insects, invasive species, drought, or other casualty, or from theft, the basis for determining the amount of the deduction for such loss shall not be less than the excess of the value of such timber determined immediately before such loss was sustained, over the salvage value of such timber. To be eligible for the casualty loss deduction, the uncut timber subject to the loss must be reforested not later than the close of the five-year period beginning on the date of the loss.
United States · United States Congress · 30 January 2023
This resolution recognizes the importance of independent workers, app-based earners, freelancers, and other independent contractors to the economy.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 2023
This bill designates the community-based outpatient clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Hinesville, Georgia, as the John Gibson, Dan James, William Sapp, and Frankie Smiley VA Clinic.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 2023
Holocaust Education and Antisemitism Lessons Act or the HEAL Act This bill directs the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to study and report on Holocaust education efforts in states, local educational agencies (LEAs), and public elementary and secondary schools. Among other elements, the study must (1) determine whether states and LEAs require Holocaust education as part of the curriculum taught in public elementary and secondary schools, (2) identify the standards and requirements relating to Holocaust education, and (3) identify the types of instructional material used to teach students about the Holocaust.
United States · United States Congress · 26 January 2023
Educational Choice for Children Act This bill allows individuals and corporations a new tax credit after 2023 for charitable contributions to tax-exempt organizations that provide scholarships to elementary and secondary school students. Such students must be members of a household with incomes not greater 300% of the area median gross income and be eligible to enroll in a public elementary or secondary school. The bill excludes from the gross income of taxpayer dependents any scholarship amount for the elementary or secondary education expenses of eligible students. It also prohibits governmental control over scholarship granting organizations.
United States · United States Congress · 25 January 2023
Freedom for Health Care Workers Act This bill nullifies the rule titled Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Omnibus COVID-19 Health Care Staff Vaccination , which was issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on November 5, 2021, and prohibits the issuance of any substantially similar rule. The rule requires health care providers, as a condition of Medicare and Medicaid participation, to ensure that staff are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
United States · United States Congress · 25 January 2023
This concurrent resolution denounces socialism and opposes the implementation of socialist policies in the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 24 January 2023
Building America's Health Care Workforce Act This bill extends certain flexibilities relating to training and competency requirements for nurse aides in Medicare skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and Medicaid nursing facilities (NFs). Generally, SNFs and NFs may not hire nurse aides for longer than four months unless they meet certain training and certification requirements. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services waived some of these requirements during the COVID-19 emergency period so as to allow facilities to maintain adequate staffing levels; the blanket waiver ended in June 2022, though individual facilities, states, and counties may continue to apply for waivers during the emergency period. The bill extends these flexibilities for at least two years after the bill's enactment and specifies that (1) any time worked by a nurse aide during the emergency period counts toward the 75 hours required for initial training, and (2) a competency evaluation may be conducted at the SNF or NF where the nurse aide is employed if the state does not offer such an evaluation at least once a week.
United States · United States Congress · 24 January 2023
Provides for the relief of Michael Janssen and Steven Passantino.