United States · United States Congress · 12 February 2025
1071 Repeal to Protect Small Business Lending Act This bill repeals the statute that requires financial institutions to collect data regarding applications for women-owned, minority-owned, or small business loans. Currently, financial institutions must collect and report to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau information on (1) how many applications were received; (2) the disposition of each application; (3) the type of loan; (4) the amount applied for; (5) the amount approved; and (6) each applicant’s census tract, revenue, race, sex, and ethnicity.
United States · United States Congress · 11 February 2025
Credit Union Board Modernization Act This bill revises the required frequency of meetings held by a credit union's board of directors. Specifically, new credit unions and credit unions with a low soundness rating must meet monthly. All other credit unions must hold at least six meetings annually, with at least one meeting held during each fiscal quarter. Currently, all credit union boards must meet at least once a month.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 2025
Expediting Forest Restoration and Recovery Act of 2025 This bill excludes from environmental review certain projects that reduce the risk of damage to National Forests from wildfires or insect infestations. It also makes permanent the authority for states to retain and use revenues from good neighbor agreement timber sales for certain restoration services. The bill exempts such projects from federal environmental review requirements if the projects are carried out in (1) insect and disease treatment areas where timber harvest activities are allowed; or (2) areas in Fire Regime Group IV, which are areas that typically burn every 35-200 years with high severity. However, the exemption does not apply to National Wilderness Preservation System lands or certain roadless areas. The Forest Service must conduct an environmental review for such a project if it is carried out in (1) an area where significant resource concerns exist; or (2) an insect and disease treatment area larger than a certain size. In the case of environmental reviews of other projects addressing wildfires or insect infestations, the Forest Service only must describe (1) the proposed agency action, and (2) the alternative of no agency action. In insect and disease treatment areas, the Forest Service must prioritize reducing the risks of insect infestations and wildfires over other objectives in forest plans.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 2025
Supporting Made in America Energy Act This bill requires oil and natural gas lease sales that include certain public land and waters, prohibits lease sales in other areas, and establishes related requirements. Beginning in FY2025, the Department of the Interior must conduct a minimum of four onshore lease sales annually in each state that has federal land available for oil and natural gas leasing. If a lease sale is canceled, delayed, or deferred, Interior must conduct a replacement sale during the same year. Beginning in FY2026, Interior must conduct a minimum of two offshore, region-wide lease sales annually in the Gulf of Mexico Region of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) by specified dates. The sales must include the Central Gulf of Mexico Planning Area and the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area. Interior must also conduct a minimum of six offshore lease sales of at least 1 million acres each over a 10-year period in the Cook Inlet Planning Area. The bill sets a 12.5% royalty rate for such leases. Interior must plan and approve the subsequent OCS oil and gas leasing programs by specified deadlines. The bill extends through 2035 a moratorium on oil and gas leasing in certain eastern and central portions of the Gulf of Mexico and expands the moratorium to include the South Atlantic Planning Area and the Straits of Florida Planning Area. The bill also requires the President to obtain congressional approval before impeding or circumventing certain federal energy mineral leasing processes.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 2025
Ski Hill Resources for Economic Development Act This bill allows National Forest System (NFS) units to keep the majority of ski area permit rental fees that were generated within their boundaries and outlines how revenues from those fees may be used. Such fees are collected by the Department of Agriculture (USDA) from ski area operators on NFS land. Within the NFS unit where the fees were generated, USDA must expend (1) 60%-48% of the collected fees for activities such as administration of the ski area permit program, visitor information, or reducing the likelihood of wildfire in or adjacent to a recreation site; and (2) 20% of the collected fees for activities such as repair of a Forest Service-owned facility, habitat restoration, or search and rescue activities. The remainder of the collected fees must be expended by USDA at any NFS unit for any of the activities specified in this bill.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 2025
Veterans 2nd Amendment Protection Act of 2025 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 · 6 February 2025
Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2025 This bill expands congressional review of federal agency rules and establishes additional procedures for major rules and agency guidance. Specifically, the bill requires the enactment of a joint resolution for a major rule to take effect. A major rule is a rule that has resulted in or is likely to result in (1) an annual economic effect of at least $100 million; (2) a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, government agencies, or geographic regions; or (3) significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, or innovation. Additionally, major rules approved by a joint resolution under the bill expire, and are no longer effective, 10 years after the enactment of such joint resolution. Further, each agency must annually designate at least 10% of the agency’s major rules that are currently in effect for review and approval by a joint resolution of Congress. Such rules that are not approved shall no longer be in effect. Under the bill, agency guidance documents are considered rules and certain significant guidance documents are considered major rules. Significant guidance documents include guidance anticipated to lead to an annual effect of at least $100 million, or adversely affect in a material way the economy, the environment, public health, or state or local government. The Office of Management and Budget must establish an federal regulatory budget specifying the net amount of incremental regulatory costs allowed by the federal government for the next fiscal year.
United States · United States Congress · 4 February 2025
This joint resolution nullifies the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule titled Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems: Procedures for Facilitating Compliance, Including Netting and Exemptions and published on November 18, 2024. The rule outlines compliance requirements under the Methane Emissions Reduction Program. Under the program, the EPA collects an annual charge on emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases from entities in the oil and gas sector if their emissions exceed specified waste emissions thresholds.
United States · United States Congress · 4 February 2025
Jumpstart Our Businesses by Supporting Students Act of 2025 or the JOBS Act of 2025 This bill expands student eligibility for Pell Grants by establishing the Job Training Federal Pell Grant program. Specifically, the bill requires the Department of Education to award a job training Pell Grant to a student who does not have a degree; attends an institution of higher education (IHE); is enrolled in a career and technical education program at an IHE that provides 150 to 600 clock hours of instructional time over a period of 8 to 15 weeks and provides training aligned with high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand industry sectors (i.e., job training programs); and meets all other eligibility requirements for a Pell Grant. The bill also specifies that any period during which a student receives a job training Pell Grant counts toward that student's Pell Grant eligibility period.
United States · United States Congress · 4 February 2025
Fair Access to Banking Act This bill places restrictions on certain banks, credit unions, and payment card networks if they refuse to do business with a person who complies with the law. Restrictions include prohibiting the use of electronic funds transfer systems and lending programs, termination of an institution's depository insurance, and specified civil penalties. Banks and other specified financial institutions are allowed to deny financial services to a person only if the denial is justified by a documented failure of that person to meet quantitative, impartial, risk-based standards established in advance by the institution. This justification may not be based upon reputational risks to the institution. The bill establishes the right for a person to bring a civil action for a violation of this bill.
United States · United States Congress · 3 February 2025
Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025 This bill extends and modifies the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act of 2000, including by extending payments made to states and counties containing federal land through FY2026, providing for payments for FY2024 and FY2025, extending the authority of counties to initiate projects using such funds through FY2028, and extending the authority to initiate projects proposed by resource advisory committees through FY2028.
United States · United States Congress · 30 January 2025
American Values Act This bill expands restrictions on using U.S. foreign assistance to pay for or promote abortions, involuntary sterilizations, or other related activities. Specifically, the bill expands existing prohibitions, including prohibitions against using foreign assistance to pay for abortions or involuntary sterilization for family planning, to apply to all assistance provided under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (FAA). (Currently, these prohibitions apply to only certain parts of the FAA.) Furthermore, assistance provided under the FAA may not be made available to (1) pay for lobbying for or against abortion, or (2) any organization that supports a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization. (These prohibitions have typically been in appropriations acts, but the bill would make the prohibitions a permanent part of the FAA.) The bill also makes permanent a prohibition against using funds made available to the Peace Corps to pay for abortions except when the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or when the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term.
United States · United States Congress · 30 January 2025
Fred Korematsu Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2025 This bill provides for the award of a Congressional Gold Medal posthumously to Fred Korematsu in recognition of his contributions to civil rights, his loyalty and patriotism to the United States, and his dedication to justice and equality.
United States · United States Congress · 30 January 2025
Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act This bill allows, beginning in 2028, for Medicare coverage and payment for multi-cancer early detection screening tests that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration and that are used to screen for cancer across many cancer types, if the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services determines such coverage is appropriate. Coverage is limited to those under a certain age (age 68 in 2028, increased by one year every year thereafter) and to one test every 11 months.
United States · United States Congress · 29 January 2025
WALL Act of 2025 This bill appropriates $25 billion for the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and addresses other issues related to immigration. As offsets to this spending, the bill restricts the child tax credit, earned income credits, and lifetime learning credits to those with Social Security numbers who are not prohibited from employment in the United States. Also, individuals who file taxes using an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) instead of a Social Security number must pay a fee ($300 for each individual on the tax return using an ITIN). The bill restricts eligibility for certain federally funded benefits, including unemployment compensation, supplemental nutrition assistance, and housing benefits, to those eligible to work in the United States. Agencies administering such benefits must use the E-Verify program to confirm the eligibility of applicants for such benefits. This bill also sets fines for non-U.S. nationals ( aliens under federal law) who improperly enter the United States or overstay their visas.
United States · United States Congress · 29 January 2025
Disaster Loan Accountability and Reform Act or the DLARA This bill modifies the Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster loan program and requires external review of, and reporting on, the program. First, the bill requires the SBA to report monthly on the operation of the disaster loan program. (Currently, the SBA must report only during the applicable period for a major disaster.) The report must estimate the date on which available funding for such loans will reach 10% of the most recent appropriation and the date on which the funds will be depleted. Second, the President's annual budget must include separate statements regarding the appropriations request for SBA disaster loans and COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), including explanations for any difference between the amount requested and the 10-year average cost for such loans. Third, for a period of four years, the SBA must notify Congress when the unobligated balance of amounts available for disaster loans is less than 10% of the 10-year average annual cost provided in the most recent Presidential budget. At such point, the SBA may limit disaster loans to collateralized amounts. Finally, the bill requires additional oversight of the disaster loan program, including a Government Accountability Office report on the disbursement of disaster loans and the effect of specified SBA rules on home lending limits, an SBA Office of Inspector General review of recent funding shortfalls for disaster loans, and an SBA report on improvements for forecasting the cost of disaster loans.
United States · United States Congress · 29 January 2025
Grizzly Bear State Management Act of 2025 This bill requires the Department of the Interior to remove the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem population of grizzly bears from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife.
United States · United States Congress · 28 January 2025
Fairness for Crime Victims Act of 2025 This bill establishes budget points of order in the House of Representatives and the Senate against considering provisions in appropriations legislation that contain changes in mandatory programs (CHIMPs) that would cause the amount available for obligation during the fiscal year from the Crime Victims Fund to be less than the annual average for the three previous fiscal years. A CHIMP is a provision that (1) would have been estimated as affecting direct spending or receipts if the provision were included in legislation other than an appropriations bill; and (2) results in a net decrease in budget authority in the current year or the budget year, but does not result in a net decrease in outlays over the period of the total of the current year, the budget year, and all fiscal years covered under the most recently adopted budget resolution. The points of order do not apply if the difference between the amount in the Crime Victims Fund as of September 30 of the fiscal year immediately preceding the fiscal year to which the CHIMP relates and the amount available for obligation under the CHIMP is not more than $2 billion.
United States · United States Congress · 24 January 2025
Dignity for Aborted Children Act This bill establishes requirements for abortion providers with respect to the disposal of human fetal tissue from an abortion. Specifically, it requires abortion providers to obtain a patient's informed consent for one of two specified methods of disposition and to retain the corresponding documentation in the patient's file. First, patients may choose to retain possession of the tissue. A patient may choose to transfer the tissue to an entity that provides interment or cremation services. Second, patients may choose to release the tissue to the provider. Providers must ensure any tissue released to them is interred or cremated within seven days of the procedure in a manner consistent with state law regarding the disposal of human remains. Abortion providers must submit reports annually to the Department of Health and Human Services about these requirements and other specified information. The bill establishes civil penalties for violations of the requirement to retain documentation of informed consent, and it establishes criminal penalties for violations of the requirement regarding the disposal of human fetal tissue.
United States · United States Congress · 24 January 2025
Guidance Out Of Darkness Act or the GOOD Act This bill establishes requirements concerning the posting of agency guidance documents. Specifically, an agency must publish guidance documents online on the dates they are issued, publish all of its guidance documents that are in effect in a single location on a designated website, display a hyperlink on its website that provides access to the guidance documents on such website, and indicate on such website if a guidance document has been rescinded. The documents must be categorized as guidance documents and further divided into subcategories.
United States · United States Congress · 24 January 2025
Interstate Transport Act of 2025 This bill permits an individual to transport a knife between two places (e.g., states) where it is legal to possess, carry, or transport the knife. The knife must be transported in compliance with the bill's accessibility and secure storage requirements, unless it is an emergency knife or tool designed to cut seat belts. An individual who is transporting a knife in compliance with this bill may not be arrested for a knife violation unless there is probable cause to believe the individual failed to comply with the accessibility or secure storage requirements.
United States · United States Congress · 24 January 2025
This concurrent resolution expresses the sense of Congress that tax-exempt fraternal benefit societies serve as a private economic and social support system, providing benefits to their members is necessary to support the charitable and fraternal activities of the volunteer chapters, and their work should continue to be promoted.
United States · United States Congress · 23 January 2025
This joint resolution nullifies the rule titled Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-fired Instantaneous Water Heaters and submitted by the Department of Energy (DOE) on December 26, 2024. Under the rule, DOE adopted amended energy conservation standards for gas-fired instantaneous water heaters to achieve the maximum improvement in energy efficiency that DOE determined was technologically feasible and economically justified.
United States · United States Congress · 23 January 2025
Protecting Individuals with Down Syndrome Act This bill creates new federal crimes related to the performance of an abortion on an unborn child who has Down syndrome. It subjects a violator to criminal penalties—a fine, a prison term of up to five years, or both. It also authorizes civil remedies, including damages and injunctive relief. A woman who undergoes such an abortion may not be prosecuted or held civilly liable.
United States · United States Congress · 23 January 2025
Protecting Life on College Campus Act of 2025 This bill prohibits the award of federal funds to an institution of higher education (IHE) that hosts or is affiliated with a school-based service site that provides abortion drugs or abortions to its students or to employees of the IHE or the site. An IHE that hosts or is affiliated with a site must, in order to remain eligible for federal funds, annually certify that the site does not provide abortion drugs or abortions to students or employees.
United States · United States Congress · 23 January 2025
Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act of 2025 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. The milk that is offered may be organic or nonorganic. Further, schools currently must provide a substitute for fluid milk, on receipt of a written statement from a licensed physician, for students whose disability restricts their diet. Under the bill, a parent or legal guardian may also provide the written statement. 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, fluid milk is excluded from the saturated fat content calculation; milk fat included in any fluid milk provided by the program must not be considered saturated fat for the purposes of measuring compliance with USDA regulations.
United States · United States Congress · 23 January 2025
Main Street Tax Certainty Act This bill makes permanent the qualified business income (QBI) tax deduction. Under current law, individuals, estates, and trusts may deduct the lower of (1) 20% of QBI from a qualified business, qualified real estate investment trust dividends, and qualified publicly traded partnership income; or (2) 20% of taxable income less net capital gain. (Some limitations apply.) However, under current law, the QBI tax deduction expires after December 31, 2025.
United States · United States Congress · 23 January 2025
Protect Equality And Civics Education Act of 2025 or the PEACE Act of 2025 This bill prohibits the use of federal funding made available for the American History and Civics Education program to fund a curriculum, teaching, or counseling that promotes a divisive concept (e.g., race stereotyping or scapegoating) under the priorities noticed in the Department of Education's proposed rule titled Proposed Priorities-American History and Civics Education , published on April 19, 2021.
United States · United States Congress · 23 January 2025
Honoring Our Fallen Heroes Act of 2025 This bill extends death and disability benefits under the Public Safety Officers' Benefits Program (PSOB) to certain public safety officers who suffer from exposure-related cancer while on duty and their survivors. The PSOB program provides death, disability, and education benefits to public safety officers who are killed or injured in the line of duty and their survivors. The bill specifies that exposure to a carcinogen shall be presumed to constitute a personal injury in the line of duty if the exposure occurred while the officer was in the line of duty; the officer began serving as an officer not fewer than 5 years before the date of the diagnosis of an exposure-related cancer and the diagnosis occurred not more than 15 years after the last date of active service; and the exposure-related cancer directly and proximately resulted in the death or permanent and total disability of the officer. The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance must periodically review the definition of exposure-related cance r and update the definition if appropriate based on medical evidence and in accordance with the requirements of a petition process.
United States · United States Congress · 22 January 2025
Ensuring Accurate and Complete Abortion Data Reporting Act of 2025 This bill requires states, as a condition of federal payment under Medicaid for family planning services, to report certain abortion data to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Currently, reporting is voluntary.) The CDC must develop standardized questions for states with respect to specified variables (e.g., maternal demographics and methods of abortion).
United States · United States Congress · 22 January 2025
Northwest Energy Security Act This bill requires Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) operations to be consistent with the preferred alternative in a 2020 environmental impact statement (EIS) decision that focuses on the operations, maintenance, and configuration of dams in the system rather than wild fish restoration. The system includes dams in the Columbia and Snake rivers in Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Idaho. Specifically, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must operate the FCRPS consistent with the Columbia River System Operations Environmental Impact Statement Record of Decision dated September 2020. Thus, Reclamation, the Bonneville Power Administration, and the Army Corps must follow the EIS rather than the 2023 Resilient Columbia Basin Initiative—and a supplemental EIS proposed in 2024—that focus on wild fish restoration in the Columbia Basin. The EIS decision may be amended if each agency determines that (1) changes are necessary for public safety or electrical grid reliability, or (2) certain requirements in the decision are no longer necessary. Further, the bill requires statutory authorization for any structural modification, action, study, or engineering plan that (1) restricts FCRPS hydroelectric dam generation; or (2) limits navigation on the Snake River in Washington, Oregon, or Idaho.
United States · United States Congress · 22 January 2025
This bill requires federal agencies to submit zero-based budgets to the Office of Management and Budget and the congressional budget committees . Under the bill, a zero-based budget is a systematic budget analysis in which managers (1) examine current objectives, operations, and costs; (2) consider alternative ways of carrying out programs or activities; and (3) rank different programs or activities by order of importance. The bill also requires federal agencies to submit recommendations to reduce spending by at least 2% from the previous year's levels. The Department of Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration are exempt from this requirement.
United States · United States Congress · 22 January 2025
Codifying Useful Regulatory Definitions Act or the CURD Act This bill establishes a statutory definition for natural cheese . Under the bill, natural cheese is defined as cheese (ripened or unripened soft, semi-soft, or hard) that is produced from animal milk or certain dairy ingredients and is produced in accordance with established cheese-making standards. The definition excludes pasteurized process cheeses, cheese foods, and cheese spreads. A food that does not meet this definition is deemed misbranded and may not be sold if its label includes the term natural cheese as a factual descriptor of a category of cheese.
United States · United States Congress · 22 January 2025
No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2025 This bill modifies provisions relating to federal funding for, and health insurance coverage of, abortions. Specifically, the bill prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions or for health coverage that includes abortions. Such restrictions extend to the use of funds in the budget of the District of Columbia. Additionally, abortions may not be provided in a federal health care facility or by a federal employee. Historically, language has been included in annual appropriations bills for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that prohibits the use of federal funds for abortions—such language is commonly referred to as the Hyde Amendment. Similar language is also frequently included in appropriations bills for other federal agencies and the District of Columbia. The bill makes these restrictions permanent and extends the restrictions to all federal funds (rather than specific agencies). The bill's restrictions regarding the use of federal funds do not apply in cases of rape, incest, or where a physical disorder, injury, or illness endangers a woman's life unless an abortion is performed. The Hyde Amendment provides the same exceptions. The bill also prohibits qualified health plans from including coverage for abortions. Currently, qualified health plans may cover abortion, but the portion of the premium attributable to abortion coverage is not eligible for subsidies.
United States · United States Congress · 22 January 2025
Protect Funding for Women's Health Care Act This bill prohibits federal funding of Planned Parenthood Federation of America or its affiliates, subsidiaries, successors, or clinics.
United States · United States Congress · 21 January 2025
Aerial Firefighting Enhancement Act of 2025 This bill reauthorizes the Department of Defense to sell its excess aircraft and aircraft parts that are acceptable for commercial sale for wildfire suppression purposes. Such authority begins October 1, 2025, and ends October 1, 2035. The bill also provides that such aircraft may be used to deliver water by air in order to suppress wildfire (the previous authority only provided for the delivery of fire retardant). The bill removes the previous limitation on providing international wildfire suppression assistance with such purchased aircraft.
United States · United States Congress · 21 January 2025
Mandating Advisable and Informed Locations and Solutions Act or the MAILS Act This bill requires the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to (1) establish a formal process for a local government official to request a new post office, and (2) modify how it communicates with local officials and the public about certain topics. Specifically, USPS must modify existing regulations with respect to temporary relocations of postal retail services for holidays, special events, overflow business, and commemorative events. USPS may not implement any such temporary relocation for more than two days unless it first collects and considers community input. USPS must also provide specified notifications to local officials and the public, periodic updates to local officials, and a public presentation about such a relocation.
![Official portrait of Sen. Risch, James E. [R-ID]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/r000584_200.jpg)