United States · United States Congress · 16 December 2025
Essential Caregivers Act of 2025 This bill prohibits certain health care facilities from limiting the access of essential caregivers to residents of those facilities, including during designated emergency periods. Specifically, the bill generally prohibits Medicare skilled nursing facilities, Medicaid nursing facilities, Medicaid intermediate care facilities, and associated inpatient rehabilitation facilities from restricting the access of essential caregivers to residents of the facilities, including during emergency periods in which visitation rights are otherwise restricted. During emergency periods, facilities may restrict access for an initial period of up to seven days and for one additional maximum seven-day period (if the additional period is approved by the state health department). Facilities may restrict access for a total of 7 days (or 14 days with the approval of the state health department) during an emergency period. Essential caregivers must agree to comply with any safety protocols set by the facility, which may be no more stringent for caregivers compared to those for staff. Caregivers who fail to comply with these requirements may be denied access, subject to an appeals process.
United States · United States Congress · 11 December 2025
Housing for the 21st Century Act This bill revises federal housing programs, including by expanding available financing for affordable housing and providing grants for planning and community development activities. For example, the bill increases the statutory maximum loan limits for mortgage insurance programs administered by the Federal Housing Administration for multifamily homes and requires the use of a more specific inflation index for such loans. The bill also increases the maximum eligible income for the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) HOME Investment Partnerships Program (grants to states and localities to support housing for low-income households) and establishes a grant program to assist regional, state, and local entities with strategies to support affordable housing. In addition, the bill exempts certain housing-related activities from the environmental review process, including certain construction, improvement, or rehabilitation of residential buildings; excludes veterans' disability benefits from being considered as income for purposes of determining eligibility for the Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) program; establishes a pilot program to provide grants to public housing agencies (PHAs) and other owners of federally assisted housing to test the efficacy of temperature sensors to support compliance with temperature requirements; eliminates the requirement that manufactured homes must be constructed with a permanent chassis; and authorizes HUD to conduct performance reviews of organizations that provide housing counseling services. The bill also expands oversight of HUD and PHAs, such as by requiring PHAs to post information about contracts on their websites. For more information about this bill, see CRS Report R48849 .
United States · United States Congress · 9 December 2025
College Financial Aid Clarity Act of 2025 This bill requires the Department of Education (ED) to develop, and for institutions of higher education (IHEs) to use, a standardized, consumer-tested format for all financial aid offers. Any financial aid offer must include specified details and disclosures, including (1) cost information (e.g., cost of attendance and net price); (2) disclosures related to loans (e.g., applicable interest rates); (3) information on student employment opportunities; and (4) next steps for accepting, adjusting, or declining financial aid. Each IHE that participates in federal student aid programs must (1) include the required information for all financial aid offers (including paper, mobile, or electronic offers), (2) provide supplemental content and disclosures (e.g., requirements for renewing financial aid), and (3) use consistent terminology for all communications related to financial aid offers.
United States · United States Congress · 1 December 2025
Stop Illegal Fishing Act This bill requires the President to impose sanctions on foreign vessels and persons engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing). The bill directs the President to block and prohibit all transactions involving property (including interests in property) of a covered foreign vessel or person if such property comes within the United States or within the possession or control of a U.S. person. The President must also deny or revoke any visa or other entry documentation issued to or sought by a covered foreign person. Civil and criminal penalties apply to violations, including attempts or conspiracies to violate the sanctions. A covered foreign vessel is any vessel that is registered or operated under the authority of a foreign country and engages in IUU fishing. Covered foreign persons are individuals or entities that are not U.S. persons and knowingly (1) own any vessel that engages in IUU fishing, (2) work as a captain or senior crew member on any vessel that engages in IUU fishing, (3) operate as an entity primarily engaged in IUU fishing, or (4) serve as an officer or senior manager in an entity primarily engaged in IUU fishing. The President may waive the application of these sanctions after notifying Congress that the waiver is important to U.S. national security interests. Other exceptions apply, such as to provide life-saving assistance to a covered vessel. The bill directs the President to periodically report to Congress on efforts to carry out these provisions.
United States · United States Congress · 20 November 2025
Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform Act or the ROTOR Act This bill addresses aviation safety by increasing requirements for aircraft tracking and communication using Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology and expanding oversight. As background, ADS-B for broadcasting (Out) and receiving (In) transmits information (e.g., location and weather information) between aircraft and air traffic control. Under the bill, aircraft must generally operate with ADS-B In equipment to provide the aircraft with location information of other aircraft and traffic advisories. Current law does not require this equipment. Current Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations allow aircraft performing a sensitive government mission to be excepted from requirements for using ADS-B Out equipment. This bill limits which flights may be considered sensitive government missions (e.g., not training flights) and requires additional reporting for the exception. The Government Accountability Office must review the use of the ADS-B Out exception and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of Transportation (DOT) must annually audit FAA oversight of operations that use the exception. Further, the bill repeals a 2018 law that prohibits DOT from requiring certain military aircraft to install or use ADS-B equipment. The bill also requires the OIG of the Army to audit the Army’s coordination with the FAA, the FAA to establish an office to coordinate airspace usage of military aircraft and review the safety of flight operations and routes around airports, and the FAA to enter into memoranda of understanding with military agencies for safety information sharing.
United States · United States Congress · 19 November 2025
This bill designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 28201 Franklin Parkway in Santa Clarita, California, as the "Deputy Ryan Clinkunbroomer Post Office Building".
United States · United States Congress · 26 September 2025
Harnessing Energy At Thermal Sources Act or the HEATS Act This bill exempts certain geothermal activities on state and private lands (except Indian lands) from drilling permit requirements as well as environmental and historic preservation review requirements. First, the bill prohibits the Department of the Interior from requiring an operator to obtain a drilling permit under the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 for any geothermal exploration and production activity conducted on a nonfederal surface estate (i.e., the part of the estate that is above ground) if (1) the United States holds an ownership interest of less than 50% of the subsurface geothermal estate to be accessed by the proposed action, and (2) the operator submits to Interior a state permit to conduct the geothermal exploration and production activity on the nonfederal surface estate. Next, the bill states that such geothermal exploration and production activity is not considered a major federal action under National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Thus, such activity does not trigger NEPA's environmental review requirements. In addition, the bill exempts such activity from the consultation requirements under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. It also exempts the activity from review under the National Historic Preservation Act unless the state in which the activity occurs does not have a state law that addresses the preservation of historic properties.
United States · United States Congress · 18 September 2025
Dismantle Foreign Scam Syndicates Act This bill requires the President to (1) impose applicable sanctions on foreign persons (individuals or entities) responsible for online financial scams against U.S. nationals, and (2) establish an interagency task force to shut down the criminal syndicates perpetuating such scams. Under the bill, the President must determine whether 43 specified foreign persons, and any other foreign persons the President determines are responsible for or complicit in online financial scams against U.S. nationals, are subject to sanctions under specified laws and Executive Order 13581 . Upon such determination, the President must impose applicable sanctions (for example, blocking the sanctioned person's property transactions within the United States). The President must also establish an interagency task force to shut down transnational criminal syndicates that use large scam centers and forced labor of trafficked persons to perpetuate mass online scams against Americans. The task force must (1) submit a comprehensive strategy to Congress to combat these scam centers and dismantle the criminal elements involved with them, and (2) coordinate and oversee implementation of the strategy. Within 360 days of submitting the strategy to Congress and annually thereafter for five years the task force must submit to Congress a report addressing various topics related to such scam centers including a list of all foreign persons sanctioned by the United States for their scam center involvement. The Department of State is authorized to provide trauma-informed care, shelter, reintegration, and support services for victims of trafficking in persons within online scam centers.
![Official portrait of Rep. Kim, Young [R-CA-40]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/k000397_200.jpg)