Legislative Activity

The EARLY Act Reauthorization of 2025 extends the vital Young Women's Breast Health Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act of 2009. This legislation ensures the continuation of crucial breast health education and awareness programs. Specifically, it reauthorizes the program, pushing its expiration date from 2026 through the year 2031.

The AADAPT Act reauthorizes the Project ECHO Grant Program and establishes new, dedicated grants to support technology-enabled collaborative training for healthcare professionals in underserved areas. These new grants specifically focus on improving the early diagnosis and quality of care for patients with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. The bill outlines funding levels and reporting requirements to track the impact of these specialized training models on provider retention and patient outcomes.

This bill reauthorizes key programs under the Kay Hagan Tick Act to combat vector-borne diseases like Lyme disease through 2030. It extends funding for the national strategy and regional centers focused on these illnesses. Additionally, the legislation continues enhanced support for local health departments to improve disease surveillance and response capabilities.

This bill establishes the "NIH Implementing a Maternal health and PRegnancy Outcomes Vision for Everyone" (IMPROVE) Act. It formally creates the IMPROVE Initiative within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance research and address health disparities in maternal health outcomes. The initiative focuses on reducing preventable maternal deaths and severe complications through targeted research and community-based interventions. Congress authorizes significant funding for this program through fiscal year 2031.

The Provider Reimbursement Stability Act of 2026 aims to improve the accuracy and predictability of Medicare physician payments. The bill reforms budget neutrality calculations, mandates periodic updates to practice expense cost data, and establishes a 2.5% cap on annual conversion factor fluctuations. These measures are designed to ensure more stable reimbursement rates for healthcare providers.

The Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Reauthorization Act of 2026 extends vital funding and research support for ALS therapies through 2031. This legislation enhances grant oversight, clarifies clinical trial definitions, and mandates updated FDA action plans to improve the development of treatments for ALS and other rare neurodegenerative diseases.

This bill amends the Public Health Service Act to reauthorize the school-based health centers grant program. It secures $55 million in annual funding for these centers from fiscal years 2027 through 2031 to support continued student access to essential health services.

The FDA Modernization Act 3.0 mandates the FDA to update federal regulations within one year, replacing references to "animal testing" with the broader term "nonclinical testing" in drug development rules. This change aligns FDA regulations with recent legislative updates, allowing for the use of modern, non-animal testing methods in drug approval processes. The interim final rule implementing these changes will take effect immediately upon publication.

This Act encourages colleges and universities to develop and implement comprehensive, evidence-based mental health and suicide prevention plans. It directs the Secretary of Education to coordinate these efforts with the Secretary of Health and Human Services, aligning plans with established national recommendations and existing programs. The legislation requires reporting on these encouragement efforts but imposes no new regulatory obligations on institutions.

The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2025 ensures the continued operation and funding of the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program through fiscal year 2031. This bill specifically increases the authorized annual funding level for the program starting in 2027. Additionally, it extends the federal government's commitment to the national cord blood inventory program until 2031.

This bill authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue commemorative gold and silver coins marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The coins will honor the victims, first responders, and survivors, with designs selected in consultation with the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. All surcharges from the sale of these coins will be paid directly to the Memorial and Museum to support its operations and maintenance.

This bill reauthorizes the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection program, ensuring its continued operation to gather historical documents related to unsolved civil rights investigations. It strengthens the Civil Rights Cold Case Review Board's authority to obtain and expedite the public release of federal, state, and local records, removing previous opt-out exceptions for state and local entities. Furthermore, the legislation extends the tenure of the Review Board from seven to eleven years to complete its review process.

The Scratch Cooked Meals for Students Act establishes a pilot program to award competitive grants to school food authorities promoting the preparation of meals using unprocessed or minimally processed ingredients. These grants will fund training, equipment upgrades, and other necessary support for increasing scratch cooking in school meal programs. Priority will be given to authorities serving high-need student populations that commit to self-operation and workforce agreements.

This act strengthens national defense by expanding the Job Corps program to train disadvantaged youth and veterans for critical roles in the defense industrial base. It establishes a Defense Skilled Trades Pipeline Program to provide vocational training in areas like welding, machining, and cybersecurity. The legislation authorizes significant funding to develop these specialized programs in coordination with defense contractors and the Department of Defense.

The Investing in All of America Act of 2025 revises the rules governing Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) by updating how they calculate their maximum allowable government leverage. This bill lowers the overall leverage limits for SBICs while creating new exclusions for investments made in small businesses located in low-income or rural areas, or those operating in covered technology sectors. These changes aim to incentivize targeted investment by allowing certain qualifying loans to be excluded from the leverage calculation.

This Act directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish task forces to develop technical standards for identifying content generated by artificial intelligence. These standards will focus on provenance metadata, watermarking, and digital fingerprinting for various forms of digital content. The goal is to create technical measures that help platforms and users distinguish between human-created and AI-generated content.

This Act mandates a comprehensive study to examine the link between animal cruelty and future violence against humans. It also establishes a federal grant program to support eligible entities in detecting, intervening in, and preventing animal cruelty and related interpersonal violence. The overall goal is to develop evidence-based strategies to reduce future violent acts.

The "Stronger Engagement for Indian Health Needs Act of 2025" elevates the Director of the Indian Health Service to Assistant Secretary for Indian Health within the Department of Health and Human Services. This change aims to enhance the leadership and focus on Native American healthcare needs. The Act also allows the Assistant Secretary to appoint a Deputy Assistant Secretary and necessary staff to manage the Service's activities effectively. Finally, the bill updates relevant sections of the U.S. Code to reflect this change in title and reporting structure.

The Improving SCRA Benefit Utilization Act aims to strengthen consumer protections for service members under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA). This bill mandates improved financial literacy training focusing on SCRA interest rate caps and requires specific notifications of these benefits upon entry or mobilization to active duty. Additionally, it ensures financial institutions must retroactively apply maximum interest rates to pre-service debts from the start of active duty and expand those protections to all debts held by the creditor.

The Moms Matter Act establishes two grant programs to improve maternal mental health. The first program funds initiatives to expand mental health and substance use disorder services for pregnant and postpartum individuals, prioritizing high-risk populations. The second program provides grants to grow and diversify the workforce of mental and behavioral health providers specializing in maternal health.