Legislative Activity

The American Affordability Act of 2025 is a comprehensive bill designed to lower costs across five key areas: housing, energy, family care, education, and healthcare. It achieves this by expanding tax credits for housing construction and homebuyers, extending incentives for clean energy manufacturing and consumer adoption, replacing the Child Tax Credit with larger monthly payments, making higher education expenses more affordable, and permanently expanding subsidies to lower health insurance premiums for millions. Overall, the legislation aims to provide direct financial relief and increase access to essential services for American families and workers.

The Whistleblower Protection Act of 2025 expands existing federal whistleblower safeguards to cover nearly all contracts, grants, and agreements funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This ensures that individuals reporting wrongdoing on HUD-funded projects receive standard federal whistleblower protections. These protections apply retroactively to existing agreements.

The USDA Loan Modernization Act updates eligibility requirements for various USDA farm loans, including real estate, operating, and emergency loans. The bill standardizes ownership requirements across these programs, generally replacing "a majority" interest with a clear "at least a 50 percent" ownership threshold. It also introduces new provisions to accommodate complex business structures and recognizes "qualified operators" as automatically meeting certain criteria.

This bill, the Miracle on Ice Congressional Gold Medal Act, officially authorizes Congress to award Congressional Gold Medals to the 1980 U.S. Men's Olympic Ice Hockey Team for their historic "Miracle on Ice" victory. The medals will be struck by the Treasury and permanently displayed at specific national sports museums. The Act also permits the sale of duplicate bronze medals to cover production costs.

The Protect America's Workforce Act nullifies a specific Executive Order issued in March 2025 concerning exclusions from federal labor-management relations programs. This legislation ensures that any existing collective bargaining agreements between federal agencies and employee unions remain fully in effect until their stated expiration dates. The Act also prohibits the use of federal funds to implement the overturned Executive Order.

The College Financial Aid Clarity Act of 2025 mandates that colleges standardize how they present financial aid offers to students starting in 2029. This new federal requirement establishes a uniform "Financial Aid Offer" format, ensuring clear, consistent language and specific disclosures about costs, loans, and net price. The goal is to make comparing financial aid packages simpler and more transparent for students and families.

The Student Financial Clarity Act of 2025 aims to significantly increase transparency in college costs for students and families. It mandates major enhancements to the College Scorecard website with detailed, disaggregated data on costs, aid, and outcomes for every program of study. The bill also establishes a Universal Net Price Calculator to provide personalized, comparable cost estimates across institutions. These changes will require colleges to report costs based on specific programs rather than a single institutional average, with an effective date of July 1, 2027.

The Helping Improve Recruitment and Retention Efforts for Prosecutors Act of 2025 establishes a federal grant program to assist state, local, territorial, and tribal governments in hiring, retaining, and training prosecutors and support staff. Administered by the Attorney General, the program will award competitive grants, prioritizing offices in underserved or budget-impacted areas. This initiative is authorized with $10 million annually from 2026 through 2030, requiring a 25% non-federal match unless waived.

This bill reauthorizes and updates the Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program through 2031. It directs the program to focus on integrating advanced technologies for improved snowpack measurement and modeling to enhance water supply forecasts. The legislation also emphasizes building partner capacity and coordinating with other federal agencies to better inform water management decisions.

This bill exempts specific, carefully defined less-than-lethal projectile devices and their ammunition from the federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition. It also removes these qualifying devices from regulation under the National Firearms Act. The legislation establishes clear criteria, including velocity limits and design restrictions, to ensure the exemption applies only to tools intended for de-escalation rather than lethal force. Manufacturers can request official classification for their products to confirm eligibility for these tax and regulatory benefits.

This bill amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to lower the threshold for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to share information regarding suspected intellectual property rights violations. It expands the types of information CBP can share with rights holders, including nonpublic data obtained from online marketplaces or shippers. Furthermore, the legislation broadens the list of entities eligible to receive this sensitive information.

The Labor Enforcement to Securely Protect Workers (LETS Protect Workers) Act significantly increases civil penalties for violations across major federal labor laws, including child labor, wage and hour, and workplace safety standards. It strengthens enforcement mechanisms for mine safety violations and retaliation against miners, while also establishing new penalties for employer unfair labor practices under the National Labor Relations Act. Furthermore, the bill enhances enforcement for health plan parity and makes certain recordkeeping failures under OSHA and FLSA continuing violations.

The Joe Fiandra Access to Home Infusion Act of 2025 expands Medicare coverage for external infusion pumps and associated non-self-administrable home infusion drugs when specific FDA and provider supervision requirements are met. This legislation ensures that necessary home infusion therapies, requiring professional administration, are covered as durable medical equipment for use in the home. Additionally, the bill mandates clear communication to patients regarding out-of-pocket costs for these home treatments compared to other settings.

The Public Lands Military Readiness Act of 2025 extends the military withdrawal period for key training lands in Alaska, New Mexico, and California until 2051. This legislation also corrects the official acreage descriptions for the McGregor Range and Fort Irwin military lands. The bill ensures continued federal land availability necessary for Department of Defense training operations.

The ePermit Act mandates the creation of a unified, digital system for managing all federal environmental reviews and project permits. This system will standardize data, automate processes, and provide real-time public access to review status and documents. The goal is to increase transparency, efficiency, and data interoperability across federal agencies involved in project authorizations.

The Health Care Worker and First Responder Fairness Act exempts certain earnings made by healthcare professionals and first responders from the Social Security retirement earnings test. This exemption specifically covers wages earned during the COVID-19 pandemic period (January 31, 2020, to May 11, 2023). Furthermore, the bill establishes a mechanism to exclude similar pandemic-related earnings from benefit calculations during future declared public health emergencies. This aims to provide financial fairness to essential workers who continued working while collecting Social Security benefits.

This bill, the MINKS are Superspreaders Act, prohibits the breeding and possession of American mink raised in captivity for fur production nationwide. It amends the Animal Welfare Act to ban related activities like transport and sale, with limited exceptions. Additionally, the legislation establishes a voluntary federal buy-out program for existing mink farms, contingent upon available funding.

The Helping Individuals Rejoin Employment (HIRE) Act extends the Work Opportunity Tax Credit for five years, making it available for wages paid to qualified employees hired before January 1, 2031. This legislation also expands the credit by adding qualified Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries as a new eligible hiring group. These modifications aim to incentivize businesses to hire individuals facing employment barriers.

The Assessing Safety Tools for Parents and Minors Act directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to review and report on current industry efforts to enhance online safety for minors. This comprehensive review must assess the effectiveness of existing safety tools, educational initiatives, and privacy measures. The FTC is required to submit findings and recommendations for improvement to Congress within three years of enactment.

The SAFE Drugs Act of 2025 aims to enhance the safety and oversight of drug compounding by limiting the ability of pharmacists and physicians to copy commercially available drugs. It introduces new annual reporting requirements for pharmacies compounding drugs for out-of-state patients and imposes stricter FDA inspection schedules for large-scale compounding facilities. Furthermore, the bill mandates registration for all outsourcing facilities and adjusts the fee structure used to fund safety assurance activities.