This bill modifies the tax credit for carbon oxide sequestration. It increases the applicable dollar amount of such credit, repeals the placed-in-service deadline, expands the types of facilities to which the credit applies, and extends the credit period from 12 to 20 years.
Colorectal Cancer Payment Fairness Act This bill eliminates Medicare coinsurance requirements with respect to colorectal cancer screening tests, regardless of the code billed for a resulting diagnosis or procedure, beginning in 2023 (rather than 2030).
FDA Modernization Act of 2021 This bill allows an applicant for market approval for a new drug to use methods other than animal testing to establish the drug's safety and effectiveness. Under this bill, these alternative methods may include cell-based assays, organ chips and microphysiological systems, sophisticated computer modeling, and other human biology-based test methods.
Careful Resumption Under Improved Safety Enhancements Act or the CRUISE Act This bill requires various activities to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the operation of cruise ships. Specifically, the bill establishes a working group comprised of specified federal departments and industry stakeholders to develop recommendations for resuming cruise ship operations. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) must issue (within 30 days) separate recommendations on mitigating the introduction, transmission, and spread of COVID-19 onboard cruise ships and to communities onshore. The CDC must consult with the working group on these recommendations. Furthermore, the Department of Health and Human Services must revoke by July 4, 2021, its order issued on November 4, 2020, which restricts the operation of cruise ships in U.S. waters.
This resolution expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that (1) clean water is a national priority, and (2) the 2020 final rule titled The Navigable Waters Protection Rule: Definition of "Waters of the United States" should not be withdrawn or vacated.
Cardiovascular Advances in Research and Opportunities Legacy Act This bill expands research on valvular heart disease and its treatment. This disease is caused by damage to or disease affecting any valve that controls blood flow in the heart. The National Institutes of Health must consult with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to conduct or support research on the disease, including on mitral valve prolapse. This occurs when the valve between the chambers of the left side of the heart seals improperly. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) must develop best practices to treat valvular heart disease. The CDC may also carry out other projects to increase awareness of and reduce deaths from the disease.
Summer Meals Act of 2021 This bill revises provisions related to the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) of the Department of Agriculture (USDA), which provides meals to children and teens in low-income areas during the summer months when school is not in session. The bill redefines areas in which poor economic conditions exist , where the SFSP may operate, as areas in which at least 40% (currently, 50%) of the children have been determined to be eligible for free or reduced price school meals under the school lunch and breakfast programs. The bill reimburses service institutions (other than school food authorities) for up to one meal and one snack per child each day during after-school hours, weekends, and school holidays during the regular school calendar. Currently, such institutions are reimbursed for meals and snacks served to children over the summer months or to children who are on vacation under a continuous school calendar. USDA must award competitive grants to service institutions to increase participation in the summer food service program for children who lack the ability to access a congregate feeding site through (1) innovative approaches to limited transportation, (2) mobile meal trucks, and (3) any other method or approach that does not require children to access a congregate feeding site. Service institutions that are participating in the summer food service program for children may serve up to three meals, or two meals and one snack, during each day of operation. Currently, this option is reserved for camps and service institutions that serve meals primarily to migrant children.
Earn to Learn Act This bill directs the Department of Education (ED) to establish a college matched-savings demonstration grant program, through which ED must award competitive grants to states and nonprofit organizations to provide certain low-income students with educational savings accounts (e.g., 529 plans). Further, ED must (1) develop and make available to grant recipients certain tools, including a training platform, a program guide, an online data portal, and certain trainings (e.g., on college readiness); (2) ensure that participation in the grant program does not affect student eligibility for Federal Pell Grants; and (3) provide technical assistance. Grant recipients must use funds to (1) select eligible students to participate in the grant program, (2) provide selected students with financial literacy education, (3) establish an educational savings account for each participating student and allow such students and their families to deposit funds in their account to save for attendance at an institution of higher education or an area career and technical education school, and (4) reserve matching funds for participating students. Additionally, grant recipients must ensure that participating students are entitled to withdraw funds from their accounts under certain circumstances.
Cultivating Opportunity and Recovery from the Pandemic through Service Act or the CORPS Act This bill expands and modifies the administration of national service programs, including the National Senior Corps, to address the COVID-19 pandemic and its recovery period (i.e., through FY2024). The bill also (1) revises certain living allowances of particular national service corps participants; (2) expands the Senior Service Corps; (3) establishes a COVID-19 educational award; (4) implements a pilot program under which state commissions may directly place individuals in approved national service positions; and (5) excludes from gross income, for income tax purposes, any living allowance provided to national public service participants and any national service educational award.
Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2021 This bill revises provisions of the low-income housing tax credit and renames it as the affordable housing credit . The bill increases the per capita dollar amount of the credit and its minimum ceiling amount beginning in 2021 and extends the inflation adjustment for such amounts. The bill modifies tenant income eligibility requirements and the average income formula for determining such income. It also revises rules for student occupancy of rental units and tenant voucher payments, and prohibits any refusal to rent to victims of domestic abuse. The bill further modifies the credit to increase state allocations of the credit; repeal the qualified census tract population cap; prohibit local approval and contribution requirements; increase the credit for certain projects designated to serve extremely low-income households; increase the credit for certain bond-financed projects designated by state agencies; eliminate the basis reduction for properties that receive certain energy-related tax benefits; and increase the population cap for difficult development areas (i.e., areas with high construction, land, and utility costs relative to area median gross income). The bill also includes Indian and rural areas as difficult development areas and modifies other requirements relating to casualty losses, acquisition credits, and foreclosures.
Veterans Medical Marijuana Safe Harbor Act This bill provides guidance related to veterans and medical marijuana that shall be effective for five years. Specifically, the bill authorizes (1) a veteran to use, possess, or transport medical marijuana in accordance with applicable state or Native American tribal law; (2) a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) physician to discuss with a veteran the use of medical marijuana as a treatment if the physician is in a state or on tribal land that authorizes such treatment; or (3) a VA physician to recommend, complete forms for, or register veterans for participation in a medical marijuana treatment program in accordance with applicable state or tribal law. The bill requires the VA to report on (1) the effects of medical marijuana on veterans in pain; and (2) the relationship between state-approved medical marijuana treatment programs, program access, and opioid use and abuse reduction.
Tax Fairness for Workers Act This bill allows an above-the-line tax deduction for union dues and expenses. (An above-the-line deduction is subtracted from gross income and is available whether or not a taxpayer itemizes other deductions.) The bill also reinstates the miscellaneous itemized tax deduction for unreimbursed expenses attributable to the performance of services as an employee (Under current law, all miscellaneous itemized deductions are suspended through 2025).
