Stop the Outlay of Payments Act This bill prohibits the award of federal funds to entities that have had prior awards suspended or terminated due to certain legal violations and that have failed to take necessary remedial action. Specifically, the bill requires federal agencies to notify the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within 120 days of suspending or terminating any portion of a federal award to a recipient for failure to comply with (1) the terms and conditions of the award, (2) a federal law or regulation, or (3) a request by the agency making the award for information or materials relating to that award. The OMB must maintain an up-to-date list of suspended entities on its website. An agency may not make a federal award or disburse funds under an award to a suspended entity until that entity remedies the reason for the suspension or termination, with specified exceptions.
Enhance Access to Support Essential Behavioral Health Services Act or the EASE Behavioral Health Services Act This bill removes restrictions that require the originating site (i.e., the location of the beneficiary) to be in a rural area, and allows the home of a beneficiary to serve as the originating site, for behavioral health telehealth services under Medicare. The bill also expands the scope of required guidance, studies, and reports to address the provision of such services under Medicaid.
Fair Accounting for Condominium Construction Act This bill exempts certain residential construction contracts from the requirement to use the percentage of completion method of accounting. The percentage of completion method is a tax accounting method in which the revenues and expenses of long-term contracts are recognized as a percentage of the work completed in a particular period.
Retain Skilled Veterans Act This bill modifies the restriction related to the appointment of retired members of the Armed Forces to certain civil service positions in the Department of Defense. Under the bill, the 180-day waiting period before a retired member may be appointed to a position only applies to those positions in the excepted or competitive service classified at or above GS-14 of the General Schedule (or equivalent).
Trade Preferences and American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2021 This bill reauthorizes and revises specified U.S. trade programs and provisions. Specifically, the bill extends through January 1, 2027, the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which provides duty-free treatment to products imported from designated beneficiary countries. The bill makes various changes to the GSP, including by (1) adding human rights, environmental, and other criteria for designation as a beneficiary developing country; (2) requiring an assessment of how the GSP supports worker and gender rights; and (3) requiring a study on rules of origin and GSP utilization rates. Additionally, the bill provides through December 31, 2023, and retroactively applies to 120 days before this bill's enactment, temporary duty suspensions or reductions to eligible imported products. This authorization is commonly known as the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB). The last version of the MTB was enacted in September 2018 and the temporary treatment for those products listed in the MTB expired on December 31, 2020. The bill also extends the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016 for two future MTB cycles (one in 2022 and one in 2025). This extension allows the U.S. International Trade Commission to conduct the MTB petition, review, and recommendation process for those additional cycles. The bill extends customs user fees through June 21, 2031.
Vote Outcome Transparency in Elections Act or the VOTE Act This bill establishes certain requirements for counting ballots in federal elections. Specifically, the bill requires the appropriate state or local election official, within one hour after the closure of a polling place on election day, to submit a report to the chief state election official. The report must document (1) the total number of voted ballots in the possession of the state or local official, and (2) the total number of voted ballots that have been tabulated for the election. Within one hour after the closure of polling places on election day, the chief state election official must (1) submit a final report to the chief executive of the state, and (2) make the final report publicly available on a government website. The bill also requires each state and local jurisdiction to ensure that voted ballots delivered by postal mail are postmarked, signed, or otherwise indicated as delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.
Open for Business Act This bill eliminates federal pandemic unemployment compensation. Under current law, this supplementary compensation is available to claimants in participating states until September 6, 2021.
National Ocean and Coastal Security Improvements Act of 2021 This bill funds through FY2030 and expands the National Ocean and Coastal Security Fund. The fund must be used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to award grants for protecting, conserving, restoring, and using ocean, coastal, or Great Lakes resources, including coastal infrastructure.
Regional Ocean Partnership Act of 2021 This bill allows the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to designate and support Regional Ocean Partnerships between coastal states that share a common ocean or coastal area. Specifically, NOAA may designate a partnership as a Regional Ocean Partnership if it (1) is established to coordinate the interstate management of coastal resources; (2) focuses on the environmental issues affecting the ocean and coastal areas of the coastal states participating in the partnership; (3) complements existing state coastal and ocean management efforts on an interstate scale, focusing on shared regional priorities; (4) does not have a regulatory function; and (5) is not duplicative of an existing Regional Ocean Partnership. The bill designates the following entities as Regional Ocean Partnerships: the Gulf of Mexico Alliance, the Northeast Regional Ocean Council, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council on the Ocean, and the West Coast Ocean Alliance. Each partnership must maintain mechanisms for consultation and engagement with the federal government, tribal governments, and nongovernmental entities, such as academic organizations. A partnership may use provided federal funds to award grants and enter into contracts for certain purposes, including to monitor the water quality and living resources of multistate ocean and coastal ecosystems.
Marine Mammal Climate Change Protection Act This bill establishes requirements to protect marine mammals adversely affected by climate change, including by establishing a program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to monitor the adverse impacts of climate change on marine mammals. In addition, it also requires NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to issue regulations that list marine mammal species in waters under U.S. jurisdiction for which climate change is more likely than not to result in a decline in population abundance, an impeded population recovery, or a reduced carrying capacity (i.e., the maximum population of a marine mammal species that an area will support without undergoing deterioration). The NMFS and the USFWS must update the list at least once every five years and issue regulations that include climate impact management plans for species on such list. The bill also directs the NMFS and the USFWS to review agreements with foreign governments concerning the management of marine mammals that are or may be affected by climate change. The Department of State must initiate amendments to such agreements or negotiate the development of such agreements in a manner consistent with the goals of the bill.
Keep America's Waterfronts Working Act This bill addresses the preservation and accessibility of waterfronts in coastal states. The bill directs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to establish a Working Waterfront Task Force that will be designed to identify and address critical working waterfront needs with respect to cultural and economic importance, environmental threats, and market conditions for water-dependent businesses. NOAA must also establish a Working Waterfront Grant Program. Under the program, NOAA may award grants to coastal states with approved working waterfront plans in place to preserve and expand access to coastal waters for people engaged in fishing, aquaculture, boat building, and other water-dependent businesses. In addition, NOAA is authorized to award grants to coastal states for the purpose of developing or revising working waterfront plans. States are allowed to allocate any grant money received to eligible Indian tribes, local governments, and other entities. Each state that is awarded a grant must contribute at least 25% of matching funds towards the total cost of the project carried out with the grant, subject to certain exceptions. The bill establishes the Working Waterfronts Preservation Loan Fund to provide loans to coastal states for the purpose of implementing working waterfront plans.
Blue Carbon for Our Planet Act This bill addresses the protection and restoration of coastal blue carbon ecosystems, which are vegetated coastal habitats and include mangroves, tidal marshes, and other tidal or salt water wetland that have the ability to sequester and store carbon. Specifically, the bill establishes the Interagency Working Group on Coastal Blue Carbon to (1) develop and maintain a map of these ecosystems, (2) assess the impediments to the protection and restoration of these ecosystems, and (3) establish national protection and restoration priorities regarding these ecosystems. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) must chair the group and establish a national goal for conserving ocean and coastal blue carbon ecosystems within the territory of the United States and set targets to restore degraded coastal blue carbon ecosystems as appropriate. NOAA must also (1) establish integrated pilot programs to restore degraded coastal blue carbon ecosystems, and (2) enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to assess the long-term effects of geologic stores of carbon dioxide in a deep seafloor environment. Finally, the bill establishes requirements concerning the stewardship and standardization of blue carbon data in the Coastal Carbon Data Clearinghouse.
