Major Richard Star Act This bill allows a veteran with a combat-related disability and fewer than 20 years of creditable service to receive retirement pay, without reduction, concurrent with disability compensation.
Dynamic Glass Act of 2021 This bill includes electrochromic glass as energy property for purposes of the 30% energy tax credit. The bill defines electrochromic glass as glass that uses electricity to change its light transmittance properties to heat or cool a structure, but only with respect to property whose construction begins before January 1, 2024.
Responsible and Effective Spending Cuts of Undesirable Expenditures Act or the RESCUE Act This bill temporarily modifies the requirements for the sequestration process (i.e., automatic spending reductions) that is used to enforce the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (Statutory PAYGO Act), which generally prohibits revenue or direct spending legislation from increasing the deficit. With respect to the first sequestration order issued under the Statutory PAYGO Act after the enactment of this bill, the bill modifies the requirements to (1) require additional reductions to certain programs that were funded in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, including programs that are unrelated to the direct health care treatment and prevention of COVID-19 in the United States; and (2) exempt Medicare from the process.
Working Families Flexibility Act of 2021 This bill revises requirements for the receipt of compensatory time off for private sector employees. Specifically, the bill authorizes private employers to provide compensatory time off to their employees at a rate of one and one-half hours for each hour of employment for which overtime compensation otherwise is required; employees may accrue a maximum of 160 hours of compensatory time. Employers are prohibited from interfering with an employee's right to or not request compensatory time off in lieu of payment of overtime compensation or from requiring an employee to use such compensatory time, and must give their employees 30-days notice before discontinuing a compensatory time policy. Employers are liable to employees for damages from violations of these requirements.
No Taxpayer-Funded Checks for Prisoners Act This bill prohibits individuals who were incarcerated in a federal prison on the enactment date of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 from receiving the recovery rebates provided by that Act.
Disaster Savings and Resilient Construction Act of 2021 This bill allows a tax credit through 2023 for certain residential or commercial buildings owned by a taxpayer in a disaster area that are designed and constructed to meet resilient construction requirements. The bill defines resilient construction requirements as requirements with respect to buildings in a disaster area that make such buildings resistant to hazards brought on by a major disaster, reduce the magnitude or duration of a disruptive event, and have the capacity to withstand a potentially disruptive event.
Tax Excessive CEO Pay Act of 2021 This bill increases the current 21% income tax rate of corporations whose ratio of compensation of their principal executive officers or other highest compensated employees to median worker compensation is more than 50 to 1, in which case the increase is 0.5%. The pay ratio disparity extends from 100 to 1 to 500 to 1, in which case the increase is 5%. The bill exempts from such increase certain corporations based upon their average annual gross receipts.
Alice Cogswell and Anne Sullivan Macy Act This bill expands special education and related services for students who are deaf or hard of hearing, students with visual disabilities, and children and youth who are deaf-blind. The individualized education program for each child who is visually and/or hearing impaired must include specified components and must provide the child with instruction that meets the child's unique learning needs. In addition, a state's closure of a special school serving deaf or blind children shall count as a reduction of its financial support for special education and related services. Among other provisions, the bill authorizes support, including grants for training special education personnel, to be used in preparing individuals to become qualified teachers and early intervention specialists for children with hearing disabilities. The bill establishes within the Department of Education the Anne Sullivan Macy Center on Visual Disability and Educational Excellence to better support students with visual disabilities.
This bill directs the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate to arrange for the award of three Congressional Gold Medals to the U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) and other law enforcement agencies that protect the U.S. Capitol. Following the award of these medals, one medal shall be given to the USCP, one medal shall be given to the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, and one medal shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution and displayed with a plaque listing all law enforcement agencies that participate in protecting the Capitol.
Child Care is Infrastructure Act This bill establishes grants for child care facilities and higher education loan repayment and scholarship programs for child care educators, among other provisions. The Administration for Children and Families must conduct long- and short-term assessments of child care infrastructure, including the effect of the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic on such facilities. The bill provides grants to (1) states to acquire, construct, or improve child care facilities; and (2) intermediary organizations with demonstrated experience in child care facilities financing to develop or finance child care facilities. The bill further provides for education loan repayments of up to $6,000 per year for up to five years for early childhood educators who agree to work for certain child care providers. Additionally, the bill establishes a program for institutions of higher education to award grants of up to $3,000 per academic year to individuals who are enrolled in early childhood educator programs and agree to serve in a state-licensed early learning program. Finally, the bill modifies and reauthorizes through FY2027 supports for campus-based child care for low-income parents enrolled in institutions of higher education and requires the Department of Housing and Urban Development to consider early learning facilities in planning and implementation grants under the Choice Neighborhoods Initiative.
Animals for Regulatory Fairness Act of 2021 or the AARF Act of 2021 This bill requires the Food and Drug Administration to allow an applicant for approval to market a new drug to use a non-animal test to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of the drug if the non-animal test satisfies all other applicable requirements.
Performance-Based Public Buildings Act of 2021 This bill directs the General Services Administration to carry out a pilot program to enter into public-private partnerships to carry out projects to acquire space for public building purposes. The Government Accountability Office shall conduct a review of all such projects and submit a report to Congress that includes (1) a review and evaluation of the public-private partnerships executed and a comparison of such agreements to similar projects completed as government construction, and (2) recommendations on the use of public-private partnerships as options for meeting the space needs of the federal government.
