Do Your Job Act of 2021 This bill eliminates the use of official time by federal employees. Official time is paid time off from assigned duties to perform labor-management relations activities.
Educational Notification and Disclosure of Actions risking Loss of Life by Hazing Act or the END ALL Hazing Act This bill requires institutions of higher education (IHEs) that participate in federal student-aid programs to collect information and publicly report on hazing-related misconduct. Specifically, IHEs must prepare biannual reports and post the reports on their websites. The reports must include information on hazing-related misconduct committed by a student organization, including the name of the student organization that committed the violation, a description of the violation, and sanctions placed on the organization. Further, IHEs must report to campus police and law enforcement authorities within 72 hours of becoming aware of any allegation of hazing that involved serious bodily injury or a significant risk of serious bodily injury. The bill does not apply to foreign IHEs.
Healthy Workplaces Act This bill allows tax credits for employer expenses for protecting employees from COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019). Specifically, the bill allows a credit against certain employment taxes equal to 50% of the sum of qualified employee protection expenses, workplace reconfiguration expenses, and education and training expenses paid by the employer during a calendar quarter. The bill also allows a 50% income tax credit for qualified workplace reconfiguration expenses incurred by an employer in 2020. The bill defines qualified workplace reconfiguration expenses to include amounts paid by an employer to evaluate, design, and reconfigure retail space and employee work areas for the primary purpose of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The evaluation, design, and reconfiguration must be completed before January 1, 2022.
Cost Openness and Spending Transparency Act of 2021 or the COST Act This bill requires recipients of federal funds to disclose financing information relating to programs, projects, or activities carried out using such funds. Specifically, such a recipient (including a state or local government or a recipient of a federal research grant) must clearly state in any press release, request for proposal, bid solicitation, or other document describing the activity the amount and percentage of federal funding and the amount and percentage of nongovernmental funding. If the Office of Management and Budget determines that a recipient is failing to comply, it may direct each agency providing federal funds to withhold up to 25% of the funds until the recipient complies.
Broadband Justice Act of 2021 This bill includes broadband high-speed internet service as a utility subsidized by federally assisted housing programs through utility allowances. The bill also establishes grants and loans for housing providers, public housing agencies, and other public entities to provide access to broadband high-speed internet service to residents of federally assisted housing through the installation of such service and other infrastructure improvements.
Help Independent Tracks Succeed Act or the HITS Act This bill permits taxpayers to treat as currently deductible expenses the cost of qualified sound recording productions not exceeding $150,000 in a taxable year. The bill defines qualified sound recording production as certain sound recordings produced and recorded in the United States.
Student Loan Refinancing and Recalculation Act This bill provides for the refinancing or deferral of certain federal student loans. Specifically, the bill directs the Department of Education to establish a program to refinance the outstanding principal, interest, and late charges on federal student loans in order to give borrowers fixed interest rates equal to the 10-year Treasury note rate plus one percentage point. Further, the bill eliminates origination fees on the loans. In addition, the bill allows borrowers in medical, veterinary, or dental internship or residency programs to defer student loan payments until the completion of their programs.
Expand Navigators' Resources for Outreach, Learning, and Longevity Act of 20 21 or the ENROLL Act of 20 21 This bill makes several changes to the navigator program for health insurance exchanges (a program through which entities receive funding to provide education and enrollment assistance). Specifically, the bill addresses certain funding decisions and regulatory actions taken by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). For example, the bill increases funding for navigators in federally facilitated exchanges (FFEs) beginning in FY2022. (The CMS decreased annual funding for FFE navigators for the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 program years.) The bill also counters guidance issued by the CMS regarding navigator criteria by requiring FFE navigators to be chosen without regard to how the entity provides information about association health plans or short-term, limited-duration insurance. The bill also reinstates certain requirements that were removed by the CMS in 2018. Specifically, the bill requires (1) at least two navigators in each FFE, including at least one community and consumer-focused nonprofit group; and (2) that navigators be physically present in the state where the exchange is located.
Improving Access to Indian Health Services Act This bill permanently extends certain Medicaid flexibilities relating to Indian health care providers. Specifically, the bill permanently expands coverage to include clinical services that are furnished outside of a clinic by an Indian Health Service (IHS) facility, a tribe or tribal organization, or an Urban Indian Organization (UIO). Current guidance from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services allows IHS and tribal facilities to receive payment for clinical services provided outside of clinics through October 31, 2021; facilities are expected to work with their state Medicaid programs to transition to other, more permanent payment options for these services. The bill also permanently establishes a 100% federal matching rate, also known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), for UIO services. Current law provides a 100% FMAP for UIO services during the eight fiscal quarters after March 11, 2021.
This bill eliminates the exemption of short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans from the federal requirements for individual health insurance coverage beginning on January 1, 2023. Currently, short-term, limited-duration plans may offer coverage for a limited amount of time and are exempt from the market requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (e.g., coverage of individuals with preexisting conditions).
Children’s Health Insurance Program Permanency Act or the CHIPP Act This bill permanently extends the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and related measures, programs, and authorities. Specifically, the bill permanently funds CHIP and related programs that support the development of child health quality measures and outreach and enrollment efforts. The bill also permanently authorizes the Medicaid and CHIP express lane eligibility option, which allows states to use information from designated programs (e.g., the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) to streamline eligibility determinations for children. Additionally, under the bill, states may expand eligibility to children whose family income exceeds the otherwise applicable limits.
Medicaid Report on Expansion of Access to Coverage for Health Act or the Medicaid REACH Act This bill reduces federal payment for Medicaid administrative expenses incurred by states that have not elected to participate in Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e., nonexpansion states) if the state does not comply with specified reporting requirements. The bill requires nonexpansion states to report, among other information, the number of uninsured individuals under the age of 65 and the estimated percentage of such individuals who would be eligible to receive coverage if the state expanded Medicaid.
