Growing Climate Solutions Act of 2021 This bill authorizes the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a voluntary Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Certification Program to help reduce entry barriers into voluntary environmental credit markets for farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners. A voluntary environmental credit market is a market through which agriculture and forestry credits may be bought or sold. Entities eligible to participate in the program are (1) providers of technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, or private forest landowners in carrying out sustainable land use management practices that prevent, reduce, or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, or sequester carbon; or (2) third-party verifiers that conduct the verification of the processes described in the protocols for voluntary environmental credit markets. Among other requirements, USDA must publish (1) a list of protocols and qualifications for eligible entities; (2) information describing how entities may self-certify under the program; (3) information describing how entities may obtain the expertise to meet the protocols and qualifications; and (4) instructions and suggestions to assist farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners in facilitating the development of agriculture or forestry credits and accessing voluntary environmental credit markets. USDA must also establish an advisory council to make recommendations regarding the list of protocols and qualifications, best practices, and voluntary environmental credit markets. The bill also rescinds certain funds provided in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and makes the funds available for the certification program.
Israel Relations Normalization Act of 2021 This bill requires the Department of State to take certain actions promoting the normalization of relations between Israel, Arab states, and other relevant countries and regions. Specifically, the State Department must develop a strategy on expanding and strengthening the Abraham Accords (the term used to refer collectively to agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain marking the public normalization of relations between the two Arab countries and Israel). The strategy must include a description of how the U.S. government will encourage further normalization of relations with Israel. The State Department must report on the status of efforts to promote normalization of relations with Israel and other countries, including information on (1) laws that punish individuals for people-to-people relations with Israelis (i.e., anti-normalization laws), and (2) instances of the use of state-owned or state-operated media outlets to promote the prosecution of citizens or residents of Arab countries calling for peace with Israel.
This bill provides for the award of a Congressional Gold Medal to Billie Jean King in recognition of her courageous and groundbreaking leadership advancing equal rights for women and the LGBTQ community in athletics, education, and our society.
Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act of 2021 This bill expands tax incentives and federal assistance for employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) that are sponsored by S corporations. The bill provides additional tax incentives for ESOPs by (1) extending to all domestic corporations, including S corporations, provisions allowing deferral of tax on gain from the sale of employer securities to an ESOP; and (2) allowing a tax deduction for 50% of the interest received by a bank on loans to S corporation-sponsored ESOPs for the purchase of employer securities. The Department of the Treasury must establish the S Corporation Employee Ownership Assistance Office to foster increased employee ownership of S corporations. The bill defines an ESOP business concern for purposes of the Small Business Act as a business concern that was eligible for a loan, preference, or other program under such Act before more than 49% of the business concern was acquired by an ESOP.
Minor League Baseball Relief Act This bill establishes a program for the relief of certain minor league baseball clubs and independent professional baseball clubs that experienced large business losses. The bill provides funding for the Small Business Administration to make grants to such clubs that experienced decreases in gross revenue in 2020 of at least 75%, as measured against revenues in 2019 (or, if revenues were negatively affected by a natural disaster or weather disruption in 2019, by the average of revenues over the prior three-year period). The source of funding for the grants shall be funds appropriated under enacted COVID-19 relief legislation that have not been obligated and are no longer being used to carry out activities authorized under those laws. Grant amounts provided to any club may not exceed $10 million.
Saving Hazardous And Declining Environments Act or the SHADE Act This bill requires the Department of Housing and Urban Development to award grants for government entities and nonprofit organizations to plant trees in low-income communities and in communities meeting designated minority or limited English-proficiency thresholds.
Non-Opioid Directive Act This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a non-opioid pain management directive. This is a form that an individual may use to inform health care providers of the individual's choice to avoid opioid medications for pain management. The bill also sets out requirements for the execution, use, and revocation of these forms. HHS must make the form available on its website, and health insurers must make it available to their plan enrollees. Insurers must also share an enrollee's choice about opioid treatment with health care providers during pre-authorization processes. The bill allows health care providers to override a patient's form in specified circumstances. It also extends liability protections for providers who reasonably and in good faith administer or prescribe an opioid to a patient with an executed form in place.
Ending Platform Monopolies Act This bill prohibits large online platforms, as designated by the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission, from offering certain products or services from another line of business that is owned or controlled by the platform. Specifically, such platforms are prohibited from owning or controlling another line of business that (1) uses the platform to sell products or services, (2) offers a product or service that the platform requires a business user to purchase or use as a condition for access to the platform, or (3) gives rise to a conflict of interest. Under the bill, a conflict of interest occurs when a platform operator's ownership or control of another line of business creates an incentive and the ability for the platform to provide an advantage to the platform's own products or services over those of a competitor on the platform, or exclude or disadvantage the products or services of a competitor on the platform. For example, under the bill, Amazon.com, Inc. may be prohibited from offering for sale on Amazon.com privately labeled products or services (e.g., Amazon Essentials, AmazonBasics, etc.) if designated as a large online platform. Finally, the bill prohibits a director, officer, employee, or agent of a platform from simultaneously serving in the same or a similar role with a formerly affiliated entity.
Platform Competition and Opportunity Act of 2021 This bill generally prohibits operators of covered platforms from acquiring the stock or other share capital or the assets of another person engaged in commerce or in any activity affecting commerce. Covered platforms are online platforms that (1) have at least 50 million U.S.-based monthly active users or at least 100,000 U.S.-based monthly active business users, (2) are owned or controlled by a person with net annual sales or a market capitalization greater than $600 billion, and (3) are critical trading partners for the sale or provision of any product or service offered on or directly related to the platform. The Federal Trade Commission or the Department of Justice must designate whether an entity is a covered platform, and both must carry out enforcement activities. The bill provides for any person (other than a foreign state and any instrumentality thereof) who is injured by an activity forbidden under the bill to recover triple damages. (A foreign state may only recover actual damages.) Further, the bill specifies the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit as the judicial venue for a covered platform's appeals related to (1) the designation as a covered platform, (2) other administrative and enforcement proceedings, or (3) a final order issued in any district court.
Augmenting Compatibility and Competition by Enabling Service Switching Act of 2021 or the ACCESS Act of 2021 This bill requires large online platforms (e.g., YouTube, Salesforce) to facilitate consumers and businesses switching from one platform to another. Specifically, the platforms must maintain interfaces that (1) securely transfer user data to other platforms (i.e., portability), and (2) allow other platforms to connect and communicate with their systems (i.e., interoperability). The bill provides the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice with the authority to designate specific platforms to which these requirements apply. After a platform is designated, the FTC must issue standards of interoperability specific to the platform. A platform may not change its interoperability interface without petitioning the FTC, and the platform must provide to competing businesses documentation for accessing the interface. Further, the FTC must establish a technical committee to assist with the implementation of these requirements. The bill provides the FTC with authority to enforce these requirements including through recovery of civil penalties and injunctive relief.
Criminal Judicial Administration Act of 2021 This bill expands the authority of federal judges to reimburse defendants for expenses related to attending court proceedings. The bill also broadens the authority of magistrate court judges. Currently, when a defendant is released pending further court appearances, federal judges may order the U.S. Marshals Service to provide transportation and subsistence (food and lodging) expenses for a defendant to travel to court appearances, but not expenses during or to return home from such court appearances. This bill allows federal judges to order the Marshals Service to provide a defendant's transportation and subsistence expenses to return home from court proceedings, as well as subsistence expenses during such proceedings. Additionally, the bill authorizes magistrate court judges to rule on post-judgment motions pertaining to misdemeanor cases they tried and disposed of. Current law permits magistrate judges to try and dispose of misdemeanors in the district courts if the defendant consents.
Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act of 2021 This bill revises the evidentiary standard for age discrimination by establishing an unlawful employment practice when the complaining party demonstrates that age or participation in an investigation, proceeding, or litigation related to an age discrimination claim was a motivating factor for an adverse practice, even though other factors also motivated the practice (thereby allowing what are commonly known as mixed motive claims). The bill (1) permits the complaining party to rely on any type or form of admissible evidence, which need only be sufficient for a reasonable trier of fact to find that an unlawful practice occurred; and (2) declares that the complaining party shall not be required to demonstrate that age or retaliation was the sole cause of the employment practice (thereby rejecting the Supreme Court's decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc. , which requires the complainant to prove that age was the but-for cause for the employer's decision). The bill applies this evidentiary standard to other employment discrimination and retaliation claims, including claims under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. In a claim in which age discrimination is shown, but where the employer demonstrates that it would have taken the same action absent the motivating factor of age, the bill authorizes courts to grant declaratory and injunctive relief, but prohibits the court from awarding damages or issuing an order requiring any admission, reinstatement, hiring, promotion, or payment. This limitation also applies to claims of discrimination based on disability. The bill also includes reporting requirements for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor.
