TRICARE Reserve Select Improvement Act This bill expands TRICARE Reserve Select eligibility to include members of the Selected Reserve who are enrolled or eligible to enroll in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.
Death Tax Repeal Act This bill repeals the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. It also makes conforming amendments related to the gift tax.
Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act This bill restricts the Department of Defense (DOD) from transferring certain surplus military property to federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies. Specifically, DOD may not transfer to such agencies specified property such as controlled firearms, ammunition, grenade launchers, explosives, certain vehicles or trucks, armored or weaponized drones, certain controlled aircraft, silencers, or long-range acoustic devices. DOD may waive this limitation and transfer certain vehicles or trucks if DOD determines that the transfer is necessary for disaster or rescue purposes or for another purpose where life and public safety are at risk. As a condition for a transfer of allowable property, DOD must require the federal or state agency that receives the property to return the property if the agency is investigated by the Department of Justice for civil liberties violations or is otherwise found to have engaged in widespread abuses of civil liberties. DOD must also periodically submit certain transfer-related information and certifications to Congress. Furthermore, as a condition for transfer, the recipient must receive the approval of its local governing body, provide specified notice to the local community, and submit specified information and certifications to DOD. A federal or state agency that receives controlled property under such a transfer may never take ownership of the property. The bill also eliminates the requirement for DOD to give preference to transfers of property that will be used in counter-drug, counterterrorism, disaster-related emergency preparedness, or border security activities.
This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to study and report on adoption outcomes and the factors, including parental substance use disorder, affecting such outcomes.
Abortion is Health Care Everywhere Act of 2021 This bill authorizes the use of certain foreign assistance funds to provide comprehensive reproductive health care services in developing countries, including abortion services, training, and equipment.
Securing Consumers Against Misrepresented Debt Act of 2021 or the SCAM Debt Act This bill provides additional requirements for debt collectors when taking legal action to collect a debt. Among other requirements, debt collectors must provide advance notice to the consumer of the intent to take legal action, and provide in the initial pleading certain evidence regarding the debt and a sworn affidavit stating that the statute of limitations has not expired. The bill also sets forth additional information a debt collector must provide to a consumer regarding the debt.
Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act of 2021 This bill allows tax credits for (1) energy storage technologies, and (2) battery storage technology. The bill expands the tax credit for investments in energy property to include equipment that (1) receives, stores, and delivers energy using batteries, compressed air, pumped hydropower, hydrogen storage (including electrolysis), thermal energy storage, regenerative fuel cells, flywheels, capacitors, superconducting magnets, or other technologies identified by the Internal Revenue Service; and (2) has a capacity of at least five kilowatt hours. The bill also expands the tax credit for residential energy efficient property to include expenditures for battery storage technology that (1) is installed on or in connection with a dwelling unit located in the United States and used as a residence by the taxpayer, and (2) has a capacity of at least three kilowatt hours.
Stop Underrides Act This bill requires the installation of rear, side, and front underride guards on certain trucks and trailers. Specifically, the Department of Transportation (DOT) must require the installation of rear, side, and front underride guards on the following a trailer or semi-trailer with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or more, and a single unit truck for which the bottom of the carriage is greater than 22 inches above the ground and that is 10,000 pounds or more. For rear and side underride guards, DOT must require adherence to a performance standard that requires the guards to be able to prevent intrusion from the body or frame of a trailer, semi-trailer, or truck into the passenger compartment of the motor vehicle that contacts the guard while traveling at 35 miles per hour. In addition, DOT must require drivers to (1) conduct a pre-trip inspection of the underride protection system on their vehicles; (2) identify rusted metal compromising structural integrity, cracked welds, or missing or loose fasteners; and (3) complete any necessary repairs. DOT must establish a Committee on Underride Protection to oversee the ongoing underride guard rulemaking process. DOT must publish data on victims of truck underride crashes on a publicly accessible website and update such data quarterly.
Stop Sewage Overflow Act This bill extends through FY2030 and revises a grant program that addresses stormwater and sewer overflows into rivers or other water bodies. Under the existing program, the Environmental Protection Agency awards grants to states, which in turn provide subgrants for projects that address the infrastructure needs for municipal combined sewer overflows, sanitary sewer overflows, and stormwater management. The bill reduces the share of the cost of grant projects that financially distressed communities must pay, increases the minimum allocation for green infrastructure and other environmentally innovative activities, and prioritizes grant assistance for municipalities with high levels of sewage in rivers, lakes, and bays.
Prevent Interruptions in Physical Therapy Act of 2021 This bill allows a physical therapist to receive payment under Medicare for services provided to the physical therapist's patients by another physical therapist through a qualifying temporary arrangement, regardless of the geographic area or population served. Currently, physical therapists may only receive payment with respect to such arrangements for services provided in medically underserved, rural, or health professional shortage areas.
Promoting Infrastructure by Protecting Our Subcontractors and Taxpayers Act This bill revises the transportation infrastructure finance and innovation program to require the Department of Transportation (DOT) to ensure that the design and construction of a project carried out under the program must have appropriate payment and performance security, regardless of whether the obligor is a state, local government, agency or instrumentality of a state or local government, public authority, or private party. DOT may accept such payment and performance security requirements if it makes a written determination that the federal interest is adequately protected.
Donald Payne Sr. Colorectal Cancer Detection Act of 2021 This bill provides for Medicare coverage and payment, subject to specified frequency limits, of certain colorectal cancer screening blood-based tests.
