The Lainie Jones Comprehensive Cancer Survivorship Act of 2026 establishes a new Office of Cancer Survivorship within the National Cancer Institute to coordinate research and education focused on the long-term health needs of the approximately 18 million Americans living with or beyond a cancer diagnosis. The bill mandates that Medicare and Medicaid cover specific services, including the creation of personalized care plans at key transition points and fertility preservation treatments for survivors facing treatment-related infertility. Additionally, the legislation creates a grant program to support cancer survivors and their families with employment assistance and establishes a new payment model designed to improve the quality and coordination of long-term survivorship care.
The RISE Act introduces tax incentives to encourage small businesses to offer pension plans to their employees. It increases the startup tax credit for microemployers, allowing them to claim a larger credit for establishing a retirement plan starting in 2027. Additionally, the bill permits service providers who help set up these plans to receive a tax credit for the fees they waive to make the plans affordable. To prevent fraud, the law requires employers to certify that they have not previously received similar credits for the same group of workers. These changes aim to lower the financial barriers for small employers and their service partners to create retirement savings options.
This bill renames the existing IDEAS Program to the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Program and directs the Secretary of State to expand it to increase global education opportunities for U.S. college students. The program will award competitive grants to universities and consortia to support study abroad initiatives, with a specific focus on helping low-income students, students of color, and minority-serving institutions participate. Funding priorities include encouraging travel to nontraditional destinations, particularly developing countries, and ensuring that grant recipients have robust health, safety, and security plans for students overseas. The legislation sets a long-term goal of having at least one million undergraduate students study abroad annually while requiring the Department of State to submit annual reports on progress.
The Protecting Our Democracy Act is a comprehensive legislative bill designed to prevent abuses of presidential power, restore checks and balances, and defend elections against foreign interference. Key provisions include prohibiting the President from granting self-pardons, requiring congressional oversight for pardons involving the President or their family, and banning the President from accepting payments from individuals who have received clemency. The bill also strengthens enforcement of the Hatch Act and ethics rules for political appointees, mandates greater transparency in presidential tax returns and campaign finances, and restricts the use of federal property for political conventions. Additionally, it expands reporting requirements for foreign contacts in federal campaigns and imposes stricter penalties for violations of election laws.
This bill establishes a pilot program to help local governments in large urban areas create and share better maps that show the risk of urban flooding, which includes water damage from heavy rain and overwhelmed drainage systems. The Federal Emergency Management Agency will award grants to up to 12 cities and stormwater authorities to develop technology-based tools that provide specific flood risk assessments for individual buildings and incorporate climate trends. Funding is available for fiscal years 2027 through 2030, with grants covering up to 75% of project costs and prioritizing communities that are highly vulnerable to sea-level rise or have populations facing socioeconomic challenges. Recipients must complete their projects within 18 months and submit reports on their progress and lessons learned to the agency and Congress.
This bill, known as the ASSIMILATION Act, fundamentally restructures the U.S. immigration system by replacing family-based and lottery-based admissions with a merit-based approach that prioritizes economic self-sufficiency and national interest. It directly affects prospective immigrants, current visa holders, and employers by establishing new requirements for entry, employment, and naturalization. Key provisions eliminate the diversity visa lottery, restrict family-sponsored immigration to spouses and minor children, and mandate that all immigrants demonstrate the ability to support themselves without relying on government benefits. The legislation also introduces stricter enforcement measures, such as making visa overstays a criminal offense, expanding E-Verify to all employers, and requiring higher English proficiency and tax compliance for citizenship. Additionally, it tightens asylum rules by adding a transit bar for those passing through other countries and limits parole to specific humanitarian cases rather than broad programs.
The In God We Trust Act requires the Administrator of General Services to display the national motto "In God We Trust" on every public building within the United States. This mandate applies to all federal buildings and must be completed no later than one year after the law is enacted. The bill specifies that the motto must be inscribed or displayed in a prominent location on each structure.
The FORTIFY Act allows defense equipment and services to move freely between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania without needing special permission from the U.S. President. This change removes previous legal barriers that required U.S. approval whenever one Baltic nation shared military supplies with another. Additionally, the bill directs the U.S. Department of Defense to set up a shared digital system so these countries can easily coordinate and share ammunition for training and operations. The legislation aims to strengthen regional security by making it easier for Baltic allies to support each other militarily.
This bill, known as the HUD Data Privacy Act of 2026, restricts how the Department of Housing and Urban Development can share personal information with other agencies or third parties. It mandates that data collected from individuals receiving federal housing assistance be used solely to verify their eligibility for benefits or to determine the amount of aid they receive. The law includes specific exceptions for sharing deidentified data for research, ongoing criminal investigations, or preventing immediate threats to life, while explicitly prohibiting the use of this information for immigration enforcement purposes.
This bill creates a national resource center to support survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault who belong to faith-based communities. It authorizes $2 million annually from 2027 to 2031 to fund grants for groups that provide training and technical assistance to religious leaders, service providers, and law enforcement. The program focuses on helping these stakeholders recognize spiritual abuse, respect cultural and religious needs like dietary accommodations, and address barriers such as religious divorce denial. To ensure accountability, the bill requires that all funded organizations prioritize victim safety over family privacy or religious doctrines that might otherwise restrict a survivor's exit from an abusive marriage.
The Moms Matter Act directs the Department of Health and Human Services to create two main grant programs aimed at improving maternal mental health and reducing health disparities among pregnant and postpartum individuals. The first program provides funding to community organizations and healthcare providers to expand services that integrate mental health care into prenatal and postpartum settings, with a specific focus on groups facing higher risks of mortality and morbidity. The second program offers grants to educational institutions to train and recruit a diverse workforce of mental health professionals who specialize in caring for pregnant and postpartum patients. Both initiatives require recipients to submit annual reports on their activities and outcomes, while the legislation authorizes $25 million and $15 million respectively for each program from fiscal years 2027 through 2031.
The Maternal Health Pandemic Response Act allocates $200 million to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to improve data collection, surveillance, and research on how public health emergencies affect pregnant and postpartum individuals. This funding supports efforts to gather detailed demographic information on maternal health outcomes, establish regional centers of excellence, and expand surveys to better reach underrepresented communities. The legislation also requires the CDC to make this data publicly available in a disaggregated format while protecting patient privacy, and mandates public education campaigns to ensure accurate information reaches families and healthcare providers. Additionally, the bill creates a diverse task force to develop federal recommendations for respectful maternity care during emergencies, addressing issues such as telehealth access, doula coverage, and the treatment of mental health and substance use disorders. These measures aim to reduce health disparities and improve care quality for pregnant people from racial and ethnic minority groups during public health crises.
