Gym Mitigation and Survival Act of 2021 or the GYMS Act of 2021 This bill establishes a grant program to provide economic support to eligible fitness facilities in response to the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. Specifically, the bill authorizes the Small Business Administration to make initial and supplemental grants to privately owned fitness facilities that primarily provide health or fitness services and that do not offer golf, hunting, sailing, or riding facilities. The total amount of grant funds for a recipient may not exceed $25 million, and the recipient must use these funds for payroll costs, rent or mortgage obligations, and other ordinary and necessary business expenses.
Barriers to Suicide Act of 20 21 This bill requires the Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish a program to facilitate the installation of evidence-based suicide deterrents on bridges, including suicide prevention nets and barriers. DOT may award competitive grants to states and local governments to carry out the program. The Government Accountability Office must conduct a study to identify the types of structures, other than bridges, that attract a high number of individuals attempting suicide-by-jumping and the types of nets or barriers that are effective at reducing such suicides.
Gun Violence Prevention Research Act of 2021 This bill authorizes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct or support research on firearms safety or gun violence prevention.
Tracking COVID-19 Variants Act This bill expands viral genomic sequencing, disease surveillance, and other public health research activities. Specifically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) must issue guidance on the sequencing of the virus that causes COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019). Additionally, the CDC must establish a program to strengthen genomic sequencing, analytics, and disease surveillance activities. As part of this program, the CDC must provide grants and technical assistance to health departments to build their capacity to carry out such activities. Furthermore, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) must carry out a demonstration program to expand an existing program that links different federal data sets for statistical public health research, including research on food insecurity, housing instability, and other social determinants of health. In particular, the program must support linkages with the National Death Index, a database of death records maintained by the NCHS.
National Climate Emergency Act of 2021 or the Climate Emergency Act of 2021 This bill directs the President to declare a national emergency with respect to climate change. The President, in responding to the emergency, must ensure that the government invests in large scale mitigation and resiliency projects; makes investments that enable a racially and socially just transition to a clean energy economy by ensuring that at least 40% of investments flow to historically disadvantaged communities; avoids solutions that increase inequality or violate human rights; creates jobs that conform to labor standards that provide family sustaining wages and benefits and ensure safe workplaces; prioritizes local and equitable hiring and contracting that creates opportunities for marginalized communities; combats environmental injustice; and reinvests in existing public sector institutions and creates new public sector institutions to strategically mobilize and channel investments at the scale and pace required by the national emergency. The President shall report annually on actions taken in response to the national emergency.
This resolution calls on the President to take executive action to cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers. Further, it encourages the President to (1) ensure that borrowers have no tax liability from the debt cancellation, (2) ensure that the debt cancellation helps close racial wealth gaps, and (3) pause student loan payments and interest accumulation on federal student loans for the duration of the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic.
This resolution removes Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from the House Committee on the Budget and the House Committee on Education and Labor.
Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2021 This bill makes it a violation of federal law for a recipient of federal funds who operates, sponsors, or facilitates athletic programs or activities to permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls. The bill specifies that sex shall be recognized based solely on a person's reproductive biology and genetics at birth.
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.
Assuring that Robust, Thorough, and Informed Congressional Leadership is Exercised Over National Emergencies Act or the ARTICLE ONE Act This bill terminates a declaration of national emergency made by the President after 30 days unless Congress votes to extend the declaration. (Currently, Congress can cancel an emergency declaration only by passing a resolution that can withstand a presidential veto.) The bill establishes procedures for congressional review of declarations of national emergencies. The President shall (1) transmit specified information to Congress with any proclamation declaring or renewing a national emergency, including a description of the circumstances necessitating the declaration or renewal of a national emergency declaration and its estimated duration; and (2) report periodically on the status of the emergency.
American Values Act This bill expands and makes permanent certain restrictions that prohibit the use of U.S. foreign assistance to pay for the performance or promotion of abortion services overseas. Current law generally prohibits the use of foreign assistance for abortions through language included in appropriations bills. This bill specifically prohibits the use of any funds under the Foreign Assistance Act for (1) abortions or involuntary sterilization as methods of family planning, or (2) biomedical research that relates to these practices as methods of family planning. In addition, the bill makes permanent prohibitions on the use of such funds to (1) lobby for or against abortion, or (2) fund any organization or program that supports or participates in coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization. The bill also makes permanent a prohibition on the use of funds made available to the Peace Corps to pay for abortions.
Tax Identity Protection Act This bill directs the Internal Revenue Service to report on the Taxpayer Identification Number Perfection Program, including an explanation of the extent to which program information could be used to identify individuals receiving wages without work authorization.
