Rep. David Schweikert

Maddy summaryHR 1414, the Keep Innovation in America Act, clarifies the definition of "broker" under tax law to include entities facilitating digital asset sales at customer direction, directly affecting digital asset exchanges and platforms. It defines "digital asset" as value recorded on a secure ledger and requires brokers to report certain transactions involving digital assets starting in 2025. The bill also mandates a Treasury study on treating digital assets as "cash" under specific tax rules, analyzing privacy, innovation, and competitiveness impacts. These changes aim to align tax reporting with digital asset technology while avoiding burdens on non-broker developers like miners or validators.

Maddy summaryHR 1388 authorizes the minting of commemorative coins to honor the 1865 Sultana steamboat disaster, the deadliest maritime tragedy in U.S. history. It specifies three coin types ($5 gold, $1 silver, and half-dollar) with defined weights and compositions, to be sold at face value plus surcharges ($35, $10, and $5 per coin, respectively). All surcharges collected will fund the Sultana Historical Preservation Society for museum development, including exhibits, artifact preservation, and facility construction. The coins are legal tender but intended for collectors, with sales limited to a one-year period starting January 2023.

Maddy summaryHR 637, the JFK Act of 2023, mandates that specific federal agencies must publicly release unredacted records related to President John F. Kennedy's assassination within 30 days of the law's enactment. Covered officials - including the Archivist of the United States, CIA Director, FBI Director, and others - must disclose all relevant assassination records they hold, overriding existing legal barriers like the 1992 JFK Records Act and a 2022 presidential memorandum. The bill also requires the Attorney General to petition courts to unseal any assassination records held under court seal or grand jury secrecy. This law directly affects federal agencies controlling JFK assassination records and aims to make previously restricted materials fully public. It focuses solely on the policy change of requiring immediate, unredacted disclosure, without addressing historical conclusions or future investigations.

Maddy summaryThe Military Spouse Hiring Act expands the Work Opportunity Tax Credit to include military spouses. Employers who hire a spouse of an active-duty military member - certified by a local agency as meeting eligibility requirements on the hiring date - can claim this tax credit. The credit reduces the employer's federal tax liability for hiring such individuals. This provision applies to new hires after the bill's enactment date.

Maddy summaryThe CCU Parity Act of 2023 increases tax credits for companies that capture and utilize carbon dioxide emissions. It raises the credit to $12 per metric ton for carbon used in certain processes and $17 per metric ton for carbon utilized in other ways, with future annual adjustments for inflation starting in 2025. This directly affects industrial facilities, such as cement or steel plants, that capture carbon dioxide from their operations. The changes apply to carbon captured after December 31, 2023, under existing tax code provisions.

Maddy summaryHR 1200, the National Right-to-Work Act, prohibits requiring workers to join a union or pay dues as a condition of employment in both private-sector workplaces (covered by the National Labor Relations Act) and railroad industries (covered by the Railway Labor Act). The bill amends key sections of these laws to eliminate provisions that allowed union security agreements, meaning workers in unionized settings would no longer be forced to pay dues to retain their jobs. This directly affects employees in unionized workplaces across the U.S., particularly those in industries with existing union contracts that included mandatory dues. The law changes the legal framework to ensure union membership and dues payment remain voluntary for all workers.

Maddy summaryHR 1177, the Financial Freedom Act of 2023, amends pension plan rules to expand participant control over individual retirement accounts. It allows plan fiduciaries to offer a broad range of investment choices without being required to select specific options, as long as participants can choose how to allocate their funds. The bill specifically protects "self-directed brokerage windows" by preventing regulators from restricting the investments available through them and clarifies that using such options doesn't violate standard fiduciary duties like diversification or prudence. This directly affects workers in defined contribution pension plans with individual accounts who want more direct control over their investment choices.

Maddy summaryHR 972, the Outpatient Surgery Quality and Access Act of 2023, updates Medicare payment rules for outpatient surgery centers and hospital outpatient departments. It requires Medicare to publicly compare quality data for these facilities in the same geographic area on Medicare.gov, allows facilities to review data before release, and mandates that the Secretary cite specific criteria when excluding procedures from coverage. The bill also caps patient out-of-pocket costs for outpatient surgery at the hospital deductible amount and aligns annual payment updates between surgery centers and hospitals. These changes aim to improve transparency for beneficiaries and standardize payment adjustments.

Prohibiting IRS Financial Surveillance Act This bill prohibits the Department of the Treasury from requiring a financial institution to report the transfers into and out of a financial account. This prohibition does not apply to laws or regulations in effect on January 1, 2023.

Paws Off Act of 2023 This bill forbids the sale of food that contains xylitol unless the food's label contains a warning about the toxic effects of xylitol for dogs if ingested.