Rep. Ashley Hinson

Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2021 This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to take various actions to address transparency in pricing and contract terms in the cattle industry. Among these requirements, USDA must (1) establish regional minimum percentages of cattle that meat packers must procure through negotiated purchases or negotiated grid purchases (i.e., transactions where the price is known and negotiated at the time of the transaction), and (2) maintain a publicly available catalog of contracts offered by meat packers to livestock producers for the purchase of fed cattle.

Defend the Blend Act This bill prohibits the Environmental Protection Agency from reducing under the renewable fuel program any applicable volume, or any renewable fuel obligation or applicable percentage that has already been finalized for any calendar year.

Conscience Protection Act of 2021 This bill provides statutory authority for certain protections for health care providers that refuse to participate in abortions based on religious beliefs or other convictions. Health care providers include individual professionals, medical facilities, health insurance organizations, and social services providers that refer clients to health care services. The federal government and entities that receive federal funding for health-related activities, including state and local governments, may not discriminate against a health care provider that refuses to be involved in, or provide coverage for, abortions. Currently, similar requirements apply to various related activities, including certain employment or personnel decisions (the Church Amendments), abortion services training (the Coats-Snowe Amendment), qualified health plans offered through health insurance exchanges, and annual appropriations bills for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and other federal agencies (the Weldon Amendment). The HHS Office for Civil Rights must investigate complaints of this kind of discrimination. Furthermore, HHS may terminate or reduce HHS funding for health-related activities if a person or entity fails to comply with nondiscrimination requirements. Additionally, the Department of Justice or any entity adversely affected by such discrimination may bring a civil action to obtain appropriate relief. A plaintiff does not need to seek or exhaust administrative remedies before bringing the action. A plaintiff may also bring an action, including one for money damages, against a governmental entity. In many cases, principles of sovereign immunity shield states and some localities from these kinds of actions.

Maddy summaryHRES 815 is a symbolic resolution introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on November 18, 2021. It expresses congressional support for National Rural Health Day, which recognizes the importance of rural health care and celebrates providers serving rural communities. The resolution highlights challenges like hospital closures and access barriers faced by rural health facilities but does not create new laws or funding. It simply affirms commitment to improving rural health care accessibility through policy, without specifying concrete changes. As a procedural resolution, it has no binding effect on legislation or funding.

Parents Bill of Rights Act This bill outlines various rights of parents and guardians regarding the elementary or secondary school education of their children. Among other requirements, the bill (1) directs local educational agencies to publicly post the curriculum for each elementary and secondary school grade level; and (2) requires schools to notify parents and guardians of their rights, including the right to review the school's curriculum and budget.

Helping with Equal Access to Leave and Investing in Needs for Grieving Mothers and Fathers Act or the HEALING Mothers and Fathers Act This bill revises the family and medical leave entitlement and limits funding to certain family planning programs. Specifically, the bill provides family and medical leave due to the spontaneous loss of an unborn child of an employee or spouse of the employee. It also establishes a tax credit for an individual who experiences, during the taxable year, the stillbirth of a child who would have been a qualifying child of the individual for the taxable year if the child had been born live. The bill further prohibits the Office of Population Affairs within the Department of Health and Human Services from providing federal assistance to voluntary family planning programs that (1) perform abortions, (2) provide funding to another entity that performs abortions, or (3) refer patients to abortion providers.

This resolution modifies requirements for written statements required of nongovernmental witnesses who appear before standing committees of the House of Representatives. Specifically, the resolution eliminates a requirement that a witness disclose whether they are a fiduciary of an organization or entity that has an interest in the subject matter of the hearing, in favor of a requirement that they disclose whether they are a fiduciary of an entity that has received payments from a specified foreign entity. The resolution also requires nongovernmental witnesses to disclose in their written statement certain contracts with specified foreign persons or entities. If the committee determines that a witness knowingly and willfully failed to truthfully comply with such disclosure requirements, the witness is prohibited from testifying before the committee for three years.

This bill prohibits the Small Business Administration from directly making a loan under the 7(a) Program, which authorizes loans and loan guaranties to small businesses that meet certain requirements.

This joint resolution nullifies a Department of Labor emergency temporary standard for preventing the transmission of COVID-19 in employment settings. Under the standard issued on November 5, 2021, employers with 100 or more employees must require their onsite employees to either be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.

Provider Relief Fund Improvement Act This bill extends deadlines, expands the uses of, and makes other changes pertaining to the Provider Relief Fund. The fund reimburses health care providers for increased expenses or lost revenue attributable to COVID-19. Specifically, the bill extends the deadline by which providers must use any reimbursements they received in 2020 from the fund to the end of the COVID-19 emergency. Providers must use reimbursements received in the first half of 2021 by the end of the emergency or June 30, 2022, whichever is later. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services must distribute the remaining provider relief funds by March 31, 2022. Providers must use these funds by June 30, 2023. The bill also allows the use of the funds for workplace safety activities, such as hiring additional security personnel.