Promoting Access to Diabetic Shoes Act This bill allows a nurse practitioner or physician assistant to fulfill documentation requirements for coverage, under Medicare, of special shoes for diabetic individuals. Under current law, such requirements may be satisfied only by a physician.
Zero-Emission Homes Act of 2021 This bill directs the Department of Energy to establish a Zero-Emission Homes Program that provides rebates to homeowners and owners of multifamily buildings for qualified electrification projects (e.g., electric stoves or heat pumps).
Domestic Workers Bill of Rights Act This bill provides rights and protections for domestic workers (e.g., housekeepers, nannies, caretakers, personal assistants, and chauffeurs), including pay and leave rights, and health and safety protections. Specifically, the bill repeals the exemption of domestic live-in employees from certain minimum wage and maximum hour requirements. Employers must provide written notice of termination and provide at least 30 days of lodging and two weeks of severance pay to terminated live-in employees. Live-in employees also must be provided with reasonable access to telephone and internet service during their employment. The bill requires employers to provide domestic workers with a written agreement covering wages, sick leave, benefits, and other matters. Further, domestic workers may request and be granted changes to work schedules due to personal events. The bill also provides domestic workers with certain privacy rights, extends to domestic workers protections against discrimination in employment, and increases the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) for certain Medicaid-funded medical services provided by domestic workers. The Department of Labor must (1) award grants for a domestic worker national hotline for reporting emergencies, training on hazards facing domestic workers, and workforce investment activities for domestic workers; and (2) establish a Domestic Worker Wage and Standards Board to investigate standards in the domestic workers industry. Labor must publish online a document that describes the rights and protections for domestic workers under this bill.
Protecting Renters from Evictions Act of 2021 This bill extends through December 31, 2021, the order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention titled Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further Spread of COVID–19 and published on September 4, 2020.
Respond, Innovate, Succeed, and Empower Act of 2021 or the RISE Act of 2021 This bill establishes requirements for institutions of higher education (IHEs) concerning students with disabilities. Specifically, the bill requires IHEs to allow students to use certain documents, such as individualized education programs, to establish their disabilities. In addition, IHEs must make the process for determining the eligibility for accommodations transparent. Finally, IHEs must submit key data related to their undergraduate students with disabilities for inclusion in federal postsecondary institution data collection efforts.
Manufactured Housing Community Preservation Act of 2021 This bill requires the Department of Housing and Urban Development to award grants to nonprofit organizations, public housing agencies, and other entities for the preservation of manufactured housing communities. Such funds may be used to (1) acquire and preserve manufactured housing communities; (2) make improvements to common areas and community property in such communities; and (3) demolish, remove, and replace dilapidated homes in such communities. A grantee that uses funds to acquire a manufactured housing community must agree to maintain the community for at least 20 years.
Captive Primate Safety Act This bill limits the trade and possession of nonhuman primates. For example, the bill prohibits most individuals from owning a nonhuman primate as a pet.
Prevention of Escapement of Genetically Altered Salmon in the United States Act This bill prohibits a person from shipping, transporting, offering for sale, selling, or purchasing a genetically altered finfish (e.g., salmon), or a food product containing those fish, in commerce; having custody, control, or possession of those fish or food products with the intent to ship, transport, offer for sale, sell, or purchase them in commerce; engaging in net-pen aquaculture (pens of fish contained by nets) of those fish; releasing those fish into a natural environment; or having custody, control, or possession of those fish with the intent to release them into a natural environment. Fish, fish parts, or products confined for scientific research or collected to enforce this bill are exempted from the prohibition. An additional exemption is established if the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (1) prepares a finding of no significant impact in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 after reviewing an application requesting a federal agency to permit activity prohibited by this bill, or (2) finds the application to be consistent with an environmental impact statement that includes an environmental risk analysis and specified assessments of costs and potential economic damage.
Performing Artist Tax Parity Act of 2021 This bill modifies the tax deduction for the expenses of performing artists (including commissions paid to managers or agents) to provide for a phaseout of such deduction for taxpayers whose adjusted gross income exceeds $100,000 ($200,000 for joint return filers). The $100,000 phaseout threshold is adjusted for inflation annually for taxable years beginning after 2021.
Exposing Discrimination in Higher Education Act This bill requires the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to publish prominently on its website the names of the institutions of higher education (IHEs) that request, and the names of the IHEs that receive, religious exemptions from the prohibition on sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities. It also requires an IHE that requests, receives, exercises, or intends to exercise such a religious exemption to publish prominently on its website certain information with respect to such exemption.
