Rep. Summer L. Lee

Maddy summaryThis bill protects living organ donors from insurance discrimination by prohibiting life, disability, and long-term care insurers from denying coverage, raising premiums, or altering policy terms solely because someone donated an organ while alive. It also updates the Family and Medical Leave Act to include recovery from organ donation surgery as a qualifying health condition, allowing donors to take protected leave for this purpose. Additionally, the bill requires the Health and Human Services Secretary to update public educational materials about living donation benefits, risks, and insurance protections within six months of enactment. These changes directly affect living organ donors, insurers, employers, and healthcare systems by ensuring fair access to insurance and workplace leave.

Maddy summaryHR 2904, the Anti-Racism in Public Health Act of 2023, establishes a National Center on Antiracism and Health within the CDC. The center will declare racism a public health crisis, conduct research on how structural racism affects health outcomes, and develop data systems to track health disparities across race, ethnicity, gender, and other factors. It will fund regional centers in minority communities, create public health interventions, and require CDC to report annually on antiracist efforts. This bill directly affects public health agencies, researchers, and communities of color by mandating systemic analysis of racial inequities in healthcare and public health policy.

Maddy summaryThis bill requires the Pentagon to obtain a clean audit of its finances. If the Department of Defense fails to get an unqualified audit (a "clean" opinion) for a department or agency, it triggers automatic spending cuts: 0.5% in the first year of failure and 1.0% in subsequent years. These cuts apply broadly across programs but exclude military personnel, National Guard, reserve forces, and the Defense Health Program. The President may temporarily waive cuts for national security reasons, but must justify the waiver to Congress. The goal is to link defense spending to financial accountability, using existing audit standards.

Maddy summaryThe Smart Sentencing Adjustments Act creates a federal grant program to help states reduce prison populations by at least 20% over three years. States receive planning grants (up to $700,000) to develop strategies, then implementation grants (up to $70 million) to fund specific changes like eliminating mandatory minimums, downgrading offenses, expanding early release programs, reducing fines for low-income individuals, and improving reentry services. The bill requires states to track racial, gender, and socioeconomic impacts of funded programs and prohibits using funds for new prison construction or policies that increase incarceration. It authorizes $2 billion annually for 2024-2034 to support these state-level reforms.

Maddy summaryThe Election Mail Act (HR 2987) establishes new requirements for handling mail-in ballots in federal elections to improve reliability and accessibility. It requires the Postal Service to process absentee ballots on the same day received, place postmarks indicating mailing dates on ballot envelopes, and treat election mail as first-class mail with free postage for completed ballots. The bill also mandates states to use intelligent mail barcodes on return envelopes, affix specific tags for ballot visibility, and adopt a uniform 7-day deadline for accepting mailed ballots postmarked on or before election day. These changes apply to federal elections, with most provisions taking effect for the 2024 election cycle. The bill includes additional provisions for the Postal Service to consult with Indian Tribes about voting barriers on tribal lands.

Maddy summaryThe Child Care for Working Families Act establishes a federal entitlement program providing subsidized child care for working families with children under age 6 who are not yet in kindergarten. It creates a sliding fee scale where families at or below 85% of State median income pay no copayment, while higher-income families pay up to 7% of their income based on income thresholds. The bill requires states to develop quality rating systems for child care providers and ensures providers receive sufficient funding to meet quality standards, including wages equivalent to elementary educators. It prioritizes access for underserved populations including children with disabilities, infants and toddlers, children experiencing homelessness, and families in low-income communities. The program is funded with $20 billion for fiscal year 2024 and subsequent years through 2029.

Maddy summaryThe RAP Act of 2023 (HR 2952) would prevent prosecutors and plaintiffs from using a defendant’s creative or artistic works - such as poems, songs, art, or films - as evidence in court, unless specific exceptions apply. It requires the government to prove by clear evidence that the work was meant literally (not figuratively), directly relates to the specific facts of the case, is relevant to disputed facts, and has unique value beyond other evidence. If admitted, courts must redact the work to limit its presentation and provide jury instructions about its restricted use. This bill directly affects defendants in both criminal and civil cases who create artistic expression, aiming to protect their creative works from being misused in legal proceedings.

Maddy summaryHR 2974 establishes the United States Interagency Council on Housing Affordability and Preservation, a new federal body composed of heads from 21 agencies (including HUD, Treasury, and Justice) to coordinate efforts on affordable housing. The Council’s key duties include developing a national strategic plan for affordable housing within 12 months, reviewing federal housing programs, providing regional support to states and localities to access federal resources, and requiring annual agency reports on housing barriers. It mandates $4.8 million annually for operations (2024-2028) and encourages states to create their own housing councils to align with federal goals. The bill directly affects federal agencies, state/local governments, and low-income renters by improving coordination and access to housing programs, without directly changing housing subsidies or tenant protections.

Performing Artist Tax Parity Act of 2023 This bill modifies the above-the-line 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 2023.

Maddy summaryThis bill changes how incarcerated people are counted in the U.S. census and for congressional redistricting. Starting with the 2030 census, it requires counting individuals in prison based on their last known residence before incarceration, not the location of the prison. This directly affects states that currently count prison populations as residents of the prison location, which distorts local representation. As a result, states must use this new residence data when drawing congressional districts, ensuring representation aligns with where people lived before being incarcerated.