Rep. Joaquin Castro

Prevent All Soring Tactics Act of 2022 or the PAST Act of 2022 This bill addresses the practice of soring horses. The soring of horses includes various actions taken on horses' limbs to produce higher gaits that may cause pain, distress, inflammation, or lameness. Specifically, the bill expands soring regulation and enforcement at horse shows, exhibitions, sales, and auctions, including by establishing a new system for inspecting horses for soring. In addition, the bill increases penalties for violations.

Norman Y. Mineta Japanese American Confinement Education Act This bill increases the authorization of appropriations for the Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program, which supports the preservation of U.S. confinement sites that were used to detain Japanese Americans during World War II (i.e., internment camps). It also establishes a program within JACS to provide grants to Japanese American nonprofits to educate individuals about the historical significance of these events.

Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act of 2022 This bill directs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to promulgate a standard that requires employers to implement certain measures for protecting workers from heat stress and related illnesses or injuries. Heat stress refers to the load of heat that a person experiences due to sources of heat or heat retention (including metabolic heat, environmental factors, and clothing or personal protective equipment) or the presence of heat in a work setting. Further, if an employer cannot reduce exposure to heat stress below hazardous levels through engineering controls (e.g., heat shields and insulation) or personal protective equipment (e.g., heat reflective clothing), the employer must implement a program that mitigates such exposure through access to appropriate hydration and cool-down spaces, acclimatization policies, and periodic paid rest breaks. Additionally, the bill establishes requirements concerning judicial review, implementation, enforcement, recordkeeping, and whistle-blower protections related to the standard. The bill also requires the Department of Labor to include questions about heat-related illness and injury in the National Agricultural Workers Survey (an employment-based, random-sample survey of U.S. crop workers that collects demographic, employment, and health information).

This concurrent resolution expresses the sense of Congress for ensuring the speediest end of the COVID-19 pandemic the United States and European governments should unite to enact a World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver, require technology transfer, and otherwise facilitate access in low- and middle-income countries to high-quality COVID-19 mRNA vaccines; and vital U.S. partners, with shared values who also prioritize global cooperation and saving lives and livelihoods worldwide, should unite to remove all obstacles to global access to COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics, treatments, oxygen, and other medical products to advance the common goal of quickly ending the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution states that the U.S. government has an obligation to the American people, whose taxpayer funds helped to develop lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines, to ensure that doses are ultimately delivered to those most in need around the world so as to ensure the global COVID-19 vaccination necessary to end the pandemic.

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment providing that the rights protected by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, shall have no rights under the Constitution and are subject to regulation. The amendment requires federal, state, and local government to (1) regulate, limit, or prohibit election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate's own contributions and expenditures; and (2) require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary is prohibited from construing the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment, and the amendment shall not be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.

This resolution condemns racism and invidious discrimination as evil and antithetical to the U.S. Constitution and declares unconditional war on racism and invidious discrimination in America. (Invidious discrimination generally refers to discrimination based on a classification that is arbitrary or irrational and not related to a legitimate purpose.) The resolution also expresses the intention of the House of Representatives to pass legislation establishing a Cabinet-level Department of Reconciliation. The department shall be charged with developing and coordinating the implementation of a comprehensive national strategy to eliminate racism and invidious discrimination.

This resolution expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the proposed constitutional amendment known as the Equal Rights Amendment has been duly proposed by Congress and ratified by the states and is therefore valid as the Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. (The proposed amendment prohibits the United States or any state from denying or abridging equal rights under the law on account of sex.)

This resolution recognizes the annual celebration of Dia de los Muertos. The resolution urges the United States and the Department of Homeland Security to promote policies that uphold the human dignity of each migrant person and put an end to migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border. Finally, this resolution calls on the United States and the Department of Health and Human Services to promote policies focused on COVID-19 protections and ensure that all communities have equal access to these to put an end to COVID-19 related deaths.

This resolution supports the members of the 87th Texas legislature who fought against the passage of a recent piece of legislation that included provisions related to voter access.

This resolution supports the members of the 87th Texas legislature who fought against the passage of a recent piece of legislation that included provisions related to voter access.