Public Safety Enhancement Act of 2021 This bill reauthorizes through FY2026 the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant program. Additionally, the bill requires a certain amount of funds made available under the COPS grant program to be used for the hiring and retention of law enforcement officers.
Illegal Immigrant Payoff Prohibition Act This bill prohibits the payment of a settlement to an alien for a civil action brought against the United States in connection with the alien's inadmissibility to, or unlawful presence in, the United States.
Better Enforcement of Grievous Offenses by unNaturalized Emigrants Act or the BE GONE Act This bill expands, for immigration purposes, the definition of aggravated felony to include sexual abuse, sexual assault, and aggravated sexual violence. (Under current law, a conviction for an aggravated felony is grounds for deportation and may bar an individual from other immigration-related benefits.)
Taliban Rare Earth Minerals Sanctions Act This bill requires the President to impose sanctions on foreign individuals and entities that knowingly engage in a significant transaction that concerns the rare earth mineral sector of Afghanistan. The President must impose property-blocking sanctions on such foreign individuals and entities, as well as visa-blocking sanctions on the individuals.
Second Amendment is Essential Act of 2021 This bill directs the Department of Homeland Security to designate the business of importing, manufacturing, or dealing firearms, or importing or manufacturing ammunition, as a critical infrastructure sector. Additionally, the bill states that individuals who are employed by those entities are critical infrastructure workers. The term critical infrastructure means systems and assets, physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health and safety, or any combination of those matters.
H-2B Returning Worker Exception Act of 2021 This bill modifies the H-2B (temporary nonagricultural workers) nonimmigrant visa program, including by exempting certain workers from an annual numerical limit on such visas and requiring civil penalties for program violations. Under this bill, if a worker seeking a H-2B visa has been counted toward the 66,000 annual cap on such visas in one of the three preceding fiscal years, that worker shall not be counted against the cap again. Furthermore, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) must impose a civil monetary penalty on an employer for (1) failing to meet requirements related to an H-2B visa petition, or (2) making a willful misrepresentation of material fact in such a petition. DHS must also ensure the establishment of an electronic platform (1) for employers to submit and request approval of an H-2B petition, and (2) to act as a single point of access for applicants and the relevant government agencies. The Department of Labor must maintain a publicly available online database of all job orders by H-2B employers. Furthermore, Labor may take certain actions to enforce program requirements, such as imposing penalties and seeking injunctions. The bill provides statutory authority for the current practice of limiting the program to workers who are nationals of countries approved by DHS. DHS may make exceptions to this limitation in individual cases if it is in the U.S. interest to do so. DHS shall select approved countries based on various factors, such as the rate of overstay by H-2B visa holders from each country.
Firearm Due Process Protection Act This bill expands the grounds for pursuing judicial remedies related to certain firearm transfers. Additionally, the bill establishes procedural rules applicable to actions for judicial remedies. Current law authorizes judicial remedies for an individual who is erroneously denied a firearm (e.g., an individual is denied a firearm but the individual is eligible to receive or possess a firearm). This bill authorizes remedies for an individual who experiences an extended delay (i.e., a delay of more than 60 days) on a firearm transfer. Additionally, the bill requires an expedited hearing on an action for judicial remedies and places the burden of proof on the respondent to show by clear and convincing evidence that the individual was ineligible to receive or possess a firearm.
Root and Stem Project Authorization Act of 2022 This bill authorizes the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to conduct certain forest restoration projects. Specifically, the Forest Service or BLM may enter into an agreement for a project on federal land that was developed through a collaborative process that meets local and rural community needs if the party with whom it enters into an agreement initially provides the Forest Service or BLM with a portion of the funding necessary to complete any analysis deemed necessary under federal law for consideration of the proposed project; the Forest Service or BLM uses the funding to pay a contractor included on a list of contractors that it maintains to conduct the analysis; upon completion of the analysis, the Forest Service or BLM solicits bids to carry out the project and enters into a contract or agreement under the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 to carry out the project; and using certain receipts from the project, the Forest Service or BLM repays the initially provided funding. For purposes of a civil action relating to such a project, any person that participated in the collaborative process to develop the proposal for the project shall be (1) entitled to intervene, as of right, in any subsequent civil action; and (2) considered to be a full participant in any settlement negotiation relating to the project. The authority to enter into an agreement and the requirement to maintain a list of contractors shall expire on January 1, 2033.
Protecting Access for Hunters and Anglers Act of 2022 This bill bars the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture from prohibiting or regulating the use of lead ammunition or tackle on federal land or water that is under the jurisdiction of such departments and made available for hunting or fishing. The bill makes exceptions for specified existing regulations and where the applicable department determines that a decline in wildlife population at the specific unit of federal land or water is primarily caused by the use of lead in ammunition or tackle, based on the field data from such unit, and the state approves the regulations.
Transparency And Production of American Energy Act or the TAP American Energy Act This bill modifies requirements related to the exploration and development of energy resources (e.g., oil, gas, and renewable energy projects). For example, it sets forth provisions to (1) resume sales of onshore and offshore oil and gas leases and restrict the President from imposing bans on or otherwise limiting energy leasing and mineral withdrawals without congressional approval, (2) set timeframes for and makes other changes to certain environmental requirements that apply to energy projects, and (3) address various aspects of permitting and regulating pipelines and energy infrastructure projects.
