Choose Home Care Act of 2021 This bill provides for coverage of home-based extended care services under Medicare. Specifically, the bill provides for coverage of services that are furnished to Medicare beneficiaries in their homes by home health agencies, including nursing care, meals and nutritional support, home medical supplies, nonemergency medical transportation, and care coordination. Coverage includes 30 days of post-hospital care and other periods of extended illness, as determined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Home health agencies that provide such services may receive additional payments in accordance with a specified methodology. The CMS may make payments for covered services furnished before 2022 during any period in which there is a public health emergency.
Sponsored bills
Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act of 2021 This bill prohibits product hopping by drug manufacturers, authorizes the Federal Trade Commission to enforce this prohibition, and imposes limits on patent litigation involving biological products. Generally, product-hopping describes a situation where, when the patents on a reference drug (or biological product) expire, the manufacturer switches to a follow-on product that is covered by a later-expiring patent. Under this bill, a follow-on product is a modified version of the reference drug that shares an indication (what the drug is used for) with the reference drug. The bill presumes product hopping has occurred when a reference drug manufacturer, after receiving notice that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received an application to market a competing generic (or biosimilar) version, takes certain actions such as withdrawing the reference drug from the market and selling a follow-on product. A drug manufacturer may rebut these presumptions by demonstrating that its conduct was not intended to limit competition. The bill also limits in certain instances the number of patents that a reference biological product manufacturer can assert in a patent infringement lawsuit against a company seeking to sell a biosimilar version. Specifically, if the biosimilar manufacturer completes certain actions as part of an abbreviated pathway to get FDA market approval, the bill limits, subject to exceptions and waivers, the number of certain types of patents that the reference product manufacturer may assert, such as patents filed more than four years after the reference product received market approval.
Supreme Court Ethics Act This bill establishes a new statutory requirement for the Judicial Conference of the United States to issue a judicial code of conduct for judges and justices of U.S. courts, including Justices of the Supreme Court. Currently, the Judicial Conference issues a code of conduct for judges of U.S. courts (but not for Justices of the Supreme Court).
Provider Relief Fund Deadline Extension Act This bill extends the period during which health care providers may use payments received from the Provider Relief Fund to cover a variety of costs related to COVID-19.
Enhance Access To SNAP Act of 2021 or the EATS Act of 20 21 This bill expands eligibility for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to students attending institutions of higher education.
This resolution (1) commits to advancing policies that will end roadway fatalities by 2050, and (2) calls on Congress and the Department of Transportation to commit to working together to achieve zero roadway fatalities by the year 2050.
Strengthening Loan Forgiveness for Public Servants Act This bill revises the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program to provide for partial loan cancellation based on the length of public service employment. Specifically, the bill directs the Department of Education (ED) to cancel 15%, 15%, 20%, 20%, and 30% of the amount a borrower owes after 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 years of public service employment, respectively, on Federal Direct Loans made after the bill's enactment. Under the current PSLF program, ED must cancel the balance of interest and principal due on a borrower's Federal Direct Loans after the borrower makes 120 monthly loan payments while employed in a public service job.
Conservation Reserve Program Flexibility Act of 2021 or CRP Flexibility Act of 2021 This bill modifies the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to permit emergency haying during the primary nesting season to respond to drought or other emergencies. (Under current law, emergency haying is only permitted outside of the primary nesting season.) Under CRP, the Department of Agriculture provides annual payments to agricultural producers to take highly erodible and environmentally sensitive land out of production and install resource-conserving practices.
Public Health Emergency Response and Accountability Act This bill modifies funding mechanisms and establishes reporting requirements relating to public health emergencies that are infectious disease outbreaks, bioterrorist attacks, or disasters. Specifically, the bill establishes a formula-based funding mechanism for the Public Health Emergency Fund to automatically provide funding in the event of these types of emergencies. The amounts provided by the bill are designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 (PAYGO) and the Senate PAYGO rule. (This excludes the budget effects from being counted for the purposes of enforcing the PAYGO rules.) The bill also puts in place additional reporting requirements concerning these types of public health emergencies. Upon determination of such an emergency, the Department of Health and Human Services must convene a group of federal officials to prepare monthly reports for Congress on emergency response efforts. In addition, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) must issue a report on the governmental response to such an emergency within six months of the emergency's termination. The GAO must also report on the capacity of the public health system to respond effectively to infectious disease outbreaks and how funds for public health emergencies have been expended within the last two years. Finally, the bill exempts the Public Health Emergency Fund from sequestration. (Sequestration is a process of automatic, usually across-the-board spending reductions under which budgetary resources are permanently cancelled to enforce specific budget policy goals.)
Tax-Free Pell Grant Act This bill excludes from gross income, for income tax purposes, any amount received as a federal Pell Grant. It also expands the definition of qualified tuition and related expenses under the American Opportunity and Lifetime Learning tax credit to include computer or peripheral equipment (up to a maximum of $1,000), child and dependent care expenses, and course materials.