This bill prohibits federal funds from being used to require a member of the National Guard to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. In addition, the Department of Defense is prohibited from taking any adverse action (e.g., punishment) against a member of the National Guard because the member refuses to receive such a vaccination.
Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2022 This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to take various actions to address transparency in contract terms and pricing in the cattle industry. Among these requirements, USDA must maintain a publicly available library or catalog of contracts entered into between meat packers and livestock producers for the purchase of cattle, including any schedules of premiums or discounts associated with the contracts and other specific details. USDA must make this information available to producers and other interested parties in a monthly report. The bill further requires USDA to establish five to seven regions encompassing the entire continental United States that reasonably reflect similar fed cattle purchase practices for processing plants and establish mandatory minimums for each region (i.e., the minimum percentage of cattle purchases that are required to be made through approved pricing mechanisms from producers that are not packers). Under the bill, approved pricing mechanisms are generally purchases of fed cattle made through a negotiated purchase, through a negotiated grid purchase, at a stockyard, or through trading systems or platforms where multiple buyers and sellers can regularly make and accept bids and offers. The bill also establishes a maximum penalty for mandatory minimum violations by covered packers. Under the bill, a covered packer is a packer that has slaughtered an average of 5% or more of the number of fed cattle slaughtered nationally during the immediately preceding five calendar years.
Meat and Poultry Special Investigator Act of 2022 This bill establishes within the Department of Agriculture (USDA) the Office of the Special Investigator for Competition Matters. Specifically, the office must use all available tools (e.g., subpoenas) to investigate and prosecute violations of the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 by packers and live poultry dealers. Further, the bill grants the office the authority to bring any civil or administrative action authorized by that act against a packer or live poultry dealer. Additionally, the office must serve as a liaison to the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission with respect to competition and trade practices in the food and agricultural sector, consult with the Department of Homeland Security on national security and critical infrastructure security in the food and agricultural sector, maintain a staff of attorneys and other professionals with appropriate expertise, and coordinate with the USDA Office of the General Counsel and the Packers and Stockyards Division of the Agricultural Marketing Service.
This resolution expresses support for the designation of Journeyman Lineworkers Recognition Day. (A journeyman lineworker is a person who builds and maintains electrical power systems.)
Healthy Drinking Water Affordability Act or the Healthy H2O Act This bill directs the Department of Agriculture to establish a clean drinking water program to provide grants for water quality testing and for the purchase, installation, and maintenance of point-of use and point-of-entry water filtration systems that remove or significantly reduce contaminants in drinking water. Grants may be given to rural end users (such as homeowners), nonprofit organizations, and government entities.
HR 8004, the America Works Act of 2022, reinstates work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependents in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). It repeals a temporary pandemic-era suspension of these requirements and standardizes exemptions, allowing exemptions only for individuals under 18 or over 65, those medically certified as unfit for work, parents with children under 7, or pregnant women. The bill also reduces the exemption threshold from 12% to 3% for certain states. This directly affects SNAP recipients who are able-bodied adults without dependents in states where work requirements apply.
Border Enforcement Security Task Force Reauthorization Act of 2022 This bill modifies the Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) program within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). For example, if DHS establishes a BEST unit with a port security nexus, the unit must have at least (1) one member from the Coast Guard Investigative Service, and (2) one member from the geographically responsible Coast Guard Sector Intelligence Office.
This resolution recognizes and celebrates the 50th anniversary of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs or activities.
Prohibiting Federal Emergencies for Abortion Act This bill prohibits the President and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from declaring a federal emergency relating to abortion. Specifically, neither the President nor HHS may declare a national emergency for purposes of (1) promoting, supporting, or expanding access to abortion; or (2) taking adverse action against or litigating against states that prohibit or otherwise restrict abortion.
This resolution sets forth the rule for consideration of H.R. 1011 (Life at Conception Act), which declares that the right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being at all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization, cloning, or other moment at which an individual comes into being.
Stop Supreme Court Leakers Act of 2022 This bill establishes new federal crimes for the unauthorized disclosure of confidential information by officers or employees of the Supreme Court. Specifically, the bill prohibits an officer or employee of the Supreme Court from knowingly publishing, divulging, disclosing, or making known in any manner or to any extent not authorized by law any confidential information coming to that officer or employee in the course of the employment or official duties of that officer or employee. A violation is subject to criminal penalties. Additionally, property involved in a violation or attempted violation, or which constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to a violation, is subject to civil forfeiture.
Maritime Administration Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 202 3 This bill revises provisions related to the Maritime Administration (MARAD). Among other things, the bill reauthorizes MARAD programs, including programs associated with maintaining the U.S. Merchant Marine; requires MARAD to establish a United States Marine Highway Program to designate marine highway routes as extensions of the surface transportation system and provide grants and enter into contacts or agreements for marine highway services; directs the Department of Transportation (DOT) to develop and and deliver to Congress a strategy to assist state maritime academies and the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy to improve the representation of women and underrepresented communities in the next generation of the mariner workforce; directs DOT to develop a strategy to ensure there is an adequate supply of trained U.S. citizen mariners sufficient to meet the operational requirements of low- and zero-emission vessels; addresses sexual harassment and sexual assault at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and provides for greater diversity and inclusion at the academy and within the maritime transportation system workforce; and authorizes MARAD to award maritime career training grants to eligible institutions (e.g., postsecondary educational institutions or postsecondary vocational institutions) for the purpose of developing, offering, or improving educational or career training programs for workers in the United States related to the maritime workforce.
