This resolution expresses that the Senate continues to refuse to recognize Alyaksandr Lukashenka as the legitimately elected leader of Belarus; condemns the ongoing harassment and persecution of opposition leaders, civil society activists, human rights defenders, and independent media carried out by the Lukashenka regime; urges the immediate release, without preconditions, of all political prisoners in Belarus; calls for new presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in Belarus and conducted in a manner that meets international standards and includes independent election monitoring; and encourages President Biden to swiftly appoint a new Special Envoy for Belarus to support the pro-democracy movement in Belarus.
This resolution congratulates the pro-life movement on the Supreme Court's ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (that there is no constitutional right to abortion), recognizes the role of states as laboratories of democracy, and expresses a commitment to ensuring the safety of pro-life supporters, government officials, and court personnel in the wake of the Court's ruling.
Military Service Academy Foundation Support Act of 2022 This bill authorizes the military departments to provide specified support, with limitations, to charitable, educational, or civic nonprofit organizations that operate exclusively to support the service academies (i.e., the U.S. Military Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, and U.S. Air Force Academy). Specifically, the bill authorizes the military departments to provide (1) the use of facilities or equipment of the United States on an unreimbursed basis, and (2) endorsement from specified individuals related to an organization and its events and activities.
United States NATO Force Deployment Policy Act of 2022 This bill states that it is U.S. policy that the NATO-Russia Founding Act, signed in 1997, does not constrain the deployment of U.S. or NATO forces in any way.
Overseas Military Pay Protection Act of 2022 This bill prohibits the reduction of the cost-of-living allowance for a member of the Armed Forces assigned to a duty station located outside the United States, except in connection with a permanent change of station. The allowance may be increased at any time. The Department of Defense (DOD) must notify Congress before modifying a table used to calculate living allowances. Additionally, DOD must brief Congress regarding the effects of this bill on living allowances.
Protecting Kids, Protecting Lunches Act of 2022 This bill prohibits the Department of Agriculture from establishing certain requirements related to reserved spaces for biological males and females under the school meal programs.
Chase COVID Unemployment Fraud Act of 2022 This bill addresses fraud and overpayments of pandemic unemployment assistance, including by allowing states to retain a specified percentage of recovered funds and prohibiting the Department of Labor from allowing blanket waivers of overpayments.
Military Threat Awareness Act of 2022 This bill requires the Department of Defense (DOD) to make publicly available reports on the military capabilities of China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia. Each report must be made available in unclassified form on a publicly accessible DOD website. DOD may use or add to any existing reports to respond to the reporting requirement.
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.
Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps Expansion Act of 2022 This bill requires the Department of Defense to develop a plan to increase the total number of units of the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps to ensure that there is reasonable access to such units in each geographic region of the United States by September 30, 2031.
Steven's Law This bill establishes requirements for collecting and disclosing the medical history of reproductive tissue donors. Through regulations, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must require reproductive tissue banks to collect, verify, and disclose certain information about a donor's medical history. As part of the regulations, HHS must (1) set out the medical information that a donor must disclose to a tissue bank, including familial medical conditions and the contact information of a medical professional who has examined the donor; and (2) require donors to waive privacy and other protections that limit disclosure of personal health information. A tissue bank must provide, at no cost, the donor's medical information to the recipient of the donor tissue, the recipient's physician, or a person conceived using the donor tissue (if that person is either 18 years of age or older or has the consent of a parent or guardian).
Federal Employee Student Debt Transparency Act This bill requires (1) Senior Executive Service and Schedule C federal employees to annually disclose any federal student loan debt, and (2) the Office of Government Ethics to annually report the total amount owed by such employees and any employees who failed to comply with the bill's requirements.
