Food for Thought Act of 2022 This bill allows the Department of Education to award grants for eligible institutions of higher education to provide free meals to low-income students through on-campus meal programs.
This bill provides that no tax information return for winnings from one slot machine play shall be required unless the winnings are at least $5,000 (without reduction for the amount wagered). This threshold amount is adjusted for inflation for calendar years beginning after 2023.
Job Protection Act This bill reduces from 12 months to 90 days the employment period required for employees (including federal employees) to become eligible for family and medical leave. Additionally, the bill makes the family and medical leave requirements applicable to all employers (currently, the requirements apply to employers with 50 or more employees).
This bill establishes "Gold Star Families Day" as a legal public holiday, observed on the last Monday in September. It directly affects all Gold Star families - defined as immediate family members of service members who died while serving or from service-connected injuries - by creating a national day of recognition. The key mechanism is amending the U.S. Code (5 U.S.C. §6103) to add this holiday to the federal calendar, replacing the existing holiday previously observed on that date. The bill focuses on formal recognition of sacrifice, not new benefits or programs.
Promoting Public Health Information Act This bill sets out programs and activities to support the communication and dissemination of evidence-based public health information, with a particular focus on communication during public health emergencies. Specifically, it temporarily establishes an advisory committee to report on and make recommendations about, for example, the role and impact of misinformation on responses to public health emergencies and strategies to improve communication during such emergencies. The committee terminates four years after the bill's enactment. Additionally, the Department of Health and Human Services must support the development of initiatives that promote fact-based public health and medical information to the public and educate the public on identifying misinformation.
This joint resolution expresses that Congress recognizes that the United States' nuclear testing program and radioactive waste disposal in the Marshall Islands caused irreparable material and intangible harm to the people of those islands, apologizes on behalf of the United States to the individuals and families of the Marshall Islands for the hardships they have endured as a result of the U.S. nuclear testing program and radioactive waste disposal, and recognizes that it is incumbent on the United States to open dialogue regarding the nuclear legacy of the United States in the Marshall Islands during any negotiation of the Compact of Free Association or its subsidiary agreements.
Resolving Extended Limbo for Immigrant Employees and Families Act or the RELIEF Act This bill revises provisions related to family- and employment-based visas. The bill (1) increases the per-country cap on family-based immigrant visas from 7% of the total number of such visas available that year to 15%, (2) eliminates the 7% cap for employment-based immigrant visas, and (3) removes an offset that reduced the number of visas for individuals from China. The annual cap for visas for the unmarried children of citizens is increased, and the formula for calculating the cap for the unmarried children of residents is revised. The bill also establishes transition rules for employment-based visas from FY2022-FY2024, by reserving a percentage of EB-2 (workers with advanced degrees or exceptional ability), EB-3 (skilled and other workers), and EB-5 (investors) visas for individuals not from the two countries with the largest number of recipients of such visas. Of the unreserved visas, not more than 85% shall be allotted to immigrants from any single country. The Department of State shall increase allocations of family- and employment-based visas by the number of beneficiaries of such applications filed before this bill's enactment, to be allocated FY2022-FY2026 to beneficiaries of applications filed before this bill's enactment who have not yet received a visa. The minor children and spouses of permanent residents and those accompanying a qualified alien shall be treated as an immediate relative for immigration purposes. Whether an alien qualifies as a minor shall be determined according to the alien's age at the time a relevant petition is filed.
Safer Seas Act This bill addresses sexual assault and sexual harassment in the U.S. maritime industry. Among other provisions, the bill requires the U.S. Coast Guard to revoke or suspend a license, certificate of registry, or merchant mariner's document to an individual who has been convicted of sexual assault within the previous 10 years and to revoke or suspend such credentials to an individual who has been convicted of sexual harassment within the previous 5 years; provides protection of seaman against discrimination for those who report or intend to report sexual assault or sexual harassment incidents; directs the Coast Guard to promulgate regulations related to possession and consumption of alcohol by crewmembers aboard documented vessels; requires non-passenger carrying, ocean-going, commercial vessels to install and maintain a video surveillance system with audio capability in areas adjacent to bedrooms and limit access to the surveillance to law enforcement officials and victims of sexual assault or sexual harassment; and creates new reporting mandates and procedures for crew and vessel owners to report sexual assault or sexual harassment.
This joint resolution nullifies the rule titled Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Omnibus COVID-19 Health Care Staff Vaccination , which was issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on November 5, 2021. The rule requires health care providers, as a condition of Medicare and Medicaid participation, to ensure that staff are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
This resolution expresses that it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the energy independence of the United States is critical to national security and should include the production and use of all available energy sources, including coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear energy, and renewables, as well as strategic minerals critical to electric vehicles and other clean energy sources; and President Biden should take immediate action to restore the energy security of the United States and provide U.S. allies with an affordable and secure supply of energy.
Lake Tahoe Restoration Reauthorization Act This bill reauthorizes through September 30, 2034, activities to restore Lake Tahoe and its surrounding basin. Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake on the border of California and Nevada.
Modernizing Access to our Public Land Act This bill directs the Department of the Interior, the Forest Service, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to jointly develop and adopt interagency standards to ensure compatibility and interoperability among federal databases for the collection and dissemination of certain data. Specifically, these requirements shall apply to outdoor recreation data related to federal lands and used to depict locations at which recreation uses are available to the public. Each such department shall digitize and make publicly available on their websites, as applicable, geographic information system mapping data that specifies, with respect to the relevant department, all federal interests in private land, including easements, reservations, and rights-of-way to which the federal government does not have a fee title interest, and that may be used to provide recreational access to the federal land. Interior, the Forest Service, and the Corps of Engineers must digitize and publish geographic information system mapping data that includes status information as to whether roads and trails are open or closed, the dates on which roads and trails are seasonally opened and closed, the types of vehicles that are allowed on each segment of roads and trails, and the boundaries of areas where hunting or recreational shooting is regulated or closed.
