This concurrent resolution establishes the congressional budget for the federal government for FY2022, sets forth budgetary levels for FY2023-FY2031, and provides reconciliation instructions for legislation that increases the deficit. The resolution recommends levels and amounts for FY2022-FY2031 for federal revenues, new budget authority, budget outlays, deficits, public debt, debt held by the public, and the major functional categories of spending. It also recommends levels and amounts for Social Security and Postal Service discretionary administrative expenses for the purpose of budget enforcement in the Senate. The resolution includes reconciliation instructions that direct (1) several House and Senate committees to report legislation that will increase the deficit over FY2022-FY2031 by no more than an amount specified for each committee, and (2) the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee to report legislation that will reduce the deficit by at least $1 billion over FY2022-FY2031. (Under current law, reconciliation bills are considered by Congress using expedited legislative procedures that prevent a filibuster and restrict amendments in the Senate.) In addition, the resolution establishes reserve funds that allow certain adjustments to committee allocations and other budgetary levels to accommodate reconciliation legislation, tax legislation that does not raise taxes on people making less than $400,000, legislation that would not increase the deficit over specified time periods, and legislation that addresses a wide range of other specified policy issues. The resolution also sets forth budget enforcement procedures that address issues such as emergency legislation, advance appropriations, infrastructure legislation, adjustments to budget allocations, and cost estimates for child care or prekindergarten legislation.
Keep Physicians Serving Patients Act of 2021 This bill requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to use specified data regarding physician wages and office rent when determining certain geographic adjustment factors for the payment of physician services under Medicare. With respect to such payment, the bill also makes permanent certain minimum adjustments to the work geographic index and extends to all localities certain minimum adjustments to the practice expense index.
Bringing Back Main Street Act of 2021 This bill requires the Government Accountability Office to study and report on the amount of small business assistance that has been received by foreign-based small businesses during the period beginning on March 1, 2020, and ending on the bill's date of enactment.
Tree Spiking Mitigation Act of 2021 This bill directs the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to coordinate to take necessary actions to ensure the detection, identification, and, as determined to be appropriate, mitigation of tree spiking devices located on federal lands. A tree spiking device includes spikes, nails, or other objects hammered, driven, fastened, or otherwise placed into or on any timber to impede logging. To carry out such activities, the Forest Service and the BLM shall prioritize areas in which (1) incidences of tree spiking devices have occurred, or (2) the Forest Service and the BLM suspect that there are tree spiking devices. No later than 90 days after the enactment of this bill, the Forest Service and the BLM shall, where appropriate, update safety guidelines and training protocols to include the awareness, detection, identification, and mitigation of tree spiking devices.
This resolution supports the use and recognizes the importance of public health authorities, including those related to border protection and migration, in addressing COVID-19.
Migratory Bird Protection Act of 2021 This bill prohibits the incidental taking (e.g., capturing or killing) of migratory birds by commercial activities unless the activity is authorized under a permit or is identified as posing de minimis risk to migratory birds. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) must regulate such incidental taking, including by (1) issuing general permits for certain industries, (2) creating a mitigation fee for any incidental taking of migratory birds, and (3) identifying categories of de minimis risk activities that are exempt from liability for the taking of migratory birds. In addition, the USFWS must establish and maintain a research program (1) to evaluate the impacts of commercial activities on birds, (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of best management practices and technologies to avoid or minimize such impacts, and (3) to develop new or improved best management practices and technologies.
Creative Economy Revitalization Act This bill requires the Department of Labor to award grants to government and nonprofit agencies to provide programs that employ individuals and provide public access to art or arts programming.
For the People Act of 2021 This bill addresses voter access, election integrity and security, campaign finance, and ethics for the three branches of government. Specifically, the bill expands voter registration (e.g., automatic and same-day registration) and voting access (e.g., vote-by-mail and early voting). It also limits removing voters from voter rolls. The bill requires states to establish independent redistricting commissions to carry out congressional redistricting. Additionally, the bill sets forth provisions related to election security, including sharing intelligence information with state election officials, supporting states in securing their election systems, developing a national strategy to protect U.S. democratic institutions, establishing in the legislative branch the National Commission to Protect United States Democratic Institutions, and other provisions to improve the cybersecurity of election systems. Further, the bill addresses campaign finance, including by expanding the prohibition on campaign spending by foreign nationals, requiring additional disclosure of campaign-related fundraising and spending, requiring additional disclaimers regarding certain political advertising, and establishing an alternative campaign funding system for certain federal offices. The bill addresses ethics in all three branches of government, including by requiring a code of conduct for Supreme Court Justices, prohibiting Members of the House from serving on the board of a for-profit entity, and establishing additional conflict-of-interest and ethics provisions for federal employees and the White House. The bill requires the President, the Vice President, and certain candidates for those offices to disclose 10 years of tax returns.
Affordable Pricing for Taxpayer-Funded Prescription Drugs Act of 2021 This bill requires companies that receive federal funding for research (or a license of the rights to a patent or regulatory test data) for a biomedical product or service to agree to set reasonable prices for the resulting biomedical product or service. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must determine a reasonable price based on a formula that ensures the U.S. price for the product or service is not more than the median price for the product or service in Canada and six other reference countries with, based on specified criteria, large economies and high incomes. Companies entering these agreements also must report to HHS certain financial information related to the biomedical product or service involved.
Refuge System Protection Act This bill authorizes the Department of Justice (DOJ), at the request of the Department of the Interior, to bring in a district court a civil action against any individual or entity that destroys, causes the loss of, causes Interior to make risk mitigation efforts with respect to, or injures any resource that is within the boundaries any land or water that is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The bill also authorizes DOJ, at the request of Interior, to bring in a district court an in rem action against any instrumentality (e.g., a vessel, vehicle, or aircraft) that destroys, causes the loss of, causes Interior to make risk mitigation efforts with respect to, or injures any such system resource. Among others, it shall be an affirmative defense in either type of action that the destruction of, loss of, risk mitigation regarding, or injury to a system resource was caused by an otherwise legal act or omission that occurred outside the boundaries of the resource. In either type of action, the court may award response costs and damages.
Resilient Federal Forests Act This bill modifies and sets forth provisions regarding forest management activities on National Forest System, public, and tribal lands. The bill provides for, among other things the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Interior to conduct fireshed management projects in fireshed management areas, certain categorical exclusions for various purposes, the balancing of the short- and long-term effects of forest management activities while considering injunctive relief, USDA and Interior to establish their own discretionary arbitration pilot programs as an alternative dispute resolution process for forest management activities, increasing the maximum term for a stewardship end result contract to 20 years, demonstration projects to support the development and commercialization of biochar on Indian forest lands or rangelands and in nearby communities by providing reliable supplies of feedstock from federal lands, the decommissioning of certain Forest Service Roads within designated high fire-prone areas, repealing of the Eastside Screens requirements on National Forest System lands, making the Northwest Forest Plan Survey and Manage Mitigation Measure Standards and Guidelines inapplicable to any National Forest System lands or public lands, development of a protection plan for giant sequoia trees on National Forest System lands and public lands, and permanent rights of access to the Oregon and California Railroad grant lands and the Coos Bay Wagon Road grant lands for private landowners issued reciprocal road rights-of-way.
Reprioritizing Unserved Rural Areas and Locations for Broadband Act of 2021 or the RURAL Broadband Act of 2021 This bill restricts the use of Rural Utilities Service grants or loans to deploy broadband infrastructure that would overbuild or otherwise duplicate existing broadband networks.
