Coal Council Certainty Act of 2021 This bill requires the Department of Energy (DOE) to maintain the National Coal Council under the charter that was in effect on November 19, 2021. Historically, this council provided DOE with advice and guidance about policies concerning coal. However, the council ceased operations in November 2021 when its charter was not renewed by DOE.
Protecting the American Taxpayer and Medicare Act This bill makes several budgetary and technical changes, particularly in relation to Medicare. Specifically, the bill continues to exempt Medicare from sequestration until March 31, 2022. (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.) Additionally, the bill (1) temporarily extends other provisions under Medicare, including a payment increase under the physician fee schedule; and (2) requires any debits recorded for FY2022 on the statutory pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) scorecards to be deducted from the scorecards for 2022 and added to the scorecards for 2023.
VA Electronic Health Record Transparency Act of 2021 This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to report on the costs of its Electronic Health Record Modernization Program, including by describing all expenses driven by the program.
Veterans Justice Outreach Improvement Act of 2021 The bill updates the Veterans Justice Outreach Program, which is a program through which the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) identifies justice-involved veterans and provides them with access to VA services. Justice-involved veterans are those with active, ongoing, or recent contact with some component of a local criminal justice system. Under the bill, the VA must conduct program outreach to justice-involved veterans, military and veterans service organizations, and relevant stakeholders in the criminal justice community (e.g., local law enforcement). The VA must also develop a strategic plan for the program. In developing the plan, the VA must conduct (1) a workforce gap analysis for the program; and (2) an assessment of barriers to working with justice-involved veterans in rural, remote, and underserved areas. The VA must increase the number of Veterans Justice Outreach specialists responsible for supporting justice-involved veterans in rural, remote, or underserved areas. The bill requires the VA to establish performance goals and implementation plans for the program, Veterans Justice Outreach specialists, and for providing support for research regarding justice-involved veterans. Finally, the VA must ensure all Veterans Justice Outreach specialists receive annual training on (1) best practices for identifying and conducting outreach to justice-involved veterans and relevant stakeholders in the criminal justice community, and (2) veteran eligibility for the program.
Community Bank Relief Act of 2021 This bill requires banking agencies to set the community bank leverage ratio between 8% and 8.5% for calendar years 2022, 2023, and 2024 for community banks seeking to satisfy simplified capital adequacy requirements. Currently, banking agencies are statutorily required to set the rate between 8% and 10% through rulemaking. Under current regulations, the rate will increase from 8.5% to 9% on January 1, 2022.
Taylor Force Martyr Payment Prevention Act of 2021 This bill expands the institutional factors the Department of the Treasury must consider when making a finding that a foreign financial institution is of primary money laundering concern and is therefore subject to special measures, including the prohibition of opening or maintaining correspondent accounts in U.S financial institutions. Specifically, Treasury must consider (1) the extent to which an institution knowingly provides financial services to Hamas, or to an agent of Hamas; and (2) the extent to which an institution, transaction, or type of account is used to facilitate or promote payments for certain acts of terrorism against U.S. and Israeli citizens.
Protect American Taxpayer Dollars from Illegal Immigration Act This bill prohibits expending federal funds for legal settlements to individuals who violated certain laws relating to the proper time and place to enter the United States, if the settlement pertains to claims based on the lawful detention of such an individual as part of a family unit after the individual's entry into the United States at the southern border after January 20, 2017.
Biking on Long-Distance Trails Act This bill establishes requirements related to long-distance bike trails. The Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture shall identify not fewer than 10 long-distance bike trails; identify not fewer than 10 areas in which there is an opportunity to develop or complete long-distance bike trails; and coordinate with stakeholders on the feasibility of, and identifying any resources necessary for, completing the development of such trails.
Section 401 Certification Act The bill provides statutory authority for the rule published on July 13, 2020, by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) entitled Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule . Under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, an applicant for a federal license or permit to conduct an activity that may result in any discharge into navigable waters must also obtain a certification—or waiver of such certification—from a relevant state, intrastate agency, or Indian tribe that the proposed activity will not violate certain water quality requirements of the state or Indian tribe. The rule revised existing regulations, including by limiting the scope of the certification review process as well as the time frame for a state, interstate agency, or Indian tribe to issue a certification.
Strategic Production Response Act or the SPR Act This bill limits the drawdown of petroleum in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve until the Department of Interior issues a plan or updates a previously issued plan to increase the production of oil and gas on federal land. The bill defines federal land to (1) include Outer Continental Shelf land; and (2) exclude land otherwise not available for oil and gas development within the National Park System, the National Wildlife Refuge System, the National Wilderness Preservation System, a National Marine Sanctuary, or Indian land.
Protecting Working Families from Federal Overreach Act This bill permits states and tribal entities to use unexpended COVID-19 relief funds to pay, on behalf of employers, fines for violations of the emergency temporary standard issued by the Department of Labor on November 5, 2021, titled COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing; Emergency Temporary Standard.
Tribal Adoption Parity Act This bill allows Indian tribal governments to determine whether a child has special needs for the purposes of the adoption tax credit.
