Increasing Investor Opportunities Act This bill allows a closed-end fund—a portfolio of pooled assets with a limited number of shares traded on an exchange—to increase their investments in private investment funds.
Sgt. Ketchum Rural Veterans Mental Health Act of 2021 This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), during FY2022, to establish and maintain three new centers of the Rural Access Network for Growth Enhancement (RANGE) Program in areas with interest from personnel and a need for additional mental health care for rural veterans. The RANGE Program serves veterans in rural areas who are experiencing mental illness. The bill requires the Government Accountability Office to conduct a study and report on whether the VA has sufficient resources to serve rural veterans who need mental health care that is more intensive than traditional outpatient therapy.
This resolution urges the President to facilitate private medical supply donations and to deliver urgently needed medical supplies, including oxygen generator plants, to India and countries neighboring India that are facing the spread of COVID-19.
This resolution calls on the Russian government to immediately release Trevor Reed, a U.S. citizen, and all other political prisoners. It also condemns the Russian government's use of politically motivated imprisonment.
Capitol Police Retirement Reform Act of 2021 This bill revises the treatment of overtime pay for members of the U.S. Capitol Police for purposes of calculating certain annuity benefits, including benefits received upon a member's retirement. Specifically, the bill categorizes overtime pay as basic pay, subject to annual statutory maximums. (Basic pay is used to calculate a member's average earnings amount upon which benefits are based.) Overtime pay may only be treated as basic pay for purposes of a retirement annuity calculation under the Federal Employees Retirement System if the retiring member has completed at least 15 years of service. Further, such overtime pay may only be treated as basic pay if earned on or after the date of enactment, and only to the extent of the percentage allowable based upon the amount of service as set forth in this bill. However, 100% of all amounts received as overtime pay by members of the Capitol Police earned on or after the date of enactment are treated as basic pay for purposes of computing a disability annuity; and a survivor annuity, if based on the service of an individual who dies before separating from service.
Enabling More Penetrating Oversight When Examining Research for NIH Act of 2021 or the EMPOWER NIH Act of 2021 This bill requires annual, unannounced, in-person inspections of all nonfederal entities that receive funding, including through subawards, from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to assess whether the funded research is consistent with the research proposal and otherwise meets record-keeping requirements and NIH standards. The inspections are required even when an entity is located in a foreign country with a government that interferes with the inspection; entities that fail an inspection must return the full amount of NIH funding and lose eligibility for future NIH funding for at least five years. The bill is effective on October 1, 2023, and applies to NIH funding awarded both before and after that date.
Restore the Rights of Property Owners under the Eviction Moratorium Issued by the CDC Act of 2021 This bill nullifies beginning on July 1, 2021, the emergency order (and any extensions of the order) issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on September 4, 2020, that restricted residential evictions during the COVID-19 emergency. It also prohibits the order from being reissued unless specifically authorized by law.
Essential Caregivers Act of 2021 This bill requires skilled nursing facilities, nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities for the intellectually disabled, and nearby inpatient rehabilitation facilities to establish an essential caregivers program during a public health emergency. Under the program, facilities must allow each resident to select up to two essential caregivers to provide daily living assistance, emotional support, or companionship during the emergency. Facilities must afford such caregivers 12 hours of access to residents each day (or unlimited access for end-of-life care), and caregivers must agree to follow facility protocols for staff safety. Facilities may deny access to caregivers who violate protocols, subject to certain notification requirements; the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services must establish an appeals process relating to such decisions and may take specified enforcement actions against facilities that violate the bill's requirements.
Low-Income Water Customer Assistance Programs Act of 2021 This bill directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish grant programs to assist low-income households in maintaining access to drinking water and wastewater services. Specifically, the EPA must establish a program to assist such households with paying drinking water bills. States and community water systems may apply for grants. In addition, the EPA must establish a program to assist such households with paying wastewater utility bills. States may apply for grants for small community-serving wastewater facilities. Certain municipalities may apply for grants for (1) treatment works for municipal waste, or (2) municipal separate storm sewer systems.
Trade Adjustment Assistance Extension Act of 2021 This bill extends through July 23, 2021, the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program, which provides aid to workers who lose their jobs or whose hours of work and wages are reduced as a result of increased imports.
Stop Inflationary Spending Act This bill requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to provide inflation projections for bills that Congress considers using the budget reconciliation process. Specifically, the CBO must estimate the impact on inflation that will occur from implementing each reconciliation bill, including the impact on inflation that will occur during each of the first five years after the enactment of the bill.
Expanding Opportunity Zones Act of 2021 This bill revises provisions relating to tax-exempt opportunity zones to increase the number of low-income communities that may be designated as qualified opportunity zones, and to extend the periods of election and deferral of gain invested with respect to such zones.
