Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act of 2021 This bill establishes an interagency Environmental Justice Mapping Committee that must create a tool to identify environmental justice communities. Environmental justice communities are communities with significant representation of communities of color, low-income communities, or tribal and indigenous communities that experience, or are at risk of experiencing, higher or more adverse human health or environmental effects, as compared to other communities. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must establish an environmental justice data repository to maintain the data collected by the committee. The EPA must make the repository available to regional, state, local, and tribal governments.
Rep. Darren Soto
Sponsored bills
Comprehensive Breast Reconstruction Act of 2021 This bill provides for Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance coverage of certain tattooing services in connection with post-mastectomy breast reconstruction, and aligns the scope of Medicare and Medicaid coverage of such breast reconstruction with that of private health insurance. Specifically, the bill provides for coverage of reconstructive tattooing services that are performed by a health care practitioner or state-licensed tattoo artist pursuant to a physician prescription, and expands Medicare and Medicaid coverage to include all stages of reconstruction, surgery to produce a symmetrical appearance, and prostheses and physical complications of mastectomies (e.g., lymphedemas).
Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2021 This bill provides for coverage of marriage and family therapist services and mental health counselor services under Medicare. It also excludes such services from the skilled nursing facility prospective payment system, and authorizes marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors to develop discharge plans for post-hospital services.
Protecting Access to Post-COVID-19 Telehealth Act of 2021 This bill makes permanent several telehealth flexibilities that were initially authorized during the public health emergency relating to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019), particularly with respect to Medicare coverage of telehealth services. For example, the bill permanently allows federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to serve as the distant site (i.e., the location of the health care practitioner) for telehealth services under Medicare. Payment must be made in the same manner as for non-telehealth services, rather than in accordance with a separate methodology determined by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The bill also permanently allows beneficiaries to receive Medicare telehealth services at any site, regardless of type or location, and grants the CMS general authority to waive any other requirements during any emergency period.
Insular Area Medicaid Parity Act This bill eliminates Medicaid funding limitations for U.S. territories beginning in FY2021.
This concurrent resolution recognizes the difficult challenges Black veterans faced when returning home after serving in the Armed Forces, their heroic military sacrifices, and their patriotism in fighting for equal rights and for the dignity of a people and a nation. The concurrent resolution also recognizes the need for the Department of Veterans Affairs to continue to work to eliminate any health and benefit disparities for minority veterans.
This concurrent resolution calls for the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee to recommend that the Postmaster General issue a commemorative postage stamp honoring the Buffalo Soldiers.
This resolution recognizes Black History Month as an important time to reflect on the significant contributions of African Americans in the history of the United States, including in the Armed Forces.
This resolution expresses the sense that it is the federal government's duty to develop and implement a Roadmap to Freedom immigration reform plan by (1) promoting full citizenship, (2) protecting and strengthening a fair process centered on family unity, (3) promoting and preserving diversity by encouraging immigration from underrepresented countries, and (4) establishing a just and humane system to uphold immigration laws.
Banning Operations and Leases with the Illegitimate Venezuelan Authoritarian Regime Act or the BOLIVAR Act This bill prohibits an executive agency from entering into a contract for the procurement of goods or services with any person that has business operations with the Maduro regime in Venezuela. The bill lists exceptions, including where vital to U.S. national security or as necessary for purposes of providing humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and other urgent lifesaving measures, or to carry out noncombatant evacuations.