H.J.Res. 24, enacted May 9, 2025, disapproves a Department of Energy (DOE) rule establishing energy efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and freezers. This resolution, passed under the Congressional Review Act, blocks the rule (published December 23, 2024) from taking effect, meaning the DOE’s proposed standards will have no legal force. The action directly affects commercial food equipment manufacturers and businesses using such cooling systems by preventing the implementation of new energy conservation requirements.
This resolution blocks a Department of Energy rule that would have set new energy efficiency standards for gas-fired instant water heaters. It prevents the rule from taking effect, meaning appliance manufacturers would not have to meet the proposed efficiency requirements. The rule, submitted in December 2024, directly affected manufacturers of these water heaters and consumers purchasing them. Congress approved this disapproval through a joint resolution passed on May 9, 2025.
Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 This act provides continuing FY2025 appropriations for federal agencies and extends various expiring programs and authorities. DIVISION A--FULL-YEAR CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2025 Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2025 This division provides continuing FY2025 appropriations to federal agencies for the remainder of FY2025 and extends various expiring programs and authorities. It is known as a continuing resolution (CR) and prevents a government shutdown that would otherwise occur if the FY2025 appropriations bills have not been enacted when the existing CR expires on March 14, 2025. The CR funds most programs and activities at the FY2024 levels. It also includes several additional provisions that increase or decrease funding for various programs compared to FY2024 levels. For more information, see CRS Report R48517, Section-by-Section Summary of the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2025 (Division A of P.L. 119-4) DIVISION B--HEALTH This division extends several expiring programs and authorities related to public health, Medicare, and Medicaid. TITLE I--PUBLIC HEALTH EXTENDERS (Sec. 2101) This section extends through FY2025 funding for the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program, the Community Health Center Fund, and the National Health Service Corps. The Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program supports education and training of medical students in primary care residency programs in community-based ambulatory patient care centers. The Community Health Center Fund supports (1) grants for outpatient health care facilities that serve medically underserved populations; and (2) the National Health Service Corps, which provides scholarships and student loan repayment awards to health care providers who agree to work in areas with health care provider shortages. (Sec. 2102) This section extends funding through FY2025 for the Special Diabetes Program for Type I Diabetes and the Special Diabetes Program for Indians. (The Special Diabetes Program for Type I Diabetes supports research on the prevention and cure of Type I diabetes, and the Special Diabetes Program for Indians supports diabetes treatment and prevention for tribal populations.) (Sec. 2103) This section extends through FY2025 the authority that allows states and tribes to request the temporary reassignment of state and local health department personnel who are funded through certain federal programs to immediately address a public health emergency. It also extends through FY2025 provisions that prohibit the disclosure of information about Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) programs that could compromise national security (e.g., information regarding biomedical threats). The section extends through FY2025 provisions that authorize HHS to engage with developers of medical countermeasures, and that provide for related antitrust exemptions, for the purpose of furthering product development. Additionally, the section extends through FY2025 the National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters, the National Advisory Committee on Seniors and Disasters, and the National Advisory Committee on Individuals with Disabilities and Disasters. It also extends through FY2025 the authority of HHS to directly appoint candidates to positions within the National Disaster Medical System if HHS determines the number of personnel in the system is insufficient to address a public health emergency or potential public health emergency. (The National Disaster Medical System is a partnership between HHS, the Department of Defense, and other federal departments that responds to public health and other emergencies, including by deploying medical response teams.) TITLE II--MEDICARE (Sec. 2201) This section extends through FY2025 certain increased payment adjustments for low-volume hospitals under Medicare's inpatient prospective payment system. (Sec. 2202) This section extends through FY2025 the Medicare-Dependent Hospital Program, which provides additional payments to certain small rural hospitals that have a high proportion of Medicare patients. (Sec. 2203) This section extends through FY2025 certain increased payment adjustments for ground ambulance services in rural and other areas under Medicare. (Sec. 2204) This section extends through FY2025 funding for certain Medicare quality-measurement activities. (Sec. 2205) This section extends through FY2025 funding for state health insurance programs, area agencies on aging, aging and disability resource centers, and technical assistance related to outreach and enrollment with respect to Medicare and other programs. (Sec. 2206) This section extends through FY2025 certain minimum adjustments to the work geographic index with respect to payments for physician services under Medicare. (Sec. 2207) This section extends through FY2025 certain telehealth flexibilities under Medicare. Specifically, the section (1) removes geographic restrictions on originating sites (i.e., the location of the beneficiary); (2) allows the home of the beneficiary to serve as the originating site for all services; (3) allows audiologists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists to furnish telehealth services; (4) allows federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to serve as the distant site (i.e., the location of the health care practitioner); (5) delays implementation of certain in-person evaluation requirements for mental health telehealth services; (6) expands coverage to include audio-only services for evaluation and management and behavioral health services; and (7) allows, for purposes of hospice care recertification under Medicare, physicians and nurse practitioners to fulfill the requirement of a face-to-face encounter with the hospice patient via telehealth. (Sec. 2208) This section extends through FY2025 the Acute Hospital Care at Home Program under Medicare. (The program allows hospitals to treat certain patients from emergency departments or inpatient hospital beds at home.) (Sec. 2209) This section extends through FY2025 coverage under the Medicare prescription drug benefit of prescription oral antiviral drugs that were authorized in response to the COVID-19 public health emergency. (Sec. 2210) This section increases funding for the Medicare Improvement Fund beginning in FY2026. (Sec. 2211) This section extends by two months the sequestration that applies to Medicare payments in FY2032. TITLE III--HUMAN SERVICES (Sec. 2301) This section extends through FY2025 the Sexual Risk Avoidance Education Program. This program supports projects to implement sexual risk avoidance education that teaches participants to voluntarily refrain from nonmarital sexual activities. (Sec. 2302) This section extends through FY2025 the Personal Responsibility Education Program. This program provides grants to states to (1) educate young people about abstinence and contraception to prevent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, and (2) support pregnant youth and mothers under the age of 21. (Sec. 2303) This section extends through FY2025 the Family-to-Family Health Information Centers Program, which is administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration. The program awards grants to family-run organizations to support the provision of information and peer support to families of children with special health care needs. TITLE IV--MEDICAID This section delays reductions to Medicaid disproportionate-share hospital (DSH) allotments until FY2026. (DSHs are hospitals that receive additional payments under Medicaid for treating a large share of low-income patients.) DIVISION C--OTHER MATTERS This division extends several expiring programs and authorities through FY2025. (Sec. 3101) This section extends authorities related to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s whistleblower program. (Sec. 3102) This section extends the authority of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice to take certain actions to mitigate a credible threat to certain facilities or assets from an unmanned aircraft system (UAS). These include certain facilities that are located in the United States and identified as high-risk and a potential target for unlawful UAS activity. (Sec. 3103) This section extends the special assessment on nonindigent persons or entities convicted of certain offenses involving sexual abuse or human trafficking. The assessment funds programs for human trafficking survivors. (Sec. 3104) This section extends the authority for DHS’s National Cybersecurity Protection System and related reporting requirements. The system authorizes multiple activities by DHS to help defend federal agencies from cyberthreats. (Sec. 3105) This section extends, the temporary scheduling order issued by the Drug Enforcement Administration to place fentanyl-related substances in schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. (Sec. 3106) This section exempts the budgetary effects of Divisions B and C of this act from (1) the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) Act of 2010, (2) the Senate PAYGO rule, and (3) certain budget scorekeeping rules.
Laken Riley Act This act requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to detain certain non-U.S. nationals ( aliens under federal law) who have been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, shoplifting, assault of a law enforcement officer, or any crime that results in death or serious bodily injury to another person. The act also authorizes states to sue the federal government for decisions or alleged failures related to immigration enforcement. Under this act, DHS must detain an individual who (1) is unlawfully present in the United States or did not possess the necessary documents when applying for admission; and (2) has been charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or admits to having committed acts that constitute the essential elements of the above crimes. The act also authorizes state governments to sue for injunctive relief over certain immigration-related decisions or alleged failures by the federal government if the decision or failure caused the state or its residents harm, including financial harm of more than $100. Specifically, the state government may sue the federal government over a decision to release a non-U.S. national from custody; failure to fulfill requirements relating to inspecting individuals seeking admission into the United States, including requirements related to asylum interviews; failure to fulfill a requirement to stop issuing visas to nationals of a country that unreasonably denies or delays acceptance of nationals of that country; violation of limitations on immigration parole, such as the requirement that parole be granted only on a case-by-case basis; or failure to detain an individual who has been ordered removed from the United States.
HR 82, the Social Security Fairness Act of 2023, repeals two provisions that reduce Social Security benefits for certain government workers. It eliminates the Government Pension Offset (GPO), which cuts spousal or survivor benefits for people with pensions from jobs not covered by Social Security (like federal or state government roles), and the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP), which lowers retirement benefits for those with similar pensions. The law takes effect for benefits paid after December 2023, requiring the Social Security Administration to adjust benefit calculations to remove these reductions. This change directly affects public-sector employees who previously had their Social Security benefits reduced due to their government pensions.
This bill extends funding for the Gabriella Miller Kids First Pediatric Research Program at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through 2028, replacing the previous 2014-2023 authorization. It directs NIH to administer pediatric research funds through its Division of Program Coordination (instead of the "Common Fund") and requires NIH to coordinate pediatric cancer and disease research while prioritizing projects that avoid duplicating existing NIH work. The bill also mandates a report to Congress within five years detailing funded pediatric research projects and their advancements. This directly affects NIH's pediatric research funding structure and oversight, focusing on cancer and other childhood diseases.
The Women’s Suffrage National Monument Location Act (HR 1318) authorizes the placement of a monument on the National Mall to honor the women’s suffrage movement and the 19th Amendment. The bill specifies that the monument must be located within a designated area on the National Mall known as the "Reserve," bypassing standard requirements for monument locations under existing law. This legislation sets the physical site for a monument already authorized by previous law (Public Law 116-217), without creating new policy or altering commemorative regulations beyond the location.
This bill designates the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma (located at 440 South Houston Avenue) as the "James Mountain Inhofe VA Medical Center." It changes the facility's official name for all federal references, including laws, documents, and maps, to honor former U.S. Senator James Mountain Inhofe. The bill does not alter healthcare services, funding, or eligibility for veterans.
This bill amends Title 36 of the U.S. Code to officially designate the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) as the national bird, replacing the current symbolic reference. It adds a specific provision stating "The bald eagle is the national bird" to the code, with no changes to existing government policies or programs. The bill includes findings on the bald eagle's historical significance, cultural importance to Indigenous communities, and widespread use in U.S. symbols, but explicitly states it does not alter any government actions or decisions (per Section 1(d)). As a purely symbolic measure, it affects no specific group or policy and serves only to formalize an existing national symbol.
This bill reauthorizes key conservation programs under the America's Conservation Enhancement Act through 2030, extending provisions that were set to expire in 2025. It specifically extends the Black Vulture Livestock Protection Program, allowing public entities or Farm Bureau organizations in each state to obtain permits to manage black vulture populations threatening livestock. The bill also extends funding for Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts, Chronic Wasting Disease Task Force activities, and National Fish Habitat Conservation Partnerships through 2030. It modifies the National Fish Habitat Board to include additional tribal representatives and clarifies reporting requirements for conservation programs. The bill does not create new programs but extends existing conservation efforts and their funding mechanisms.
The Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act (S. 1351) directs the Department of Health and Human Services to contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to study child abuse in youth residential programs. The study, to be completed within three years and updated every two years for a decade, will examine the prevalence of abuse, funding sources, regulations, and barriers to community-based alternatives for youth. It will identify risk assessment tools, recommend improved oversight and training for staff, and provide best practices for care including reducing the use of seclusion and restraints. The bill directly affects youth in residential programs, child welfare systems, and the agencies that oversee them, with recommendations aimed at improving safety and care. The study will involve consultation with child advocates, health professionals, individuals with lived experience, and government agencies to ensure comprehensive recommendations.
The Chance to Compete Act of 2024 reforms federal civil service hiring by replacing degree-based requirements with skills- and competency-based assessments for positions in the competitive service. It requires federal agencies to use "technical assessments" - position-specific tools to evaluate job-related skills, abilities, and knowledge - instead of relying primarily on educational credentials. During a 3-year transition period, agencies must prioritize technical assessments, with limited waivers available for specific job series where such assessments are deemed impractical. The bill also mandates detailed reporting on implementation progress and hiring data, including demographic breakdowns, to track how the new system affects applicants and hiring outcomes.
