Vaccine Administration Centralization to Coordinate and Improve National Execution Act or the VACCINE Act This bill establishes a grant program for states, tribal nations, and territories to set up or expand COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) vaccine registration systems. The system must be the jurisdiction's sole means of registering an individual for a vaccine. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) must set up a website and a call center to share information with the public about each registration system. HHS must also develop standards to allow for electronic information exchange among the systems. To carry out the program, HHS may use funds from the Public Health Emergency Fund. The authority for this program terminates at the end of the COVID-19 emergency period.
Communities Overregulating Networks Need Economic Competition Today Act or the CONNECT Act This bill prohibits a state or political subdivision thereof from providing or selling broadband internet access service. Such provision or sale may continue if there is no more than one other commercial provider of broadband internet access that provides competition in a particular area.
Broadband Competition and Efficient Deployment Act This bill excludes the deployment or modification of certain telecommunications service facility projects from specified review requirements. Specifically, the bill excludes from specified environmental and historic preservation review a project for the placement, construction, or modification of a telecommunications service facility in or on infrastructure that supports or houses a facility for communication by wire.
Deepwater Port Parity Act This bill authorizes the Maritime Administration (MARAD) to allow the construction of a deepwater port in federal waters off the state to which the port is to be directly connected by pipeline if the state developed an approved coastal zone management program and withdrew the program prior to January 1, 2012. Currently, a deepwater port may only be licensed by MARAD if the state developed, or is making reasonable progress toward developing, such a program. Alaska is the only state that withdrew its program before 2012. A deepwater port is any man-made structure other than a vessel that is located beyond state seaward boundaries and that is used or intended for use as a port or terminal for the transportation, storage, or further handling of oil or natural gas.
Cable Access for Broadband and Local Economic Leadership Act or the CABLE Leadership Act This bill establishes a 120-day deadline for a cable franchising authority to act on a complete request for a new franchise. Further, the bill deems such a request granted on the day after this deadline expires if the franchising authority has not granted or denied the request by that date, and it outlines when such a request shall be considered complete.
Illicit Arms Trafficking Security Enforcement Act This bill directs the Department of Homeland Security to establish a new unit—a Border Enforcement Security Task Force unit—to investigate transnational criminal organization arms smuggling across the international border between the United States and Mexico. The purposes of the new unit include, among other things, reducing arms smuggling from the United States to Mexico.
Green Buses for Every Community Act This bill requires at least 10% of funding made available in a fiscal year for the low or no emissions competitive grant program for buses and bus facilities to be distributed to projects serving predominantly low-income communities. The bill defines a low-income community as any population census tract if (1) the poverty rate for such tract is at least 20%; or (2) the tract is not located within a metropolitan area and the median family income for such tract does not exceed 80% of statewide median family income, or the tract is located within a metropolitan area and the median family income does not exceed the 80% or the metropolitan area median family income.
Online Consumer Protection Act of 2021 This bill requires commercial software operators and developers to provide consumers with a warning prior to making available for download software from specified countries that support international terrorism. Violations of this requirement are subject to enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission and intentional violations are subject to criminal penalties.
This bill requires the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review any purchase by a Chinese entity of a controlling interest in a U.S. company deemed critical to national security, critical infrastructure, or of cultural significance. The President may approve such a purchase only if, among other things, the purchase price was not significantly affected by the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic and the sale will not permit additional access to distribute propaganda or alter U.S. news and media consumption. The bill's provisions cease to have force or effect once the United States has substantially recovered from the economic impacts of the pandemic.
Helping Experts Accelerate Rare Treatments Act of 2021 This bill addresses rare diseases, including by requiring the Food and Drug Administration to ensure the inclusion of rare disease experts and staff members in various parts of the drug review process. The bill also requires certain reports to address issues related to rare diseases and drugs for treating such diseases (sometimes referred to as orphan drugs if the rarity of the disease makes it difficult for the drug to be profitable).
Commission on Domestic Terrorism Act of 2021 This bill establishes in the legislative branch the National Commission on Domestic Terrorism. The commission shall investigate relevant facts and circumstances relating to the federal government's failure to respond to and prevent acts of domestic terrorism in the past 20 years, including relating to the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021; identify, review, and evaluate the lessons learned from such acts regarding the structure, coordination, and management arrangements of the federal government, and, if appropriate, state and local governments and nongovernmental entities, relative to detecting, preventing, and responding to domestic terrorist attacks; and report to the President and Congress.
Help Extend Auditory Relief Act of 2021 or the HEAR Act of 2021 This bill provides for Medicare coverage of hearing aids and hearing rehabilitation services. Covered services include hearing aid assessments, fittings, and related instructional services.
