Rep. Barbara Lee

Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act of 2022 This bill directs the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to promulgate a standard that requires employers to implement certain measures for protecting workers from heat stress and related illnesses or injuries. Heat stress refers to the load of heat that a person experiences due to sources of heat or heat retention (including metabolic heat, environmental factors, and clothing or personal protective equipment) or the presence of heat in a work setting. Further, if an employer cannot reduce exposure to heat stress below hazardous levels through engineering controls (e.g., heat shields and insulation) or personal protective equipment (e.g., heat reflective clothing), the employer must implement a program that mitigates such exposure through access to appropriate hydration and cool-down spaces, acclimatization policies, and periodic paid rest breaks. Additionally, the bill establishes requirements concerning judicial review, implementation, enforcement, recordkeeping, and whistle-blower protections related to the standard. The bill also requires the Department of Labor to include questions about heat-related illness and injury in the National Agricultural Workers Survey (an employment-based, random-sample survey of U.S. crop workers that collects demographic, employment, and health information).

This concurrent resolution expresses opposition to the application of criminal laws to pregnancy outcomes and affirms that people deserve access to high-quality health care without fear of reprisal or punishment.

This concurrent resolution expresses the sense of Congress for ensuring the speediest end of the COVID-19 pandemic the United States and European governments should unite to enact a World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver, require technology transfer, and otherwise facilitate access in low- and middle-income countries to high-quality COVID-19 mRNA vaccines; and vital U.S. partners, with shared values who also prioritize global cooperation and saving lives and livelihoods worldwide, should unite to remove all obstacles to global access to COVID-19 vaccines, diagnostics, treatments, oxygen, and other medical products to advance the common goal of quickly ending the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution states that the U.S. government has an obligation to the American people, whose taxpayer funds helped to develop lifesaving COVID-19 vaccines, to ensure that doses are ultimately delivered to those most in need around the world so as to ensure the global COVID-19 vaccination necessary to end the pandemic.

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment related to the fundamental right to vote. Specifically, it grants every U.S. citizen of legal voting age the fundamental right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides.

Maddy summaryHJRES 53 proposes a constitutional amendment to ban slavery and involuntary servitude as a criminal punishment. Currently, the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution permits such punishments for crimes, creating a legal loophole. If ratified by 3/4 of state legislatures, this amendment would eliminate that exception nationwide, making it unconstitutional to impose forced labor or slavery as part of criminal sentences. The change would directly affect all states' criminal justice systems, particularly prison labor practices, by prohibiting these punishments for any offense.

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment providing that the rights protected by the Constitution are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, shall have no rights under the Constitution and are subject to regulation. The amendment requires federal, state, and local government to (1) regulate, limit, or prohibit election contributions and expenditures, including a candidate's own contributions and expenditures; and (2) require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed. The judiciary is prohibited from construing the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment, and the amendment shall not be construed to abridge the freedom of the press.

This resolution expresses support for the designation of National Voting Rights Month, encourages people to uphold the right to vote, encourages Congress to pass certain voting rights legislation, encourages the development of strategies to educate students about voting, encourages the U.S. Postal Service to issue a special Representative John R. Lewis stamp during the month of September, and invites Congress to allocate funds for public service announcements regarding elections.

This resolution expresses the sense that the federal government should adopt a global health solidarity strategy to end medically avertable deaths and respond to the full burden of disease in poor countries; the federal government should use laws and diplomatic influence to stop ongoing economic harms to the global South; and it is the duty of the federal government to issue reparations, including for slavery and colonialism.

This resolution expresses support for implementing a Transgender Bill of Rights that guarantees certain rights for transgender and nonbinary people with respect to public services and accommodations, employment, housing, health care, and other specified areas.

This resolution reaffirms the goals of World Refugee Day and the commitment of the United States to promote the safety and well-being of refugees and asylum seekers.