Rep. Sharice Davids

Maddy summaryThis bill ensures Medicare coverage for new medical devices designated as "breakthrough devices" during a 4-year period after FDA approval. To qualify, devices must meet specific criteria, including FDA priority review, clinical data from Medicare beneficiaries, and a safety review showing benefits outweigh risks. Medicare must finalize coverage decisions within 6 months of manufacturer applications and before the 4-year period ends. The law appropriates $10 million annually (2025-2030) for Medicare to administer this process.

Maddy summaryHR 5401, the Pay Our Troops Act of 2026, ensures military personnel, civilian Defense workers, and supporting contractors receive pay during government funding gaps in fiscal year 2026. It appropriates emergency funds for active-duty service members, reserves, and their supporting personnel (including Coast Guard staff under DHS) if regular appropriations aren't enacted by the end of the fiscal year. The bill provides necessary pay and allowances during any period when full-year funding is unavailable, covering both active service and support roles. Funding expires when regular appropriations are passed, a funding resolution is enacted, or January 1, 2027, whichever comes first. This is a procedural measure to prevent pay delays for military and support staff during fiscal year 2026 funding lapses.

Maddy summaryHR 5357, the College Students Continuation of Mental Health Care Act of 2025, allows college mental health providers to offer telehealth services to enrolled or recently attending students across state lines. It directly affects college mental health providers (employed by institutions of higher education) and students registered at or who attended the college within the past three months. Key provisions require providers to verify student identity, obtain consent for telehealth, maintain backup communication methods, and respect state prohibitions on specific services while operating under their home state’s licensing rules. The bill also clarifies that malpractice insurance covers these telehealth services as if provided in the provider’s home state and permits states to form compacts to facilitate cross-state telehealth.

Maddy summaryThis bill establishes advance funding for key tribal programs starting in fiscal year 2026. It requires the Department of the Interior and Indian Health Service to include in each year's budget request sufficient funding for the *next* fiscal year's operations, specifically for accounts like "Operation of Indian Programs," "Contract Support Costs," and "Indian Health Services." The bill mandates annual reports by July 31 each year, assessing resource sufficiency and including workload estimates for the following fiscal year. These changes directly affect tribal programs administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, and Indian Health Service, ensuring funding for future needs is planned and requested in advance.

Maddy summaryHR 5309, the Congressional Tribute to Constance Baker Motley Act of 2025, authorizes a posthumous Congressional gold medal for Constance Baker Motley, a pioneering civil rights attorney and judge. The bill directs the Treasury Secretary to strike the medal with her image and name, to be presented to her son, Joel W. Motley III, and her niece, Constance Royster. It also permits the sale of bronze duplicates at cost to cover expenses, with proceeds going to the U.S. Mint fund. This is a commemorative measure with no substantive policy changes, honoring Motley’s legacy as the first African-American woman appointed to a federal judgeship.

Maddy summaryThe FLAME Act requires the U.S. Fire Administration to provide Congress 60 days' notice before canceling 25% or more of the National Academy’s annual courses, including details on affected departments and justifications. It mandates notifying enrolled firefighters and fire chiefs at least 45 days before cancellations, with reimbursement for fire departments’ travel and staffing costs (like overtime) unless cancellations are due to "good cause" (e.g., facility closures or national emergencies). The bill also directs a GAO study by March 2026 to analyze how large-scale cancellations impact fire department readiness, interoperability, and the Academy’s role in training. This directly affects fire departments nationwide that send personnel to the Academy for in-person or virtual training.

Maddy summaryThe RESULTS Act (HR 5269) changes how Medicare calculates payment rates for clinical diagnostic laboratory tests. It requires Medicare to collect data on private payor rates for widely available non-Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory Tests (non-ADLTs) from a qualifying independent claims data entity (a national nonprofit organization meeting specific criteria) rather than relying on data reported directly by laboratories. For tests where data is unavailable, the bill establishes default payment rates based on previous years' rates adjusted for inflation. The law also requires Medicare to publicly explain payment rates with supporting data, affecting Medicare beneficiaries, clinical laboratories, and private payors that provide services covered by Medicare.

Maddy summaryThe Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act (HR 5283) increases U.S. immigration visas for healthcare workers by recapturing unused employment-based visas from 1992-2024. It directly affects foreign nurses and physicians who filed petitions before 2027 (three years after enactment), reserving 25,000 visas for nurses and 15,000 for physicians. Key provisions include exempting these visas from country caps, requiring labor attestations to ensure no U.S. worker displacement, and establishing fee-free premium processing for applications. The bill aims to address healthcare staffing shortages by making these visas immediately available to qualifying professionals and their families.

Maddy summaryThe TERRA Act enables Indian Tribes to integrate funding from multiple federal programs into comprehensive plans addressing environmental threats and natural disasters, including climate impacts like flooding, erosion, wildfires, and sea level rise. The bill streamlines administrative processes by requiring only a single annual report instead of multiple reports from individual programs and allows tribes to reallocate funds across different services as needed. It establishes a streamlined permitting process for environmental reviews and creates an expedited fee-to-trust process for land acquisitions to support community-driven relocation efforts. The Act aims to reduce bureaucratic barriers while empowering tribes to address environmental challenges through their own community-driven strategies within the federal trust responsibility framework.

Maddy summaryThe Mental Health in Aviation Act of 2025 requires the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to update regulations within two years to encourage pilots and air traffic controllers to seek mental health care and disclose conditions without fear of losing medical clearance. It mandates annual reviews to improve the medical clearance process for mental health conditions - such as approving additional safe medications, enhancing examiner training, and reducing backlogs - and allocates $13.74 million yearly (2026-2029) to hire more aviation medical examiners. The bill also directs the FAA to implement recommendations from a mental health rulemaking committee and fund a public campaign to reduce stigma around mental health care in aviation. These provisions aim to support aviation workers' well-being while streamlining safety-related medical evaluations.