Rep. Mikie Sherrill

Maddy summaryHRES 1497 is a House resolution introduced by Rep. Lawrence and colleagues on November 29, 2022, that formally recognizes the Women In Military Service For America Memorial (Military Women’s Memorial) for its 25 years of service. The resolution highlights the memorial’s role as America’s only national memorial dedicated to documenting the service of 3 million women in U.S. military history, including preserving 304,000 service records, maintaining a world-class archive of 8,000+ artifacts, and providing educational resources to millions. It emphasizes the memorial’s work as a research hub, oral history repository (1,400+ accounts), and gathering place for veterans and ceremonies. As a symbolic resolution, it has no legal effect but formally honors the memorial’s contributions to preserving and sharing women’s military history.

Maddy summaryThis bill changes the service requirement for military members to transfer unused Post-9/11 GI Bill educational benefits to family members. Currently, service members need 10 years of service to transfer benefits, but this bill would raise that requirement to 12 years. It directly affects active-duty service members with at least 12 years of service and their eligible family members who would gain access to transferred education benefits. The key change is the increased service threshold for eligibility under Section 3319(b) of Title 38, United States Code.

Lymphedema Treatment Act This bill provides for Medicare coverage of lymphedema compression treatment items. Specifically, the bill provides for coverage of standard and custom fitted gradient compression garments and other approved items that are prescribed by a physician or other specified health care professional to treat lymphedema.

This resolution condemns attacks and abuses perpetrated against Guatemalan society, including judges, anticorruption prosecutors, human rights defenders, and indigenous communities. It also affirms support for, and calls on the federal government to take actions to advance, the rule of law and democracy in Guatemala.

Maddy summaryHR 9302, the Resilient Transit Act of 2022, creates a new federal grant program to help state and local transit authorities fund projects that make public transportation systems more resilient to climate impacts like flooding, wildfires, and extreme weather. The grants cover specific activities such as installing flood barriers, upgrading drainage systems, adding backup power, monitoring temperature extremes, and assessing vulnerabilities to future climate events. The bill authorizes $300 million annually from 2023 through 2026 specifically for these resilience improvements, with 97.15% of funds distributed based on need and 2.85% for other purposes. This directly affects public transit agencies in communities facing climate-related infrastructure risks, providing targeted funding to protect critical transportation services.

Prevent All Soring Tactics Act of 2022 or the PAST Act of 2022 This bill addresses the practice of soring horses. The soring of horses includes various actions taken on horses' limbs to produce higher gaits that may cause pain, distress, inflammation, or lameness. Specifically, the bill expands soring regulation and enforcement at horse shows, exhibitions, sales, and auctions, including by establishing a new system for inspecting horses for soring. In addition, the bill increases penalties for violations.

Strengthening the Force and Fleet Through Enlisted Education Act or the Smart Act This bill removes the capacity limit for enlisted members of the Armed Forces to receive graduate-level instruction in a Naval Postgraduate School program. The Department of Defense must brief Congress on the effects of increasing enrollment of enlisted members at the school.

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment to prohibit the Constitution from being construed to forbid Congress or the states from (1) imposing reasonable viewpoint-neutral limitations on private campaign contributions or independent election expenditures; or (2) enacting systems of public campaign financing, including those designed to restrict the influence of private wealth by offsetting campaign spending or independent expenditures with increased public funding.

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 resolution expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the proposed constitutional amendment known as the Equal Rights Amendment has been duly proposed by Congress and ratified by the states and is therefore valid as the Twenty-Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. (The proposed amendment prohibits the United States or any state from denying or abridging equal rights under the law on account of sex.)