Maddy summaryThe Invest to Protect Act of 2023 establishes a Department of Justice grant program to support local law enforcement agencies with fewer than 200 officers, including counties, municipalities, and tribal governments. It provides funding for de-escalation training, mental health resources, and recruitment/retention bonuses (like signing bonuses up to $10,000 or retention bonuses up to 20% of salary for officers with 5+ years of service). Grants may cover specific training on domestic violence, active shooter scenarios, and interactions with vulnerable populations (e.g., individuals with mental health needs or veterans), as well as mental health services for officers. The program includes accountability measures like mandatory audits, public disclosure of bonuses, and restrictions on duplicate funding, with $50 million allocated annually from existing DOJ funds for fiscal years 2024-2028.
Sponsored bills
Maddy summaryThis resolution (SRES 931) is a formal expression of Senate appreciation for Ambassador Michael Herzog's service as Israel's Ambassador to the United States from 2021 to 2024. It recognizes his diplomatic work, including fostering bipartisan U.S.-Israel relations and advancing the Abraham Accords, but does not create any new laws, policies, or obligations. As a ceremonial resolution, it directly affects no individuals or entities and has no legal or practical impact beyond the symbolic gesture. The Senate unanimously commends his efforts to strengthen U.S.-Israel ties during a challenging period.
Maddy summaryS 2645, the Preventing HEAT Illness and Deaths Act of 2024, establishes a National Integrated Heat Health Information System and an interagency committee to coordinate federal efforts addressing extreme heat health risks. The bill requires a strategic plan for improving heat health information sharing and planning, with priority for communities disproportionately affected by heat, including low-income areas, communities of color, Tribal nations, and vulnerable populations like outdoor workers and the elderly. It authorizes $10 million in fiscal year 2024 and increasing annual funding through 2028 for community resilience projects such as urban cooling centers, tree planting, and heat response planning. The legislation also mandates a study to identify gaps in heat information systems and recommends improvements in data collection about heat-related health impacts. This bill focuses on creating coordinated federal action to reduce heat-related health risks through improved information sharing, research, and community support.
Maddy summaryThe Improving Access to Workers’ Compensation for Injured Federal Workers Act (S 131) expands healthcare provider options for federal employees injured on the job by adding nurse practitioners and physician assistants to the list of eligible providers under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act. It amends the law to define "other eligible provider" as these professionals, within their state-authorized scope of practice, allowing injured workers to seek treatment from them without requiring a physician referral. The bill updates related sections of the law to replace "physician" with "physician or other eligible provider" in key provisions. Regulations implementing these changes must be finalized within six months of the bill’s enactment.
Maddy summaryThe Mapping Housing Discrimination Act (S 5534) provides federal grants to universities and minority-serving institutions to digitize and map historic housing discrimination records dating back to 1850. It directly affects educational institutions (via competitive grants) and local governments (through required partnerships for digitizing deeds), focusing on records showing racial covenants, discriminatory language in property agreements, or laws permitting housing bias against protected classes. Key mechanisms include standardized data collection for a national public database, mandatory metadata reporting, and funding for tools to identify discriminatory clauses in historical documents. The database will include spatial datasets of documented discrimination patterns, making all collected records freely available online. The bill does not alter current fair housing laws but creates a centralized resource for historical analysis.
Maddy summaryThe Plum Island Preservation Act (S 5099) permanently protects Plum Island, New York, as federal property for ecological conservation, historical preservation, and celebrating its cultural heritage. It requires the Administrator of General Services to develop a management plan within 180 days of enactment, after consulting with federal, state agencies, and stakeholders. The bill mandates annual reports to specific congressional committees detailing stakeholder input, process progress, and the finalized management plan, with ongoing updates until the plan is completed. This directly affects the management of Plum Island’s federal land and establishes a structured process for its long-term conservation.
Maddy summaryThe FDA Modernization Act 3.0 requires the FDA to issue a final rule within 180 days of enactment to implement regulations for nonclinical testing methods used in drug development. This affects pharmaceutical companies developing new drugs by establishing standardized requirements for preclinical safety testing before human trials. The bill also makes a technical amendment to renumber a subsection related to clinical trial diversity plans, clarifying existing provisions without changing their substance. The key change is the FDA's obligation to finalize these testing regulations, aiming to modernize the drug approval process.
Maddy summaryThe STOP Frontovers Act of 2024 requires the U.S. Department of Transportation to establish new vehicle safety standards aimed at preventing low-speed collisions, including frontover incidents (where a vehicle moving forward strikes someone or something in front) and backover incidents (where a vehicle moving in reverse strikes someone behind). The standards would mandate that vehicles detect people, children, bicycles, and other objects in a defined "perception zone" near the vehicle, with systems that alert drivers and automatically intervene to avoid collisions. Vehicle manufacturers would need to implement these safety features within five years of the rule's finalization, with potential phased implementation based on vehicle type and accident data. The bill also directs the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to update its crash data system to track frontover and backover incidents.
Maddy summaryThe Military Housing Oversight and Service Member Protection Act establishes new oversight requirements for privatized military housing, requiring regular independent inspections of housing units, formal contract guidelines, and contingency plans for contract rescission. It mandates financial transparency by requiring detailed financial statements from housing contractors and annual publication of these by the Department of Defense. The bill creates a registry for service members and families developing health conditions from unsafe housing and establishes a presumption of service connection for certain illnesses linked to military housing. This legislation directly affects service members, their families, and housing contractors, aiming to improve housing conditions and accountability through concrete policy changes.
Maddy summaryThis bill reauthorizes the PROTECT Our Children Act of 2008, extending and updating federal efforts to combat online child exploitation. It requires the National Strategy for Child Exploitation Prevention to be updated every four years (instead of every two) and mandates detailed analyses of trends, resource needs, and ICAC task force performance - including arrests, prosecutions, and victim identification. The bill increases annual funding for these programs from $70 million (2025) to $90 million (2027) and adds limited liability protections for specialized law enforcement teams investigating online child exploitation. These provisions directly affect federal, state, local, tribal, and military law enforcement agencies operating ICAC task forces and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.