Sen. Jon Tester

Supply Chain Disruptions Relief Act This bill modifies the treatment of liquidations of new motor vehicle inventory as qualified LIFO (last in first out accounting method) inventory. It allows new motor vehicle dealers to elect to wait until the end of 2025 to replace their inventory for purposes of determining income attributable to the sale of such inventory during 2020 and 2021.

State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act This bill allows states, tribes, territories, and localities to use certain COVID-19 relief funds for new categories of spending, including for natural disasters and infrastructure projects. It also makes changes to expenditure deadlines and other aspects of this funding. Specifically, recipients may use funds for emergency relief from natural disasters and associated negative economic impacts of natural disasters. In addition, recipients may use a portion of their COVID-19 relief funds for designated infrastructure projects, such as nationally significant freight and highway projects. Furthermore, the bill allows recipients to expend COVID-19 relief funds on these types of infrastructure projects until September 30, 2026. Under current law, recipients must expend the funds by December 31, 2024. Other changes in the bill include (1) modifying eligibility and allocation requirements for funding set aside for counties and Indian tribes that are near public lands, (2) allowing Indian tribes an additional year to expend their COVID-19 relief funds, and (3) establishing a process for government entities to decline COVID-19 relief funds and requiring any declined funds to be used to reduce the federal deficit.

Maddy summaryThe Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2021 makes several key changes to improve veterans' benefits processing. It creates an internship program for law students at the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Section 101) and establishes a pilot honors program to recruit legal professionals (Section 102). The bill requires the VA to publish disability benefit forms (Section 201) and mandates that contractors communicate with veterans' power of attorney representatives (Section 203). It also allows veterans to consent to electronic notifications of decisions (Section 302) and facilitates contractor access to tax information for claims processing (Section 303). These provisions directly affect veterans seeking benefits, VA staff, and contractors working with the VA.

Network Equipment Transparency Act or the NET Act This bill requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to determine (subject to available data) whether the lack of network equipment significantly impacted the deployment of broadband and other advanced telecommunications capability. The FCC must include this determination in its biennial report on the state of the communications marketplace.

Continuity for Operators with Necessary Training Required for ATC Contract Towers Act of 2021 or the CONTRACT Act of 2021 This bill exempts certain air traffic controllers from a required reduction in their retirement annuity payment on account of earnings from certain work performed while entitled to such annuity. Under current law, retired Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers receive an annuity payment during the period between the mandatory retirement age of 56 and the Social Security minimum age of 62. Such annuity payment is required to be reduced by a certain percentage of any excess earnings during this period. The bill exempts from such reduction in annuity payments an air traffic controller who participates in the Air Traffic Control Contract Program (a public-private partnership for air traffic control services) following mandatory retirement.

Pharmacy Benefit Manager Transparency Act of 2022 This bill generally prohibits pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) from engaging in certain practices when managing the prescription drug benefits under a health insurance plan, including charging the plan a different amount than the PBM reimburses the pharmacy. The bill also prohibits PBMs from arbitrarily, unfairly, or deceptively (1) clawing back reimbursement payments, or (2) increasing fees or lowering reimbursements to pharmacies to offset changes to federally funded health plans. PBMs are not subject to these prohibitions if they (1) pass along 100% of any price concession or discount to the health plan, and (2) disclose specified costs, prices, reimbursements, fees, markups, discounts, and aggregate payments received with respect to their PBM services. Further, PBMs must report annually to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) certain information about payments received from health plans and fees charged to pharmacies. The FTC and state attorneys general are authorized to enforce the provisions of the bill.

Senator Johnny Isakson VA Regional Office Act of 2022 This act designates the Department of Veterans Affairs Atlanta Regional Office in Georgia as the Senator Johnny Isakson Department of Veterans Affairs Atlanta Regional Office or the Isakson VA Atlanta Regional Office.

Local Assistance Fairness Act This bill expands eligibility for the Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund to revenue-sharing consolidated governments. (The Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund is a general revenue enhancement program that provides additional assistance to eligible counties and tribal governments for any governmental purpose except lobbying.)

Tribal Trust Land Homeownership Act of 2021 This bill sets forth requirements for the processing of a proposed residential leasehold mortgage, business leasehold mortgage, land mortgage, or right-of-way document by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The bureau must notify lenders upon receipt of such documentation, perform a preliminary review of such documents not later than 10 days after receipt, and approve or disapprove of such documents within 20 or 30 days, depending on the type of application. Additionally, the bill sets forth requirements for the bureau regarding (1) response times for the completion of certified title status reports, (2) notification of delays in processing, and (3) the form of notices and delivery of certain reports. The bill also provides relevant federal agencies and Indian tribes with read-only access to the Trust Asset and Accounting Management System maintained by the bureau. The Government Accountability Office must report on digitizing documents for the purpose of streamlining and expediting the completion of mortgage packages for residential mortgages on Indian land. Finally, the bill establishes within the bureau's Division of Real Estate Services the position of Realty Ombudsman.

American Indian and Alaska Native Veterans Mental Health Act This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide mental health and suicide prevention outreach to American Indian and Alaska Native veterans. Specifically, the bill requires that each VA medical center have a full-time minority veteran coordinator. The coordinator must receive training in the delivery of culturally appropriate mental health and suicide prevention services to American Indian and Alaska Native veterans. Further, the suicide prevention coordinator and minority veteran coordinator of each VA medical center must develop and disseminate a written plan for conducting mental health and suicide prevention outreach to all tribes and urban Indian health organizations within the area of the medical center.