Sen. Cynthia M. Lummis

State, Tribal, and Local Species Transparency and Recovery Act This bill requires the Department of the Interior or the Department of Commerce, as appropriate, to provide to affected states all data that is used as the basis of a determination on whether a species is an endangered species or a threatened species before making a determination. The appropriate department must also use data submitted by a state, tribal, or local government in making such a determination.

FTC Integrity Act This bill prohibits votes on motions cast by commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission from having any effect after they leave the Commission if the voting has not closed before end of the commissioners' last day of service. The bill applies retroactively to any vote taken on or after January 1, 2021.

Cape and Antler Preservation Enhancement Act or the CAPE Act This bill allows the Department of the Interior to authorize the donation and distribution of capes, hides, horns, and antlers from wildlife management activities carried out on National Park System lands in order to reduce the size of a wildlife population. Interior may give priority consideration of the donation of capes, hides, horns, and antlers to qualified volunteers that participated in the wildlife management activity.

Federal Interior Land Media Act or the FILM Act This bill bars requiring a permit or assessing a fee for certain commercial or noncommercial photography or content creation on lands administered by the Departments of the Interior or Agriculture. The content creation must meet specified requirements, such as taking place in an area where the public is allowed and not intruding on the experience of others. The departments may not require advance notification for the content creation.

Maddy summaryThis Senate resolution (SRES 464) expresses symbolic support for National Adoption Month (November) and National Adoption Day (November 20), encouraging public awareness of children awaiting adoption. It does not create new laws or allocate funding but urges U.S. citizens to consider adoption and support efforts to provide safety and permanency for children in foster care. The resolution highlights challenges like the pandemic's impact on foster care systems while affirming that every child deserves a permanent family. It directly affects no specific group through policy changes - it is a non-binding statement of support endorsed by 30+ senators.

Section 401 Certification Act The bill provides statutory authority for the rule published on July 13, 2020, by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) entitled Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule . Under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, an applicant for a federal license or permit to conduct an activity that may result in any discharge into navigable waters must also obtain a certification—or waiver of such certification—from a relevant state, intrastate agency, or Indian tribe that the proposed activity will not violate certain water quality requirements of the state or Indian tribe. The rule revised existing regulations, including by limiting the scope of the certification review process as well as the time frame for a state, interstate agency, or Indian tribe to issue a certification.

This bill excludes certain persons from being considered a broker for tax reporting purposes. Under current law, the transfer of digital assets from a broker to a nonbroker requires the broker to file a return beginning on January 1, 2024. The bill provides that a broker does not include any person solely engaged in the business of (1) validating distributed ledger transactions, (2) selling hardware or software for which the sole function is to permit access to digital assets on a distributed ledger, or (3) developing digital assets or protocols for use by other persons who are not customers.

Closing the Warrantless Digital Car Search Loophole Act of 2021 This bill generally prohibits investigative and law enforcement officers from accessing vehicle data (onboard and telematics data in a noncommercial vehicle, such as navigation data and data captured by onboard sensors or cameras) unless pursuant to a warrant. Vehicle data acquired in violation of this bill is inadmissible as evidence in any trial, hearing, or other legal proceeding.

Surpassing Temporary Obstructions at Ports and Guaranteeing Resources to Increase the Nation's Commercial Health Act or the STOP the GRINCH Act This bill temporarily waives various requirements and makes other changes to address congestion at U.S. ports. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) must waive the hours of service limits (i.e., the number of hours a driver may operate a truck or motor carrier in a set period of time) and minimum age requirements that apply to commercial driver's licenses for individuals transporting cargo directly to or from a U.S. port. Additionally, the Coast Guard may temporarily allow foreign-built, -owned, and -crewed vessels to transport cargo between U.S. ports and engage in certain ship-to-ship transfers of cargo. (Current coastwise law, commonly known as the Jones Act, generally requires that vessels transporting cargo domestically be U.S.-built, -owned, and -crewed.) The FMCSA and the Coast Guard must also prioritize the completion of security screenings and credentialing of maritime workers. The Department of Defense must (1) inventory its intermodal equipment (e.g., trailers and chassis used to transport shipping containers) to identify equipment available for loan to trucking companies to relieve congestion at U.S. ports, and (2) establish a process to allow trucking companies to request the loan of such equipment. The bill also requires the identification and designation of federal land located near U.S. ports for use as overflow areas for empty cargo containers.

Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act of 2021 This bill requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to take various actions to address transparency in pricing and contract terms in the cattle industry. Among these requirements, USDA must (1) establish regional minimum percentages of cattle that meat packers must procure through negotiated purchases or negotiated grid purchases (i.e., transactions where the price is known and negotiated at the time of the transaction), and (2) maintain a publicly available catalog of contracts offered by meat packers to livestock producers for the purchase of fed cattle.