Recreation Not Red-Tape Act This bill revises and sets forth provisions related to recreation areas and special recreation permits issued by the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) for individual or group use of federal recreational lands and waters. The bill makes permanent certain authorizations, including regarding such permits and the fees charged for them and for related administration, overhead, and indirect costs. Interior and USDA shall evaluate the special recreation permitting process and identify opportunities for eliminating duplicative processes, reducing costs, and decreasing processing times; establish categorical exclusions from environmental review requirements for special recreation permits if it would reduce processing times or costs without significantly affecting the human environment; authorize the issuance of temporary permits for new or additional recreational uses of federal lands and waters managed by the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management; allow online payment of certain federal passes and fees; develop initiatives to promote private-sector volunteer opportunities; and establish an interagency trail management plan. Permittees issued a special recreation permit may voluntarily and temporarily return one or more of their service days. The bill sets forth requirements for review by USDA of the renewal or adjustment of the allocations for the use of a special recreation permit. Interior and USDA may enter into agreements with states to allow the purchase of federal and state recreation passes in the same transaction. The bill establishes a National Recreation Area System.
American Broadband Act This bill addresses broadband and other communications services. The bill limits applicable state and local regulatory authority. Limitations include setting (and providing statutory authority for) deadlines for reviews and decisions related to personal wireless and other telecommunication service facilities, as well as cable franchises and services. Further, a state or locality may not provide broadband services in areas with more than one other commercial provider. The bill exempts certain telecommunications infrastructure projects from environmental and historic preservation reviews, including projects carried out after a declared disaster or emergency (e.g., a wildfire). The bill also establishes a rebuttable presumption that a request for a review of the effects of deploying wireless service on historically, culturally, or religiously significant tribal or Native Hawaiian land is complete if the tribe or Native Hawaiian organization receives certain forms. The bill enhances criminal penalties for willful or malicious destruction of a communication facility. Furthermore, the General Services Administration must establish a common fee schedule for deploying wireless facilities that affect federal property. Additionally, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration must award grants for expanding high-speed broadband access, facilitate through an interagency strike force timely reviews of telecommunications-related requests that affect federal property (e.g., a request for an easement or right-of-way), and report on certain requests concerning communications facilities on federal real property. The bill also requires collaboration among federal agencies that support broadband deployment.
Shawnee Wilderness Designation Act This bill designates approximately 289,000 acres of Forest Service land comprising the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois as the Shawnee Wilderness and as a component of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
This resolution honors the suppliers of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the work they are doing on the Artemis missions.
Essential Caregivers Act of 2021 This bill requires skilled nursing facilities, nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities for the intellectually disabled, and nearby inpatient rehabilitation facilities to establish an essential caregivers program during a public health emergency. Under the program, facilities must allow each resident to select up to two essential caregivers to provide daily living assistance, emotional support, or companionship during the emergency. Facilities must afford such caregivers 12 hours of access to residents each day (or unlimited access for end-of-life care), and caregivers must agree to follow facility protocols for staff safety. Facilities may deny access to caregivers who violate protocols, subject to certain notification requirements; the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services must establish an appeals process relating to such decisions and may take specified enforcement actions against facilities that violate the bill's requirements.
Removing Excessive Dollars to Uproot and Cut Expensive Government Waste Act or the REDUCE Government Waste Act This bill repeals the rules for peanuts under the nonrecourse marketing assistance loan program administered by the Department of Agriculture (USDA). Under a nonrecourse marketing assistance loan, a farmer pledges a commodity as collateral and may deliver the pledged collateral to USDA to repay the loan. The bill also prohibits federal funds from being used for the development of (1) a beerbot or other robot bartender; or (2) insect-based foods for human consumption, including cricket farming and taste-testing of insect-based foods.
Growing Climate Solutions Act of 2021 This bill authorizes the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a voluntary Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Certification Program to help reduce entry barriers into voluntary environmental credit markets for farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners. A voluntary environmental credit market is a market through which agriculture and forestry credits may be bought or sold. Entities eligible to participate in the program are (1) providers of technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, or private forest landowners in carrying out sustainable land use management practices that prevent, reduce, or mitigate greenhouse gas emissions, or sequester carbon; or (2) third-party verifiers that conduct the verification of the processes described in the protocols for voluntary environmental credit markets. Among other requirements, USDA must publish (1) a list of protocols and qualifications for eligible entities; (2) information describing how entities may self-certify under the program; (3) information describing how entities may obtain the expertise to meet the protocols and qualifications; and (4) instructions and suggestions to assist farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners in facilitating the development of agriculture or forestry credits and accessing voluntary environmental credit markets. USDA must also establish an advisory council to make recommendations regarding the list of protocols and qualifications, best practices, and voluntary environmental credit markets. The bill also rescinds certain funds provided in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and makes the funds available for the certification program.
Promotion and Expansion of Private Employee Ownership Act of 2021 This bill expands tax incentives and federal assistance for employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) that are sponsored by S corporations. The bill provides additional tax incentives for ESOPs by (1) extending to all domestic corporations, including S corporations, provisions allowing deferral of tax on gain from the sale of employer securities to an ESOP; and (2) allowing a tax deduction for 50% of the interest received by a bank on loans to S corporation-sponsored ESOPs for the purchase of employer securities. The Department of the Treasury must establish the S Corporation Employee Ownership Assistance Office to foster increased employee ownership of S corporations. The bill defines an ESOP business concern for purposes of the Small Business Act as a business concern that was eligible for a loan, preference, or other program under such Act before more than 49% of the business concern was acquired by an ESOP.
Uplifting First-Time Homebuyers Act of 2021 This bill increases from $10,000 to $20,000 the lifetime limitation on penalty-free distributions from tax-exempt retirement plans for first-time homebuyers.
Unnecessary Agency Regulations Reduction Act of 2021 This bill requires the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs to annually report a list of major rules (i.e., rules with a significant economic impact, cost to consumers, or adverse effects on competition) that it recommends should be consolidated or repealed because they are outdated, duplicative, or incur excessive compliance costs. Congress must review the list to determine, and recommend by joint resolution, any such rules to consolidate or repeal.
Non-Opioid Directive Act This bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to develop a non-opioid pain management directive. This is a form that an individual may use to inform health care providers of the individual's choice to avoid opioid medications for pain management. The bill also sets out requirements for the execution, use, and revocation of these forms. HHS must make the form available on its website, and health insurers must make it available to their plan enrollees. Insurers must also share an enrollee's choice about opioid treatment with health care providers during pre-authorization processes. The bill allows health care providers to override a patient's form in specified circumstances. It also extends liability protections for providers who reasonably and in good faith administer or prescribe an opioid to a patient with an executed form in place.
Ending Platform Monopolies Act This bill prohibits large online platforms, as designated by the Department of Justice or Federal Trade Commission, from offering certain products or services from another line of business that is owned or controlled by the platform. Specifically, such platforms are prohibited from owning or controlling another line of business that (1) uses the platform to sell products or services, (2) offers a product or service that the platform requires a business user to purchase or use as a condition for access to the platform, or (3) gives rise to a conflict of interest. Under the bill, a conflict of interest occurs when a platform operator's ownership or control of another line of business creates an incentive and the ability for the platform to provide an advantage to the platform's own products or services over those of a competitor on the platform, or exclude or disadvantage the products or services of a competitor on the platform. For example, under the bill, Amazon.com, Inc. may be prohibited from offering for sale on Amazon.com privately labeled products or services (e.g., Amazon Essentials, AmazonBasics, etc.) if designated as a large online platform. Finally, the bill prohibits a director, officer, employee, or agent of a platform from simultaneously serving in the same or a similar role with a formerly affiliated entity.
