Energy Debt Relief for American Families Act This bill authorizes supplemental funding to states through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program to assist eligible households pay 100% of any utility bills they are unable to pay because of economic distress caused by the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic.
Emergency Water is a Human Right Act This bill creates a grant program, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services, to provide funds to states and Indian tribes to assist low-income households that pay a high proportion of household income for drinking water and wastewater services. Further, any entity receiving financial assistance under this grant program must ensure that no home energy service or public water system service is or remains disconnected or interrupted during the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) public health emergency.
Environmental Justice Mapping and Data Collection Act of 2021 This bill establishes an interagency Environmental Justice Mapping Committee that must create a tool to identify environmental justice communities. Environmental justice communities are communities with significant representation of communities of color, low-income communities, or tribal and indigenous communities that experience, or are at risk of experiencing, higher or more adverse human health or environmental effects, as compared to other communities. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must establish an environmental justice data repository to maintain the data collected by the committee. The EPA must make the repository available to regional, state, local, and tribal governments.
Mental Health Access Improvement Act of 2021 This bill provides for coverage of marriage and family therapist services and mental health counselor services under Medicare. It also excludes such services from the skilled nursing facility prospective payment system, and authorizes marriage and family therapists and mental health counselors to develop discharge plans for post-hospital services.
Women and Climate Change Act of 2021 This bill addresses climate change and its effects on women and girls. Specifically, the bill establishes the Federal Interagency Working Group on Women and Climate Change within the Department of State. The bill outlines the functions of the working group, including the coordination of agencies' policies and activities relating to combating the effects of climate change on women and improving the government's response to and strategy for climate change. In addition, the Office of Global Women's Issues of the State Department must submit a strategy to prevent and respond to the effects of climate change on women.
COVID-19 Mine Worker Protection Act This bill requires the Department of Labor to issue health and safety standards to protect coal miners from occupational exposure to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019). Labor shall provide for emergency standards within seven days of this bill's enactment, and such emergency standards shall be in force until permanent standards are promulgated. Labor shall also collect data to track and investigate cases of exposure to COVID-19 among coal miners.
Save Education Jobs Act This bill establishes through FY2030 the Education Jobs Fund, from which the Department of Education (ED) must award grants to state educational agencies and, through them, subgrants to local educational agencies (LEAs) to retain and create education jobs. ED must also provide grants to outlying areas and the Bureau of Indian Education. Specifically, LEAs must use subgrants for compensation and benefits to retain existing employees, rehire former employees, and hire new employees. Further, subgrants may be used for certain activities such as training and professional development, providing salary increases to cover extended days or school years to make up for lost instructional time due to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019), and developing teacher leadership roles in high-need schools. The bill prohibits the use of subgrants for certain activities, such as funding voucher programs, tax-credit scholarships, or education savings accounts.
Relaunching America's Workforce Act This bill establishes several grant programs to address employment, the workforce, and education access in response to the COVID-19 national emergency. The Department of Labor must provide grants in response to the COVID-19 national emergency to provide training and employment for dislocated, unemployed, and underemployed workers; support youth employment; establish workforce information systems improvements; provide reentry employment opportunities for justice-involved youth and young adults; and create or expand apprenticeship programs. Programs directed towards assisting Native Americans and migrant and seasonal farmworkers may be extended. The Department of Education must provide grants to expand the capacity of adult education providers to prioritize serving adults with low-literacy or numeracy levels negatively impacted by the COVID-19 national emergency, and to improve or expand career and technical education programs and programs of study to respond to state and local needs as a result of the COVID-19 national emergency.
Global Health, Empowerment and Rights Act This bill establishes that a foreign nongovernmental organization shall not be disqualified from receiving certain U.S. international development assistance solely because the organization provides medical services using non-U.S. government funds if the medical services are legal in both the United States and the country in which they are being provided. Such foreign organizations shall not be subject to requirements relating to their use of non-U.S. funds for advocacy or lobbying activities, other than those that apply to U.S. nongovernmental organizations. Current U.S. policy prohibits various foreign assistance from going to a foreign nongovernmental organization unless it agrees to not perform or actively promote abortions.
Securing Access to Lower Taxes by ensuring Deductibility Act or the SALT Deductibility Act This bill repeals the temporary restrictions in taxable years 2018 through 2025 on the deductibility of state and local taxes.
