Healthy Workplaces Act This bill allows tax credits for employer expenses for protecting employees from COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019). Specifically, the bill allows a credit against certain employment taxes equal to 50% of the sum of qualified employee protection expenses, workplace reconfiguration expenses, and education and training expenses paid by the employer during a calendar quarter. The bill also allows a 50% income tax credit for qualified workplace reconfiguration expenses incurred by an employer in 2020. The bill defines qualified workplace reconfiguration expenses to include amounts paid by an employer to evaluate, design, and reconfigure retail space and employee work areas for the primary purpose of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The evaluation, design, and reconfiguration must be completed before January 1, 2022.
Rural and Underserved Small Hospital Protection Act of 2021 or the RUSH Protection Act of 2021 This bill applies certain modified payment limits to rural health clinics that temporarily enrolled in Medicare during the public health emergency relating to COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) or that applied to enroll by December 31, 2020. The bill applies retroactively.
State Health Care Premium Reduction Act of 2021 This bill establishes and provides funding for the Improve Health Insurance Affordability Fund. States must use allocated funds to (1) issue reinsurance payments to health insurers (i.e., reimbursements to protect insurers against exceedingly high claims) for individual health insurance coverage, or (2) provide other assistance to reduce out-of-pocket costs (e.g., copayments, coinsurance, and deductibles) for qualified health plans offered in the individual market through an exchange. Reinsurance payments using such funds may not be applied to (1) grandfathered health plans in place on March 23, 2010, (2) non-grandfathered transitional plans meeting specified requirements identified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), or (3) student health insurance plans provided by institutions of higher education. The bill appropriates $10 billion per year for the fund, which the CMS must distribute to states in accordance with a specified methodology based on the estimated amount of reinsurance payments for individuals in a state during the given year, subject to specified deductions. Additionally, states must submit applications explaining how they will use such funds. In the event that a state does not submit an application, the bill directs the CMS to allocate the calculated funding amount to reinsurance programs in that state.
Medicaid Report on Expansion of Access to Coverage for Health Act or the Medicaid REACH Act This bill reduces federal payment for Medicaid administrative expenses incurred by states that have not elected to participate in Medicaid expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (i.e., nonexpansion states) if the state does not comply with specified reporting requirements. The bill requires nonexpansion states to report, among other information, the number of uninsured individuals under the age of 65 and the estimated percentage of such individuals who would be eligible to receive coverage if the state expanded Medicaid.
Supporting Veteran Families in Need Act This bill permanently extends the authorization for the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide financial assistance for supportive services for very low-income veteran families in permanent housing.
American Innovation and Jobs Act This bill revises and expands the deductibility of research and experimental expenditures to allow immediate expensing of such expenditures. It also allows the amortization over a period of at least 60 months of certain other types of research and experimental expenditures not treated as expenses. The bill increases the maximum amount eligible for the tax credit for new and small businesses and increases to 20% the rate of the credit for business startups.
Accessible, Affordable Internet for All Act This bill reauthorizes through FY2026, revises, and establishes grants and activities to promote access to telecommunications services, including broadband internet. The bill addresses digital equity and inclusion through grants and by requiring studies on barriers to adopting broadband services and related matters. The bill addresses broadband affordability and access. It (1) reauthorizes and expands programs that subsidize or support broadband services for, among others, eligible households, schools, and minority communities; and (2) establishes a program for expanding broadband service for underserved areas and community support organizations (e.g., religious organizations). Additionally, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) must expand programs that verify an individual's eligibility for subsidized telecommunications services. The bill addresses matters concerning broadband data. The FCC must (1) issue rules for collecting pricing data and labels for disclosing information about broadband plans to consumers, and (2) collaborate and share data with federal agencies and stakeholders. The bill makes financing (e.g., low-interest loans) available to communities and public-private partnerships for broadband infrastructure investments and creates grants to establish or expand certain internet exchange facilities and submarine cable landing stations. Additionally, the Department of Transportation must require states to install conduits for broadband cables as part of certain highway projects. The bill also sets up a task force on nationwide dig once requirements (i.e., policies or practices to minimize excavations of highway rights-of-way when installing telecommunications infrastructure). Further, the bill preempts state laws that prohibit certain telecommunications service providers (e.g., public providers) from providing high-speed broadband services.
Pharmacy Benefit Manager Accountability Study Act of 2021 This bill requires the Government Accountability Office to report on the role of pharmacy benefit managers in the pharmaceutical supply chain and recommend legislative actions to lower the cost of prescription drugs. The report must address the use of rebates and fees, the average prior authorization approval time, and the use of step therapy within the 10 largest pharmacy benefit managers.
Funding for Aviation Screeners and Threat Elimination Restoration Act or the FASTER Act This bill repeals the requirement that a portion of aviation security service fees collected from passengers be credited as offsetting receipts and deposited in the general fund of the Treasury. It requires such fees to be deposited into a separate account in the Treasury for expenditure to pay only the costs of activities and services for which the fee is imposed (i.e., aviation security screening).
Immediate Coverage for Former Foster Youth Act This bill accelerates the application of certain changes that are scheduled to take effect under the Substance Use-Disorder Prevention that Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment (SUPPORT) for Patients and Communities Act relating to the coverage of former foster youth under Medicaid. Under current law, a state Medicaid program must cover former foster youth until the age of 26 if the youth were in the state's foster care system at the age of 18 and were enrolled in the state's Medicaid program while in foster care; a state may choose to also cover former foster youth from other states. The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act altered these provisions to require a state Medicaid program to cover former foster youth from other states until the age of 26; such changes apply to former foster youth who reach the age of 18 on or after January 1, 2023. The bill instead applies these changes to former foster youth who reach the age of 18 on or after the date of enactment of this bill. States must also establish Medicaid outreach and enrollment programs for former foster youth.
This bill designates the portion of U.S. Route 80 from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama, as the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Highway.
This resolution condemns the February 1, 2021, military coup in Burma (Myanmar) and calls on Burmese authorities to allow journalists, human rights organizations, United Nations monitors, and humanitarian actors full and safe access to every part of the country. The resolution also asks neighboring countries to provide immediate and direct cross-border assistance to address the humanitarian needs of refugees.
