Congressional Bills

Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit ActThis bill reduces payments that communities within the Arkansas River Valley must pay to the Bureau of Reclamation for the construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit, a pipeline in Colorado for delivering water from the Pueblo Reservoir to such communities. Specifically, it removes interest payments and extends the repayment period to 100 years.

Western Water Accelerated Revenue Repayment ActThis bill permanently authorizes a provision under the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act that (1) allows certain water users (e.g., agriculture and municipal water users) in western states to prepay what they owe under contracts with the Bureau of Reclamation for delivering water through a lump sum payment or over a period of three years; and (2) requires a specified portion of the receipts generated from such prepayments be directed to the Reclamation Water Storage Account for the construction of water storage. Such prepayments do not alter certain requirements for the disposition of amounts that are directed by project-specific statutes in effect prior to the passage of the WIIN Act to accounts other than the General Reclamation Fund.

Protecting American Energy Production ActThis bill prohibits the President from declaring a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing unless Congress authorizes the moratorium. The bill also expresses the sense of Congress that states should maintain primacy (authority) for the regulation of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas production on state and private lands.Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process to extract underground resources such as oil or gas from a geologic formation by injecting water, a propping agent (e.g., sand), and chemical additives into a well under enough pressure to fracture the formation.

Protecting our Communities from Sexual Predators ActThis bill requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to detain certain non-U.S. nationals (aliens under federal law) who have been arrested for sexual assault. The bill also provides for the inadmissibility and deportability of certain individuals convicted of sexual assault.Under this bill, the DOJ must detain an individual who (1) is unlawfully present in the United States, made certain misrepresentations, or did not possess the necessary documents when applying for admission; and (2) has been charged with, arrested for, convicted of, or admits to having committed acts which constitute the essential elements of, an offense involving sexual assault.The bill also establishes under statute that a conviction for certain crimes related to sexual assault shall be grounds for (1) barring an individual from entering the United States, and (2) deportability. (Under current law, convictions for certain crimes, including crimes involving moral turpitude, are grounds for inadmissibility and deportability.) 

Manatee Protection Act of 2025This bill requires the Department of the Interior to include the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) in the endangered species list and give the species protections provided to endangered species.

Veteran Overmedication and Suicide Prevention Act of 2025This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to report on the deaths of covered veterans who died by suicide during the last five years, regardless of whether information relating to such deaths has been reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A covered veteran is any veteran who received VA hospital care or medical services during the five-year period preceding the veteran's death.Among other elements, the report shall include the total number of covered veterans who died by suicide, violent death, or accidental death, as well as certain demographic information.

Sunshine Protection Act of 2025This bill makes daylight saving time the new, permanent standard time.States with areas exempt from daylight saving time may choose the standard time for those areas.

Hurricane Helene and Milton Tax Relief Act of 2025This bill increases the tax deduction for charitable contributions related to Hurricanes Helene and Milton relief efforts and makes changes related to distributions and loans from retirement plans and the earned income tax credit (EITC) for eligible individuals impacted by the hurricanes.The bill increases the maximum tax deduction for charitable contributions to 100% of adjusted gross income for individuals and 20% of taxable income for corporations for qualified hurricane disaster contributions. Further, individuals may claim a deduction for qualified hurricane disaster contributions even if they do not itemize their tax deductions.The bill defines qualified hurricane disaster contributions, as charitable contributions for Hurricanes Helene and Milton relief efforts made on or after September 28, 2024, and before December 31, 2025. The bill also eliminates the 10% penalty on early distributions from a qualified retirement plan for up to $100,000 of qualified hurricane disaster distributions to an eligible individual,allows eligible individuals to include qualified hurricane disaster distributions in income over three years, andincreases the loan amount that may be borrowed from a qualified retirement plan to $100,000 and allows such loans to be repaid over a longer time period.An eligible individual is an individual whose principal home during the incident period was in a qualified hurricane disaster area and who sustained economic loss due to Hurricanes Helene or Milton.Finally, the bill allows eligible individuals to calculate the EITC for the 2024 tax year using 2023 earned income. 

Trailer Safety Improvement ActThis bill requires that state highway safety programs address trailer safety equipment, preventive maintenance, and other aspects of the proper and safe usage of light- and medium-duty trailers.

Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2025This bill revises provisions relating to congressional review of agency rulemaking.Specifically, the bill establishes a congressional approval process for a major rule. A major rule may only take effect if Congress approves of the rule. A major rule is a rule that has resulted in or is likely to result in (1) an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; (2) a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, government agencies, or geographic regions; or (3) significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or the ability of U.S.-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises.The bill generally preserves the current congressional review process for a nonmajor rule.