Brittany Pettersen

This bill extends the Fentanyl Sanctions Act, which authorizes the U.S. government to impose economic penalties on individuals and entities involved in fentanyl trafficking and related activities. The legislation updates the authorization deadline from a previous expiration date to December 31, 2033, allowing sanctions tools to remain in place for another seven years. The bill affects foreign nationals, criminal organizations, and anyone involved in the production, distribution, or trafficking of fentanyl and its precursor chemicals. No specific funding is allocated in this legislation, as it primarily reauthorizes existing sanctions authority rather than creating new programs. The bill was referred to multiple congressional committees including Foreign Affairs, Financial Services, Judiciary, and Armed Services for review.

This bill would make the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program permanent by removing its current expiration date. The PILT program compensates local counties and communities for tax revenue they lose because the federal government owns large amounts of land within their borders that cannot be taxed. Currently, the program is authorized only through fiscal year 2019, making it subject to periodic renewal. By changing the language to authorize funding "each fiscal year," the bill would create permanent, ongoing authorization for PILT payments without requiring Congress to regularly reauthorize the program. This change primarily affects rural and western counties with significant federal land holdings, ensuring they receive stable, predictable compensation for lost property tax revenue.

This resolution commemorates the one-year anniversary of a school shooting that occurred at Evergreen High School in Evergreen, Colorado on September 10, 2025. A student opened fire at the school, resulting in two victims being hospitalized and widespread trauma to students and staff. The resolution recognizes and honors the first responders, law enforcement, school security officers, hospital medical teams, educators, and community members whose quick actions and courage helped prevent further harm. The House of Representatives formally condemns the violence, extends condolences to the victims, survivors, and their families, and affirms that all children deserve to attend school safely. No new funding or programs are created by this resolution, as it is a commemorative measure expressing the House's recognition of the tragedy and support for the affected community.

The Public Transit Mental Health Awareness Act requires public transit agencies that receive federal funding to display suicide prevention hotline information in visible locations on their vehicles and facilities. The law applies to all recipients of federal transit assistance under Chapter 53 of Title 49, affecting transit agencies nationwide. The displayed information must include the national suicide prevention hotline number and note that it is free, confidential, and available 24 hours a day. Transit agencies can meet this requirement by posting the information either on all their vehicles or in all their transit facilities, and they will not be considered non-compliant if displays are temporarily damaged or vandalized as long as they make reasonable efforts to replace them. The requirement takes effect one year after the bill is enacted.

This bill directs the Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent congressional watchdog agency, to conduct a comprehensive study examining how federal workforce reductions affect the ability of government agencies to serve the public. The study must analyze changes in processing times for benefits and applications, casework responsiveness, call center wait times, and field office operations at agencies like Social Security, the Veterans Administration, and immigration services that interact directly with large numbers of constituents. The GAO must also evaluate whether workforce cuts impede agencies' ability to respond to congressional inquiries helping constituents solve problems with federal programs, and must consult with federal agencies, labor unions, and service delivery experts during the research. The GAO will deliver its findings and recommendations to relevant congressional committees within 18 months of the bill's enactment, including policy options for Congress to consider and a public report on the study's conclusions. The legislation covers all types of federal workforce reductions occurring in the previous 20 years, including traditional reductions in force, hiring freezes, early retirements, and mass terminations of temporary employees.

This bill, introduced in July 2026, makes a technical but important change to federal disaster assistance law by requiring the President to carry out hazard mitigation programs rather than making them optional. Currently, the President has discretion to decide whether to pursue hazard mitigation efforts under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, the main federal law governing disaster response and recovery. The bill changes this language from "may" to "shall," meaning hazard mitigation programs would become mandatory whenever the President declares a disaster. Hazard mitigation refers to efforts that reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and property from natural hazards, such as elevating homes in flood-prone areas or strengthening buildings to withstand earthquakes. The change would affect disaster declarations across all states and territories and ensure these protective measures are consistently implemented following major disasters.

This bill directs the U.S. Forest Service to create a competitive grant program to help address mountain pine beetle infestations on National Forest lands. Eligible applicants include state and local governments, Indian Tribes, water districts, and utility companies that submit projects focused on protecting water supplies, reducing wildfire risk near communities, restoring forest health, and stabilizing watersheds in beetle-affected areas. Priority will be given to projects that protect critical infrastructure, reduce community wildfire risk, address areas with high tree mortality, and align with existing state forest plans. Approved projects can include removing dead trees, reducing fuel buildup, replanting forests, and implementing watershed protection measures. The bill allows the Forest Service to disburse grant funds immediately upon award and requires all funds to be distributed within 30 days after project completion.

The Mountain Pine Beetle Coordination Act authorizes the U.S. Forest Service to enter into cooperative agreements with states, local governments, and federally recognized Indian tribes to address mountain pine beetle infestations and reduce wildfire risks. These agreements would support activities including monitoring beetle populations, treating infested forests, processing dead trees, reducing hazards in affected areas, and implementing joint projects between federal and local partners. The bill also requires the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to provide technical assistance to participating entities on detecting, understanding, and managing beetle infestations. The legislation affects forest management across the western United States where mountain pine beetles cause significant damage, threatening both timber resources and creating conditions that increase wildfire danger. No specific funding amounts or implementation timelines are specified in the legislation, leaving budget and deadlines to be determined through the appropriations process.

This bill expands workers' compensation protections for federal wildfire responders by broadening the definition of employees covered under federal worker's compensation law. Currently, the law covers certain fire protection workers, but this legislation adds new job categories including fuels specialists, burn bosses, and prescribed fire crew members to the list of protected employees. The bill also extends coverage to include planned ignition activities and fuels reduction work, not just fire suppression efforts. These changes ensure that a wider range of wildfire management professionals have access to federal workers' compensation benefits when they are injured or become ill as a result of their work. The legislation does not specify new funding amounts or implementation timelines.

This bill directs the Department of Defense to work with the Agriculture Department's Forest Service and the Interior Department to coordinate wildfire research efforts across federal agencies. Within 180 days of the law taking effect, these agencies must sign a joint agreement identifying shared research priorities in fire science, including topics like fire prevention, ecosystem recovery, fire modeling, emergency response, and post-fire restoration. The agreement will align existing military and civilian research programs to avoid duplication and improve coordination on these priorities. Within one year, the Defense Secretary must report to Congress on the progress made in implementing this coordination effort. The legislation affects federal agencies responsible for wildfire management and research but does not specify new funding amounts.

This bill requires the Department of Defense to report annually to Congress on its progress in redesigning how it compensates workers in its child development program, which provides childcare services for military families. The reporting requirement begins one year after the bill becomes law and continues each year until the compensation redesign is fully implemented as mandated by the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. Each annual report must detail the implementation status, expected timeline for completion, and which specific requirements have been completed versus those still pending, broken down by each military branch. The Defense Department must also publish these reports on its public website within 30 days of submitting them to Congress. This legislation affects military childcare workers and military families who depend on these services, and is intended to ensure transparency and accountability in implementing wage and compensation improvements for the childcare workforce that serves the military community.

This bill amends federal law to restrict who can sue the federal government for intentional torts committed by government employees. Specifically, it bars individuals from bringing such lawsuits if they have been convicted of certain crimes, including assault or battery against federal law enforcement officers, election-related interference offenses, obstruction of federal government processes, felonies involving confrontations with federal law enforcement, or felonies involving theft or misuse of federal funds. The restrictions apply even if the convicted person was later pardoned or had their sentence commuted. The bill affects private individuals seeking to pursue tort claims against the federal government and would limit their legal remedies based on their criminal history. There is no specified funding or implementation timeline mentioned in the legislation.

This bill requires large multinational corporations whose securities are publicly traded in the United States to report detailed financial information on a country-by-country basis. Companies affected are those with annual revenue above a threshold to be set by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and they must disclose information about their business entities in each tax jurisdiction, including revenues, profits, taxes paid, employee counts, and asset values. The SEC must issue a proposed rule within 270 days of enactment and a final rule within one year, with the reporting requirement taking effect one year after the final rule is issued. The data must be provided in a machine-readable format and made available to the public online, allowing transparency regarding where multinational corporations earn profits and pay taxes. This is designed to combat tax avoidance strategies where companies shift profits to low-tax jurisdictions while maintaining operations in higher-tax countries.

This resolution expresses the House's opposition to using water system monitoring and regulation to surveil or restrict access to medication abortion, particularly the drug mifepristone. The measure argues that recent state and federal efforts to monitor water systems for traces of abortion medications lack scientific basis and represent a misuse of environmental protection laws for political purposes. According to the resolution, the Food and Drug Administration has found that mifepristone poses no environmental concern and is safe and effective. The resolution calls for water system protections to be based on science rather than on efforts to restrict reproductive health care, and states that over 60 bills restricting medication abortion access have been introduced across 22 states in 2026. This is a non-binding resolution expressing the sense of Congress rather than legislation that would change law or provide funding.

This bill would limit how long Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can hold people in temporary holding cells. Under the legislation, ICE would be prohibited from detaining any individual in a holding room for more than 12 hours. The bill defines a holding room as any secure area used for temporary confinement before intake processing, court or medical appointments, release, transfer to another facility, or removal-related transportation. The bill affects all individuals detained by ICE and would apply to all ICE holding facilities across the country. The legislation does not include specific funding allocations or implementation timelines beyond the immediate prohibition on extended detention.

The Evidence-Based Youth Suicide Prevention Act of 2026 directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish and fund demonstration programs that develop, test, and evaluate evidence-based strategies for preventing suicide among children and adolescents. These programs will primarily operate in schools and other youth-serving settings in partnership with state, tribal, and local educational and health agencies, as well as nonprofit organizations and colleges. The bill authorizes funding through fiscal year 2032 to support activities including implementing suicide prevention programs in schools, evaluating existing prevention protocols, and providing technical assistance to participating organizations. The legislation requires the Secretary to prioritize funding based on the strength of scientific evidence supporting each intervention, while reserving some funds for promising new approaches that include rigorous evaluation plans. The Secretary must report to Congress within 90 days of enactment and annually thereafter on program results, evaluation findings, and lessons learned.

The Creating Early Childhood Leaders Act would require principals and school leaders to receive training in early childhood education as part of their professional development programs under the Higher Education Act. The bill recognizes that school principals increasingly supervise pre-kindergarten programs but often lack training in early childhood development and instruction. The legislation adds requirements that school leaders understand child development, social and emotional development, and age-appropriate behavioral interventions for children from birth through age 8. The bill also encourages school leaders to engage with early childhood education providers and community members to improve student outcomes. No specific funding amounts or implementation timelines are detailed in the legislation.

This joint resolution disapproves of a rule by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection that would withdraw an earlier rule on fair credit reporting practices. The earlier rule, originally published in 2022, established standards for the permissible purposes for which credit reporting agencies and other companies can furnish, use, and obtain consumer credit reports. By passing this resolution, Congress would block the CFPB's attempt to reverse that consumer protection rule, meaning the original fair credit reporting standards would remain in place. The resolution uses the congressional disapproval process outlined in federal law, which allows Congress to reject agency rules. If approved by both chambers and signed by the President, the CFPB's withdrawal rule would have no legal effect.

This joint resolution disapproves a rule by the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection that would withdraw a 2015 guidance bulletin addressing in-person debt collection practices. If passed, the rule would be invalidated and have no legal effect, meaning the agency cannot proceed with withdrawing the original 2015 bulletin. The measure uses the Congressional Review Act, a procedure that allows Congress to overturn federal agency rules with a simple majority vote. The resolution affects debt collection companies and consumers who rely on the protections outlined in the original 2015 bulletin regarding how debt collectors can pursue consumers in person. No specific funding is allocated as this resolution simply blocks a regulatory action rather than establishing a new program.

This resolution expresses House support for National Fentanyl Awareness Day in 2026 and its mission to increase public awareness about the dangers of counterfeit fentanyl pills, particularly for families and young people. The legislation highlights the severity of the counterfeit pill crisis, noting that law enforcement seized over 47 million counterfeit fentanyl pills in 2025, with five out of every ten fentanyl pills containing a potentially lethal dose. The resolution points to alarming trends, including that nearly 70,000 Americans died from drug-induced causes in the 12-month period ending October 2025, with more than half involving illicit fentanyl, and that overdose deaths among teenagers aged 14 to 18 increased 128 percent between 2019 and 2021. The measure calls on Congress to support awareness efforts, applaud law enforcement efforts to combat counterfeit pills, and encourage use of existing authorities to prevent their spread. This is a symbolic resolution with no direct funding or implementation timeline beyond designating an awareness day in 2026.

The Catching Up Family Caregivers Act of 2026 allows family caregivers to make additional contributions to retirement accounts beyond the standard limits. Specifically, it lets individuals who serve as unpaid caregivers for children or adults with special needs qualify for catch-up contributions to both employer-sponsored retirement plans and Individual Retirement Accounts, similar to benefits currently available to people age 50 and older. To qualify, a person must have worked at least 500 hours as a caregiver during the tax year while earning less than 500 hours in paid employment, and they can use this benefit for up to five tax years total. The legislation takes effect for tax years beginning after December 31, 2026, and allows employers to simply rely on a caregiver's written statement to verify eligibility rather than requiring extensive documentation.

This bill would allow certain family caregivers to contribute to Roth IRA retirement accounts even if they have little or no earned income from traditional employment. Specifically, individuals who work at least 500 hours per year as unpaid family caregivers while having fewer than 500 hours of paid employment would qualify to make full Roth IRA contributions. Qualified caregivers include unpaid family members, foster parents, or other unpaid adults who provide in-home care for children or adults with special needs, including elderly relatives. The legislation recognizes caregiving tasks such as bathing, dressing, meal preparation, medication management, and transportation assistance as qualifying hours. The bill takes effect for tax years beginning after December 31, 2026, and would help family caregivers build retirement savings despite their limited paid employment due to caregiving responsibilities.

The Save Money, Save Lives Act would remove a budget neutrality requirement that currently applies to certain Medicaid demonstration projects under existing law. Under current rules, these experimental Medicaid programs must be designed so they do not cost the federal government more money than traditional Medicaid services. This bill would eliminate that cost constraint, allowing states greater flexibility to design and operate Medicaid demonstration projects without having to prove they will not increase federal spending. The legislation also rescinds federal funding that was previously appropriated specifically for enforcing this budget neutrality requirement. The bill's supporters argue this change could improve access to healthcare innovations, though critics may contend it could increase federal Medicaid costs.

The Rural Water Security Act amends federal water law to include Colorado in an existing program that provides water resources support to western rural communities. The bill, introduced in February 2026, makes technical changes to the Water Resources Development Act of 1999 by adding Colorado alongside Arizona and Idaho in three sections of the statute governing the western rural water program. This expansion allows Colorado rural areas to access the same water security benefits and federal resources previously available only to other western states. The legislation does not specify new funding amounts or implementation timelines, but rather integrates Colorado into an established framework for addressing rural water challenges in the West. The bill was referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure for consideration.

The Evergreen Community Safety Act requires large technology and communication companies to comply with court orders and search warrants much faster than current law allows. Specifically, major providers—defined as those with at least one million users—must turn over requested communications, records, or information within 72 hours of receiving a court order, with courts able to extend this deadline by up to one week if the information is unusually large or complex. The bill also shortens the timeframe for these providers to challenge or modify orders from the current standard to just 48 hours. To enforce compliance, individuals who are harmed by a provider's failure to meet these deadlines can now sue in federal court for damages and injunctive relief. The legislation aims to speed up law enforcement's ability to access digital evidence in criminal investigations while giving major tech companies a structured, albeit tight, timeline for compliance.