Johnny Olszewski

This bill directs the Secretary of State to expand recruitment efforts for Foreign Service officers to include students from community colleges, vocational schools, and other nontraditional educational institutions. Currently, the State Department primarily recruits from traditional four-year universities, and this legislation aims to broaden that reach by requiring the department to conduct regular outreach sessions, partner with career centers and student organizations, and use digital methods to connect with students at nontraditional institutions. The bill also modifies eligibility requirements to allow students attending at least half-time (rather than only full-time) students to participate in Foreign Service entry programs. The legislation does not specify dedicated funding amounts or implementation timelines, leaving those details to the Secretary of State's discretion based on what is "practicable." This change would primarily affect students and graduates from community colleges and career-oriented schools who previously had fewer opportunities to learn about and pursue Foreign Service careers.

The Foreign Service Language Readiness Act requires the Secretary of State to identify and maintain a list of critical foreign languages essential to national security, economic interests, and protecting Americans abroad. Within 180 days of the bill's enactment and every three years thereafter, the Secretary must designate these critical languages, establish minimum proficiency standards, and identify which positions require these capabilities. The legislation directs the State Department to incorporate language training into career development and workforce planning, including through the National Foreign Affairs Training Center and a reserve pool of rehired officers with language skills who can be quickly deployed during crises. The bill also requires the State Department to coordinate with other federal agencies to avoid duplication and save taxpayer money, and mandates a comprehensive report by December 31, 2027, detailing staffing needs, current language capabilities by region, and any workforce gaps affecting the department's ability to meet mission requirements. This bill affects Foreign Service personnel and the State Department's ability to conduct diplomacy and national security operations in regions where language proficiency is critical.

This bill modifies a 2021 defense law that restricts the Department of Defense from purchasing certain metals and materials from specific nations. The change delays when these restrictions take effect, pushing the implementation date to January 1, 2032, unless the Secretary of Defense certifies earlier that there are enough commercially available suppliers of these materials outside the restricted nations to meet military needs. The bill requires the Defense Department to update its purchasing regulations within 120 days to reflect these changes. The legislation affects defense contractors and procurement officials who will have additional time before having to comply with the new sourcing requirements for covered materials.

The Foreign Service Workforce Retention Act amends federal law to make it easier for the State Department to bring back retired or separated Foreign Service officers. The bill expands the existing recall authority to include not just retired members but also those who were separated from the service, and it creates a five-year window during which former career members can request reappointment. Once approved, the bill requires the State Department to complete reappointment within 180 days and incorporate recalled officers into the regular assignment process with full standing. The legislation also mandates that the Secretary of State submit annual reports to Congress detailing how many officers were recalled and reappointed, along with their grades and positions both before and after reappointment. The reporting requirement begins within 60 days of the bill's enactment and continues each year thereafter.

Oversight and Transparency for Small Business Certifications Act of 2026This bill requires the Small Business Administration (SBA) to report annually, as part of the President's budget submission, information about specified SBA contracting programs.The reporting requirement applies to the8(a) Business Development program,Women-Owned Small Business Federal Contract program,HUBZone program, andService-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business program. The report must include the total number of unique small business concerns certified for participation in each program, the number of applications for certification for two or more such programs, and the percentage of total applicants that received two or more certifications.

The STABLE DRC Act authorizes the President to impose sanctions against foreign individuals and entities that violate or undermine the June 2025 Washington Accords peace agreement between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. The bill responds to ongoing military support by Rwanda's armed forces for the M23 rebel group and support by DRC forces for the FDLR militia group, both of which have committed war crimes and human rights abuses including child recruitment, ethnic cleansing, and sexual violence. Sanctions include blocking assets located in or controlled by the United States and denying visa entry to the United States, with exceptions for humanitarian aid, food, medicine, and activities necessary to comply with UN obligations. The bill has no specific funding requirements, as it authorizes the President to use existing executive powers to implement the sanctions program. The sanctions authority will expire seven years after the bill's enactment.

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment that would limit Supreme Court justices to serving no more than 18 years. Currently, Supreme Court justices serve lifetime appointments, and this amendment would fundamentally change that system. If ratified by three-fourths of the states, any sitting justices who have already served 18 or more years would have their terms terminated immediately, with the Chief Justice position filled according to law if affected. The resolution requires approval from two-thirds of both the House and Senate before it can be sent to the states for ratification. The bill contains no specific funding requirements or implementation timeline beyond the standard constitutional amendment ratification process.

This resolution supports the designation of April 2026 as "National County Government Month" to recognize the work of county governments and their employees across the United States. The measure honors the approximately 3.6 million public servants working in the nation's 3,069 counties, parishes, and boroughs, which provide essential services including public safety, infrastructure, health care, and social services to residents. The resolution encourages county governments to use the month to educate the public about their roles and responsibilities through activities like open houses, facility tours, proclamations, and social media campaigns. It also calls on Congress members to engage with their local communities to raise awareness about the importance of county government in American life. This is a symbolic resolution with no funding or enforcement mechanisms, simply expressing congressional support for recognizing the county government workforce and their contributions to the intergovernmental system.

This bill would raise the mandatory retirement age for Foreign Service officers from 65 to either 67 or the Social Security Full Retirement Age, whichever is higher. The change would apply to U.S. diplomats, embassy staff, and other career Foreign Service employees who currently must retire at 65 under existing law. The legislation aligns the Foreign Service retirement requirement with Social Security rules, which have gradually increased the full retirement age over time and continue to adjust. No specific funding authorization or implementation timeline is included in the bill text. The measure was introduced in April 2026 and referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The Fast Track To and Through College Act establishes a federal grant program to help students earn college degrees faster and more affordably by supporting "early college fast track pathways"—programs that allow high school students to take advanced coursework (AP, IB, dual enrollment) that counts toward a college degree. The bill provides competitive five-year grants to state partnerships involving K-12 schools, public colleges, and workforce agencies, with priority given to programs serving high-poverty districts and expanding career and technical education options. To receive funding, states must align high school graduation requirements with college entrance standards, ensure college credits transfer across public institutions and participating private colleges, and guarantee equitable access by assessing and informing students of opportunities by grade 12. A key provision allows high school students in approved programs to receive Federal Pell Grants beginning July 1, 2026—normally unavailable to high school students—with initial grant semesters not counting against the 12-semester lifetime limit. The bill authorizes funding through fiscal year 2030 and requires an independent evaluation by 2028 to assess program results.

The Critical Mineral Mining Education Act of 2026 establishes two new educational exchange programs designed to address workforce shortages in U.S. mining by fostering international knowledge-sharing. The bill creates the Critical Mineral Mining Fellowship Program, which sends American students and early-career professionals to study at foreign mining institutions, and the Visiting Mining Scholars Program, which brings experienced foreign mining academics to U.S. universities to teach, mentor students, and develop curriculum. Both programs are administered by the State Department and funded through fellowship awards covering tuition, living expenses, travel, and research costs, with international experts typically spending 3-12 months at participating U.S. universities that have existing mining faculty and research facilities. The legislation authorizes $10 million in annual funding through fiscal year 2035 and requires the State Department to submit yearly reports documenting program participants, institutions involved, and lessons learned.

H.J.Res. 135 proposes a constitutional amendment that would significantly restrict the President's pardon power by requiring congressional approval. Under this proposal, the President would have to notify Congress within three days of granting any reprieve or pardon, after which Congress would have 30 days to introduce a bill to nullify it and 60 days to pass such a bill with a two-thirds majority in both chambers. If Congress does not pass a nullification bill within 60 days, the pardon becomes effective 90 days after the original notification. The amendment also stipulates that the President cannot re-pardon an offense that Congress has already nullified, and any pardon not properly reported to Congress within three days would be invalid. This measure would affect all presidential pardons and reprieve decisions going forward, fundamentally changing the executive branch's traditional authority by giving Congress the power to override presidential clemency decisions.

This bill prohibits the removal of federal employees from the civil service during a government shutdown due to a lapse in discretionary appropriations. If an employee is removed from the civil service in violation of this bill, the employee may elect to be reinstated with back pay on the date on which the lapse in appropriations ends.

H.R. 4767, the Community College Educational Exchange Act, establishes two new State Department programs to increase educational exchanges involving U.S. community colleges and vocational schools. The first program provides scholarships for international students and experts to study for up to one academic year at eligible U.S. institutions in key fields like agriculture, engineering, information technology, and environmental resilience. The second program offers grants and technical assistance to help eligible U.S. community colleges and vocational schools develop and expand their own study abroad offerings for their students, including support for faculty training, curriculum development, and hybrid online-in-person models. The bill directs the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development to strengthen partnerships with these institutions and provide outreach support, with a requirement to report to Congress within one year on implementation progress, prioritized countries, and efforts to engage institutions not yet participating in federal exchange programs.

The African Union Diplomatic Parity Act would grant the African Union's Permanent Observer Mission to the United Nations in New York the same diplomatic privileges and immunities that are given to the permanent missions of individual countries to the UN. This change affects the African Union's diplomatic staff and operations in New York, allowing them to function with the same legal protections and exemptions as other national UN missions. The bill amends the International Organizations Immunities Act, which governs what diplomatic privileges various organizations receive when operating in the United States. There is no specific funding attached to this legislation, as it is primarily a legal designation change rather than an appropriations bill. The measure was introduced in June 2025 and referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for consideration.

H.R. 3988 directs the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Census Bureau to jointly study how federal agencies currently track and record housing loss across the country. The two departments must consult with three other federal agencies and submit their findings within six months to Congress, identifying all types of housing loss (including evictions, foreclosures, and disaster-related displacement), determining which are most common, and cataloging the federal datasets that capture this information. The report must evaluate each dataset's update frequency, data-sharing policies, accuracy, and geographic coverage, then recommend ways federal agencies could better identify and record housing loss, potentially through new data collection or consolidating existing systems. No specific funding amount is mentioned in the bill, but the study affects all Americans experiencing housing instability and targets a six-month completion deadline from the bill's enactment.

The SBIR/STTR Pilot Extension Act extends several federal programs that support small businesses in research and innovation. The bill extends the "direct to Phase II" pilot program—which allows federal agencies to skip the initial Phase I stage and fund promising small business research projects directly—through fiscal year 2030 (currently set to expire in 2025) and expands it so all federal agencies running SBIR programs can participate, not just the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, and Department of Education. The bill also extends two other small business innovation programs—the Phase 0 proof of concept partnership program and the commercialization assistance pilot programs—through September 30, 2030. To prevent overuse, the legislation caps direct-to-Phase II awards at 10 percent of each agency's total SBIR funding (15 percent for NIH), and requires agencies to report on how many awards they issue under this authority. These changes primarily benefit small businesses seeking federal research funding and the federal agencies administering these innovation programs.

H.R. 2880 would restore employment protections for federal workers who were fired during their probationary period after a promotion between January 20, 2025, and the bill's enactment date. The bill requires that probationary federal employees in the competitive service, career positions in the excepted service, and Senior Executive Service positions receive the same due process protections as permanent employees, including the right to a hearing before dismissal. Affected employees would have the option to be reinstated to their former position or an equivalent role with back pay. The protections do not apply to political appointees or positions in the Executive Schedule. The bill addresses both civilian federal employees and Department of Veterans Affairs employees covered under separate statutory provisions.