H.R. 9859, the Ethical Investigations and Integrity Act, requires the Secretary of Labor to enter into written agreements before providing assistance or information to individuals that could be used in civil lawsuits related to workplace laws enforced by the Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division. The bill affects the Labor Department's interactions with employees and their attorneys who may pursue legal claims, as well as employers and contractors who could be impacted by shared information. Before providing any assistance, the Secretary must create a detailed written agreement and notify any employers or contractors that may be directly harmed by the disclosure. The bill requires the Department to submit an annual report to Congress by December 31 each year detailing all such agreements, including copies of the agreements, dates, nature of assistance provided, and complete logs of all communications and meetings related to these arrangements. For agreements already in place, the Department has 60 days from the bill's enactment to comply with these requirements, and no new funding or implementation timeline beyond this initial deadline is specified.

This bill amends federal commodity trading law to clarify how the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) can share information with other government agencies and foreign authorities. The legislation establishes clear rules for when the CFTC can disclose trader names, addresses, and transaction data to congressional committees, domestic federal and state agencies, and foreign governments, while requiring that recipients keep the information confidential unless using it in legal proceedings. The bill also protects legal privileges, ensuring that when the CFTC shares privileged information—such as attorney-client communications—with other agencies or foreign authorities, doing so does not waive those legal protections. Additionally, the law clarifies that other agencies sharing information with the CFTC do not waive their own legal privileges, with a narrow exception for entities being investigated by the CFTC. The legislation contains no new funding requirements or specific implementation timelines.

The Critical Industry Skills Act modifies federal workforce development programs to help states prepare workers for in-demand jobs in growing industries. The bill allows state governors to set aside up to 10 percent of workforce funding to establish critical industry skills programs, requiring them to match federal dollars with state or other federal money. States must create either a Critical Industry Skills Fund that makes performance-based payments to employers and training providers, or an Industry and Sector Partnership Fund that grants money to employer partnerships, particularly those including community colleges, to develop career pathways and training programs for job seekers and current workers. These grants can fund apprenticeships, competency-based assessments, and integrated education with work-based learning, with federal cost-sharing ranging from 40 to 90 percent depending on employer size and administrative costs capped at 10 percent. The bill also requires the Department of Labor to study program results within four years to determine which industries states target and what outcomes their training programs achieve.

This bill requires states to better track and report fraud in the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant program, which provides subsidies to help low-income families pay for child care. Under the legislation, states would need to recover fraudulent payments made through the program and submit detailed annual reports to the federal government breaking down different types of improper payments, including suspected and verified fraud, overpayments, underpayments, and technical errors. The bill affects all states that receive federal child care block grant funding and the families and child care providers who participate in these programs. The legislation was introduced in February 2026 and reported out of committee in April 2026, though it does not specify particular funding amounts or implementation timelines beyond requiring annual reporting.

This bill establishes a formal partnership between the Department of Defense and Department of Agriculture to conduct joint research and development on topics affecting national security and agricultural resilience. The two departments will collaborate on areas including agricultural technology improvements, artificial intelligence applications to farming, biological sciences for disease and disaster resilience, supply chain security, wildfire prevention, and innovations that support both military readiness and rural economies. The bill requires the departments to create a memorandum of understanding establishing a competitive, merit-reviewed process that involves federal agencies, national laboratories, universities, nonprofits, and private industry, with recipients of federal grants required to provide matching funds. The legislation authorizes the use of existing unobligated funds from the Agriculture Advanced Research and Development Authority and Department of Defense research budgets, though specific funding amounts are not specified in the bill itself. The departments must submit annual reports to Congress on their coordination efforts, research achievements, security practices, and expenditures, with the Government Accountability Office conducting effectiveness reviews at least once every five years.

The SNAP Online Access Act of 2026 would make permanent the ability for people receiving food assistance benefits to buy groceries online through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Currently, online purchasing for SNAP is operating on a temporary, pilot basis; this bill would convert it into a permanent nationwide program. The Agriculture Department would have 120 days to begin the transition process and up to 2 years to finalize regulations governing how the online program operates, ensuring it maintains program integrity, protects consumers, and provides fair access to all eligible participants. The bill also requires the department to consult with state agencies, grocery stores, payment processors, and consumer advocates to learn from the pilot program experience between 2014 and 2025, and to report their findings to Congress within 120 days.

H.R. 7264 expands the U.S. Department of Agriculture's authority to restore and manage floodplain easements—land where the government has purchased permanent conservation rights. Under the current law, the USDA could acquire these easements to reduce flood damage, but this bill explicitly authorizes the department to restore native vegetation, improve water flow, monitor conditions, and maintain the land after purchase. The legislation also allows landowners to conduct compatible activities on easement land, such as hunting, fishing, managed timber harvesting, and periodic grazing, as long as these activities don't undermine long-term floodplain protection. Additionally, the USDA can now partner with states, nonprofits, and tribal nations to carry out restoration work and can undertake more extensive restoration measures if they determine it benefits the watershed's long-term health. The bill does not specify new funding levels or implementation timelines but modifies existing agricultural law to clarify and expand restoration and management practices for floodplain conservation.

The Restaurant Meals Program Reform Act of 2025 modifies the existing restaurant meals program under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) by establishing stricter eligibility requirements for participating food establishments. Under this bill, only retail food stores with prepared food sections, hot bars, or deli counters—that are not primarily focused on quick-service or fast food—can participate, and meals redeemed must include at least one fruit or vegetable and one protein item and be intended for immediate consumption. The legislation affects SNAP recipients, particularly elderly and disabled individuals who may currently use the program, and retailers who operate prepared food sections. The bill adds new administrative requirements by directing the Secretary of Agriculture to maintain updated electronic benefit transfer (EBT) systems to track participating stores and redemptions, and requires public reporting on program participation, costs, and effectiveness. No specific funding amount or implementation timeline is specified in the legislation.

This bill creates federal criminal penalties for knowingly giving abortion-inducing drugs to a woman without her informed consent, with sentences up to 25 years in prison. The law applies when the drugs have been shipped across state lines, and penalties increase to up to 50 years if the woman suffers serious injury or death. The bill also allows women to sue civilly for damages, including three times the cost of injuries plus punitive damages, with court-awarded attorney's fees for prevailing plaintiffs. The measure defines "abortion-inducing drugs" to include mifepristone and misoprostol, and includes provisions holding liable anyone who distributes these drugs without reasonable measures to confirm the recipient is a pregnant woman seeking an abortion. No new funding or implementation timeline is specified in the legislation.

This bill would prevent the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing a proposed workplace heat safety standard that was published in August 2024. The rule was designed to protect workers in both outdoor and indoor settings from heat-related injuries and illnesses. The legislation would block this specific regulation and any substantially similar standards from taking effect. The bill does not include any funding provisions or specific timelines, but rather serves as a blanket prohibition on the heat safety rule. This affects workers across all industries who would have been covered by the heat standard, as well as employers who would have been required to comply with new heat injury prevention requirements.

The GOLDEN DOME Act of 2025 establishes a comprehensive U.S. missile defense program designed to protect against ballistic, cruise, and hypersonic threats from adversaries including China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. The bill creates a new senior-level Program Manager position with broad authority to develop an integrated defense system spanning space, air, sea, and ground domains, incorporating sensors, command-and-control systems, and both traditional and advanced capabilities like cyber defense and directed energy weapons. The legislation requires robust testing to begin within 540 days, including virtual exercises and semi-annual live-fire tests, while authorizing the Secretary of Defense to waive legal requirements to accelerate construction and deployment—with judicial review limited to constitutional challenges filed within 60 days. Congress appropriates $23 billion for fiscal year 2026, with major allocations for space-based sensors ($5.9 billion), interceptor systems ($1.96 billion), hypersonic defense ($450 million), air defense radar ($2.5 billion), and positioning and navigation systems ($1.5 billion), along with additional funding for undersea sensors, command software, and autonomous systems. The bill also directs the Pentagon to accelerate procurement of surveillance and air defense equipment and establish technology exchanges with allied nations to advance missile defense capabilities.

H.Res. 428 is a symbolic resolution expressing support for designating May 2025 as "Moving Month" to recognize the contributions of the moving and storage industry. The resolution highlights that over 15 million U.S. households move annually, and the industry employs roughly 200,000 workers across nearly 8,000 interstate carriers with annual payrolls exceeding $13 billion. The moving industry provides critical services to civilians, businesses, and the U.S. military—coordinating approximately 300,000 military household relocations yearly through the Department of Defense. The resolution notes that over 70 percent of Americans move between May and September to minimize school disruption, making this period the industry's busiest season. As a House resolution, this measure carries no funding requirements or legal mandates; it simply encourages public recognition of the moving and storage industry's economic and logistical importance to the nation.

H.R. 3044, the No Vaccine Mandates in Higher Education Act, would prohibit colleges and universities from requiring students or employees to receive COVID-19 vaccines as a condition of enrollment, employment, or access to benefits and services. The bill accomplishes this by denying federal funding to any higher education institution that implements such vaccine mandates. The legislation applies to all institutions that receive federal funds under the Higher Education Act of 1965, affecting colleges, universities, and their students and staff nationwide. The bill contains no specified funding amount or implementation timeline, as it functions primarily as a restriction on existing federal education funding rather than an appropriation of new money. This legislation would override any current vaccine requirements at federally-funded institutions of higher education.

Empowering Employer Child and Elder Care Solutions ActThis bill excludes the value of employer-funded child or dependent care from being used in calculating an eligible employee's overtime pay.Under current law, overtime hours must be paid at one and a half times an employee's regular rate of pay. This rate is an average hourly rate that must include certain types of pay, such as commissions. The bill specifies that an employer can provide or pay for child or dependent care services without the value of the services being included in this calculation.

Instructing Noteworthy Steps toward Transparency to Rout and Undo Calamitous Transactions Act of 2025 or the INSTRUCT Act of 2025This bill requires the Department of Education (ED) to share foreign gift and contract reports from institutions of higher education (IHEs) with specified federal agencies.Under current law, an IHE must disclose to ED a gift from or contract with a foreign source that is valued at $250,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all other gifts from or contracts with that foreign source. This bill requires ED, within 30 days of receiving a disclosure report from an IHE, to transmit an unredacted copy of the report to 11 listed agencies (e.g., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of State, and the Department of Homeland Security).The bill also requires ED, within 90 days of the bill's enactment, to transmit additional information to these federal agencies. Specifically, ED must transmit (1) any disclosure report received by ED prior to the bill's enactment; and (2) any report, document, or other record generated by ED in the course of investigating an IHE's compliance with disclosure requirements (and such investigation was initiated prior to the bill's enactment). The Government Accountability Office must study and report on ways to improve intergovernmental agency coordination for implementing and enforcing disclosure reporting requirements.

This joint resolution nullifies the final rule titled Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Water Heating Equipment, which was submitted by the Department of Energy on October 6, 2023. The rule adopts more stringent energy conservation standards for commercial water heating equipment under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act in order to achieve more energy savings.