Pramila Jayapal

The Students Not Profits Act of 2026 addresses practices that critics say prioritize enrollment revenue over student welfare at higher education institutions. The bill closes a loophole that allowed colleges to pay third-party recruiters commissions based on student enrollment numbers, a practice the legislation argues creates conflicts of interest and encourages aggressive recruitment. Additionally, the bill establishes strict requirements for for-profit colleges converting to nonprofit status, including federal approval, a five-year transition period where converted institutions remain under for-profit regulations, and asset valuations to ensure fair dealing. The Department of Education must create a new office within one year to monitor nonprofit college governance and prevent the misuse of nonprofit status for private financial gain. Together, these provisions aim to protect student interests by reducing profit-driven enrollment incentives and ensuring that converted institutions operate as genuine nonprofits rather than for-profit entities in disguise.

This bill would prohibit the federal government from using facial recognition and other biometric surveillance systems without explicit approval from Congress, and would penalize state and local governments that use such technology by making them ineligible for federal law enforcement grants. The legislation defines biometric surveillance broadly to include facial recognition, gait recognition, voice recognition, and emotion inference technologies used in real time or on recordings. Federal agencies violating the ban could face employee discipline or civil lawsuits from individuals harmed by the surveillance, including potential punitive damages and attorney fees. The bill also creates financial leverage by withholding Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants from state and local police departments that engage in biometric surveillance, beginning in the first fiscal year after the law's enactment. The only exception to the federal ban would be if Congress passes a future law that specifically authorizes biometric surveillance with detailed standards for accuracy, data protection, and safeguards against discrimination and privacy violations.

The Workforce Opportunities for Communities in Recovery Act amends federal workforce law to help communities address economic hardship caused by substance use disorder. The bill establishes a competitive grant program administered by the Department of Labor that provides two-year funding to state and local workforce boards working with treatment providers, employers, schools, and community organizations to support workers affected by the substance use crisis and those entering treatment and recovery support fields. Grant recipients must provide job training, supportive services including mental health treatment and peer recovery support lasting at least 12 months, and help connect workers with employers, while keeping administrative and supportive service costs to 10 percent of grant funds each. The program targets areas that have experienced economic downturns and high unemployment linked to substance use disorders, and all grant recipients must report quarterly on performance metrics and participate in an independent evaluation measuring employment outcomes. The bill also includes technical corrections to existing workforce law to ensure consistent language throughout the statute.

This bill, the South Asian Heart Health Awareness and Research Act of 2026, directs the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to award supplemental grants to states to address heart disease in South Asian communities, which have been disproportionately affected by cardiovascular disease. States receiving these grants would use the funds to create culturally tailored educational materials about heart health, support community organizations serving South Asian populations, hold conferences on improving research practices to include more diverse participants, and conduct research on heart disease and related conditions like type 2 diabetes in at-risk populations. The legislation authorizes $2 million per year for fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to support these activities. Within two years of enactment, the Secretary of Health and Human Services must report to Congress on the activities funded and data about heart disease prevalence in affected communities. The bill affects South Asian American communities and health organizations working with these populations while establishing a framework to improve cardiovascular research and prevention efforts tailored to their specific health needs.

This joint resolution would block a Department of Homeland Security rule that establishes fixed time periods for how long foreign students, exchange visitors, and foreign journalists can stay in the United States and creates a procedure for extending their stays. The rule, issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in July 2026, would be invalidated if Congress approves this measure. The resolution uses the congressional disapproval process, which allows lawmakers to reject federal agency regulations. The bill was introduced by Representative Jayapal and more than 50 cosponsors, suggesting concern that the rule would negatively affect these groups. If passed by both chambers and signed by the President, the rule would be eliminated and no longer have legal effect.

# Summary of H.R. 10209 — GREEN Hospitals Act The GREEN Hospitals Act authorizes $105 billion in federal funding to help hospitals and other medical facilities become more resilient to climate disasters and reduce their environmental impact. The bill creates two main programs: one that awards grants of up to $500,000 to help medical facilities and communities plan sustainability and resilience projects, and another that provides construction grants for implementing these projects, which can include installing renewable energy systems, upgrading air quality controls, building green infrastructure like wetlands and green roofs, and protecting access routes from flooding and wildfires. The bill prioritizes funding for hospitals serving low-income patients on Medicare and Medicaid, facilities in communities with poor air quality or limited green space, and those in environmental justice areas, with at least 50 percent of planning grant funds directed to environmental justice communities. The legislation also requires participating hospitals to have union agreements or explicit policies protecting workers' rights to organize, maintain adequate staffing for community needs, and comply with prevailing wage standards. The funding is authorized for fiscal year 2026 and remains available until spent.

The Green New Deal for Public Schools Act creates a comprehensive federal initiative to modernize public schools while addressing climate change, educational equity, and workforce development. The bill establishes new grant programs totaling over $770 billion over ten years, funded through multiple sources including $446 billion for green infrastructure retrofits and construction, $250 billion to hire additional educators and support staff in under-resourced districts, $74 billion annually for Title I schools serving low-income students, increased special education funding reaching $69.6 billion annually by 2036, and $4 billion annually for climate resilience programs. All grant recipients must commit to community engagement, environmental justice goals, paying prevailing wages, hiring local workers, and serving historically disadvantaged populations including communities of color, immigrants, and LGBTQIAP+ individuals, while schools must achieve specific energy efficiency standards and provide expanded mental health services, restorative justice practices, and green job training. The bill creates an Office of Sustainable Schools within the Department of Education to coordinate these programs and requires public reporting on progress, with dedicated funding and support reserved for Bureau of Indian Education schools to protect tribal sovereignty.

# Summary The Health Over Wealth Act would significantly regulate for-profit corporations that own or control health care systems, particularly those backed by private equity firms. The bill requires these companies to report detailed financial information to the Department of Health and Human Services covering the past ten years, including debt levels, fees paid to investors, executive compensation, staffing data, and political spending. This information would be made public and analyzed annually for Congress. The legislation establishes a licensing system for private equity firms investing in health care, allowing the Secretary of Health and Human Services to deny or revoke licenses for companies that engage in price gouging, understaffing, or create access barriers. Companies in violation face civil penalties up to ten thousand dollars per violation or potentially an amount equal to federal funding received by the health care entity. The bill also restricts real estate investment trusts from leasing property to health care entities under terms that would weaken their financial stability. The act requires hospitals to provide ninety days' notice before closing or reducing services and prohibits discontinuing essential health services during this period unless necessary for patient or employee safety. The Secretary must review proposed closures, consult with the public, and can develop alternative plans to preserve access. Additionally, the bill creates a task force to study private equity's effects on health care and authorizes the Secretary to impose a moratorium on new private equity investments in health care while research is ongoing. The legislation also modifies bankruptcy law to prioritize employee pension claims and requires courts to consider regional health care access when confirming health care business reorganization plans.

The Family Grocery and Farmer Relief Act targets the highly consolidated beef meatpacking industry, where four companies currently control 85 percent of the market, by establishing automatic requirements for the Federal Trade Commission to force large meatpacking companies to break up or sell off operations if they exceed certain market concentration thresholds either regionally or nationally. The bill also directs the FTC to study foreign-controlled meatpacking operations within 180 days and potentially order divestitures to protect competition and national security, subject to congressional review. To enforce these requirements, the legislation imposes significant penalties on companies that fail to divest, including civil fines of 10 percent of revenue or triple damages for knowing violations, with penalty funds directed to help new competitors enter the market. The FTC must issue enforcement rules within 90 days that define beef processing markets, set divestiture standards, and prioritize small businesses and farmers' cooperatives as preferred buyers of divested assets. If the FTC misses the 90-day deadline for issuing rules, the divestiture requirements take effect automatically anyway.

H.R. 9745, known as Orlin's Law, establishes a new community-based case management program within the Department of Homeland Security that operates independently from Immigration and Customs Enforcement to provide alternatives to detention for immigrants. The program will offer comprehensive support services including case management, social services, medical and mental health care, housing, transportation, and legal services, all delivered in appropriate languages. The law defines key terms including "covered parents" as immigrants who are parents of dependent children physically present in the United States, and "dependent child" as anyone under 18 or unable to support themselves due to physical, medical, or mental disability, with parents broadly defined to include biological or adoptive parents, legal guardians, and kin caregivers. By creating these community-based alternatives and support services, the bill aims to shift immigration management away from detention-focused approaches toward more supportive, service-oriented models for vulnerable immigrant families.

The REDACT Act creates a legal right for people to sue the federal government if their personal information or medical records are improperly exposed when documents are released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. This bill allows victims or others harmed by the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive personal data to bring civil lawsuits against the United States and its agencies. If a person wins such a lawsuit, they can receive at least $50,000 per violation or actual damages for pain and suffering, whichever is greater, plus attorney's fees and court costs. The legislation also allows courts to issue orders stopping further disclosures or declaring the violation unlawful. People have up to five years from when they discover the violation to file a lawsuit, with the law applying to any violations occurring on or after November 19, 2025.

The Fresh Bucks for Fresh Produce Act establishes a pilot program in the Department of Agriculture that awards grants to states to provide eligible households with monthly $60 payments to purchase fresh produce from local retailers like farmers markets, grocery stores, and farm stands. Eligible households must have incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median income, with households already receiving SNAP benefits automatically qualified. States receiving grants must set up programs using electronic benefits transfer cards to distribute payments, reach low-income and food-insecure communities, partner with local organizations and health clinics, and work to expand retailer participation through models like mobile markets and delivery services. The program requires the Department of Agriculture to study its effectiveness over five years, collecting data on food security, produce consumption, household demographics, and barriers to access, with initial results reported to Congress within 6 to 12 months and final recommendations due within 5 years. The pilot is designed to run for five years, with the law requiring geographic diversity by awarding grants to at least one state in each of five U.S. regions: Pacific Northwest, Northeast, Western, Midwest, and Southern.

This bill would eliminate several federal reporting requirements that currently require the Department of Defense to submit information about unfunded military priorities to Congress. The legislation repeals six sections of Title 10 of the U.S. Code that govern these reporting obligations, as well as related provisions from the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act and the 2018 Military Construction Authorization Act. These reports typically detail military projects, research initiatives, and construction projects that the Defense Department has identified as important but lacks sufficient budget funding to pursue. By removing these reporting requirements, the bill would reduce the administrative burden on the Department of Defense to document and communicate its unfunded needs to Congress. The bill was introduced in June 2026 and referred to the House Committee on Armed Services but contains no specific funding allocations or implementation timelines.

The LIFT the BAR Act expands access to federal assistance programs for lawfully present noncitizens by repealing restrictions from the 1996 welfare reform law and recent 2025 legislation that limited eligibility for SNAP, Medicaid, CHIP, and Medicare based on immigration status. The bill broadens the definition of who qualifies for benefits to include DACA recipients, individuals with pending U visa applications, special immigrant juveniles, and other federally authorized noncitizens, while allowing states to provide child nutrition benefits to all noncitizens regardless of status. Additionally, the legislation restores premium tax credits for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act for certain groups, including lawfully present noncitizens with incomes at or below the poverty line who are ineligible for Medicaid. Federal agencies must issue implementation guidance within 180 days of the bill's enactment, with most provisions taking effect immediately and benefits becoming available 180 days after guidance is released. This bill primarily affects noncitizens seeking access to federal welfare, healthcare, nutrition, and tax credit programs, with no specific funding amount detailed in the provided sections.

The All Students Count Act of 2026 requires states to break down student performance data by specific ethnic subgroups when reporting educational outcomes, rather than using broad racial categories. Currently, federal education law groups all Asian Americans together and all Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders together in state report cards, but this bill would require states to separately report data for groups like Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Samoan, Chamorro, and Tongan students, among others. The bill's sponsors argue this detailed data collection is necessary because these communities have distinct educational experiences and challenges that get hidden when they are lumped into larger categories, pointing to examples like low college completion rates among Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander students. The law would take effect 18 months after passage and applies to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act's annual state report card requirements. There is no specific funding amount allocated in the legislation for implementing these new data collection and reporting requirements.

This resolution expresses the House of Representatives' support for library staff and the services that libraries provide to American communities. The resolution recognizes that libraries have expanded their roles beyond traditional services to address pressing community needs, including addressing the opioid crisis, serving unhoused populations, and providing internet access to underserved areas. The resolution calls for increased federal, state, and local funding for library services and opposes book censorship in libraries, citing statistics showing thousands of book bans in schools during 2024-2025. It also supports library workers' rights to unionize, collectively bargain, and speak out on public matters without fear of retaliation or intimidation. The resolution designates the week of April 19-25, 2026, as National Library Week and reaffirms the fundamental right of all Americans to freely access information through their libraries.

This concurrent resolution directs the President to remove U.S. Armed Forces from hostilities against Iran or any part of its government or military unless a declaration of war or authorization to use military force for such purpose has been enacted.The resolution specifies that it shall not be construed to prevent the United States from defending itself, its Armed Forces, its diplomatic facilities, or allied states from imminent attack.

This resolution commemorates the fifth anniversary of the April 15, 2021 mass shooting at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis, Indiana, in which eight people were killed, including four members of the Sikh community. The resolution condemns the shooting and all forms of anti-Asian hate, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant rhetoric, noting that hate crimes and discrimination against South Asian, Muslim, Arab, Hindu, and Sikh communities have increased significantly in recent years. The resolution calls on the federal government to strengthen hate crime prevention and data collection programs, restore immigration services, and reverse what it characterizes as anti-immigrant policies. It also emphasizes the need for culturally responsive mental health services and trauma-informed care for communities affected by hate violence. The resolution is symbolic in nature and does not appropriate funding or establish specific timelines, but rather expresses the House's commitment to protecting civil rights and ensuring communities can live free from violence and discrimination.

This resolution condemns all attacks on civilians in Sudan and recognizes their right to safety and security. (Since 2023, there has been an ongoing conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The warring parties have been implicated in war crimes and human rights abuses.)The resolution applauds international, national, and local humanitarian efforts to deliver lifesaving assistance and calls on the warring parties to ensure aid workers’ safety and grant unfettered access to populations in need of assistance. Lastly, the resolution calls on external actors to end material support to the Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese Armed Forces and calls on the international community to prioritize civilian efforts to end the war, assist with post-conflict reconstruction and recovery, and support the establishment of a transitional justice mechanism.

H.R. 8103 would block the federal government from spending any money on military operations against Cuba from the bill's enactment through December 31, 2026, unless Congress first declares war on Cuba or passes a new law specifically authorizing such military action in compliance with the War Powers Resolution. The bill, introduced by Representative Jayapal and 18 other House members, affects all federal agencies and the military by restricting their ability to use appropriated funds for military force against Cuba during this period. The measure includes a narrow exception for military actions that comply with the War Powers Resolution's emergency provisions, which allow limited military operations under specific circumstances. This legislation would require Congress to take explicit action before any military intervention against Cuba could proceed, reinforcing congressional oversight of military decisions.

This bill would create a new annual wealth tax on ultra-wealthy Americans, applying a tiered rate structure of 2% on net assets between $50 million and $1 billion, and 3% on assets exceeding $1 billion (potentially rising to 6% if universal healthcare legislation passes), while assets under $50 million would not be taxed. The tax applies broadly to nearly all property types and includes special rules to prevent avoidance through trusts and gifts, while allowing limited exclusions for small personal items and non-residents' foreign assets. To enforce the new tax, the bill requires the Treasury Department to implement asset reporting requirements within 12 months, mandates annual audits of at least 30% of affected taxpayers, and imposes steep penalties of 30-50% for substantial understatements of asset valuations. The legislation authorizes $100 billion in IRS funding through 2037 to support enforcement ($70 billion), taxpayer services ($10 billion), and system modernization ($20 billion), and it allows the Treasury Secretary to extend payment for up to five years for taxpayers facing severe liquidity constraints. The bill, introduced by Rep. Jayapal and over 40 progressive Democrats on March 25, 2026, would affect only the nation's ultra-wealthy individuals and certain trusts while Treasury must report biannually to Congress beginning in 2029 on how the tax is being administered.

This bill caps the H–2A temporary agricultural worker program at 400,000 certified positions per fiscal year, down from over 384,000 positions in 2024. The legislation is designed to protect U.S. farmworkers—including those who harvest crops and operate equipment—from wage depression and job displacement caused by the rapid growth of the temporary worker program, which has more than quintupled since 2008. The bill includes an exemption allowing positions to exceed the cap if they are filled by workers represented by a labor union with a collective bargaining agreement. The legislation was introduced in February 2026 by Representative Jayapal and co-sponsors, and it requires action by the Department of Labor to enforce the annual limit on certified temporary worker petitions.

H.Res. 1058 is a nonbinding resolution expressing the House's position that the federal government should develop and implement a comprehensive "Transgender Bill of Rights" to protect transgender and nonbinary people. The resolution calls for legislative and policy changes across multiple areas, including amending civil rights laws to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, and education; protecting access to gender-affirming medical care; simplifying legal recognition procedures for name and gender changes; ensuring equal treatment in military service and veterans' benefits; and strengthening safety protections for transgender and nonbinary individuals in custody. The resolution also directs federal agencies to collect voluntary gender identity data for public health purposes and to designate a civil rights liaison within the Department of Justice dedicated to enforcing transgender rights. The bill does not specify new funding amounts or implementation timelines, as it is a statement of congressional intent rather than legislation that would immediately change existing law. The resolution was introduced by Representative Jayapal and over 80 cosponsors and was referred to the House Judiciary Committee and seven other committees for consideration.

The ICE Out of Our Faces Act would prohibit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers from using facial recognition and other biometric surveillance systems, including voice recognition and gait recognition technologies. The bill applies to all immigration enforcement officers, including contractors and state and local law enforcement deputized to perform immigration enforcement functions. Within 30 days of the law's enactment, all biometric data collected by these agencies would be deleted, and any information obtained through these systems would be inadmissible as evidence in court cases. The legislation creates a private right of action allowing individuals harmed by violations to sue the federal government for actual damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees, while also permitting state attorneys general to enforce the law on behalf of their residents. Officers who violate the prohibition could face retraining, suspension, termination, or other penalties.

Sunset for the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force ActThis bill repeals the Authorization for Use of Military Force signed into law September 18, 2001, with the repeal effective 240 days after the date of the enactment of the bill.