Andy Barr

This concurrent resolution declares that Congress should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over the air, or on any business for such public performance of sound recordings.

This resolution expresses condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of the victims of UPS Airlines flight 2976, which crashed in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 4, 2025.

The resolution also

• honors those who lost their lives, and

• commends the first responders and emergency personnel.

Guarding Unprotected Aging Retirees from Deception Act of 2026 or the GUARD Act of 2026

This bill allows state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and grantees that receive funds from certain law enforcement grant programs to use the funds to investigate general financial fraud, elder financial fraud, and pig butchering. Pig butchering refers to a confidence and investment fraud in which a victim is gradually lured into transferring increasing amounts of money, generally in the form of cryptocurrency, into a fake virtual investment.

The bill allows federal law enforcement agencies to assist state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and fusion centers in the use of tracing tools for blockchain and related technology tools.

Finally, the bill requires the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to report on efforts to combat general financial fraud, elder financial fraud, pig butchering, and scams, including an evaluation of any legislative recommendations to improve the efforts. The bill also requires FinCEN to report on the state of general financial fraud, elder financial fraud, pig butchering, and scams in the United States, including trends in the crimes.

Payment Choice Act of 2025

This bill requires retail businesses to accept cash as a form of payment for on-site sales of $500 or less and it prohibits them from charging cash-paying customers a higher price compared to customers not paying with cash. Businesses covered by this bill are those engaged in the business of selling or offering goods or services at retail to the public that accept in-person payments at a physical location.

The bill establishes exceptions for this requirement, including by allowing a business to provide a device to provide prepaid cards on site for customers to use as payment. Among other requirements, such a card must not have a fee associated with its use and must not require a minimum payment of more than $1.

The bill provides for enforcement through preventative relief, damages, and civil penalties.

Farm Credit Administration Independent Authority Act

This bill specifies that the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) is the sole regulator of the Farm Credit System (FCS) and establishes reporting requirements for FCS institutions (i.e., lenders).

Specifically, the bill states that the FCA is the sole and independent regulator of the FCS and exempts entities that are supervised by the FCA from the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA).

As background, the bill addresses a rule issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that implements provisions of the ECOA by requiring covered financial institutions, including FCS institutions, to collect and report to the CFPB data on credit applications for small businesses, including the principal owner's race, sex, and ethnicity. This 2023 rule has been challenged in court.

The bill also requires FCS institutions to (1) request that loan applicants and borrowers that are small farmers disclose information identifying their race, sex, and ethnicity; and (2) annually report the collected information to the FCA. The FCA must make the collected information available to the public on annual basis. If an FCS institution customer does not voluntarily report the requested information, the FCA may not require the institution to use other means to deduce the information.

In addition, the bill specifies that FCS institutions shall not be required to comply with the bill's requirements if financial institutions are not required to comply with the CFPB rule due to a court invalidating the rule or a repeal of the rule.

Protecting Our Courts from Foreign Manipulation Act

This bill limits third-party financing of civil litigation by foreign entities in federal courts and establishes related disclosure requirements.

The bill makes it unlawful for a foreign state or sovereign wealth fund to provide any monetary support for a civil action in which it is not a named party. The bill also makes it unlawful for any party or counsel to receive monetary support for civil litigation from a foreign state or sovereign wealth fund that is not a party.

The bill also prohibits third-party litigation funding agreements involving money from a foreign state or sovereign wealth fund in which someone other than named parties or counsel of record receives a payment that is contingent on the outcome or proceeds from the civil action or from any matter within a portfolio that includes the civil action.

The bill requires any party or counsel in a civil action to disclose the name of any foreign person, state, or sovereign wealth fund that has agreed to provide monetary support for the civil action, has a right to receive a payment contingent upon the outcome of the civil action, or has the right to receive payment that is contingent on proceeds from any matter within a portfolio that includes the civil action.

The bill also requires parties to produce the agreement creating a contingent right to payment.

These requirements apply to claims that are pending on or commenced after this bill's date of enactment.

Improving Seniors' Timely Access to Care Act of 2025

This bill establishes several requirements and standards relating to prior authorization processes under Medicare Advantage (MA) plans.

Specifically, MA plans must (1) establish an electronic prior authorization program that meets specified standards; (2) annually submit to the CMS for publication specified prior authorization information, including the percentage of requests approved and the average response time; and (3) meet other standards, as set by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), relating to the quality and timeliness of prior authorization determinations.

The CMS and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology must publish on the CMS' website a report that analyzes the information received from MA plans, the feasibility of implementing real-time decision making with respect to prior authorization requests, and the impact of decisions that are made using artificial intelligence on patient access.

National Law Enforcement Officers Remembrance, Support and Community Outreach Act. [sic]

This bill temporarily directs the Department of the Interior to award a grant to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund for the expenses associated with operating and enhancing the community outreach, public education, and officer safety and wellness programs of the National Law Enforcement Museum.

Keep SNAP Funded Act of 2025

This bill provides appropriations for the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide uninterrupted benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) during any period in which legislation has not been enacted to provide continuing or full-year FY2026 appropriations to USDA.

The bill also provides appropriations for retroactive payments for SNAP benefits that were missed on or after September 30, 2025, and before this bill is enacted.

The appropriations provided by this bill are available until legislation is enacted to provide FY2026 appropriations for USDA (including continuing appropriations).

Pay Our Troops Act of 2026

This bill provides continuing appropriations for military pay for any period during which interim or full-year appropriations for FY2026 are not in effect (i.e., a government shutdown).

Specifically, the bill provides FY2026 continuing appropriations for the pay and allowances of (1) members of the Armed Forces, including reserve components, who perform active service during the period; and (2) civilian personnel and contractors of the Department of Defense (and the Department of Homeland Security in the case of the Coast Guard) who are providing support to such members of the Armed Forces.

If a government shutdown occurs, the bill provides the continuing appropriations until the earlier of (1) the enactment into law of specified appropriations legislation, or (2) January 1, 2027.

Leveling the Playing Field 2.0 Act

This bill addresses unfair trade practices by making various changes to U.S. antidumping and countervailing duty laws. Antidumping laws provide relief to U.S industries and workers that are materially injured or threatened with injury due to imports of like products sold in the U.S. market at less than fair value, while countervailing duty laws provide such relief from imports of products subsidized by a foreign government or public entity.

Specifically, the bill establishes a process for successive antidumping and countervailing duty investigations. Successive investigations may be concurrent (an ongoing investigation of the same product) or recently completed (not more than two years before the date of the initiation of the successive investigation). Further, the bill establishes a timeline for the Department of Commerce to issue determinations in successive investigations.

Among other provisions, the bill authorizes Commerce to

• apply countervailing duty law to subsidies provided by a foreign government or public entity to a company operating in a different country,

• use another method for calculating the cost of production in specific circumstances, and

• require importers to certify that the imported merchandise is not subject to an antidumping or countervailing duty order.

Additionally, the bill statutorily establishes procedures for Commerce to conduct circumvention inquiries, including by specifying the deadlines for preliminary and final determinations.

The bill also provides statutory authority for Commerce to investigate currency undervaluation as a countervailable subsidy.

Eliminate DEI in Colleges Act

This bill prohibits an institution of higher education (IHE) from receiving federal funds or participating in federal student aid programs if the IHE carries out diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Specifically, the bill requires an IHE to certify to the Department of Education (ED) that the IHE (1) does not and will not carry out any program, project, initiative, or other activity that advocates, promotes, or otherwise supports DEI; and (2) does not and will not maintain any office or other entity within the IHE that advocates, promotes, or otherwise supports DEI.

Each IHE that provides the certification must, upon request, make available to ED any information necessary to verify the accuracy of the certification.

ED must publish regulations to implement and enforce the bill's provisions.

The bill establishes a process through which an IHE may appeal ED's decision to terminate the IHE's financial assistance for failure to comply with the bill's provisions.