Bill Cassidy

Major Richard Star Act

This bill allows a veteran with a combat-related disability to receive retirement pay, without reduction, concurrently with their disability compensation. This includes veterans with a combat-related disability and fewer than 20 years of creditable service. (Currently, veterans who receive combat-related special compensation and retirement pay are subject to an offset in retirement pay for concurrent receipt of such benefits.)

Chemical Tax Repeal Act

This bill repeals the Hazardous Substance Superfund excise tax imposed on certain chemicals and chemical substances.

Under current law, an excise tax is imposed through December 31, 2031, on taxable chemicals and taxable chemical substances that are (1) manufactured or produced in the United States, or (2) imported into the United States. The excise tax rate varies between 44 cents per ton to $9.74 per ton, depending on the chemical and certain other variables. (There are 42 listed taxable chemicals and 151 listed taxable chemical substances.)

Further, under current law, amounts collected from the excise tax on taxable chemicals and taxable chemical substances are deposited into the Hazardous Substance Superfund, which finances the remediation of certain environmentally contaminated sites.

Enhancing Science, Treatment, and Upkeep of America’s Resilient and Important Estuarine Systems Act of 2025 or the ESTUARIES Act of 2025

This bill reauthorizes through FY2031 grants provided under the National Estuary Program to protect and restore estuaries of national significance. Estuaries are coastal waterbodies where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with the ocean’s saltwater. Under the existing program, the Environmental Protection Agency provides grants for (1) developing and implementing comprehensive conservation and management plans for estuaries of national significance, and (2) addressing issues that threaten the ecological and economic well-being of such estuaries. The existing program provides grants to states, regional water pollution control agencies and entities, state coastal zone management agencies, interstate agencies, other public or nonprofit private agencies, institutions, organizations, and individuals.

Strengthening Agency Management and Oversight of Software Assets Act

This bill requires federal agencies to assess their software inventory and develop software management plans.

The bill requires each agency (which includes any executive department, military department, or other establishment in the executive branch) to complete a comprehensive assessment of the software paid for by, in use at, or deployed throughout the agency. The assessment must include information such as (1) the current inventory of software; (2) contracts and other arrangements used to acquire, build, deploy, or use the software; (3) costs and fees not included in the initial contract or agreement; and (4) the interoperability of the software and restrictions on its use.

Each agency must use their assessment to develop a plan to consolidate software entitlements, develop procedures for cost-effective acquisition strategies, and restrict subordinate entities from using any software entitlement without approval. (A software entitlement is software that has been purchased, leased, or licensed by or billed to an agency and that is subject to use limitations.) Such plans must be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Congress.

Within two years of enactment, OMB must submit recommendations to Congress regarding government software procurement policies and practices to

• increase the interoperability of software licenses,

• consolidate licenses when appropriate,

• reduce costs,

• improve performance, and

• modernize the management and oversight of agency software.

The GAO must report on certain related topics, including governmentwide trends in agency software asset management practices and comparisons of such practices among agencies.

Combating Violent and Dangerous Crime Act

This bill expands the definition of crime of violence for the purposes of determining whether a defendant is subject to an enhanced criminal penalty for using or carrying a firearm in the crime of violence. The bill also expands applicable criminal penalties for bank robbery, carjacking, and kidnapping offenses, as well as certain drug offenses.

Under current law, an individual who uses or carries a firearm in a crime of violence is subject to an enhanced mandatory minimum prison term in addition and consecutive to any other prison term imposed for the underlying crime of violence. The term crime of violence includes a felony that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force. This bill expands crime of violence to include a conspiracy or an attempt to commit a felony that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force.

This bill expands applicable penalties for federal criminal offenses involving bank robbery, carjacking, or kidnapping, including by specifying the offenses that include as an element force or threat, or intimidation, and therefore qualify as a crime of violence under the existing definition.

Additionally, a conspiracy or attempt to commit a federal bank robbery, carjacking or kidnapping offense qualifies as a crime of violence under the expanded definition.

Finally, the bill establishes additional criminal penalties for certain federal drug offenses involving the manufacture or distribution of candy-flavored controlled substances or similar products for minors.

High-Quality Charter Schools Act

This bill establishes a federal tax credit for 75% of the qualified contributions of cash or market securities made by an individual to an eligible charter school organization to create or expand the charter schools operated or managed by the organization. (Limitations apply.)

The bill limits the tax credit to the greater of $5,000 or 10% of the individual’s adjusted gross income. The tax credit is not refundable, but any amount of the tax credit that exceeds an individual’s tax liability for the tax year may be carried forward for up to five tax years.

Further, the bill establishes an annual $5 billion volume cap (which must be increased under certain circumstances) from which $10 million must be distributed to each state for allocation of the tax credit to individuals residing in the state. The remaining amount of the volume cap must be allocated to individuals on a first-come, first-serve basis. The bill requires the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to develop a system for tracking qualified contributions in real time.

Under the bill, an eligible charter school organization generally is required to spend all of the qualified contributions (less reasonable administrative expenses) within a certain amount of time. If the IRS determines that an organization has failed to meet such spending requirements, the tax credit is not allowed for contributions to the organization for one year after the date of the determination.

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.

Empower Charter School Educators to Lead Act

This bill makes changes to the Charter Schools Program (CSP), which authorizes competitive grants to state entities (e.g., state educational agencies and state charter school boards) to support high-quality charter schools.

Specifically, the bill allows state entities to use up to 5% of their CSP grant funds to make pre-charter planning subgrants to certain prospective charter applicants.

The bill specifies that state entities may also (1) fund a revolving loan fund or similar mechanisms for expenses prior to an eligible applicant receiving reimbursement, and (2) provide assistance to eligible applicants in locating and accessing a charter school facility.

Under the current CSP, state entities must use at least 7% of their CSP grant funds to provide technical assistance to eligible applicants and authorized public chartering agencies. The bill instead allows state entities to use not more than 10% of these funds for technical assistance.

Additionally, under the current CSP, state entities may not use more than 3% of CSP grant funds for administrative costs. This bill raises the cap to 5%.

Homebuyers Privacy Protection Act

This bill limits the circumstances in which credit reporting agencies may provide consumer credit reports to third parties in connection with residential mortgage transactions.

Specifically, the bill prohibits a credit reporting agency from providing a consumer's credit report to a third party in connection with a residential mortgage transaction unless the transaction consists of a firm offer of credit or insurance and (1) the third party provides documentation certifying that it has the consumer's consent; or (2) the third party has originated a mortgage on behalf of the consumer, is a current mortgage loan servicer to the consumer, or has a current specified banking relationship with the consumer.

These provisions take effect 180 days after the bill's enactment.

This resolution condemns Hamas in the harshest terms for its attacks on Israel and demands that Hamas immediately release all remaining hostages. The resolution also (1) expresses sympathy to the hostages, those wounded, and their families; and (2) mourns those killed by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and during captivity.