Chris Pappas

Crime Victims Fund Stabilization Act of 2025

This bill adds a new source of revenue for the Crime Victims Fund (CVF). Specifically, the bill requires certain civil monetary penalties collected from settlements and judgments in cases involving fraud and false claims against the federal government to be deposited into the CVF through FY2029.

The CVF supports federal, state, and local programs and activities to compensate and assist victims of crimes. Currently, the CVF is funded by deposits from a variety of sources, including federal criminal fines, penalties, and assessments; forfeited bail bonds; and certain other gifts, donations, and bequests.

Prevent Tariff Abuse Act

This bill prohibits the President from exercising authorities under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose duties, tariff-rate quotas, or other quotas on imports entering the United States. (IEEPA provides the President with broad authority to regulate various economic transactions following a declaration of a national emergency.)

Expanding Access to Family Planning Act

This bill provides, subject to specified conditions, funding through FY2035 for federally funded family planning services and clinics.

In particular, the funds must be used for (1) grants and contracts that support the provision of family planning services, and (2) clinic infrastructure (e.g., construction and renovation of clinics).

Clinics that receive funding to provide family planning services must offer each patient with a positive pregnancy test the opportunity for nondirective counseling on (1) prenatal care and delivery; (2) infant care, foster care, and adoption; and (3) pregnancy termination. This counseling must include referrals if requested by a patient.

Additionally, if a funding recipient makes subawards for the provision of family planning services, the recipient may not prohibit an entity from participating in a subaward program for reasons other than the entity's inability to provide family planning services.

Invest to Protect Act of 2025

This bill directs the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services within the Department of Justice to award grants to local and tribal governments that employ fewer than 175 law enforcement officers. Grant funds may be used for various activities, including to provide de-escalation training and improve recruitment and retention.

Protect America's Workforce Act

This bill nullifies the Executive Order titled Exclusions from Federal Labor-Management Relations Programs (issued on March 27, 2025), which excludes specified executive agencies and subdivisions from the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute. The statute authorizes federal employees' participation in collective bargaining and enforces collective bargaining rights.

The bill also specifies that a covered collective bargaining agreement in place as of March 26, 2025, shall have full force and effect through the stated term of the agreement.

Department of Education Protection Act

This bill prohibits the use of appropriated funds made available to the Department of Education (ED) to decentralize, reduce the staffing level of, or alter the responsibilities or functionality of ED compared to its organization or operation on January 1, 2025.

Guard and Reserve GI Bill Parity Act of 2025

This bill expands eligibility for Post-9/11 educational assistance for members of the reserve components of the Armed Forces and members of the National Guard. Specifically, the bill expands the types of activities that count towards Post-9/11 GI Bill eligibility to include active duty, inactive-duty training, annual training duty, and full-time National Guard duty or active duty. (Generally, under current law, only federal active duty counts towards educational assistance eligibility.)

Modern, Clean, and Safe Trucks Act of 2025

This bill repeals the 12% federal excise tax imposed on the first retail sale of certain heavy trucks, trailers, and tractors that generally are used on the highway.

As background, a 12% federal excise tax is imposed on the sale price (of the first retail sale) of

• truck bodies and chassis suitable for use with a vehicle having a gross vehicle weight of over 33,000 pounds;

• truck trailer and semitrailer bodies and chassis suitable for use with a vehicle having a gross vehicle weight over 26,000 pounds; and

• tractors that are generally used for highway transportation in combination with a trailer or semitrailer, have a gross vehicle weight over 19,500 pounds, and have a gross combined weight of greater than 33,000 pounds.

Amounts collected from the excise tax on the retail sale of heavy trucks, trailers, and tractors are deposited into the Highway Trust Fund. (The Highway Trust Fund supports surface transportation programs and projects.)

Under current law, the excise tax on the retail sale of heavy trucks, trailers, and tractors expires on October 1, 2028.

Miracle on Ice Congressional Gold Medal Act

This act provides for the award of Congressional Gold Medals to the members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic men's ice hockey team in recognition of the team's achievement at the 1980 Winter Olympic Games.

Safer Skies Act of 2025

This bill directs the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to require that certain small public charter air carrier operations comply with the Aircraft Operator Standard Security Program (AOSSP).

As background, the TSA has different types of security programs based on the nature of the air carrier’s operations. Currently, the AOSSP requirements apply to all scheduled passenger service with a seating capacity of 61 or more seats that operate into or out of a TSA-controlled sterile area.

The TSA also has other security programs that have less stringent security requirements than the AOSSP. These programs are designed for different types of aircraft operators, including operations under Part 135 (e.g., scheduled commuter flights in smaller aircraft) and Part 380 (e.g., public charter flights) of the Department of Transportation’s regulations.

This bill applies the AOSSP requirements to air carriers operating under Part 135 and Part 380 that (1) operate scheduled public charter service, (2) operate airplanes configured with 10 or more passenger seats, and (3) do not enplane or deplane in a TSA-managed checkpoint.

This joint resolution provides that the Equal Rights Amendment, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, was ratified by three-fourths of the states and is therefore a valid constitutional amendment, regardless of any time limit that was in the original proposal.

The Equal Rights Amendment was originally proposed to the states in 1972. The original proposal included a deadline for ratification of March 22, 1979; Congress subsequently extended the deadline to June 30, 1982. Although the requisite 38 states have ratified the amendment, three of these states did so after the deadlines, and five states subsequently rescinded their ratifications. The status of the amendment has been the subject of litigation.