Eugene Vindman

Protecting America's Agricultural Land from Foreign Harm Act of 2025

This bill prohibits persons associated with the governments of Iran, North Korea, China, or Russia from purchasing or leasing agricultural land in the United States.

Specifically, the President must prohibit any person (individual or entity) owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of these foreign governments from purchasing or leasing (1) public agricultural land that is owned by the United States and administered by a federal department or agency, or (2) private agricultural land that is located in the United States.

A person that violates or attempts to violate this prohibition is subject to civil and criminal penalties. This prohibition does not require a person that owns or leases agricultural land as of the date of this bill's enactment to sell that land.

Further, the President must prohibit a person associated with these foreign governments and who leases, or who has full or partial ownership of, agricultural land in the United States from participating in Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs. Exceptions are included to allow for participation in USDA programs related to food safety, the health and labor safety of individuals, or certain reporting and disclosure requirements.

The bill excludes U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents from these restrictions.

The bill also amends the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978 (AFIDA) to require reporting on security interests and leases.

Finally, the Government Accountability Office must submit a report to Congress on AFIDA.

Veteran Overmedication and Suicide Prevention Act of 2025

This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to report on the deaths of covered veterans who died by suicide during the last five years, regardless of whether information relating to such deaths has been reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A covered veteran is any veteran who received VA hospital care or medical services during the five-year period preceding the veteran's death.

Among other elements, the report shall include the total number of covered veterans who died by suicide, violent death, or accidental death, as well as certain demographic information.

Manatee Protection Act of 2025

This bill requires the Department of the Interior to include the West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus) in the endangered species list and give the species protections provided to endangered species.

Keep Our Promise to America's Children and Teachers Act or the Keep Our PACT Act

This bill provides funding through FY2035 for grant programs operated by local educational agencies to provide supplementary educational and related services to low-achieving students and other students who attend elementary and secondary schools with relatively high concentrations of students from low-income families. Additionally, the bill permanently reauthorizes the grant program to assist states and outlying areas in providing special education and related services to children with disabilities.

The amounts provided by the bill are designated as an emergency requirement for the purposes of Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rules and other budget enforcement procedures.

Protecting Information by Local Leaders for Agency Resilience Act or the PILLAR Act

This bill extends the State and Local Cybersecurity Grant Program through FY2035, expands the scope of the program, and imposes certain limits on the use of grant funds. (The program provides grants to states and Indian tribes to address cybersecurity risks to government information systems.)

The bill expands the scope of systems that may be secured using grant funds to include operational technology systems and specifies that systems using artificial intelligence are included. Such systems must be maintained, owned, or operated by or on behalf of state, local, or tribal governments.

The bill also specifies that grant funds may not be used to purchase software, hardware, or related products or services that do not align with relevant guidance provided by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Further, the bill increases the federal share of costs available to entities that implement or enable multifactor authentication and identity and access management tools for critical infrastructure by a specified date.

The bill requires annual reports by grant recipients to include a description of recipients’ progress in assuming the cost of continuing cybersecurity programs after grant funds are fully expended.

The Government Accountability Office must periodically review the program. This effort must include a review of artificial intelligence adoption across a sample of grants.

Finally, CISA must implement an outreach plan to inform local governments, including governments in rural areas or areas with small populations, about CISA’s no-cost cybersecurity offerings.

Highway Funding Transferability Improvement Act

This bill increases the amount of federal highway program funds that a state may reallocate annually between designated programs.

Specifically, for the following programs, the bill allows a state to reallocate up to 75% (currently, 50%) of the annual funding for each program to any of the other programs:

• National Highway Performance Program;

• Surface Transportation Block Grant Program;

• Highway Safety Improvement Program;

• Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program;

• National Highway Freight Program;

• Carbon Reduction Program; and

• Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation Formula Program (also known as the PROTECT Formula Program).

Strengthening Transparency and Obligations to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment Act of 2025 or the STOP CSAM Act of 2025

This bill revises the federal framework governing the prevention of online child sexual exploitation to expand protections for victims, expand requirements for electronic communication service providers and remote computing service providers (providers), and expand related penalties and remedies.

The bill extends protections for child victims and witnesses who testify in federal court (e.g., privacy protections) to child victims and witnesses of kidnapping offenses and to child victims and witnesses who were under 18 years of age at the time of the crime, even if they are 18 or older at the time of court proceedings.

Additionally, the bill establishes statutory procedures for courts to appoint a trustee to hold restitution payments for certain victims (e.g., minor victims) of offenses involving human trafficking, sexual abuse, child sexual abuse material, illegal sexual activity and related crimes, or crimes of violence.

The bill requires providers to report online child sexual exploitation to the CyberTipline (i.e., the national reporting system for online child sexual exploitation) within 60 days. Reports must include specified information, such as information about repeat offenders. The bill establishes criminal and civil penalties for providers who fail to comply with the requirements.

Finally, the bill prohibits providers from hosting or storing child pornography or knowingly facilitating the sexual exploitation of children and allows victims to pursue civil remedies.

HOV Lanes for Heroes Act

This bill provides authority for a public authority to allow a disabled veteran to use a high occupancy vehicle (HOV) facility if such veteran has a license plate that clearly identifies the vehicle, a registered transponder, or other method of qualifying identification.

The public authority may not charge a toll to the veteran for use of the HOV facility.

SALT Fairness and Marriage Penalty Elimination Act

This bill increases the limitation on the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes (commonly known as the SALT deduction cap) to $100,000 ($200,000 for married individuals filing a joint federal income tax return).

Under current law, the SALT deduction cap is $10,000 ($5,000 for married individuals filing separate federal income tax returns).

American Teacher Act

This bill establishes grants to increase the minimum salary of public elementary and secondary school teachers. It also authorizes a national campaign regarding the value of the teaching profession.

First, the bill directs the Department of Education (ED) to award four-year grants to state educational agencies (SEAs) and, through them, subgrants to local educational agencies to establish a minimum annual salary of $60,000 (to be adjusted annually for inflation) for these teachers.

Second, the bill directs ED to award grants to eligible SEAs to provide cost-of-living adjustments to the annual base salary of teachers.

Finally, the bill authorizes ED to carry out a national campaign to (1) increase awareness about the importance of teachers and the value of the teaching profession, (2) encourage secondary school and college students to consider teaching as a professional career, and (3) diversify the pool of individuals who enter the teaching profession.