Eugene Vindman

Strong Communities Act of 2025

This bill allows funds under the Community Oriented Policing Services grant program to be used to make competitive grants for local law enforcement agencies to provide training to officers and recruits who agree to serve in law enforcement agencies in their communities.

Daniel J. Harvey, Jr. and Adam Lambert Improving Servicemember Transition to Reduce Veteran Suicide Act

This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DOD) to provide additional information and assistance related to mental health care to veterans in the Solid Start program and members of the Armed Forces in the Transition Assistance Program.

Specifically, the bill requires that counseling provided under DOD’s Transition Assistance Program include additional mental health information, including information about the risk of suicide and other potential stressors associated with separation from the Armed Forces.

The bill also expands the activities that must be carried out by the VA under the Solid Start program, which is an outreach program for veterans in their first year of separation from service. Specifically, under the program, the VA must (1) assist eligible veterans who elect to enroll in the VA health care system, and (2) educate veterans about mental health and counseling services available through the Veterans Health Administration.

Medicare Audiology Access Improvement Act of 2025

This bill provides for Medicare coverage of certain audiology services. Specifically, the bill expands coverage to include diagnostic and treatment services that are furnished by audiologists and that would otherwise be covered if provided by a physician, including incidental services, regardless of whether such services are provided pursuant to a referral from, or under the supervision of, a physician or other health care practitioner.

Strengthening Child Exploitation Enforcement Act

This bill makes changes to federal criminal laws related to various offenses, particularly sexual abuse offenses against minors.

The bill revises the federal kidnapping statute by specifying that obtaining a victim by defrauding or deceiving a third party constitutes the offense of kidnapping. Additionally, for a kidnapping offense that involves a victim who has not attained the age of 16, the bill specifies that it is not a defense that the victim consented to the conduct of the offender, unless the offender establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that the offender reasonably believed that the victim had attained the age of 16.

The bill also revises statutes related to sexual abuse offenses against minors to specify the following:

• that crossing international lines with the intent to engage in a sexual act with a child who has not attained the age of 12 constitutes aggravated sexual abuse (currently, the statute only references crossing state lines),

• that the offense of sexual abuse of a minor also includes knowingly causing the intentional touching of any person by a person who has not attained the age of 16, and

• that attempting to commit abusive sexual contact is also a crime that is subject to the same penalty as the completed offense.

Ellie Helton, Lisa Colagrossi, Kristen Shafer Englert, Teresa Anne Lawrence, and Jennifer Sedney Focused Research Act or Ellie's Law

This bill authorizes through FY2030 appropriations for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to conduct or support research on unruptured brain aneurysms in a patient population diversified by age, sex, and race.

Uyghur Policy Act of 2025

This bill addresses human rights issues concerning the Uyghurs and other minority groups residing primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in China.

The bill directs the Department of State to prioritize policies and programs to support the Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in the XUAR and to lead coordination efforts for the release of certain political prisoners in the XUAR.

The State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs may make certain funds available to human rights advocates working on behalf of Uyghurs and members of other persecuted minority groups from the XUAR. The funds shall be used to facilitate the presence of such human rights advocates at public diplomacy forums to speak on issues related to the human rights and religious freedoms of persecuted minority groups in China.

The State Department must ensure that Uyghur language training is available to Foreign Service officers. It must also ensure that a Uyghur-speaking member of the Foreign Service is assigned to U.S. diplomatic and consular posts in China.

Restore Protections for Dialysis Patients Act

This bill specifies certain requirements for private health insurers regarding coverage of individuals with end stage renal disease (ESRD) who are also covered under Medicare.

In particular, the bill specifies that insurers may not limit benefits, including limiting network composition, in a manner that will affect ESRD Medicare beneficiaries differently compared to others without ESRD. The bill additionally specifies that insurers are not required to include a particular renal dialysis provider or a particular number of such providers as part of their networks.

Farmers First Act of 2025

This bill extends through FY2030 and revises the Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN). This Department of Agriculture program provides competitive grants to states, Indian tribes, and qualified nonprofit organizations to provide stress assistance programs (i.e., professional agricultural behavioral health counseling, helplines, and resources) to individuals engaged in farming, ranching, and agriculture-related occupations.

The bill specifies that the grant funding for farm telephone helplines and websites may also be used for crisis lines.

Further, FRSAN grant recipients may establish referral relationships with providers, including Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, health centers, rural health clinics, and critical access hospitals.

Drone Espionage Act

This bill makes it a federal crime under the Espionage Act to engage in certain activities related to obtaining, receiving, or transmitting video of national defense information. The term national defense information means information or other material that is related to national defense.

The Espionage Act prohibits certain activities related to obtaining, receiving, or transmitting national defense information that could harm the United States or aid a foreign nation. Under current law, the prohibitions only apply if national defense information is obtained, received, or transmitted by certain means, such as a sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, document, writing, or note. Under current law, a violator is subject to criminal penalties—a fine, a prison term of up to 10 years, or both.

This bill makes the criminal prohibitions under the Espionage Act applicable if national defense information is obtained, received, or transmitted by means of video. Under this bill, a violator is subject to the same penalties as under existing law—a fine, a prison term of up to 10 years, or both.

Rural Veterinary Workforce Act

This bill excludes from gross income, for federal tax purposes, payments received pursuant to the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program or any state loan repayment or loan forgiveness program that is intended to provide for increased access to veterinary services. (The Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program is a Department of Agriculture program that repays a portion of the student loans of veterinarians who provide short-term services in designated veterinary shortage areas.)

Radiation Oncology Case Rate Value Based Program Act of 2025 or the ROCR Value Based Program Act

This bill establishes a specialized payment program under Medicare for providers and suppliers of radiation oncology services.

Specifically, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) must establish a program under which radiation therapy providers (i.e., hospital outpatient departments) and suppliers (i.e., physician group practices and freestanding radiation therapy centers) receive payments for each episode of care provided to individuals with specified types of cancer. An episode of care means the period beginning on the day radiation therapy planning is furnished to the individual and ending (1) for individuals with bone or brain metastases, 30 days later; and (2) for individuals with other cancer types, 90 days later.

Participation in the program is mandatory for providers and suppliers that participate in Medicare, unless the provider or supplier is part of a state-based Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation model or qualifies for a significant hardship exemption. The CMS must set payment rates for the program based on national payment rates with specified adjustments (e.g., geographic adjustments). Providers and suppliers who provide certain transportation services for individuals under their care may receive an additional payment. Providers and suppliers must be accredited in accordance with certain standards, subject to payment reductions.

The Government Accountability Office must report on (1) implementation of the program, and (2) underserved areas that are in need of more or newer radiation therapy resources.

Crop Insurance for Future Farmers Act

This bill amends the federal crop insurance program (FCIP) to increase the premium assistance rate for beginning and veteran farmers or ranchers. (FCIP offers subsidized crop insurance policies that producers can purchase to cover a wide variety of crops and livestock.)

Specifically, the bill amends the amount of percentage points that are added to the premium assistance rate for beginning farmers or ranchers and veteran farmers or ranchers for an applicable insurance policy or plan (currently 10 percentage points) to provide

• 15 percentage points in each of the 1st and 2nd reinsurance years,

• 13 percentage points in the 3rd year,

• 11 percentage points in the 4th year, and

• 10 percentage points in each of the 5th through the 10th reinsurance years.

Under the bill, farmers and ranchers, and veteran farmers and ranchers, are eligible to qualify for the program for 10 years, an increase from 5 years under current law. Specifically, to be considered a beginning farmer or rancher, a person must not have actively operated and managed a farm or ranch for more than 10 crop years. To be considered a veteran farmer or rancher, a veteran must have (1) not operated a farm or ranch for more than 10 crop years, or (2) first obtained veteran status in the past 10 years.

This bill designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 409 South Hicks Street in Lawrenceville, Virginia, as the "James Solomon Russell Post Office".

Veterans Mental Health and Addiction Therapy Quality of Care Act

This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to seek to enter into an agreement with an independent and objective organization to study the difference in quality of mental health and addiction therapy care provided by the VA compared to non-VA providers across various modalities. The organization must publish its findings publicly.