Mark Messmer

Empowering Employer Child and Elder Care Solutions Act

This bill excludes the value of employer-funded child or dependent care from being used in calculating an eligible employee's overtime pay.

Under current law, overtime hours must be paid at one and a half times an employee's regular rate of pay. This rate is an average hourly rate that must include certain types of pay, such as commissions. The bill specifies that an employer can provide or pay for child or dependent care services without the value of the services being included in this calculation.

Instructing Noteworthy Steps toward Transparency to Rout and Undo Calamitous Transactions Act of 2025 or the INSTRUCT Act of 2025

This bill requires the Department of Education (ED) to share foreign gift and contract reports from institutions of higher education (IHEs) with specified federal agencies.

Under current law, an IHE must disclose to ED a gift from or contract with a foreign source that is valued at $250,000 or more, considered alone or in combination with all other gifts from or contracts with that foreign source. This bill requires ED, within 30 days of receiving a disclosure report from an IHE, to transmit an unredacted copy of the report to 11 listed agencies (e.g., the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of State, and the Department of Homeland Security).

The bill also requires ED, within 90 days of the bill's enactment, to transmit additional information to these federal agencies. Specifically, ED must transmit (1) any disclosure report received by ED prior to the bill's enactment; and (2) any report, document, or other record generated by ED in the course of investigating an IHE's compliance with disclosure requirements (and such investigation was initiated prior to the bill's enactment).

The Government Accountability Office must study and report on ways to improve intergovernmental agency coordination for implementing and enforcing disclosure reporting requirements.

This joint resolution nullifies the final rule titled Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Commercial Water Heating Equipment, which was submitted by the Department of Energy on October 6, 2023. The rule adopts more stringent energy conservation standards for commercial water heating equipment under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act in order to achieve more energy savings.