Ritchie Torres

Plastic Pellet Free Waters Act

This bill requires the Environmental Protection Agency to issue a final rule that prohibits certain discharges of plastic pellets and other preproduction plastic into waters of the United States.

Save Healthcare Workers Act

This bill establishes a new criminal offense for knowingly assaulting hospital personnel during the performance of their official duties in a manner that interferes with their performance of the duties or limits their ability to perform the duties.

Violations are subject to a fine, imprisonment of up to 10 years, or both. Violations that involve dangerous weapons, result in bodily injury, or are committed during a declared public emergency are subject to an enhanced penalty of a fine, imprisonment of up to 20 years, or both.

Additionally, the bill authorizes grants to reduce the incidence of violence at hospitals, including violence or intimidation against hospital personnel in the performance of their duties.

Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act of 2026 or the DISCLOSE Act of 2026

This bill addresses campaign finance, including by expanding the prohibition on campaign spending by foreign nationals, requiring additional disclosures of campaign expenditures, and requiring additional disclosures regarding certain political advertisements.

Specifically, the bill expands existing foreign money prohibitions to include disbursements for paid web-based or digital communications and federal judicial nomination communications. It also prohibits foreign nationals from contributing to campaigns related to ballot initiatives and referenda.

The Government Accountability Office must, for each four-year election cycle, study and report on the incidence of illicit foreign money in federal elections.

Next, the bill makes it unlawful to establish or use a corporation, company, or other entity with the intent to conceal an election contribution or donation by a foreign national. A violator is subject to criminal penalties—a fine, a prison term of up to five years, or both.

Covered organizations (e.g., corporations, labor organizations, and political organizations) must, within 24 hours, file reports with the Federal Election Commission to disclose campaign expenditures of more than $10,000 during an election cycle.

The bill also requires organizations to provide additional disclosures regarding political advertisements, including the donors who contributed the most money to that organization in the last year.

Federal Extreme Risk Protection Order Act of 2026

This bill authorizes and establishes procedures for federal courts to issue federal extreme risk protection orders. Additionally, the bill establishes grants to support the implementation of extreme risk protection order laws at the state and local levels, extends federal firearms restrictions to individuals who are subject to extreme risk protection orders, and expands related data collection.

Extreme risk protection order laws, or red flag laws, generally allow certain individuals (e.g., law enforcement officers or family members) to petition a court for a temporary order that prohibits an at-risk individual from purchasing and possessing firearms.

Among its provisions, the bill

• authorizes a family or household member, or a law enforcement officer, to petition for a federal extreme risk protection order with respect to an individual who poses a risk to themselves or others;

• directs the Department of Justice to establish a grant program to help states, local governments, Indian tribes, and other entities implement extreme risk protection order laws;

• extends federal restrictions on the receipt, possession, shipment, and transportation of firearms and ammunition to individuals who are subject to extreme risk protection orders; and

• requires the Federal Bureau of Investigation to compile records from federal, tribal, and state courts and other agencies that identify individuals who are subject to extreme risk protection orders.

Health Care Workforce Innovation Act of 2025

This bill establishes the Health Care Workforce Innovation Program within the Health Resources and Services Administration to provide grants to federally qualified health centers, rural health clinics, and post-secondary vocational programs for developing education and training for allied health professionals (e.g., professionals providing clinical or non-clinical support services, community health workers, and health education specialists).

Specifically, grant recipients must use the funds to carry out innovative, community-based programs to train allied health professionals, with a focus on supporting rural and underserved areas. Grant recipients may use the funds to launch or expand health care professional partnerships (e.g., between a grant recipient and a school), establish apprenticeship or other career programs, or invest in training equipment, among other activities.

Youth Voting Rights Act

This bill expands voting access for youth.

Specifically, the bill establishes a private right of action to enforce the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which prohibits denying or abridging the right to vote based on age. Further, the bill authorizes the Department of Justice to enforce the Twenty-Sixth Amendment against age-based restrictions for voting by mail.

Additionally, the bill directs each state to

• designate as voter registration agencies all offices within public institutions of higher education (IHEs) that provide assistance to students,

• implement a preregistration process to allow minors who are 16 years or older to register to vote in federal elections that take place when or after the preregistered individual turns age 18, and

• ensure the availability of polling places on campuses of IHEs (with the availability of waivers).

The bill prohibits durational residency requirements for voting in all federal elections. Currently, this prohibition applies only to voting for the offices of President and Vice President.

States and local jurisdictions with voter identification requirements must treat IHE-issued student identification cards as voter identification.

The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) must make grants to states to increase the involvement of individuals under age 18 in public election activities.

The Government Accountability Office must report to Congress on trends related to voter registration, absentee voting, and provisional voting. The EAC must also collect and make publicly available certain data from states.

Protecting Sensitive Locations Act

This bill prohibits immigration enforcement actions within 1,000 feet of a sensitive location except in exigent circumstances, such as the imminent risk of death, violence, or physical harm to any person.

Sensitive locations include

• health care facilities;

• schools and school bus stops;

• places that provide assistance for people such as children, pregnant women, and abuse victims;

• child care facilities;

• places that provide disaster or emergency services;

• places of worship;

• courthouses and lawyers’ offices;

• facilities used as polling places;

• certain labor union facilities; and

• public assistance offices.

The prohibition shall apply to Department of Homeland Security officers and agents, as well as state employees pursuing immigration enforcement actions.

If an enforcement action is carried out in violation of this prohibition (1) no information resulting from the action may be entered into the record in a resulting removal proceeding, and (2) the affected individual may move to immediately terminate such a proceeding.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall annually report to Congress about enforcement actions taken at sensitive locations in the preceding year.