Shontel Brown

Healthy Meals Help Kids Learn Act of 2025

This bill permanently increases the federal reimbursement rates for the school lunch and breakfast programs of the Department of Agriculture.

Specifically, beginning November 1, 2025, the bill provides an additional 45 cents per lunch served in the National School Lunch Program and an additional 28 cents per breakfast served in the School Breakfast Program. These amounts must be adjusted annually for inflation beginning July 1, 2026.

This resolution requests that the President submit certain information to Congress regarding a reduction in force or the withholding of pay due to the lapse in appropriations (i.e., government shutdown) that began on October 1, 2025.

Specifically, the resolution requests that the President submit to Congress any and all documents and communications related to

• any proposed reduction in force at a federal agency related to the lapse in appropriations,

• efforts to create a legal determination at the Office of Management and Budget finding or suggesting that the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 does not create a self-executing requirement that furloughed federal employees must receive pay for the period in which they were furloughed during a lapse in appropriations immediately after the lapse in appropriations ends, and

• efforts or plans to withhold pay for the period of the lapse of appropriations for excepted or furloughed federal or District of Columbia employees.

The resolution also requests that the President submit to Congress any documents or communications between the President's office, the Vice President's office, the Office of Personnel Management, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Special Counsel, and the Merit System Protection Board regarding these topics.

Safe Schools Improvement Act

This bill requires states to direct their local educational agencies (LEAs) to establish policies that prevent and prohibit bullying and harassment of elementary and secondary school students. In particular, these policies must prohibit bullying and harassment based on race, color, national origin, disability, religion, or sex. Sex includes sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics (including intersex traits).

Further, LEAs must provide (1) students, parents, and educational professionals with annual notice of the conduct prohibited in their disciplinary policies; (2) students and parents with grievance procedures that target such conduct; and (3) the public with annual data on the incidence and frequency of that conduct at the school and LEA level.

The Department of Education must conduct and report on an independent biennial evaluation of programs and policies to combat bullying and harassment in elementary and secondary schools. The National Center for Education Statistics must collect state data to determine the incidence and frequency of the conduct prohibited by LEA disciplinary policies.

Voter Purge Protection Act

This bill prohibits a state from removing registrants from the official list of eligible voters unless it meets certain verification and notice requirements.

Specifically, the bill prohibits a state from removing a registrant from the official list of eligible voters unless it verifies, on the basis of objective and reliable evidence, that the registrant is ineligible to vote in federal elections. Further, a state is prohibited from considering failure to vote in an election or failure to respond to a notice as evidence of ineligibility to vote.

Additionally, the bill requires a state to provide individual registrants who are removed with a notice, which must include the grounds for the removal and information on contesting the removal. Public notice must be provided after conducting any general program to remove the names of ineligible voters.

This bill requires the federal government to reimburse state agencies that use state funds to carry out operations necessary to maintain participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) during a lapse in discretionary appropriations (i.e., government shutdown). WIC provides nutrition-rich foods, nutrition education, and health care and social services referrals to eligible low-income women, infants, and children.

This bill prohibits the removal of federal employees from the civil service during a government shutdown due to a lapse in discretionary appropriations. If an employee is removed from the civil service in violation of this bill, the employee may elect to be reinstated with back pay on the date on which the lapse in appropriations ends.

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.

Fair Pay for Federal Contractors Act of 2025

This bill provides back pay to employees of federal contractors who lost pay due to a lapse in appropriations (i.e., government shutdown) in FY2026.

Specifically, the bill provides appropriations for federal agencies that are subject to a lapse in appropriations in FY2026 to adjust the price of contracts to compensate federal contractors for providing back pay to employees who were affected by the lapse in appropriations.

The agencies must adjust the price of any contract for which the contractor stopped, suspended, delayed, or interrupted all or part of the work under the contract due to the lapse in appropriations. The price adjustment must compensate the contractor for reasonable costs incurred to (1) compensate employees who were furloughed or laid off, were not working, or experienced a reduction of hours or compensation due to the lapse in appropriations; or (2) restore paid leave taken by employees during the lapse in appropriations if the contractor required or permitted employees to use paid leave as a result of the lapse in appropriations.

The maximum amount of weekly compensation of an employee for which an adjustment may be made under this bill may not exceed the lesser of (1) the employee's actual weekly compensation, or (2) $1,442 (or a lesser amount pro-rated for an employee who works less than 40 hours per week).

The bill also requires the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to submit a report to Congress on the adjustments made under this bill.

Roberto Clemente Commemorative Coin Act

This bill directs the Department of the Treasury to mint and issue coins in recognition of the life of Roberto Clemente, baseball player and human rights activist. All sales of coins issued under this bill must include a surcharge to be paid to the Roberto Clemente Foundation.

Safer Neighborhoods Gun Buyback Act of 2025

This bill authorizes the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) to make grants to state, local, or tribal governments, or gun dealers, to conduct gun buyback programs. Gun dealers must turn over any collected firearms to the appropriate government agency, as specified.

The BJA may distribute smart prepaid cards for a state, local, or tribal government, or gun dealer, to load funds to compensate individuals who dispose of firearms.

Additionally, the bill establishes a new criminal offense for using or accepting a smart prepaid card in the acquisition or transfer of a firearm or ammunition. A violator is subject to a fine.

This joint resolution proposes a constitutional amendment authorizing Congress and the states to (1) regulate and impose reasonable viewpoint-neutral limitations on the raising and spending of money by candidates and others to influence elections; and (2) regulate and enact public campaign financing systems, including those designed to restrict the influence of private wealth by offsetting the raising and spending of money by candidates and others with increased public funding.

The amendment grants Congress and the states the power to implement and enforce this amendment by legislation. They are allowed to distinguish between natural persons and corporations or other artificial entities created by law, including by prohibiting such entities from spending money to influence elections.