<p><b>SOAR Permanent Authorization Act</b></p> <p>This bill modifies and permanently reauthorizes the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results program. This program provides education funding for the District of Columbia, including for private school vouchers, public schools, and public charter schools.</p> <p>In particular, the bill revises (1) the list of accrediting bodies that may accredit participating schools, (2) the manner in which tutoring services provided under the program are funded, and (3) the program's reporting and evaluation requirements.</p>

To fight homelessness in the United States by authorizing a grant program within the Health Resources and Services Administration for housing programs that offer comprehensive services and intensive case management for homeless individuals and families.

<p><strong>Viral Gain</strong><b>-</b><strong>of-Function Research Moratorium Act</strong></p> <p> This bill prohibits the award of federal research grants to institutions of higher education or research institutes that conduct gain-of-function research. <em>Gain-of-function research </em>refers to any research that (1) could confer attributes to influenza, MERS, or SARS viruses such that the virus would have enhanced pathogenicity or transmissibility in an organism; or (2) involves methods that could enhance potential pandemic pathogens or related risky research with potentially dangerous pathogens.</p>

<p><b>Helping Households And Neighbors Distribute Services for Families Act or the Helping HANDS for Families Act</b></p> <p>This bill allows states and tribes to use funds to provide an online portal to facilitate the provision of community support for families and children under the MaryLee Allen Promoting Safe and Stable Families grant program.</p>

<p><b>Protecting Health Care for All Patients Act of </b><b>2023</b></p> <p>This bill prohibits all federal health care programs, including the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, and federally funded state health care programs (e.g., Medicaid) from using prices that are based on quality-adjusted life years (i.e., measures that discount the value of a life based on disability) to determine relevant thresholds for coverage, reimbursements, or incentive programs.</p>

<p><b>Focus on the Mission Act of 2023</b></p> <p>This bill prohibits the Department of Defense from requiring the recipient of a federal contract to provide a greenhouse gas inventory or to provide any other report on greenhouse gas emissions.</p>

<p><b>Combating Cartels on Social Media Act of 2023</b></p> <p>This bill requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to report and implement a strategy to combat the use of social media by transnational criminal organizations to recruit individuals in the United States to support illicit activities in the United States or countries near a U.S. international border.</p> <p>DHS must also identify a designee within U.S. Customs and Border Protection to receive, process, and disseminate information about these social media recruitment activities. The information must be disseminated to federal, tribal, state, and local entities to support appropriate government functions, such as providing actionable intelligence to law enforcement.</p>

<p><b>Microloan Transparency and Accountability Act of 2023</b></p> <p>This bill modifies reporting requirements related to the Small Business Administration's (SBA) disbursement of certain financial assistance.</p> <p>Specifically, the bill requires the SBA to report certain metrics related to the disbursement of microloans to small businesses, including (1) the number, amount, and percentage of such loans that went into default in the previous year; (2) the extent to which microloans are provided to small businesses in rural areas; and (3) the average size, rate of interest, and amount of fees charged for each microloan. </p>

<p><b>Children Have Opportunities in Classrooms Everywhere Act</b></p> <p>This bill allows tax-exempt distributions from qualified tuition programs (known as 529 plans) to be used for additional educational expenses in connection with elementary or secondary school. The bill also allows certain federal funds for elementary and secondary education to follow a student from a low-income household to the public school that the student attends or for tax-exempt educational expenses.</p> <p>Under current law, tax-exempt distributions in connection with elementary or secondary school are limited to tuition for a public, private, or religious school. The bill allows these distributions to be used additionally for</p> <ul> <li>curriculum and curricular materials, </li> <li>books or other instructional materials, </li> <li>online educational materials, </li> <li>tutoring or educational classes outside the home, </li> <li>testing fees, </li> <li>fees for dual enrollment in an institution of higher education, and </li> <li>educational therapies for students with disabilities.</li> </ul> <p>Distributions may also be used for tuition and the purposes above in connection with a home school (whether treated as a home school or a private school under state law).</p> <p>In addition, the bill directs state educational agencies to allocate grant funds to ensure the funding follows students to their public school or for other tax-exempt educational expenses outlined by the bill. Each state that carries out these allocations must establish a plan that allows the parent of an eligible child to apply for grant funds.</p>

<p><b>Protect U.S. Investments Act of 2023</b></p> <p>This bill expands available protections for U.S. investors from certain prejudicial actions taken by foreign governments. It also expands sanctions for the expropriation (i.e., seizure) of U.S. investments.</p> <p>Currently, the President must suspend assistance to foreign governments that have taken certain prejudicial actions against U.S. investments (known as the Hickenlooper amendment), including those that have taken steps to repudiate or nullify existing contracts or agreements with U.S. nationals (citizens and corporations). This bill specifies that these steps may include failing to meet, confer, or engage in good faith consultations and negotiations with a U.S. national (through their duly authorized representative) within 30 days of being served with a written request for such a consultation or negotiation.</p> <p>Further, the bill provides a U.S. national with the right to petition the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission to render an advisory report to the President regarding the alleged treatment of the U.S. investment by the identified foreign country. If the commission fails to render a timely advisory report, the U.S. national may compel the suspension of assistance to that foreign country in any court of competent jurisdiction.</p> <p>The bill prohibits any foreign public official who materially assisted in a prejudicial action against U.S. investments from receiving immigration status, receiving a visa, or being admitted into the United States. Such an official must also be denied remittance by every financial institution located in the United States. These sanctions shall apply until the prejudicial action is rescinded, reversed, permanently enjoined, or fully remediated.</p>

<p><b>Fairness in Orphan Drug Exclusivity Act</b></p> <p>This bill limits which orphan drugs may be granted a market exclusivity period by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (Generally, an orphan drug is one that is not economically viable because of the rarity of the disease that it treats; the sponsor of an FDA-designated orphan drug may be granted various incentives, such as a seven-year period in which the FDA may not grant market approval to a different sponsor for the same drug to treat the same disease.)</p> <p>Under this bill, if a drug is designated as an orphan drug on the basis that there is no reasonable expectation that the sponsor will recover the costs of developing and distributing the drug from U.S. sales, the drug shall be granted the seven-year exclusivity period only if the sponsor demonstrates that there is no reasonable expectation that it will recover such costs within its first 12 years of U.S. sales of the drug. </p> <p>When deciding whether an orphan drug meets this requirement, the FDA shall consider the sales of all drugs from the sponsor that are covered by the same orphan drug designation.</p>

<p>This bill makes technical corrections in the definitions section of the Controlled Substances Act. </p>

<p> <b>Small Business Tax Fairness and Compliance Simplification Act </b></p> <p>This bill expands the tax credit for a portion of the employer-paid Social Security taxes for employee cash tips to include beauty service establishments. (Under current law, the credit is limited to tips received for providing, serving, or delivering food or beverages.)</p> <p>The credit applies to tips received in connection with providing beauty services to a customer or client if tipping employees who provide the service is customary. <i>Beauty services</i> include barbering and hair care, nail care, esthetics, and body and spa treatments.</p> <p>The bill also (1) establishes an employer tip reporting safe harbor for beauty service establishments, and (2) specifies reporting requirements for income received from renting space to individuals who provide beauty services. </p> <p>The employer tip reporting safe harbor for beauty service establishments provides an exemption from certain Internal Revenue Service tip examinations for employers who meet certain requirements for educational programs, reporting procedures, compliance with tax law, and recordkeeping.</p> <p>The Government Accountability Office must study and report on the impact of the extension of the employer social security tax credit on employers and employees. </p>

<p><STRONG>Ensuring American Voters Act of </STRONG><b>2023</b></p> <p>This bill prohibits states from registering an individual to vote in federal elections unless the individual provides documentary proof of U.S. citizenship.</p>

<p><b>American Shores Protection Act</b> <b>of 2023</b></p> <p> This bill extends a moratorium on oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico through June 30, 2032, and expands the moratorium to include the South Atlantic Planning Area and the Straits of Florida Planning Area.</p>