<p><b>Fighting Oppression until the Reign of Castro Ends Act or the FORCE Act</b></p> <p>This bill prohibits removing Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism until the President makes the determination that a transition government in Cuba is in power.</p>

<p><b>Significant Transnational Criminal Organization Designation Act</b></p> <p>This bill makes membership in a significant transnational criminal organization a ground for inadmissibility into the United States and provides for criminal penalties against those that provide material support to such an organization. </p> <p>The bar against admission applies to a non-U.S. national (<i>alien</i> under federal law) who is a member of such an organization and such an individual's non-U.S. national spouse or child. The bar shall not apply to a spouse or child who (1) did not know, or should not reasonably have known, that the individual was a member of such an organization; or (2) has renounced the organization in question. </p> <p>The bill establishes statutory authority and procedures for the Department of Justice to designate an organization a significant transnational criminal organization. The Department of the Treasury may require U.S. financial institutions to block transactions involving assets belonging to such an organization. </p> <p>An individual who knowingly provides material support or resources to a significant transnational criminal organization (or attempts or conspires to do so) shall be fined, imprisoned for up to 20 years, or both. If the death of any person is the result, the offending individual may be imprisoned for any term of years or for life. A financial institution that becomes aware that it possesses or controls funds belonging to such an organization shall retain such funds and notify Treasury.</p>

<p><strong>Fort San Ger&oacute;nimo Preservation Act</strong></p> <p>This bill establishes the Fort San Ger&oacute;nimo del Boquer&oacute;n in Puerto Rico as an affiliated area of the National Park System, which shall consist of the fort and grounds listed on the National Register of Historic Places and located near Old San Juan.</p> <p>The bill makes the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture the management entity for the affiliated area. </p> <p>The Department of the Interior shall develop a management plan for the affiliated area.</p>

<p><b>Unleashing American Energy Act</b></p> <p>This bill requires a minimum amount of oil and gas lease sales a year on certain submerged lands of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and limits delays on federal oil and gas leases on such lands.</p> <p>Specifically, this bill requires the Department of the Interior to annually conduct a minimum of two region-wide oil and gas lease sales in each of the following regions of the OCS: (1) the Gulf of Mexico region in the Central Gulf of Mexico Planning Area and the Western Gulf of Mexico Planning Area, and (2) the Alaska region. </p> <p>In addition, the bill requires the President to obtain congressional approval before delaying federal oil and gas leases on the OCS.</p>

<p><strong></strong><b>Back the Blue Act of 2023</b></p> <p>This bill establishes new criminal offenses for killing, assaulting, and fleeing to avoid prosecution for killing a judge, law enforcement officer, or public safety officer.</p> <p>Additionally, the bill</p> <ul> <li>expands the list of statutory aggravating factors in death penalty determinations to also include the killing or attempted killing of a law enforcement officer, judge, prosecutor, or firefighter or other first responder; </li> <li>broadens the authority of federal law enforcement officers to carry firearms; and</li> <li>limits federal court review of challenges to state court convictions for killing a public safety officer or judge.</li> </ul> <p>Finally, it directs the Department of Justice to make grants to law enforcement agencies and nongovernmental organizations to promote trust and improve relations between law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve.</p>

<p><b>Budgetary Accuracy in Scoring Interest Costs Act of 2023 or the BASIC Act</b></p> <p>This bill requires cost estimates prepared by the Congressional Budget Office or the Joint Committee on Taxation to include the costs of servicing the public debt. </p>

<p><strong>Small Business Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act</strong> </p> <p>This bill modifies the rulemaking requirements and procedures of federal agencies under the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980 and the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996, including how agencies consider economic impact with respect to small entities.<br> <br> Specifically, the bill requires agencies to consider the direct, and the reasonably foreseeable indirect, economic effect of a rule on small entities when determining whether a rule is likely to have a significant economic impact. Further, the regulatory flexibility analysis for rules with a significant economic impact must include a detailed description of alternatives to a proposed rule that minimize any adverse significant economic impact or maximize any beneficial significant economic impact on small entities. The bill also expands the types of agency actions (e.g., revisions to land management plans) that are subject to a regulatory impact analysis. </p> <p>The bill removes the authority for an agency to waive the regulatory flexibility analysis requirements and requires the Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration to issue rules for compliance with such requirements.</p> <p>The bill also modifies the procedures for the (1) gathering of comments for a proposed rule, (2) periodic review of agency rules, and (3) judicial review of final rules.</p> <p>

<p><b>American Innovation Act of 2023</b></p> <p>This bill revises the tax treatment of business start-up or organizational expenditures. Specifically, it allows an election to deduct such expenditures in an amount equal to the lesser of the aggregate amount of such expenditures incurred by an active trade of business, or $20,000, reduced by the amount by which such aggregate amount exceeds $120,000. The remaining amount of such expenditures shall be amortized over the 180 month period after the trade or business begins. </p> <p>The bill also revises the tax treatment of partnership syndication fees and start-up net operating losses and tax credits after an ownership change.</p>

<p><strong>Stop Inflationary Spending Act</strong></p> <p>This bill requires the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to provide inflation projections for bills that Congress considers using the budget reconciliation process. </p> <p>Specifically, the CBO must estimate the impact on inflation that will occur from implementing each reconciliation bill, including the impact on inflation that will occur during each of the first five years after the enactment of the bill. </p>

<p><b>Second Amendment Protection Act </b></p> <p>This bill exempts certain individuals who use medical marijuana from federal firearms-related restrictions.</p> <p>Currently, federal firearms laws prohibit an individual who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance from shipping, transporting, receiving, or possessing a firearm or ammunition. This bill exempts from the prohibition an individual who uses marijuana for a medical purpose in accordance with state law.</p>

<p><b>Protect Our Water Rights Act</b></p> <p>This bill requires the Bureau of Reclamation to modify the operation of water service contracts for the Central Valley Project (CVP) in California and the Klamath River Basin Reclamation Project in California and Oregon.</p> <p>Reclamation owns and operates the CVP, a federal water project consisting of a network of dams, reservoirs, and other facilities. CVP water is delivered to users that have contracts with Reclamation, but dry conditions have resulted in Reclamation reducing the water allocations for contracted water supplies.</p> <p>This bill requires Reclamation to allocate to existing agricultural water service contractors within the CVP's Sacramento River Watershed (1) 100% of the contracted amount of water in a <i>wet</i> or<i> above normal</i> year, (2) not less than 75% of the contracted amount in a<i> below normal </i>year, and (3) not less than 50% of the contracted amount in a <i>dry</i> or<i> critically dry</i> year.</p> <p>Reclamation must hold at least one in-person field hearing in each county where a CVP water service contractor is located in the period between the project's initial water allocation and final water allocation announcement.</p> <p>The bill modifies the share of operation and maintenance costs paid by CVP water service contractors.</p> <p>Reclamation must also operate the Klamath River Basin Reclamation Project, a similar federal water project, so that all of the water in Upper Klamath Lake above a certain elevation is solely for agricultural and refuge purposes. Reclamation must conduct these operations in a manner that maximizes water storage in the lake, to the extent practicable.</p>

Honoring the 2022 World Series Champions-the Houston Astros-and the team's dedicated, iconic manager, Dusty Baker, as well as all of the team's outstanding players who have contributed to making history and proving that anything is possible.

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States extending the right to vote to citizens sixteen years of age or older.

<p><strong>Legal Workforce Act</strong></p> <p>This bill directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to create an electronic employment eligibility confirmation system modeled after and to replace the E-Verify system, which allows employers and recruiters to verify the immigration status of individuals. The bill also mandates the use of such a system, where currently only some employers, such as those with federal contracts, are required to use E-Verify.</p> <p>The bill specifies documents that can establish an individual's identity and employment authorization. During the period starting when a job offer is made until three business days after hiring, the individual must attest to his or her employment authorization, and the employer or recruiter must attest that it has examined the individual's required documents.</p> <p>Employers shall reverify certain types of employees who were not previously verified using E-verify.</p> <p>The Social Security Administration shall notify employees if their Social Security number has been used multiple times in an unusual manner. DHS shall establish programs for blocking and suspending misused numbers.</p> <p>Employers that are required to use the verification system shall not be liable for any employment-related action based on a good-faith reliance on the information from the system.</p> <p>The bill establishes a phased-in participation deadline for different categories of employers, including agricultural employers.</p> <p>The bill increases civil penalties related to hiring individuals without work authorization. It also preempts state laws relating to hiring and employment eligibility verification, but states may use their authority of business licensing to penalize employers for failing to comply with the bill's provisions.</p> <p>

<p><b>Emergency Savings Accounts Act of 2023</b></p> <p>This bill allows an individual taxpayer occupying a residence a deduction from gross income for up to $5,000 of amounts paid into such taxpayer's emergency savings account. The bill defines <i>emergency savings account</i> as an account established exclusively to pay the qualified disaster and public health emergency expenses of the account beneficiary. </p> <p>The bill defines <i>qualified disaster and public health emergency expenses</i> as disaster mitigation expenses, disaster recovery expenses, public health emergency expenses, and unemployment-related expenses.</p>