Congress began another busy week with the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passing more than 20 new bills.
The House only took a formal vote on two bills Monday, neither of which generated any particular debate or controversy.
The first, the Social Security Child Protection Act, simply requires the Social Security Administration to issue a new Social Security number to a child under the age of 14 if the child’s confidentiality had been compromised.
Specifically, a new number would only be allowed if the child’s previous Social Security card had been lost or stolen while the card was being mailed to the child. Nothing in the text of the bill suggests that subsequent thefts or losses would allow for the issuance of a new account number.
The House, including Hawai‘i Reps. Ed Case and Jill Tokuda, voted unanimously in support of the bill.
The other formal vote was for the No New Burma Funds Act, which aims to continue a freeze on funds to Burma — also called Myanmar — that was established following the 2021 coup that installed a military junta in the nation. The bill requires the U.S. Executive Director at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development — a lending arm of the World Bank — to advocate for a further pause on any funds to Burma.
This bill also passed unanimously.
Another 20 bills passed the House Monday without any formal votes; all of them were passed by voice vote, with no objections recorded for any of them.
In summary, those bills included:
• A bill prohibiting the immigration to the U.S. anyone involved in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks against Israel or anyone affiliated with the Palestinian Liberation Organization,
• A bill permitting the Food and Drug Administration to take enforcement action against drug companies that fail to satisfy pediatric drug study requirements,
• A bill authorizing the U.S. Tax Court to issue subpoenas,
• A bill expanding financing available to small business investment companies from the Small Business Administration,
• A bill requiring the Office of Housing and Urban Development to make annual reports to Congress about fraud and abuse,
• A bill creating a public database of criminal offenses defined in federal statutes,
• A bill doubling the maximum loan size available for small manufacturers through the SBA,
• A bill requiring banking regulators to report to Congress if a bank fails in such a way as to potentially cause a market crash,
• A bill extending a Medicare program providing at-home care through 2030,
• A bill expunging convictions and arrest records for victims of human trafficking who had previously committed certain offenses that were the direct results of being a human trafficking victim,
• A bill requiring the Securities and Exchange Commission to loosen regulations on how investments in venture capital funds are handled,
• A bill allowing more security issuers to qualify as “well-known seasoned issuers,”
• A bill increasing more than tenfold the maximum possible size of what is legally considered to be a venture capital fund,
• A bill requiring the SBA to develop plans to improve its IT systems,
• A bill extending the statute of limitations for COVID-19-related business grant fraud to 10 years,
• A bill that would hire an assistant administrator of the SBA’s Office of Rural Affairs,
• A bill clarifying the terms the Social Security Administration uses to describe its age requirements for beneficiaries,
• A bill requiring the SSA to give Social Security fraud victims a single point of contact throughout the resolution of a case,
• A bill requiring that IRS tax penalties be approved by an employee and their immediate supervisor, and
• A bill altering the charter of the Foundation of the Federal Bar Association.
All of those bills, except for the last one, were received in the Senate this week and referred to committees. The final bill, having already passed the Senate, will go before President Donald Trump.
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