Disability and health-based discrimination

HR 4249: Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2026

Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2026

This bill provides FY2026 appropriations for the legislative branch, including the House of Representatives and joint items such as

  • the Joint Economic Committee,
  • the Joint Committee on Taxation,
  • the Office of the Attending Physician, and
  • the Office of Congressional Accessibility Services.

In addition, the bill provides FY2026 appropriations for

  • the Capitol Police;
  • the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights;
  • the Congressional Budget Office;
  • the Architect of the Capitol;
  • the Library of Congress, including the Congressional Research Service and the Copyright Office;
  • the Government Publishing Office;
  • the Government Accountability Office;
  • Congressional Office for International Leadership Fund; and
  • the John C. Stennis Center for Public Service Training and Development.

(Pursuant to the longstanding practice of each chamber of Congress determining its own requirements, funds for the Senate are not included in the House bill.)

The bill also sets forth requirements and restrictions for using funds provided by this bill.

HR 1520: Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act

Charlotte Woodward Organ Transplant Discrimination Prevention Act

This bill expressly prohibits health care providers and other entities involved in matching donated organs with recipients from denying or restricting an individual’s access to organ transplants solely on the basis of the individual’s disability, except in limited circumstances.

Specifically, these entities may consider an individual’s disability when making decisions about transplants only if a physician finds, based on an individualized evaluation, that the individual’s physical or mental disability is medically significant to the provision of the transplant. A disability shall not be considered medically significant if the individual has an adequate support system in place to comply with transplant-related medical requirements.

These entities must also make reasonable changes to their policies to make transplants and related care more available to individuals with disabilities.

Aggrieved individuals may bring claims of discrimination to the Office of Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services. The bill provides for expedited resolutions of these claims.

In addition, the board of directors of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network may not issue policies that prohibit or hinder access to an organ transplant based solely on the individual’s disability. This network is a public-private partnership linking professionals involved in the U.S. organ donation and transplantation system. 

S 634: Korematsu-Takai Civil Liberties Protection Act of 2025

Korematsu-Takai Civil Liberties Protection Act of 2025 

This bill prohibits the detention or imprisonment of an individual based solely on an actual or perceived protected characteristic of the individual. The term protected characteristic includes each of the following: race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and any additional characteristic that the Department of Justice determines to be a protected characteristic.

HR 1364: Automotive Support Services to Improve Safe Transportation Act of 2025

Automotive Support Services to Improve Safe Transportation Act of 2025 or the ASSIST Act of 2025

This bill expands the definition of medical services for purposes of veterans’ benefits to include additional medically necessary automobile adaptations. Under the bill, the Department of Veterans Affairs may provide funding for ramp and kneeling systems, lowered floors, mobility device lifts, non-articulating trailers, and ingress or egress accessibility modifications. 

Sponsors

Tom Barrett (R) MI

Cosponsors

Maggie Goodlander (D) NH

Introduced on
Friday, February 14th, 2025

Subjects
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HR 1389: Marriage Equality for Disabled Adults Act

Marriage Equality for Disabled Adults Act

This bill eliminates certain marriage-related criteria for individuals entitled to Social Security child’s benefits and Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Specifically, the bill removes the requirement that individuals receiving Social Security child’s benefits be unmarried. Those eligible for Social Security child’s benefits generally include the minor children of eligible or deceased workers and disabled adult children (the disabled adult children of such workers for whom the onset of disability occurred before age 22). Under current law, child beneficiaries generally lose their benefits upon marriage to an individual who is not also eligible for Social Security benefits. 

With respect to SSI, the bill removes the requirement that couples who present themselves as married in their community be considered married for purposes of SSI eligibility. The bill also exempts SSI recipients who are disabled adult children, or who marry disabled adult children, from the general requirement that the income or resources of an SSI recipient’s spouse be considered in an eligibility determination.  

Further, married disabled adult children and their spouses who would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid in a state if they were unmarried must remain eligible for Medicaid regardless of their marriage. 

HR 1147: Veterans Accessibility Advisory Committee Act of 2025

Veterans Accessibility Advisory Committee Act of 2025

This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish the Veterans Advisory Committee on Equal Access to address the accessibility of the VA for individuals with disabilities. Prior to establishing the advisory committee, the VA must take action to abolish or consolidate advisory committees that are currently inactive.

The bill also extends certain loan fee rates through June 23, 2034, under the VA’s home loan program.

S 205: Protecting Individuals with Down Syndrome Act

Protecting Individuals with Down Syndrome Act

This bill creates new federal crimes related to the performance of an abortion on an unborn child who has Down syndrome.

It subjects a violator to criminal penalties—a fine, a prison term of up to five years, or both.

It also authorizes civil remedies, including damages and injunctive relief.

A woman who undergoes such an abortion may not be prosecuted or held civilly liable.

HR 369: States’ Education Reclamation Act of 2025

States’ Education Reclamation Act of 2025

This bill abolishes the Department of Education (ED) and repeals any program for which it has administrative responsibility.

The Department of the Treasury must provide grants to states, for FY2025-FY2033, for elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education purposes permitted by state law. The level of funding is set at the amount provided to states for federal elementary and secondary education programs and the amount provided for federal postsecondary education programs, respectively, for FY2025, minus the funding provided for education programs that the bill transfers to other federal agencies.

States must contract for an annual audit of their expenditures or transfers of grant funds.

Program administrative responsibility and delegation of authority are transferred as follows:

  • ED’s job training programs to the Department of Labor,
  • each special education grant program under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),
  • ED’s Indian education programs to the Department of the Interior,
  • each Impact Aid program under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to the Department of Defense,
  • the Federal Pell Grant program and each federal student loan program to Treasury, and
  • programs under the jurisdiction of the Institute of Education Sciences or the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program to HHS.

The Government Accountability Office must report to Congress on (1) the feasibility of reducing the federal tax burden and eliminating federal involvement in providing grants for education programs, and (2) the feasibility of successor federal agencies maintaining transferred education programs.

S 71: Baby Changing on Board Act

Baby Changing on Board Act

This bill requires Amtrak passenger rail trains to have a baby changing table in at least one restroom in each car, including in an Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990-compliant restroom. The bill applies to passenger rail trains that are (1) owned and operated by Amtrak, and (2) solicited for purchase after the bill’s enactment for use by Amtrak.

HR 248: Baby Changing on Board Act

Baby Changing on Board Act

This bill requires Amtrak passenger rail trains to have a baby changing table in at least one restroom in each car, including in an Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990-compliant restroom. The bill applies to passenger rail trains that are (1) owned and operated by Amtrak, and (2) solicited for purchase after the bill’s enactment for use by Amtrak.

HR 68: Housing Fairness Act of 2025

Veterans, Women, Families with Children, Race, and Persons with Disabilities Housing Fairness Act of 2025 or the Housing Fairness Act of 2025

This bill expands efforts to detect and address housing discrimination.

Specifically, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) must conduct a nationwide testing program to (1) detect and document differences in the treatment of prospective renters, homebuyers, or mortgage borrowers; (2) measure patterns of adverse treatment because of the race, color, religion, sex, familial status, disability status, or national origin of a renter, homebuyer, or borrower; and (3) measure the prevalence of such discriminatory practices across housing and mortgage lending markets.

The bill also reauthorizes through FY2028 the Fair Housing Initiatives Program, which supports organizations that provide direct assistance to individuals who have been victims of housing discrimination.

Additionally, HUD must implement a grant program to assist public and private nonprofit organizations in (1) conducting comprehensive studies on the causes or effects of housing discrimination and segregation, and (2) implementing pilot projects that test solutions to help prevent or alleviate housing discrimination and segregation.