Laura Gillen

**Emerging Innovative Border Technologies Act** This bill requires U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Science and Technology Directorate of the Department of Homeland Security to develop a plan to identify, integrate, and deploy emerging and innovative technologies to improve border security operations. Such technologies may incorporate artificial intelligence, machine-learning, automation, fiber-optic sensing technology, nanotechnology, optical and cognitive radar, modeling and simulation technology, hyperspectral and LIDAR sensors, and imaging, identification, and categorization systems.  The bill authorizes CBP to establish one or more Innovation Teams to research and adapt commercial technologies that may be used by CBP. The plan must describe how the Innovation Teams have been implemented and also detail * goals and timelines for adoption of qualifying technologies, * metrics and key performance parameters for determining the plan's effectiveness, * which technologies used by other federal agencies CBP may also utilize, * which existing authorities CBP may use to procure technologies, * how CBP legacy border technology programs may be replaced, * the expected privacy and security impact of security-related technology on border communities, and * recent technological advancements in specified technologies. CBP must provide the plan to Congress within 180 days of the bill’s enactment. The bill also requires CBP to annually report to Congress regarding the activities of the Innovation Teams.

**Patriot Day Act** This bill establishes Patriot Day as a federal holiday.

**Lower Grocery Prices Act** This bill requires the Government Accountability Office to submit a report to Congress on changes in the Consumer Price Index for food at home over the past 20 years. The report must also include recommendations to help lower food at home costs for U.S. consumers.

**National Human Trafficking Database Act** This bill establishes a framework to collect comprehensive data on human trafficking. At the federal level, the bill requires the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) within the Department of Justice to establish an online database that includes human trafficking data for each state. At the state level, the bill authorizes grants for covered state agencies (e.g., a state bureau of investigation or similar law enforcement agency) to collect and report human trafficking data to the OVC.

**TSA Commuting Fairness Act** This bill directs the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to submit to Congress a study on the feasibility of treating as on-duty hours the time TSA employees working at airport locations spend traveling between regular duty locations, airport parking lots, and bus and transit stops.

**9/11 Memorial and Museum Act** This bill directs the Department of Homeland Security to award to the nonprofit organization that operates the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York, New York, a one-time grant to be used solely for the purposes of the operation, security, and maintenance of the memorial and museum. As a condition of receiving the grant, the organization must * provide for free admission to all facilities and museums associated with the memorial and museum for active and retired members of the Armed Forces, individuals who were registered first responders to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and family members of victims of such attacks; * provide for dedicated free admission hours for the general public at least once a week; and * allow for annual federal audits of its financial statements.

**Representing our Seniors at VA Act of 2025** This bill expands the membership of the Geriatrics and Gerontology Advisory Committee within the Veterans Health Administration by requiring the addition of one representative from the National Association of State Veterans Homes who holds a professional license in nursing home administration. Additionally, the committee must consult with the National Association of Veterans State Homes with respect to matters concerning the association.

**Stop Chinese Fentanyl Act of 2025** This bill subjects certain Chinese entities and government officials to potential sanctions related to opioid trafficking and requires the President to conduct certain preliminary analyses before regulating economic transactions in the event of a national emergency related to international drug trafficking.  Specifically, for the purposes of the Fentanyl Sanctions Act, the bill changes the definition of foreign opioid trafficker to specify that the term includes (1) Chinese entities involved in the production or sale of synthetic opioids or related pharmaceutical ingredients that fail to take steps to detect or prevent opioid trafficking; and (2) certain senior Chinese government officials that aid and abet opioid trafficking, including through intentional inaction. Under current law, the President must impose certain sanctions on individuals and entities identified as foreign opioid traffickers. Further, the bill extends through 2029 an existing requirement that the President report to Congress annually on identified foreign opioid traffickers and any sanctions imposed on them. (This requirement expired in December 2024.) The bill also requires the President to take additional steps in issuing regulations under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) pursuant to a declared national emergency related to international drug trafficking. (IEEPA authorizes the President to regulate a variety of economic transactions following a declaration of national emergency.) Under the bill, the President must evaluate the costs and benefits of issuing economic regulations for the purpose of resolving the drug trafficking emergency and publish a discussion of such costs and benefits.

**Coercion and Sexual Abuse Free Environment Act of 2025 or the CSAFE Act of 2025** This bill establishes a new federal criminal offense for compelling a minor to engage in certain acts: animal crushing, self-harm, obscene speech, sexually explicit conduct, or abusive or degrading nonsexual conduct. An offense, or an attempt or conspiracy to commit an offense, is punishable by a fine, prison term, or both.  Additionally, in the case of an offense committed by a minor who is at least 13 years of age, the bill allows the minor to be prosecuted as an adult in federal court if certain criteria are met (e.g., possession of a firearm during the offense).

**Combating Online Predators Act of 2025 or the COP Act of 2025** This bill establishes new federal criminal offenses for threatening to distribute a visual depiction of a minor (or person believed to be a minor) engaging in sexually explicit conduct with the intent that the minor (or person believed to be a minor) create or transmit a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct. (This practice is commonly referred to as *sextortion*.) The bill also prohibits attempts and conspiracies to commit the offenses.

**Child Predators Accountability Act of 2025** This bill broadens the scope of prohibited conduct under two federal criminal statutes related to the production of child pornography.  Under current law, both statutes prohibit employing, using, persuading, inducing, enticing, or coercing a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction or transmitting a live visual depiction of the conduct.  This bill expands prohibited conduct to include employing, using, persuading, inducing, enticing, or coercing a minor to be depicted engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The bill also defines the term *engage in* to include a minor's presence in a such a depiction regardless of whether or not the minor is participating in the sexually explicit conduct.