Closed record ·Former U.S. Representative ·Texas ·District 18
Sylvester Turner
- Party
- Democrat
- Left office
A closed record holds what Turner filed and did in office. No new votes or terms are added; a disclosure covering their time in office that is filed after they left is still added when it arrives. No grade is given to a closed record.
34 votes total · 1 broke with party
- HR 758Mar 3, 2025Government Operations and PoliticsPassed ChamberYea
Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting Act of 2025
House vote · 402-16
Democrats208-0Republicans194-16What this does
This bill requires the Postal Service to track and publicly report crashes involving mail-carrying vehicles that cause injury or death. Within 90 days of enactment, the Postmaster General must issue regulations requiring collection, tracking, and public reporting of that information, with mechanisms to monitor and enforce compliance. Postal employees and contractors of any tier who are transporting mail must report any crash involving injury or death within three days, using a standard form the Postmaster General must create, and must update the report as injuries or fatalities change. Reports must include the date, time, location, nature of the crash, the contractor's identity, injury and fatality counts, and contributing factors. The Postal Service must keep a continuously updated internal database of this information and publish an annual public report with aggregated statistics and trends, without personally identifying any individual. Contractors who miss the deadline face penalties that may include fines, contract suspension, or termination. The bill defines a reportable crash as one involving a commercial motor vehicle on a highway that causes a fatality, injury requiring immediate off-scene medical treatment, or disabling vehicle damage requiring a tow, and it excludes mere boarding, alighting, or cargo loading.
Both sections serve the reporting system the title names. Section 2 builds the whole scheme: the regulations, the three-day reporting duty for employees and contractors, the database, the annual public report, the penalties, and the definition of a crash. Section 1 is just the short title. There is no unrelated provision.
- HR 856Mar 3, 2025Government Operations and PoliticsPassed ChamberYea
Safe and Smart Federal Purchasing Act
House vote · 417-0
Democrats206-0Republicans211-0What this does
This bill orders a study and nothing more. It directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to review the procurement practices of defense and civilian agencies and determine whether the lowest price technically acceptable source selection process, set out in section 15.101-2 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, has created any national security risk. The Director must report the results within 180 days to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The bill changes no procurement rule and grants no new authority. It defines the covered agencies by reference to the definition of agency in section 133 of title 41.
The title says the bill requires OMB to review the impact of the lowest price technically acceptable selection process on national security. The single operative section does exactly that and stops there. There is no rider and no gap between the title and the content.
- HJRES 20Feb 27, 2025EnergyBecame LawNay
Overturning the DOE Gas Water Heater Rule
House vote · 221-198
Democrats11-198Republicans210-0Official title: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Department of Energy relating to "Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-fired Instantaneous Water Heaters".
What this does
This joint resolution uses the Congressional Review Act to overturn a Department of Energy rule. It disapproves the rule titled "Energy Conservation Program: Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Gas-fired Instantaneous Water Heaters" and provides that the rule has no force or effect. The disapproved rule is identified as published at 89 Fed. Reg. 105188 on December 26, 2024.
Single subject. The resolution does one thing: nullify a single named Department of Energy efficiency standard under the Congressional Review Act.
- HJRES 35Feb 26, 2025Environmental ProtectionBecame LawNay
Overturning the EPA Waste Emissions Charge Rule
House vote · 220-206
Democrats6-205Republicans214-1Official title: Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to "Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems: Procedures for Facilitating Compliance, Including Netting and Exemptions".
What this does
Using the Congressional Review Act, this resolution voids the Environmental Protection Agency's rule on the Waste Emissions Charge for Petroleum and Natural Gas Systems, published at 89 Fed. Reg. 91094 on November 18, 2024. That rule set the procedures for compliance with the methane waste emissions charge on oil and gas facilities, including how facilities could net emissions and qualify for exemptions. Once this resolution takes effect, the rule has no force or effect, so those compliance, netting, and exemption procedures are struck. Under the Congressional Review Act, the agency may not reissue the rule in substantially the same form without new authorization from Congress.
Single subject. The resolving clause disapproves one identified EPA rule and does nothing else.
- HR 695Feb 26, 2025Armed Forces and National SecurityBundledBecame LawYea
Medal of Honor Act
House vote · 424-0
Democrats211-0Republicans213-0What this does
This bill raises the special pension paid to living Medal of Honor recipients. Current law fixes that pension at $1,406.73 per month. The bill replaces that fixed figure with a rate tied to a special monthly compensation level. It sets the pension equal to the amount under subsection (m) of the special monthly compensation schedule in 38 U.S.C. 1114, increased to the next intermediate step under subsection (p). It also bars a second cost-of-living increase in any year the pension was already raised. A final section extends an unrelated limit on veterans' pension payments, moving its expiration date from November 30, 2031 to January 31, 2033.
The pension increase is the whole point of the title, and sections 2 and 3 serve it directly. Section 4 does not. It extends the sunset on a separate cap that reduces pension payments for veterans and survivors covered by Medicaid in nursing homes. That cap applies to the general pension population, not to Medal of Honor recipients, and pushing its expiration two years later is a budget offset that pays for the raise. The title covers this only through its catch-all 'and for other purposes.' A reader told the bill honors Medal of Honor recipients would not know it also keeps a benefit limit alive longer for a different group.
- HR 804Feb 25, 2025CommercePassed ChamberYea
Rural Small Business Resilience Act
House vote · 415-8
Democrats212-0Republicans203-8What this does
This bill directs the Small Business Administration to make sure people in rural areas get full access to federal disaster assistance. Within one year of enactment, the Administrator must have the Office of Disaster Recovery and Resilience take the steps needed so that individuals in rural areas covered by a disaster declaration can reach the aid available under section 7(b) of the Small Business Act. That includes targeted outreach and marketing materials aimed at those individuals. A separate section fixes a numbering error in the statute, redesignating a duplicate paragraph (16) about the statute of limitations as paragraph (17).
Both operative sections belong to the same subject. Section 2 is the rural disaster-access mandate the title names. Section 3 is a technical cleanup inside the same section of the Small Business Act, correcting two paragraphs that were both numbered (16). Nothing here reaches beyond SBA disaster assistance.
- HR 788Feb 25, 2025Science, Technology, CommunicationsPassed ChamberYea
DOE and SBA Research Act
House vote · 427-3
Democrats212-0Republicans215-3What this does
This bill directs the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to sign a memorandum of understanding, or another agreement, to run joint research and development work advancing both agencies' missions. The two officials must ensure small business concerns are included in those activities where appropriate. They may enter reimbursable agreements and bring in other federal agencies. Within two years, they must report to Congress on the coordination, achievements, and future opportunities of the work. The research must comply with existing federal research security law. The bill authorizes no additional money to carry out any of this.
Every section serves one subject: a joint DOE and SBA research arrangement. The short title, the mandate to sign an agreement, the small business inclusion requirement, the report, the research security clause, and the no-new-money clause all point at the same program. Nothing unrelated rides along.
- HR 818Feb 24, 2025CommercePassed ChamberYea
SPUR Act
House vote · 384-25
Democrats203-0Republicans181-25What this does
This bill adds a new measure to the federal small business contracting scorecard. Agencies would have to report how many new small business entrants won prime contracts in each industry code during the fiscal year, broken out for firms owned by service-disabled veterans, HUBZone firms, disadvantaged-owned firms, and women-owned firms, with a comparison to the prior year where available. The bill defines a 'new small business entrant' as a firm that won a federal prime contract and had never been awarded a prime contract by any federal agency before. It also defines 'scorecard' as an agency rating summary that includes the listed measures and assigns each agency a score. A final section states that no additional money is authorized to carry out the bill.
Every section serves the scorecard change the title names. Section 2 adds the new-entrant reporting measure and its definitions to section 15(y) of the Small Business Act. Section 3 is the pay-as-you-go statement that the bill authorizes no new spending. There is no unrelated provision.
- HR 825Feb 24, 2025CommercePassed ChamberYea
Assisting Small Businesses Not Fraudsters Act
House vote · 405-0
Democrats200-0Republicans205-0What this does
This bill bars people convicted of certain financial crimes from getting SBA money. It amends the Small Business Act so that an associate of a small business who is finally convicted of a crime involving financial misconduct or a false statement tied to a covered loan or grant becomes ineligible for SBA financial assistance. A small business that has such a convicted associate is also cut off. The one carve-out is section 7(b) disaster assistance, which stays available. Covered loans and grants include PPP loans, certain COVID-era disaster loans, and Restaurant Revitalization and Shuttered Venue grants. An associate is defined to include officers, directors, key employees, and owners of more than 20 percent. Finally convicted means the conviction is no longer appealable or the appeal is finished. The prohibition does not reach any government contract or agreement entered before enactment.
Every provision serves the one subject the title names: shutting fraud-convicted people out of SBA assistance. The definitions of associate, covered loan or grant, and finally convicted set the boundaries of that single ban. The applicability clause limits it going forward. Nothing unrelated is attached.
- HR 832Feb 24, 2025CommercePassed ChamberYea
Small Business Advocacy Improvements Act of 2025
House vote · 396-15
Democrats203-0Republicans193-15What this does
This bill rewrites part of the mandate of the SBA's Office of Advocacy. It expands the Office's function of examining the role of small business in the economy to also cover the international economy. It fixes two typographical errors in existing law, changing complete to compete and serviced-disabled to service-disabled. It also adds a new duty: the Office is to represent the views and interests of small businesses before foreign governments and international entities on regulatory and trade initiatives that may affect small businesses.
Each change targets the same statute governing the Office of Advocacy and points in one direction: giving that office an international role. The two typo fixes sit inside the same amended sections. There is no unrelated rider and no title-versus-content gap.
- HR 35Feb 13, 2025ImmigrationPassed ChamberNay
Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act
House vote · 264-155
Democrats50-155Republicans214-0What this does
The bill creates a new federal crime for intentionally fleeing a pursuing federal officer while driving a motor vehicle within 100 miles of the U.S. border. The offense covers fleeing a U.S. Border Patrol agent acting under lawful authority, or any federal, state, or local officer assisting or under Border Patrol command. Penalties escalate with harm: up to 2 years in prison for the base offense, 5 to 20 years if serious bodily injury results, and 10 years to life if a death results. The bill also makes any noncitizen convicted of, or who admits, this offense inadmissible and deportable, and ineligible for immigration relief including asylum. The Attorney General and DHS must submit an annual report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees on the number of violations, charges, apprehensions, and penalties.
Single subject. All sections build out one new fleeing-a-federal-officer offense and its criminal and immigration consequences; no divisions or unrelated riders, and the short title reflects the content.
- HR 77Feb 12, 2025Government Operations and PoliticsPassed ChamberNay
Midnight Rules Relief Act
House vote · 212-208
Democrats1-207Republicans211-1What this does
The bill lets Congress disapprove several late-term regulations in a single resolution rather than one at a time. It amends the Congressional Review Act in chapter 8 of title 5 so that a joint resolution of disapproval may cover one or more rules when the agency report for each of those rules was submitted during the final year of a President's term. It also rewrites the resolving-clause language for such combined resolutions, providing a template that states Congress disapproves a listed set of named rules and that those rules shall have no force or effect, with blanks to be filled in and additional clauses added as needed. The change is a procedural tool for bundling so-called midnight rules into one up-or-down vote.
Single subject: an amendment to the Congressional Review Act enabling en bloc disapproval of midnight rules. Two lettered subsections, one adding the en bloc authority and one supplying the matching resolving-clause text, both serve that one purpose. Short title matches the content.
- HR 692Feb 10, 2025International AffairsPassed ChamberYea
China Exchange Rate Transparency Act of 2025
House vote · 388-7
Democrats192-0Republicans196-7What this does
This bill directs the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the U.S. Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund to use the voice and vote of the United States to push for greater transparency from China on its exchange rate policies, including any indirect currency-market intervention through Chinese financial institutions or state-owned enterprises. It ties that advocacy to IMF Article IV consultations with China and to IMF governance reviews of China's quota and voting shares. The Act sunsets 30 days after the earlier of two events: the U.S. IMF Governor certifying to Congress that China is in substantial compliance with its exchange-rate obligations, or seven years after enactment.
The findings, the advocacy directive, and the sunset all serve one subject: pressing for transparency on China's exchange rate policies through the IMF. The bill carries no unrelated matter.
- HR 736Feb 10, 2025Finance and Financial SectorPassed ChamberYea
Protect Small Businesses from Excessive Paperwork Act of 2025
House vote · 408-0
Democrats201-0Republicans207-0What this does
This bill changes the deadline for beneficial ownership information reports for reporting companies formed or registered before January 1, 2024. Existing law gave those pre-existing companies up to two years after the reporting regulations took effect to file. This bill replaces that with a fixed deadline of January 1, 2026 for companies created before January 1, 2024.
The bill contains a short title and one amendment to a single reporting deadline in title 31. It holds to one subject and carries no rider.
- HR 26Feb 7, 2025EnergyPassed ChamberYeaBroke with party
Protecting American Energy Production Act
House vote · 226-188
Democrats16-188Republicans210-0What this does
Prohibits the President from declaring a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing unless Congress authorizes the moratorium by an Act of Congress. The bill also states the sense of Congress that states should keep primacy for regulating hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas production on state and private lands.
One prohibition plus an accompanying sense-of-Congress statement on the same subject. Single subject, matching the short title.
- HR 27Feb 6, 2025Crime and Law EnforcementPassed ChamberNay
HALT Fentanyl Act
House vote · 312-108
Democrats98-107Republicans214-1What this does
The bill permanently places the entire class of fentanyl-related substances into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. It adds a new Schedule I entry covering any material containing a fentanyl-related substance, and defines that term by five categories of chemical modification to the fentanyl molecule, so that new analogues are controlled by class rather than one at a time. The existing mandatory trafficking penalties in the Controlled Substances Act and the import and export statute are extended to fentanyl-related substances. Alongside the scheduling, the bill sets up faster registration for researchers who want to study Schedule I substances: a notice-based process to begin research, no separate registration for additional researchers at the same institution, a single registration covering related research sites in the same city or county, no new inspection required when adding a substance in the same or a higher-numbered schedule, continuation of research when a substance is newly scheduled, and limited small-scale manufacturing tied to the research, though not the growing of marijuana. The Attorney General must issue implementing rules within six months and may do so as interim final rules. The bill also states that its penalty changes apply as of enactment and expresses agreement with the interpretation in United States v. McCray.
One subject: fentanyl-related substances. The permanent class scheduling and the research registration changes are coupled in the same bill, but both serve the single aim of controlling fentanyl analogues while keeping legitimate research on Schedule I substances workable. No unrelated matter is attached.
- HR 776Feb 4, 2025Environmental ProtectionPassed ChamberYea
Nutria Eradication and Control Reauthorization Act of 2025
House vote · 361-56
Democrats205-0Republicans156-56What this does
This bill keeps the federal nutria eradication program running. Nutria are an invasive rodent that damage wetlands. The Nutria Eradication and Control Act of 2003 authorizes the program only through 2025. This bill amends that Act to strike 2025 and insert 2030, extending the authorization by five years. It also makes a small technical fix to the punctuation in another subsection of the same 2003 Act.
Both operative provisions touch the same statute for the same purpose. One extends the sunset date on the nutria program. The other is a punctuation correction inside that same Act. There is no unrelated provision and no gap between the title and the content.
- HR 43Feb 4, 2025Native AmericansBecame LawYea
Alaska Native Village Municipal Lands Restoration Act of 2025
House vote · 412-1
Democrats204-1Republicans208-0What this does
The bill lets Alaska Native Village Corporations reclaim land they set aside for future towns that never formed. It amends section 14(c) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act so that where a Village Corporation conveyed land in trust to the State of Alaska to establish a future Municipal Corporation, and no Municipal Corporation has been established by the date of enactment, the trust can be dissolved and title reverts to the Village Corporation on a formal resolution by the corporation and the residents of the Native village. Going forward, a Village Corporation is no longer required to convey any additional land in trust for a future Municipal Corporation. Reverted land remains subject to valid existing rights created by the trust and to existing easements and rights-of-way for public road access, and the Village Corporation assumes the trust's obligations under any lease or use agreement on the land. The bill also restructures and makes technical fixes to section 14(c), including fixing the base date for land holdings as December 18, 1971 and an acreage figure of 1,280 acres.
Single subject. All amendments modify one statute, section 14(c) of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, on one topic: land held in trust for future Alaska municipalities.
- HR 21Jan 23, 2025HealthPassed ChamberNay
Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act
House vote · 217-204
Democrats1-204Republicans216-0What this does
This bill adds a new section 1532 to the federal criminal code covering any child born alive after an abortion or attempted abortion. It requires any health care practitioner present to give that child the same skill, care, and diligence a reasonably diligent practitioner would give any other child born alive at the same gestational age, and then to ensure the child is immediately transported and admitted to a hospital. Anyone at a hospital, physician's office, or abortion clinic who knows of a violation must report it to law enforcement. Violating the care requirement is punishable by a fine or up to five years in prison. Intentionally killing a child born alive is punished as murder under section 1111 of title 18. The mother cannot be prosecuted under the section. The woman on whom the abortion was performed may also sue any violator, recovering money damages, statutory damages equal to three times the cost of the abortion, and punitive damages. The bill also renames chapter 74 of title 18 from Partial-Birth Abortions to Abortions.
Every section serves one subject: the legal duty of care owed to an infant born alive after an abortion. The findings, the new criminal section, the penalties, the civil remedy, and the chapter heading change all attach to that duty. The rename of chapter 74 from Partial-Birth Abortions to Abortions is a conforming edit that lets the new section sit in the same chapter. The short title matches the content.
- HR 375Jan 23, 2025Public Lands and Natural ResourcesPassed ChamberYea
Continued Rapid Ohia Death Response Act of 2025
House vote · 359-62
Democrats206-0Republicans153-62What this does
The bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to partner with the Secretary of Agriculture and the State of Hawaii to address Rapid Ohia Death, the disease caused by the fungal pathogen Ceratocystis fimbriata that kills the native ohia tree. It directs continued federal work on three fronts: the U.S. Geological Survey and the Forest Service Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry are to keep researching how the disease spreads; the Fish and Wildlife Service is to keep working with partners to manage ungulates in control areas on federal, state, and private land, with private landowner consent; and the Forest Service is to keep providing financial assistance to prevent the spread and restore native forests, plus staff and infrastructure funding for the Institute's research. The bill authorizes no specific dollar amount.
Single subject. Every section addresses Rapid Ohia Death, defining the disease and directing federal agencies to continue coordinated research, ungulate management, and restoration.