Following its passage by the House in the early morning hours of May 22, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—the vehicle to fund and implement President Donald Trump’s agenda—is now in the process of being evaluated by the Senate.
Its major provisions are well-known by now: The megabill makes sweeping changes to federal immigration and border security, the tax code, energy, and entitlement programs.
Aside from these well-known components of the legislation, several lesser-known—but impactful—provisions were also slipped into the bill, which leaves few areas of government and the federal budget untouched.
Here’s what to know about those.
The bill would begin to integrate artificial intelligence into various sectors of the federal government, while restricting states’ ability to regulate the novel technology for a 10-year period.
The text of the bill prevents states from “enforcing any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.”
Despite several hearings on the topic over the past several years, Congress has until now made little legislative progress on the growing issue.
Amid the administration’s ongoing disputes with the judiciary—particularly over issues related to Trump’s mass deportation operation—the bill would also limit federal courts’ ability to hold members of the administration in contempt.
Specifically, the bill would require plaintiffs to provide a bond before a judge could enforce contempt orders. Under current federal court procedures, this fee can be waived depending on the nature of the case.
This requirement would be imposed retroactively upon enactment of the bill, and could limit the judiciary’s options to respond to administration’s failures to comply with a court order.
The legislation would enhance Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), federal accounts that allow taxpayers to save tax-free money for eligible medical services, by making gym memberships eligible for the program.
It would allow beneficiaries to withdraw $500 a year to pay for such expenses, or $1,000 for married couples, albeit with a laundry list of rules about what types of physical activity qualify.
For example, eligible facilities cannot be “a private club owned and operated by its members,” and cannot offer “golf, hunting, sailing, or riding facilities.”
Certain taxpayers will also be eligible for an increased contribution limit of $4,300 for single taxpayers and $8,550 for married couples, depending on income.
The bill would also extend the 2017 estate tax cuts, allowing single-owned estates to pass on up to $15 million tax-free, and allowing couple-owned estates to pass on up to $30 million tax-free.
It’s a change that could result in less than 0.1 percent of estates being subject to federal estate tax, by some estimates.
The legislation repeals a program that allows taxpayers to file directly, dubbed “Direct File,” instituted by President Joe Biden’s administration.
As part of a push to end the dominance of services like TurboTax and H&R Block—which tend to charge most taxpayers money for specialized services—the Biden administration created “Direct File.” It sought to save taxpayers money by allowing them to access the same services usually offered for a fee by tax prep companies, and is currently available in 25 states.
The bill would repeal this program but leaves open the possibility of a new, similar service pending a report by the Treasury secretary on the feasibility of such a program and taxpayer sentiments.
The bill also adds a pilot program for “Trump Accounts,” a type of federal trust account that would offer parents a $1,000 bonus per child they sign up for the program.
It would allow taxpayers to contribute up to $5,000 a year to the accounts, which would be allowed to grow tax-free until the beneficiary withdraws the money at 18 years or older.
The legislation would also enable the administration to revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofit organizations deemed by the administration as “terrorist-supporting organizations,” giving organizations deemed to be “terrorist-supporting” 90 days to amend the situation or face revocation of their tax-exempt status.
—Joseph Lord
Putting Brakes on Questionable Truck Drivers
The U.S. government is taking steps to close a legal loophole that has allowed logistics companies to employ truck drivers who may not have the necessary credentials to do the job.
On April 28, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directed Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy to rescind a 2016 policy that relaxed English proficiency requirements for truck drivers.
The same mandate orders the department to investigate practices surrounding the validation of foreign drivers’ licenses and the issuance of so-called non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses.
Advocacy group American Truckers United said the executive order is tackling a much larger problem: an unknown number of foreign-born drivers who are legally employed under questionable credentials.
A large number of drivers are coming from India, Mexico, and Serbia, according to data collected by American Truckers United. In those countries, average wages for drivers are less than one-tenth of what an American trucker earns.
The willingness of foreign drivers to accept lower pay and the eagerness of trucking firms to find a way to employ them are keeping wages artificially low for American truckers, industry experts say.
Shannon Everett, co-founder of American Truckers United, said an influx of drivers holding either non-domiciled or foreign-issued licenses is suppressing driver wages and pressuring transportation companies to keep their prices artificially low.
By the end of June, the Transportation Department is required to issue new enforcement guidance that will ensure drivers who cannot meet English proficiency standards are placed out-of-service.
On May 20, Duffy signed an order mandating that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration classify a lack of English language proficiency among the violations that can render a trucker “out-of-service.”
“When you’re driving an 80,000-pound truck and you cannot read the road sign, ‘lane closed ahead,’ or ‘lane merging ahead,’ and you plow into stalled traffic at 80 miles per hour, entire families can be killed,” Everett told The Epoch Times.
Between 2009 and 2023, the number of deaths related to large truck crashes rose by about 17 percent to more than 5,470.
Injuries went up by about 14 percent to more than 153,400.
In 2019, Rogel Aguilera-Mederos, a Cuban immigrant, caused a pile-up crash that killed four people and injured several others when his brakes malfunctioned on the downslope of a mountainous stretch of Interstate 70 in Colorado.
Mederos, who was traveling at almost twice the speed limit for commercial trucks, sped past multiple ramps designed to stop runaway trucks. He was initially sentenced to 110 years in prison for his role in the crash.
In May, according to a release from the Monongalia County sheriff’s office in West Virginia, Singh Sukhjinder was served an arrest warrant on negligent homicide crashes for his alleged role in a fatal crash on Interstate 68 on Jan. 19.
One person was killed in the crash. Sukhjinder needed an interpreter to speak with police, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said in an April 28 statement that the crash caused by Aguilera-Mederos and the crash involving Sukhjinder were two of the “documented cases where drivers’ inability to read our signs and speak our language may have contributed to a series of fatal accidents.”
—Austin Alonzo, Stacy Robinson
BOOKMARKS
Donald Trump is warning California that he will pull its federal education funding if the state does not comply with his executive order banning men from women’s sports. California Gov. Gavin Newsom previously said that a solution to the issue is difficult because of the mental impact on transgender athletes, but said if it can be done “in a way that’s respectful and responsible and could find a kind of balance, then I’m open to that discussion.”
The San Diego Sector Soft Sided Facility, a temporary processing center for illegal immigrants, has closed due to a drop in illegal border crossings. “Each facility shutdown saves $5 milion-$30 million/month,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection wrote on X.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) says it has cut more than 25,000 federal contracts and grants, saving around $175 billion in spending. The majority of those cuts have come from the Department of Health and Human Services, the General Services Administration, the Education Department, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Labor.
The Trump administration intends to cancel around $100 million in federal contracts with Harvard University over accusations of anti-Semitism, and discrimination through DEI initiatives. The move follows Trump’s previous decision to cut 2.6 billion in federal funding from Harvard, which is being challenged in court.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Argentine Minister of Health Mario Lugones are calling on other nations to withdraw from the World Health Organization. “The WHO’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic revealed serious structural and operational shortcomings that undermined global trust and highlighted the urgent need for independent, science-based leadership in global health,” they said in a joint statement.
—Stacy Robinson
