Congress passed 12 measures this week. Here's what they do.

House passes permanent daylight saving time

The House passed HR 139, the Sunshine Protection Act of 2025, which would make daylight saving time the permanent year-round standard across the United States.

Why it matters: Why it matters: If the Senate clears it and it's signed into law, the twice-yearly clock change — currently required by the Uniform Time Act — would be eliminated, keeping sunsets later in the evening every day of the year.

• Eliminates the spring-forward and fall-back clock changes in most states.
• States with areas already exempt from daylight saving time could still choose standard time for those areas.
• Requires amending the Uniform Time Act, which currently governs state time-zone practices.

Senate tells the White House not to pardon Bankman-Fried

The Senate passed SRES 772, a resolution stating that Samuel Bankman-Fried should not receive a presidential pardon or commutation of his sentence.

Why it matters: Why it matters: Senate resolutions carry no legal force — a president is not bound by one — but the vote creates a formal, on-the-record congressional position that any clemency decision would have to be weighed against.

• Calls on the executive branch to withhold both a pardon and a commutation.
• Affirms the Senate's stated commitment to the integrity of the U.S. financial system.
• Sponsored by Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).

House adds fairness rules to failing-bank sales

The House passed HR 6556, the Failing Bank Acquisition Fairness Act, which would require federal regulators to weigh effects on employees, customers, and communities — not just cost and speed — when arranging the sale of a failing bank.

Why it matters: Why it matters: Current law instructs regulators to minimize losses to the deposit insurance fund; this bill would add a parallel requirement to consider local economic impact, which could change which buyer a regulator selects.

• Regulators must balance deposit insurance fund losses against effects on workers and communities dependent on local banking.
• New fairness standards apply to federal evaluation of which institution acquires a struggling bank.
• Sponsored by Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA-8).

House votes to ban firearm merchant codes on payment networks

The House passed HR 1181, the Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act, which would prohibit payment card networks from using merchant category codes that single out firearms retailers, and bar processors from sharing purchase data without explicit customer consent.

Why it matters: Why it matters: The bill would block the practice — adopted by Visa, Mastercard, and others in 2022 — of tagging gun-shop transactions with a distinct code, and it assigns the Justice Department annual reporting duties on enforcement.

• Payment networks cannot assign a merchant code that distinguishes firearms retailers from general-merchandise or sporting-goods stores.
• Financial institutions must get affirmative customer permission before sharing purchase history with third parties.
• Customers gain the right to opt out of data-sharing by payment processors and data brokers.
• DOJ must report annually on investigations and cases brought under the law.

House passes three geothermal energy bills in one day

On July 15, the House passed HR 5587 (HEATS Act), HR 5631 (Geothermal Ombudsman Act), and HR 1687 (CLEAN Act) — three separate bills aimed at accelerating geothermal energy development on nonfederal and federal lands.

Why it matters: Why it matters: Together, the bills exempt geothermal work on state and private land from NEPA environmental reviews, Endangered Species Act consultations, and National Historic Preservation Act reviews, while also creating a BLM ombudsman to resolve permitting disputes and requiring Interior to hold geothermal lease sales at least once a year rather than once every two years.

• HEATS Act: geothermal activities on nonfederal land (where the U.S. owns less than 50% of subsurface rights) are exempted from federal environmental and historic review, but not on Indian lands.
• Geothermal Ombudsman Act: Interior must appoint an ombudsman from within BLM to liaise between divisions and resolve disputes with project applicants.
• CLEAN Act: Interior must offer all pending nominated parcels in each annual lease sale; canceled sales must be replaced within the same year.

Oil and gas permitting fees extended to 2037

The House passed HR 7831, the License to Drill Act, extending BLM's authority to collect oil and gas permit processing fees through FY2037, eleven years past the FY2026 expiration date.

Why it matters: Why it matters: The fees flow into the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund, and the bill also consolidates multiple federal agency reviews into a single permitting track with set decision timelines — meaning the extension is paired with a structural change to how permits move through the system.

• Oil and gas companies pay per-application fees to BLM for new drilling permits.
• Fees are deposited into the BLM Permit Processing Improvement Fund.
• Federal permitting on public lands is streamlined by consolidating agency reviews under one track.

Senate marks fourth anniversary of Highland Park shooting

The Senate passed SRES 799, expressing condolences to the families of the seven people killed and dozens wounded in the July 4, 2022 mass shooting at a Highland Park, Illinois parade.

Why it matters: Why it matters: The resolution creates a formal congressional record on the fourth anniversary of the shooting, sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), whose state includes Highland Park.

• Formally honors the seven people killed and the dozens wounded on July 4, 2022.
• Recognizes the communities affected by the Highland Park shooting.

Sources

Official congressional and federal records used to verify the issue.

• HR 6556 — Failing Bank Acquisition Fairness Act · 2026-07-15
• HR 4090 — Critical Mineral Dominance Act · 2026-07-15
• HR 139 — Sunshine Protection Act of 2025 · 2026-07-15
• HR 5587 — HEATS Act · 2026-07-15
• HR 1181 — Protecting Privacy in Purchases Act · 2026-07-15
• HR 5362 — To name the Department of Veterans Affairs multispecialty clinic in Marietta, Georgia, as the "Colonel Michael H. Boyce Department of Veterans Affairs Multispecialty Clinic". · 2026-07-15
• SRES 772 — A resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that under no circumstances should Samuel Bankman-Fried receive executive clemency, including a pardon or commutation, and affirming the Senate's commitment to the rule of law and integrity of the United States financial system. · 2026-07-15
• SRES 799 — A resolution expressing the condolences of the Senate and honoring the memory of the victims on the fourth anniversary of the mass shooting at the Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, on July 4, 2022. · 2026-07-15
• HR 7831 — License to Drill Act · 2026-07-15
• HR 5631 — Geothermal Ombudsman for National Deployment and Optimal Reviews Act · 2026-07-15
• HR 1687 — CLEAN Act · 2026-07-15
• SRES 804 — A resolution commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 2016 West Virginia floods. · 2026-07-15