President Joe Biden signed 50 bills into law on Christmas Eve, with less than a month remaining in his White House term.
The bills included laws ranging from protections for children in youth care facilities to officially naming the country's official bird.
Socialite and activist Paris Hilton was behind the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act, which passed the House and Senate last week. It was introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
The legislation creates an interagency work group to support and implement best practices regarding the health and safety, care, treatment, and appropriate placement of youth in youth residential programs.
The No Corruption Act, introduced by Nevada Democrat Sen. Jacky Rosen, prohibits House and Senate members convicted of crimes related to public corruption from receiving their retirement payments.
Under current law, a lawmaker must forgo receipt of these payments only after a final conviction and the exhaustion of all appeals under the judicial process, CBS News reported.
The Stop Campus Hazing Act, introduced by Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., requires institutions of higher education that participate in federal student aid programs to report hazing incidents to campus or local police authorities in their annual security reports. The law also requires schools to teach students about the dangers of hazing.
The Hearts Act of 2024, introduced by Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize and support the creation and dissemination of cardiomyopathy education, awareness, and risk assessment materials and resources to identify more at-risk families, to authorize research and surveillance activities relating to cardiomyopathy, and for other purposes.
Biden signed into law legislation that amends the U.S. Code to correct what had long gone unnoticed and designate the bald eagle — familiar to many because of its white head, yellow beak and brown body — as the national bird.
The bald eagle has appeared on the Great Seal of the United States, which is used in official documents, since 1782, when the design was finalized.
Biden also signed bills that rename federal buildings and post offices.
The Department of Veterans Affairs community clinic in Lynchburg, Virginia, will be known as the Private First Class Desmond T. Doss VA Clinic; the medical center of the VA in Tulsa, Okla., was renamed after the late Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.; and the visitor center at the Fort McHenry National Historic Monument and Historic Shrine in Baltimore, Maryland, was renamed after the late Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Md.
Post offices were renamed to honor community leaders in the state of Texas and California.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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