From Publius Papers. Two bills reached the President's desk yesterday. Congress.gov shows both were formally presented on Monday, Oct 26: one extends federal ALS research programs through 2031, and the other keeps the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom running through 2028. The President now has until Nov. 6 to sign or veto them. Both chambers met only briefly on Monday, with no votes, and won't meet again until Thursday. Below: the two bills, last week's two new laws getting their official numbers, and the 10 new House bills filed Monday.
1. H.R. 8205 — Accelerating Access to Critical Therapies for ALS Reauthorization Act of 2026
Sponsor: Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), with 103 cosponsors
Latest action: Presented to the President (Oct 26, 2026). The Energy and Commerce Committee approved it 46–0 on May 21, 2026. The House passed an amended version by voice vote on July 22, 2026, and the Senate passed it without changes by voice vote on Sept 28, 2026.
What it does: ALS, also called Lou Gehrig's disease, is a fatal disease that destroys the nerve cells controlling muscles. A 2021 law (Public Law 117-79) set up programs to speed up treatments: National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants that give patients who can't join clinical trials access to experimental drugs, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) grants for research on ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases, and an FDA–NIH public-private partnership. Those programs are authorized through 2026. This bill extends them through fiscal year 2031. It also adds a few rules. When a grant comes up for renewal, NIH must ask the drug's maker for enrollment, safety and any available effectiveness data, and weigh it. Grant recipients must promptly report serious, unexpected side effects from the related late-stage trial, on top of existing FDA safety reporting. "Phase 3" trials are defined to include combined phase 2/3 trials. And within 18 months, FDA must post a five-year action plan for rare neurodegenerative diseases, followed by a report on what it did under the plan within five years.
Who it affects: People living with ALS and similar diseases and their families, researchers and drug companies running ALS trials, NIH and FDA.
View on Congress.gov
2. H.R. 1744 — United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Reauthorization Act of 2026
Sponsor: Rep. Christopher Smith (R-NJ), with 11 cosponsors
Latest action: Presented to the President (Oct 26, 2026). The Foreign Affairs Committee approved it 45–0 on March 26, 2026. The House passed an amended version by voice vote on June 8, 2026, and the Senate passed it without changes by unanimous consent on Sept 29, 2026.
What it does: The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is an independent, bipartisan federal commission created in 1998. It tracks religious freedom conditions in other countries and makes policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State and Congress. The Congressional Research Service says its current authorization runs through Dec. 11, 2026. This bill extends the commission through Dec. 31, 2028, and authorizes its yearly funding for fiscal years 2027 and 2028, plus the last three months of 2028. It doesn't set a dollar amount or change what the commission does.
Who it affects: The commission and its staff, the State Department and Congress, which use its reports, and religious minorities abroad whose cases it documents.
View on Congress.gov
Quick list
Last week's laws get their numbers: The Mystic Alerts Act (H.R. 7022), which sets up emergency alerts by satellite, is now Public Law 119-136, and the Reversionary Interest Conveyance Act (H.R. 952), covering federal land claims in Sacramento, is Public Law 119-135. Both were signed Oct 22.
Cleared Congress, not yet sent to the President: The Common Cents Act (H.R. 10167), which would end penny production for circulation and round cash transactions to the nearest five cents, passed the Senate on Sept 28. Unlike the two bills above, which passed the Senate the same week, it still hasn't been presented to the President.
New House bills (Oct 26): H.R. 10908 through H.R. 10917, plus 3 resolutions. They include a bill on Universal Savings Accounts and health care price transparency (H.R. 10908, Rep. Michael Cloud, R-TX), a bill on certain food preservatives (H.R. 10913, Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC), and bills on swine health, protecting companion animals and landscape-scale forest projects. All were referred to committee.
What's next
The President's deadline: Under the Constitution, the President has 10 days, not counting Sundays, to act on a bill once it's presented. For H.R. 8205 and H.R. 1744, that's Friday, Nov. 6.
Thursday, Oct 29: The House meets in a pro forma session at noon Eastern, and the Senate at 2 PM Eastern. A pro forma session is a brief meeting with no votes or legislative business. On Monday, the House met for two minutes and the Senate for 37 seconds.
Committees: No House or Senate committee meetings are scheduled for Thursday, according to the Congressional Record.
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The Publius Papers team
Data: Congress.gov API (Library of Congress), pulled Oct 27, 2026, and the Congressional Record Daily Digest for Oct 26 (Vol. 172, No. 164). Both bills are summarized from their enrolled (final) text, with background from Congressional Research Service summaries. The chart counts calendar days between each bill's introduction, House passage, Senate passage and presentation to the President.