S. 1227 · 119th Congress

ABC Act

Introduced on Apr 1, 2025 by Edward J. Markey (D-MA). 26 cosponsors, 13 of them from another party. Latest action (Apr 1, 2025): Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Stage
Introduced
Introduced
Apr 1, 2025
Cosponsors
26
13 from the other party
Policy area
Health
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Progress

The furthest stage the measure reached. Simple and concurrent resolutions do not go to the President.

  1. Introduced
  2. 2Reported by committee
  3. 3Passed one chamber
  4. 4Passed both chambers
  5. 5Sent to the President
  6. 6Became law

Official title

A bill to require the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Commissioner of Social Security to review and simplify the processes, procedures, forms, and communications for family caregivers to assist individuals in establishing eligibility for, enrolling in, and maintaining and utilizing coverage and benefits under the Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, and Social Security programs respectively, and for other purposes.

Summary

By the Congressional Research Service (Introduced in Senate, Apr 1, 2025). Public domain.

Alleviating Barriers for Caregivers Act or the ABC Act

This bill requires federal agencies to review and modify the administrative processes related to Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Social Security programs in order to streamline these processes for family caregivers.

Specifically, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Social Security Administration (SSA) must review processes related to eligibility determinations, applications, forms, and communications for these programs and identify ways to simplify and streamline these processes for family caregivers (e.g., reducing the need for family caregivers to submit the same information for multiple programs). The CMS and SSA must solicit input from family caregivers and state and regional organizations, implement any identified improvements, and report on these efforts to Congress.

In addition, the CMS must issue a letter to state Medicaid and CHIP programs that encourages states to conduct a similar review and that provides potential improvements.

Sponsor and cosponsors

Cosponsors by party as of the day they signed on. Original cosponsors signed on the day of introduction.

Edward J. MarkeyD-MASponsor

Democrats · 13

Republicans · 13

Roll calls

Recorded votes on the measure. Most measures move by voice vote or unanimous consent, which record no individual positions.

No recorded roll call on this measure: it moved by voice vote or unanimous consent, or has not reached the floor.

History

Every action as published, oldest first. Roll calls link to how each member voted.

  1. Apr 1, 2025Introduced in Senate
  2. Apr 1, 2025 · SenateRead twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.

Committees

Committees and subcommittees the measure was referred to.

Agencies in its committees' jurisdiction

Analisa's mapping of committee jurisdiction to federal agencies; the bill may touch others, or none of these.

Who lobbied on it

Organizations whose lobbying reports (LD-2) name this measure. Spending is what they reported for those quarters on all issues, not on this measure alone.

  1. ALLIANCE FOR RETIRED AMERICANS6 reports
    $500K reported (all issues)
  2. PARALYZED VETERANS OF AMERICA6 reports
    $572.6K reported (all issues)
  3. AARP5 reports
    $22.2M reported (all issues)
  4. AMERICA'S HEALTH INSURANCE PLANS, INC. (AHIP)5 reports
    $20.7M reported (all issues)
  5. NATIONAL MARROW DONOR PROGRAM5 reports
    $1.5M reported (all issues)Federal contractor: NATIONAL MARROW DONOR PROGRAM$27.8M in contracts, FY2026AI match · 100%
  6. The Michael J. Fox Foundation For Parkinson's Research5 reports
    $880K reported (all issues)
  7. THE ALS ASSOCIATION4 reports
    $120K reported (all issues)
  8. Autism Speaks3 reports
    $80K reported (all issues)
  9. NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO PRESERVE SOCIAL SECURITY AND MEDICARE3 reports
    $590K reported (all issues)
  10. Alzheimer's Association1 report
    $1.8M reported (all issues)
  11. American Heart Association1 report
    $290K reported (all issues)Federal contractor: AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION, INC.$333.7K in contracts, FY2026AI match · 100%
  12. THE ARC OF THE UNITED STATES1 report
    $70K reported (all issues)

Reports filed in 2025, 2026.

Sources and method

Every figure on this page traces to these records.

  • Bill status: bills and resolutions, sponsors, actions, subjects and CRS summaries (U.S. Government Publishing Office (GovInfo), from Congress.gov (Library of Congress))GovInfo Bill Status bulk data (Congress.gov; summaries by the Congressional Research Service) · data current to Oct 8, 2026 · loaded Oct 8, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Members of Congress, their terms, committees and identifiers (The @unitedstates project (from the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress, the House and the Senate))unitedstates/congress-legislators: legislators, committees and current committee membership · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: CC0 1.0 (public domain dedication)
  • House roll-call votes (Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives)Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, roll-call vote records · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Senate roll-call votes and DW-NOMINATE scores (Voteview (UCLA Department of Political Science))Lewis, Jeffrey B., Keith Poole, Howard Rosenthal, Adam Boche, Aaron Rudkin, and Luke Sonnet (2026). Voteview: Congressional Roll-Call Votes Database. https://voteview.com/ · data current to Oct 3, 2026 · loaded Oct 3, 2026 · license: Free to use with the required citation
  • Lobbying disclosures (LD-1 registrations, LD-2 quarterly reports, LD-203 contribution reports) (Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives)Clerk of the House, Lobbying Disclosure Act filings (organizations only; lobbyists' names are not loaded) · data current to Oct 7, 2026 · loaded Oct 7, 2026 · license: Public domain (U.S. Government work, 17 U.S.C. § 105)
  • Positions are shown only where a roll call recorded them; voice votes and unanimous consent record none.
  • Money and votes are shown side by side; neither explains the other.