National Taxpayers Union (NTU) is happy to present its 16th annual “No Brainers” list of legislative reforms that can unite lawmakers across the political spectrum.
Each bill would be a benefit for taxpayers and must meet three key criteria:
- It has support from both Democrats and Republicans
- It has not appeared on a previous NTU “No Brainers” list
- It is a sensible way to address a real problem that taxpayers face.
Each bill below shows that there can be wide agreement on effective solutions to various issues when partisan politics are set aside.
Here are the “no-brainer” bills of our 16th annual list in no specific order.
Build Housing Affordably Act
- Bill Number: H.R. 9311
- Lead Sponsors: Reps. Mike Flood (R-NE) and Maggie Goodlander (D-NH)
- It’s a No Brainer: This bill would temporarily suspend Build America, Buy America requirements for certain HUD-assisted affordable housing projects while HUD evaluates their impact on material costs, compliance expenses, construction delays, and projects left unfinished because of these requirements. It would also establish a 90-day deadline for HUD to act on waiver requests. At a time when families are struggling with high housing costs and America needs to build more homes, Congress should not make housing more expensive by layering unnecessary federal red tape and protectionist policies onto federally supported projects. Reducing these barriers can lower construction costs, help stretch taxpayer dollars further, and ultimately reduce costs for renters.
- Status: Referred to the House Financial Services Committee.
Duplication Scoring Act
- Bill Number: H.R. 8096, S. 2733
- Lead Sponsors: Reps. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Melanie Stansbury (D-NM), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), and Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) in the House; Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH) in the Senate.
- It’s a No Brainer: This bill would help Congress prevent the creation of new, duplicative government programs. Specifically, the bill would require the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review all legislative proposals that are reported by Congressional committees to determine if the legislation would create a risk for duplication or overlap of existing government programs. If a risk of duplication or overlap is identified, the GAO would be required to notify the committee, publish the report on the GAO website, and include the assessment in the Congressional Budget Office’s official cost estimate for the bill. Since 2011, GAO has issued annual reports on existing government duplication, identifying thousands of instances of wasteful duplication, fragmentation, and overlap and hundreds of billions of potential cost savings.
- Status: Passed out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, awaiting action in the House; and Passed out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, awaiting action in the Senate.
Guidance Out Of Darkness (GOOD) Act
- Bill Number: H.R. 1515, S. 252
- Lead Sponsors: Reps. James Comer (R-KY), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Blake Moore (R-UT), and Kevin Kiley (I-CA) in the House; Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and 15 others in the Senate.
- It’s a No Brainer: This legislation would bring “regulatory dark matter” into the light, improving transparency by requiring federal agencies to publish guidance documents in a searchable online database. Guidance issued by regulatory agencies can have significant impacts on American families, workers, and businesses, but under current law there is no standardized requirement that these documents be accessible to the public. The GOOD Act would make it easier for citizens to understand the regulatory landscape.
- Status: Passed the House by a voice vote; passed out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, awaiting action in the Senate.
Guidance Clarity Act of 2025
- Bill Number: H.R. 2409, S. 81
- Lead Sponsors: Reps. Eric Burlison (R-MO), Jared Golden (D-ME), James Comer (R-KY), Donald Davis (D-NC), Brandon Gill (R-TX), Pat Fallon (R-TX), Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Elise Stefanik (R-NY) in the House; Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Ashley Moody (R-FL), and Rick Scott (R-FL)
- It’s a No Brainer: This bill would require agency guidance documents to state that the guidance does “not have the force and effect of law.” Guidance is not issued in accordance with the formal rulemaking process, and it is not legally binding. However, some agencies have attempted to use regulatory guidance to issue new policy directives. This proposal would provide much-needed clarity to the public.
- Status: Passed out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, awaiting action in the House; Passed out of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, awaiting action in the Senate.
Pre-Payment Fraud Prevention and Treasury Data Access Act
- Bill Number: H.R. 8463
- Lead Sponsors: Reps. James Comer (R-KY), Robert Garcia (D-CA), Jodey Arrington (R-TX), and Ken Calvert (R-CA)
- It’s a No Brainer: This bill would represent an important step to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse. In particular, the proposal would require federal agencies to screen payments through the Treasury’s Do Not Pay system prior to issuing a payment. The bill would also require agencies to verify other important details prior to making payments, such as the amount of the payment being correct, the Social Security or other identification number of the payee, that the individual is not deceased, and that the bank account for the payment is valid. One of the most common causes of improper payments is a failure to verify recipient and eligibility information before payments are made by the government. Expanding the use of the Do Not Pay system is one of the GAO’s top recommendations to combat fraud.
- Status: Passed the House by voice vote; awaiting action in the Senate.
Federal Program Integrity and Fraud Prevention Act of 2026
- Bill Number: H.R. 6916
- Lead Sponsors: Reps. Keith Self (R-TX) and Emily Randall (D-WA)
- It’s a No Brainer: This bill would protect taxpayers by banning individuals who have been convicted of a felony for fraud related to federal funds from being eligible for additional grants, contracts, or other financial assistance for three years. Preventing fraudsters from getting more federal funds is just common sense.
- Status: Passed by the House by voice vote; awaiting action in the Senate.
SAFEGUARDS Act
- Bill Number: H.R. 8770
- Lead Sponsors: Andrew Garbarino (R-NY) and Tim Kennedy (D-NY)
- It’s a No Brainer: American travelers pay a mandatory $11.20 Passenger Security Fee with every round-trip airline ticket to help fund the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Yet, under current law, a significant portion of the roughly $4.5 billion collected annually is diverted to the general fund rather than being used for aviation security. Thankfully, the SAFEGUARDS Act would restore the Passenger Security Fee to its intended purpose: strengthening aviation security. While the optimal approach may be to eventually privatize TSA operations, in the interim, ending this fee diversion is a commonsense move that will benefit the security professionals safeguarding America’s airports as much as the travelling public.
- Status: Passed by the House by voice vote; awaiting action in the Senate.
LNG Export Security Act
- Bill Number: S. 4520
- Lead Sponsors: John Cornyn (R-TX) and John Fetterman (D-PA)
- It’s a No Brainer: The Natural Gas Act allows the federal government to block natural gas exports in certain circumstances if it determines exports would not be in the public interest. However, “public interest” is not currently defined. The LNG Export Security Act would clarify that the public interest includes consideration of the development of natural gas facilities in the United States, U.S. economic interests, and national security interests.This would limit the potential for the law to be abused restrict exports in the absence of a legitimate public interest rationale.
- Status: Referred to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Biosimilar Red Tape Elimination Act
- Bill Number: S. 1414
- Lead Sponsors: Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH).
- It’s a No Brainer: This streamlines the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) convoluted and obsolete approval process for biosimilar drugs. Under current law, manufacturers are required to undertake costly and lengthy clinical studies even when the evidence already shows that the biosimilar they have developed is as safe and effective as the original product. There is ample evidence that prices decline as more competitors enter the market for a given drug. Public policy should, therefore, focus on removing regulatory barriers to entry that keep manufacturers from bringing their drugs to market. Deploying innovative drugs can help lower costs in taxpayer-funded health care programs by obviating the need for more expensive procedures or hospitalizations.
- Status: companion bill in the House; Sponsored by Reps. Langworthy (R-NY) and Schrier (D-WA).
Taxpayer Assistance and Service (TAS) Act
- Bill Number: S. 3931
- Lead Sponsors: Senators Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Ron Wyden (D-OR)
- It’s a No Brainer: The TAS Act is the first bill focused on tax administration that has progressed this far down the legislative process since the Taxpayers First Act of 2019, but it’s also potentially the most impactful for taxpayers in a generation. This bipartisan bill, without any organized opposition currently, would make a comprehensive set of reforms that would improve the taxpayer experience from tax filing to dispute resolution, while also focusing on the needs of long underserved taxpayers. The TAS Act includes measures requiring the IRS to modernize its technology, a goal that the IRS has thus far been unable to achieve independently without specific legislated mandates. It also provides more insight into the challenges faced by taxpayers abroad, promotes fairness in Tax Court procedures, and enhances the independence of the Office of the National Taxpayer Advocate and the Independent Office of Appeals. It also includes multiple reporting requirements to Congress on the progress of implementation, requires studies on specific legislative actions to take in the future, and provides clear deadlines with specific benchmarks. Overall, this package includes at least 23 proposals that NTU has recommended in recent years.
- Status: Passed by the Senate Finance Committee.
Stop the Baseline Bloat Act of 2025
- Bill Number: H.R. 3912
- Lead Sponsors: Reps. Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Ed Case (D-HI), and eight others.
- It’s a No Brainer: This legislation would prevent one-time emergency funding and supplemental appropriations from being assumed to continue in the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) official baseline. Under current law, the CBO is required to assume that all discretionary funding, even one-time emergency appropriations, continue each year in perpetuity, growing annually with inflation. This helps bias the official baseline, against which all legislation is scored against, towards higher spending. To end the distortions, the baseline should instead more closely reflect actual current law.
- Status: Awaiting action in the House Budget Committee.
Warrior Right to Repair Act of 2025
- Bill Number: S. 2209 / H.R. 5155
- Lead Senate Sponsors: Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Tim Sheehy (R-MT)
- Lead House Sponsors: Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA) and Jennifer Kiggans (R-VA)
- It’s a No Brainer: Currently, highly skilled military service members are frequently blocked from fixing mission-critical weapons and equipment because contracts give manufacturers exclusive control over repairs, causing skyrocketing costs for taxpayers and increasing risks to battlefield readiness for the military. This bill would ensure that the Department of Defense is able to receive technical data necessary to maintain and repair these important systems. The bill would also set up stricter requirements on contractors to justify more restrictive repair processes. Senior members of the armed service strongly support this bill, as well as the Trump Administration. Last year, this measure was stripped out of the 2026 NDAA at the last minute in the conference process due to concerns from defense contractors, but military support for this measure is even stronger this year.
- Status: Awaiting action by both House and Senate Armed Services Committees. Amendment to 2027 NDAA based on this bill included in the House version of 2027 NDAA by Reps Pat Harrigan (R-NC) and Maggie Goodlander (D-NH). The current draft of the 2027 Senate NDAA also currently includes this measure.
Expanding Whistleblower Protections for Contractors Act of 2025
- Bill Number: S. 874
- Lead Sponsors: Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA)
- It’s a No Brainer: This bill closes existing loopholes in whistleblower protection laws that leave federal contractors vulnerable to acts of reprisal for reporting instances of waste, fraud and abuse within federal agencies. Currently, unclear whistleblower protection laws have raised questions about whether contractors who become whistleblowers are effectively safeguarded from acts of reprisal from senior federal officials. At times, these loopholes have allowed agency officials to retaliate against whistleblowers with no accountability.
- Status: Passed in the Senate by UC; awaiting action in the House.