United States · United States Congress · 14 December 2000
Community Renewal Tax Relief Act of 2000 - Title I: Community Renewal and New Markets - Subtitle A: Tax Incentives for Renewal Communities - Authorizes the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to designate (upon local or State nomination) up to 40 renewal communities, of which at least 12 shall be in rural areas. Requires for nomination purposes that: (1) the area be experiencing high rates of poverty and unemployment and general distress; and (2) State and local governments enter into written contracts with community organizations to promote specified economic growth and employment activities. Excludes from gross income capital gains on the sale or exchange of a qualified community asset (stock, business property, or partnership interest) held for more than five years. Allows: (1) a renewal community employment credit; (2) a commercial revitalization deduction; (3) increased expensing for renewal community business assets; and (4) the work opportunity credit for hiring youth residing in renewal communities. Subtitle B: Extension and Expansion of Empowerment Zone Incentives - Provides for the designation of additional empowerment zones and increased empowerment zone tax incentives. Subtitle C: New Markets Tax Credit - Establishes a new markets tax credit with respect to specified qualified low-income community investments. Sets a national new markets tax credit limitation. Subtitle D: Improvements in Low-Income Housing Credit - Amends the Code, with respect to the low-income housing credit, to revise the formula for the State housing credit ceiling. Provides for cost-of-living adjustments to the State ceiling. (Sec. 132) Revises the housing priority selection criteria a housing credit agency must use to develop a qualified plan for allocating housing credit dollar amounts among projects. Requires such criteria to include: (1) whether the project would use existing housing as part of a community revitalization plan; (2) tenant populations of individuals with children; and (3) projects intended for eventual tenant ownership. Drops from such criteria participation of local tax-exempt organizations. Requires a qualified allocation plan to give preference in making allocations to projects located in qualified census tracts whose development contributes to a concerted community revitalization plan. (Sec. 133) Requires housing credit agencies to: (1) provide for a comprehensive market study (by a disinterested party, at the developer's expense) of the housing needs of low-income individuals in the area to be served by the project before the credit allocation is made; and (2) make public a written explanation for any allocation of a housing credit dollar amount not made in accordance with the agency's established priorities and selection criteria. (Sec. 134) Revises special rules for the determination of the adjusted basis of buildings eligible for the low-income housing credit. Requires adjusted basis to include property used throughout the taxable year in providing any community service facility designed to serve primarily individuals (even if they are not tenants) whose income is 60 percent or less of area median income. Declares that assistance under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 shall be disregarded in determining whether a building is federally subsidized for purposes of the low-income housing credit. (Sec. 135) Revises the definition of a qualified building (placed in service not later than the second calendar year following a housing credit dollar amount allocation) with respect to which the amount of a low-income housing credit may exceed the credit amount allocated to the building. Sets an alternative date for valuation of the taxpayer's actual basis in the project of which the building is a part (where the actual basis is more than ten percent of the taxpayer's reasonably expected basis). Allows the valuation of the actual basis to be as of the later of the date which is six months after the date that the allocation was made or (as currently) the close of the calendar year in which the allocation is made. Revises the formula for determination of the amount of State housing credit ceiling returned in a calendar year to include the dollar amount previously allocated to a project which fails to meet the ten percent test on a date after the close of the calendar year in which the allocation was made. Revises special rules for the increased basis of a building located in certain high cost areas to redefine a qualified census tract to include, as an alternative to existing criteria, a tract with a poverty rate of at least 25 percent. (Sec. 136) Revises the formula for determining unused housing credit carryovers allocated among certain States. Subtitle E: Other Community Renewal and New Markets Assistance - Part I: Provisions Relating to Housing and Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment - Amends the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 1997 to direct the Secretary to transfer ownership of qualified HUD-held properties (substandard or unoccupied multifamily or unoccupied single family properties) to local governments and community development corporations under specified conditions. Requires such properties to be held by HUD for at least six months. (Sec. 142) Directs the Secretary, upon request of the appropriate jurisdiction, to designate as a revitalization area all portions of such jurisdiction meeting the necessary criteria. (Sec. 143) Revises the current demonstration mortgage reinsurance program to: (1) make such program a risk-sharing program served by private mortgage insurers and insured community development financial institutions (as defined by this Act); (2) enlarge the program to four administrative areas; and (3) require such entities to assume a secondary percentage of loss of an insured mortgage. (Sec. 144) Permits a religious organization to receive Federal funding through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Prohibits funding discrimination against such an organization so long as its program is implemented in a manner consistent with the Establishment Clause of the first amendment to the Constitution. Part II: Advisory Council on Community Renewal - Advisory Council on Community Renewal Act - Establishes the Advisory Council on Community Renewal Act to advise the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development on the designation of renewal communities and on the exercise of authorities granted to the Secretary pursuant to this title. Subtitle F: Other Provisions - Provides for an accelerated phase-in of specified increases in the volume cap on private activity bonds. (Sec. 162) Repeals the targeted area limitation on the expense deduction for environmental remediation costs and to extend the termination date of such deduction from December 31, 2001, to June 30, 2003. (Sec. 163) Extends the DC homebuyer tax credit for two additional years. (Sec. 164) Extends DC Enterprise Zone provisions for an additional year. (Sec. 165) Expands and extends the enhanced deduction for corporate donations of computer technology. (Sec. 166) Provides for the treatment of Indian tribal governments under Federal Unemployment Tax Act. Title II: Two-Year Extension of Availability of Medical Savings Accounts - Extends, for two years the availability of medical savings accounts. Renames such accounts Archer MSAs. Title III: Administrative and Technical Provisions - Subtitle A: Administrative Provisions - Sets forth various administrative provisions, including provisions concerning: (1) the exemption of certain reporting requirements; (2) the extension of deadlines for IRS compliance with certain notice requirements; (3) the extension of authority for undercover operations; (4) confidentiality of certain documents relating to closing and similar agreements and to agreements with foreign governments; (5) an increase in the threshold for Joint Committee reports on refunds and credits; (6) the treatment of missing children with respect to certain tax benefits; (7) the prevention of the duplication of loss through the assumption of liabilities giving rise to a deduction; and (8) the disclosure of certain return information to the Congressional Budget Office, but only concerning long-term social security and medicare models. Subtitle B: Technical Corrections - Makes amendments to the: (1) Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999; (2) Tax and Trade Relief Extension Act of 1998; (3) Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998; (4) Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997; (5) Balanced Budget Act of 1997; (6) Small Business Job Protection Act of 1996; and (7) Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1990. Title IV: Tax Treatment of Securities Futures Contracts - States that, in general, a gain or loss attributable to the sale or exchange of a futures contract shall be considered gain or loss from the sale or exchange of property which has the same character as the property to which the contract relates has in the hands of the taxpayer if acquired by the taxpayer.
United States · United States Congress · 27 October 2000
Establishes the Government Program Evaluation Commission to study and evaluate existing Federal programs and activities and projected expansions to determine: (1) the effectiveness of each such program or activity in terms of its present and projected costs; (2) whether each should be continued and, if so, at what level; and (3) the relative priority that should be assigned to each in the allocation of Federal funds.
United States · United States Congress · 14 September 2000
Debt Relief Lock-box Reconciliation Act for Fiscal Year 2001 - Title I: Debt Reduction Lock-Box - Amends Federal public finance provisions to establish the Public Debt Reduction Payment Account in the Treasury. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to use amounts in the Account to pay at maturity, or redeem or buy before maturity, any Government obligation held by the public and included in the public debt. Provides that any obligation which is paid, redeemed, or bought with amounts from the Account shall be canceled and retired and prohibits its reissuance. Appropriates funds for the Account. Prohibits such appropriation from being considered as direct spending for purposes of pay-as-you-go provisions of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act). (Sec. 102) Reduces the public debt limit by the amount appropriated into the Account. (Sec. 103) Bars Account receipts and disbursements from being counted as new budget authority, outlays, receipts, or deficit or surplus for purposes of : (1) the Federal Government budget as submitted by the President; (2) the congressional budget; or (3) the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act. (Sec. 105) Requires the Secretary to report to specified congressional committees on the Account. Title II: Social Security and Medicare Lock-Box - Amends H. Con. Res. 290 (106th Congress) to replace a point of order in the House of Representatives or the Senate against consideration of any revision of such resolution or any concurrent budget resolution for FY 2002 that sets forth a deficit for any fiscal year with one that provides a point of order against consideration of any budget resolution that sets forth a surplus for any fiscal year that is less than the surplus of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund for such year. Makes it out of order in the House or the Senate to consider any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report if the enactment of the reported bill or resolution, the adoption and enactment of an amendment, or the enactment of a bill or resolution in the form recommended in the conference report would cause the on-budget surplus for any fiscal year to be less than the projected surplus of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund for such year or increase the amount by which the on-budget surplus for any fiscal year would be less than such trust fund surplus for that year. Makes such point of order inapplicable to social security or Medicare reform legislation. Requires any Federal budget submitted by the President that recommends an on-budget surplus for any fiscal year that is less than the surplus of the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund for such year to include proposed legislative language for social security or Medicare reform legislation. Makes the lock-box requirements of H. Con. Res. 290 (106th Congress) and the preceding paragraph inapplicable upon the enactment of social security and Medicare reform legislation. Defines "social security reform legislation" and "Medicare reform legislation" as a bill or joint resolution to save social security or Medicare, respectively, that specifies that it constitutes reform legislation for purposes of such resolution. (Sec. 202) Requires any official Federal Government statement of the Federal or congressional budget surplus or deficit totals to exclude the outlays and receipts of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program under the Social Security Act. Requires such outlays and receipts to be submitted in separate social security budget documents.
United States · United States Congress · 27 July 2000
FSC Repeal and Extraterritorial Income Exclusion Act of 2000 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to repeal subpart C (Taxation of Foreign Sales Corporations) of part III (Income From Sources Without the United States) of subchapter N ( Tax Based on Income From Sources Within or Without the United States) of chapter 1 (Normal Taxes and Surtaxes). Excludes from gross income "extraterritorial income," except that extraterritorial income which is not qualifying "qualifying foreign trade income" shall not be excluded from gross income. Defines "extraterritorial income" as gross income of the taxpayer attributable to "foreign trading gross receipts" of the taxpayer. Defines "qualifying foreign trade income," with respect to any transaction, as the amount of gross income which, if excluded, will result in a reduction of the taxable income of the taxpayer from such transaction equal to the greatest of: (1) 30 percent of the foreign sale and leasing income derived by the taxpayer from such transaction; (2) 1.2 percent of the foreign trading gross receipts derived by the taxpayer from the transaction; or (3) 15 percent of the foreign trade income derived by the taxpayer from the transaction. Prohibits in any event the amount determined under clause (2) from exceeding 200 percent of the amount determined under clause (3). Permits an alternative computation. Defines "foreign trading gross receipts" as the gross receipts of the taxpayer which are: (1) from the sale, exchange, or other disposition of qualifying foreign trade property; (2) from the lease or rental of qualifying foreign trade property for use by the lessee outside the United States; (3) for services which are related and subsidiary to either any sale, exchange, or other disposition of qualifying foreign trade property by such taxpayer, or any lease or rental of qualifying foreign trade property described in clause (2) by such taxpayer; (4) for engineering or architectural services for construction projects located (or proposed for location) outside the United States; or (5) for the performance of managerial services for a person other than a related person in furtherance of the production of foreign trading gross receipts described in clause (1), (2), or (3). Prohibits clause (5) from applying to a taxpayer for any taxable year unless at least 50 percent of its foreign trading gross receipts (determined without regard to this sentence) for such taxable year is derived from activities described in clause (1), (2), or (3). Excludes specified receipts from the definition. Sets forth additional definitions and rules.
United States · United States Congress · 27 July 2000
States that the conference report accompanying H.R. 4516 (FY 2001 legislative appropriations) contravenes article I, section 7 of the Constitution, is an infringement of the privileges of the House of Representatives, and should be recommitted to the committee of conference.
United States · United States Congress · 17 July 2000
Social Security Benefits Tax Relief Act of 2000 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to repeal the 85 percent (second tier) taxation of Social Security and Railroad Retirement benefits. Appropriates, from the general fund, to the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund amounts equal to the reduction in revenue lost because of the repeal.
United States · United States Congress · 17 July 2000
Debt Relief Reconciliation Act for Fiscal Year 2001 - Amends Federal public finance provisions to establish the Public Debt Reduction Payment Account in the Treasury. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to use amounts in the Account to pay at maturity, or redeem or buy before maturity, any Government obligation held by the public and included in the public debt. Provides that any obligation which is paid, redeemed, or bought with amounts from the Account shall be canceled and retired and prohibits its reissuance. Appropriates funds for the Account. Prohibits such appropriation from being considered as direct spending for purposes of pay-as-you-go provisions of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act). Reduces the public debt limit by the amount appropriated into the Account. Bars Account receipts and disbursements from being counted as new budget authority, outlays, receipts, or deficit or surplus for purposes of : (1) the Federal Government budget as submitted by the President; (2) the congressional budget; or (3) the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act. Requires the Secretary to report to specified congressional committees on the Account.
United States · United States Congress · 13 July 2000
Railroad Retirement and Survivors' Improvement Act of 2000 - Title I: Amendments to the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 - Amends the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 to increase benefits to railroad employees and their beneficiaries and to revise financing of the pension part (tier II) of the railroad retirement system. (Sec. 101) Increases benefits for widows and widowers by guaranteeing to them all of the tier II annuity the employee was entitled to at the time of the death. (Sec. 102) Makes employees with 30 years of service eligible to retire at age 60 with unreduced tier I and tier II annuities. Makes spouses of such employees eligible for unreduced annuities at age 60. (Sec. 103) Reduces the vesting requirement for tier II retirement annuities from ten years to five years of service after December 1995. Makes employees with at least five years of such service, but less than ten years of total service, eligible for a tier I disability annuity if their combined railroad retirement and social security earnings credits would satisfy social security eligibility requirements. Makes spouses, divorced spouses, and survivors of employees with at least five years of such service, but less than ten years of total service, eligible for a tier I annuity if they would have been entitled to a social security benefit based on combined service. (Sec. 104) Repeals a limit on the total amount of monthly railroad retirement benefits payable to an employee and spouse at the time the employee's annuity begins. (Sec. 105) Establishes a Railroad Retirement Trust Fund (the Fund) and a Railroad Retirement Investment Trust (RRIT) to manage and invest the assets of the Fund. Declares that RRIT is not an agency, department, or instrumentality of the U.S. Government. Requires RRIT to be administered by a Board of Trustees (the Trustees) with seven members (three representing labor, three representing employers, and one representing the general public) with experience and expertise in the management of financial investments and pension plans. Requires the Trustees to be appointed by a unanimous vote of the Railroad Retirement Board (RRB). Prohibits RRB members from being Trustees. Applies specified reporting requirements and fiduciary standards to the RRIT. Requires the Trustees to diversify investments so as to minimize the risk of large losses. Authorizes the Trustees to invest Fund assets in non-Governmental assets. (Sec. 106) Abolishes the Railroad Retirement Supplemental Annuity Account and provides for transfer of its funds to the Fund. (Sec. 107) Requires the RRB, upon the establishment of the Fund, to determine the portion of the Railroad Retirement Account not needed to pay current administrative expenses and direct the Secretary of the Treasury to transfer that amount into the Fund. Requires the Fund to transfer the necessary amount of funds to pay benefits and related administrative expenses to the disbursing agent. Transfers to the Fund Social Security Equivalent Benefit account funds not needed to pay current benefits, but requires that such funds only be used to pay benefits or to invest in U.S. Government or Government-guaranteed securities. Transfers to the disbursing agent from the Dual Benefit Account the amount necessary to make dual benefit payments. Requires the Trustees to consult with the Secretary of the Treasury to develop an appropriate method for transferring or converting existing account obligations. (Sec. 108) Requires the RRB to calculate the ratio of assets to benefits to determine annual tier II tax rates for employers, employee representatives, and employees. Establishes schedules for: (1) decreasing tax rates if the average account benefits ratio, based on the ratios for the ten most recent fiscal years, is above six; and (2) increasing employer and employee representatives' tax rates if the ratio is below four. Title II: Amendments to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exempt the Railroad Retirement Trust Fund (the Fund) from taxation. (Sec. 203) Repeals a supplemental annuity tax that railroad employers pay to finance a benefit for long-time rail employees. (Sec. 204) Provides for adjustments to railroad employers, employee representatives, and employee tier II tax rates. Decreases such rates in 2001 and in 2002 for employers and employee representatives. Provides in the years after 2002 for tax rate schedules, based on the ten-year average account benefit ratio, for employers, employee representatives, and employees.
United States · United States Congress · 13 July 2000
Comprehensive Retirement Security and Pension Reform Act of 2000 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code (the Code) with respect to pensions. Title I: Individual Retirement Account Provisions - Amends the Code to increase the annual dollar Individual Retirement Account (IRA) contribution limit from $2,000 to $3,000 in 2001, $4,000 in 2002, and $5,000 in 2003, with indexing thereafter. Provides, for individuals age 50 and older, that such limit shall be $5,000 beginning in 2001, with indexing after 2003. Title II: Expanding Coverage - Provides for increases in amounts of benefit and contribution limits. Sets indexes for inflation in various increments on such increased limits. (Sec. 202) Revises requirements relating to plan loans for subchapter S owners, partners, and sole proprietors. (Sec. 203) Revises specified top-heavy rules. Repeals family aggregation rules. Revises the definition of key employee. Provides that, at the election of the employer, any employee elective contribution to a plan shall not be taken into account for purposes of determining: (1) whether a plan is a top-heavy plan (or whether any aggregation group which includes such plan is a top-heavy group); or (2) compensation. Requires that employer matching contributions be taken into account for purposes of minimum contribution requirements. Revises requirements for qualifications. Provides for distributions during the last year before a determination date is taken into account. Excludes from the definition of top-heavy plan: (1) cash or deferred arrangements using alternative methods of meeting nondiscrimination requirements; and (2) defined contribution plans using alternative methods of meeting nondiscrimination requirements. Provides that elective deferrals will not be taken into account for purposes of a special rule where the maximum contribution is less than three percent. (Sec. 204) Provides that elective deferrals shall not be taken into account for purposes of limits on certain plan contributions. (Sec. 205) Repeals specified coordination requirements under the Code for deferred compensation plans of State and local governments and tax-exempt organizations. (Sec. 206) Eliminates user fee requirements for requests to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) concerning the status of pension plans. (Sec. 207) Revises certain deduction limits for stock bonus and profit sharing trusts and for defined contribution plans. (Sec. 208) Provides for optional treatment of elective deferrals as plus contributions. Title III: Enhancing Fairness for Women - Allows individuals who are age 50 or older to make additional contributions to an applicable employer plan (Section 401(k) plan or similar plan). Sets such maximum permitted additional contribution at $5,000, indexed in 2006 and thereafter. (Sec. 302) Sets forth requirements relating to equitable treatment for contributions of employees to defined contribution plans. Increases the 25 percent of compensation limitation on annual additions under a defined contribution plan to 100 percent. Declares that certain contributions by church plans are not to be treated as exceeding a specified limit. Sets limits on contributions to a tax-sheltered annuity which are similar to the limits applicable to tax-qualified plans. Increases the 33 and one-third percent of compensation limitation on deferrals under a section 457 plan to 100 percent of compensation. (Sec. 303) Provides for faster vesting of certain employer matching contributions under the Code. Requires employer matching contributions to vest at least as rapidly as under three-year cliff vesting or under six-year graded vesting that provides for a nonforfeitable right to 20 percent of employer matching contributions for each year of service beginning with the participant's second year of service and ending with 100 percent after six years of service. (Sec. 304) Revises minimum distribution rules under the Code. Revises requirements for actuarial adjustment of benefits under a defined benefit plan. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury (the Secretary) to: (1) simplify and finalize the regulations relating to minimum distribution requirements; and (2) modify such regulations to reflect increases in life expectancy, and revise required distribution methods so that, under reasonable assumptions, the amount of the required minimum distribution does not decrease over a participant's life expectancy. Provides that, during the first year that such revised regulations are in effect, required distributions for future years may be redetermined, with the opportunity to choose a new designated beneficiary and to elect a new method of calculating life expectancy. Excludes specified amounts from minimum distribution requirements. Repeals a rule relating to distributions begun before death occurs. Reduces the excise tax on failures to satisfy the minimum distribution rules to ten percent of the amount that was required to be distributed but was not distributed. (Sec. 305) Revises requirements relating to tax treatment of division of section 457 plan benefits upon divorce. Applies the taxation rules for qualified plan distributions pursuant to a qualified domestic relations order to distributions made pursuant to a domestic relations order from a section 457 plan. Provides that a section 457 plan is not to be treated as violating the restrictions on distributions from such plans due to payments to an alternate payee under a qualified domestic relations order. (Sec. 306) Modifies provisions for safe harbor relief for hardship withdrawals from 401(k) plans. Directs the Secretary to reduce from 12 months to six months the period during which an employee is prohibited from making elective contributions and employee contributions in order for a distribution to be deemed necessary to satisfy an immediate and heavy financial need. Title IV: Increasing Portability for Participants - Permits rollovers from and to various types of plans under the Code. (Sec. 402) Permits individual retirement plan (IRA) rollovers into workplace retirement plans only if certain conditions are met. (Sec. 403) Permits rollover of after-tax contributions in an exempt trust under specified conditions. (Sec. 404) Sets forth a hardship exception to the 60-day rule. Authorizes the Secretary to waive the 60-day rollover period if the failure to waive such requirement would be against equity or good conscience, including cases of casualty, disaster, or other events beyond the reasonable control of the individual subject to such requirement. (Sec. 405) Sets forth requirements for treatment of forms of distribution available under transferor and transferee plans under the Code. (Sec. 406) Revises restrictions on distributions, including the same desk exception. Repeals business sale requirements. (Sec. 407) Authorizes trustee-to-trustee transfers to purchase permissive service credit with respect to governmental defined benefit plans. (Sec. 408) Allows employers to disregard rollovers for purposes of cash-out amounts, under retirement plan provisions of the Code. (Sec. 409) Revises minimum distribution and inclusion requirements for section 457 plans. Title V: Strengthening Pension Security and Enforcement - Revises the percentage of current liability funding limit. (Sec. 502) Revises maximum contribution deduction rules. Applies such rules to all defined benefit plans. (Sec. 503) Allows an employer, in determining the amount of nondeductible contributions for any taxable year, to elect not to take into account any contributions to a defined benefit plan except to the extent that they exceed the full-funding limitation. (Sec. 504) Requires plan administrators of defined benefit plans (other than governmental plans and certain church plans) with more than 100 participants to notify plan participants and beneficiaries in advance of an amendment that significantly reduces the rate of future benefit accruals. Requires such notice to include sufficient information to allow participants and beneficiaries to understand the effect of the amendment. Imposes an excise tax on the employer or upon a multiemployer plan if the required notice is not provided. (Sec. 505) Makes certain limitation rules (under section 415 of the Code) for defined benefit plans inapplicable to governmental or multiemployer plans. Sets forth special rules relating to the combination or aggregation of multiemployer plans. (Sec. 506) Imposes an excise tax on employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) that engage in prohibited transactions with disqualified individuals who are deemed to be substantial shareholders of the corporation sponsoring the plan. Title VI: Reducing Regulatory Burdens - Revises requirements relating to timing of plan valuations. (Sec. 602) Allows applicable dividends of ESOPs to be reinvested without loss of dividend deduction. (Sec. 603) Repeals a transition rule relating to certain highly compensated employees under the Tax Reform Act of 1986. (Sec. 604) Directs the Secretary to modify certain regulations with respect to certain plan participation by employees of tax-exempt entities under the Code. (Sec. 605) Treats the provision of certain retirement planning services by an employer to an employee as a de minimis fringe benefit to the extent it is not treated as a working condition fringe. Prohibits including an amount in an employee's gross income solely because the employee may choose between any retirement planning fringe and compensation otherwise includible in gross income, providing such choices are available in a way that does not discriminate in favor of highly compensated employees. (Sec. 606) Directs the Secretary to provide simplified annual filing requirements for: (1) one-participant (an owner and spouse) retirement plans with assets below a specified amount; or (2) retirement plans for fewer than 25 employees. (Sec. 607) Directs the Secretary to continue to update and improve the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (EPCRS), or any successor program, giving special attention to: (1) increasing the awareness and knowledge of small employers concerning the availability and use of EPCRS; (2) taking into account special concerns and circumstances that small employers face with respect to compliance and correction of compliance failures; (3) extending the duration of the self-correction period under the Administrative Policy Regarding Self-Correction (APRSC) for significant compliance failures; (4) expanding the availability to correct insignificant compliance failures under APRSC during audit; and (5) assuring that any tax, penalty, or sanction that is imposed by reason of a compliance failure is not excessive and bears a reasonable relationship to the nature, extent, and severity of the failure. (Sec. 608) Repeals a multiple use test, and directs the Secretary to prescribe regulations, as necessary, including ones permitting appropriate aggregation of plans and contributions. (Sec. 609) Directs the Secretary to provide by regulation circumstances under which plans can use a facts and circumstances test, which was in effect before 1994, to satisfy nondiscrimination, coverage, and line of business rules. (Sec. 610) Exempts plans maintained by any governmental entity from certain nondiscrimination rules. (Sec. 611) Directs the Secretary to modify specified regulations to require: (1) that the applicable distribution notice period be not more than 180 (currently 90) and not less than 30 days before the date distribution commences; and (2) the description of a participant's right, if any, to defer receipt of a distribution include a description of the consequences of failing to defer such receipt. Title VII: Plan Amendments - Prescribes requirements for plan amendments or annuity contract amendments under the Code.
United States · United States Congress · 10 July 2000
Marriage Tax Penalty Relief Reconciliation Act of 2000 - States that no amendment made by this Act shall be treated as a tax rate change for purposes of section 15 (effect of changes on tax rates) of the Internal Revenue Code. (Sec. 2) Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide that the basic standard deduction for a married couple filing jointly shall be twice the basic standard deduction for an unmarried individual, beginning in 2001. (Sec. 3) Provides that the 15 percent regular income tax bracket for a married couple filing jointly shall be twice the size of the corresponding bracket for an unmarried individual. Sets forth a graduated phase-in beginning in 2003 and fully effective in 2008. Repeals provisions that reduce the refundable child credit (as applicable to the additional credit for families with three or more children) and earned income credit by the amount of the taxpayer's alternative minimum tax, beginning in 2002. (Sec. 4) Increases the beginning point of the phase-out range of the earned income credit for married couples filing jointly by $2,000, beginning in 2001.
United States · United States Congress · 8 June 2000
Debt Reduction Reconciliation Act of 2000 - Amends Federal public finance provisions to establish the Public Debt Reduction Payment Account in the Treasury. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to use amounts in the Account to pay at maturity, or redeem or buy before maturity, any Government obligation held by the public and included in the public debt. Provides that any obligation which is paid, redeemed, or bought with amounts from the Account shall be canceled and retired and prohibits its reissuance. Provides that if the Congressional Budget Office estimates an on-budget surplus for FY 2000 in a report submitted to the congressional budget committees pursuant to the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 that exceeds the amount of the surplus for such fiscal year set forth in the concurrent resolution on the budget for FY 2001 (H. Con. Res. 290, 106th Congress), then an amount equal to that excess is appropriated into the Account for FY 2000. Prohibits such appropriation from being considered as direct spending for purposes of pay-as-you-go provisions of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act). Reduces the public debt limit by the amount appropriated into the Account. Bars Account receipts and disbursements from being counted as new budget authority, outlays, receipts, or deficit or surplus for purposes of : (1) the Federal Government budget as submitted by the President; (2) the congressional budget; or (3) the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act. Requires the Secretary to report to Congress on the Account.
United States · United States Congress · 24 May 2000
Cuban Internal Opposition Assistance Act of 2000 - Instructs the President to: (1) use specified funds to implement assistance for victims of the most extreme political repression and to assist independent nongovernmental opposition organizations inside Cuba; (2) ensure adequate verification and monitoring of such funds' destination; and (3) authorize issuance of licenses to independent nongovernmental organizations to send monetary remittances to independent nongovernmental opposition organizations to implement specified activities under the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996.
United States · United States Congress · 15 May 2000
Authorizes the President to extend nondiscriminatory treatment (normal trade relations treatment) to the products of the People's Republic of China (PRC), provided, prior to such determination, the President certifies to Congress that the terms and conditions for the PRC's accession to the World Trade Organization are at least equivalent to those agreed between the United States and the PRC on November 15, 1999.
United States · United States Congress · 10 May 2000
Declares that Federal funding for diabetes research should be increased in accordance with the recommendations of the Diabetes Research Working Group so that a cure for juvenile diabetes can be found.
United States · United States Congress · 9 May 2000
Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to include paramedics, emergency medical technicians, and rescue and ambulance service personnel, for purposes of a limited overtime exemption, as employees in fire protection activities. Provides that this Act shall not be construed to reduce or substitute for compensation standards: (1) in any existing or future collective bargaining agreement or memorandum of understanding, reached by employee representatives in accordance with State or local laws; and (2) which result in greater compensation for employees than that available under such overtime exemption.
United States · United States Congress · 6 April 2000
Constitutional Amendment - Requires any legislative measure changing the internal revenue laws to require the concurrence of two-thirds of the Members of each House voting and present, unless the legislative measure is determined not to increase the internal revenue by more than a de minimis amount. States that for the purposes of determining any increase in the internal revenue, there shall be excluded any increase resulting from the lowering of an effective rate of any tax. Permits Congress to waive such requirements when: (1) a declaration of war is in effect; or (2) the United States is engaged in military conflict which causes an imminent and serious threat to national security and is so declared by an adopted joint resolution. Prohibits any increase in the internal revenue enacted under such a waiver from being effective for longer than two years.
United States · United States Congress · 4 April 2000
Calls upon the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee to recommend and the Postal Service to issue a commemorative postage stamp on the subject of autism awareness.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 2000
Small Business Tax Fairness Act of 2000 - Title I: Small Business Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code (the Code) to increase a self-employed individual's deduction for the health insurance costs of self and family to 100 percent. Denies such deduction only for any month the individual actually participates in an employer-subsidized health plan (currently, for any month the individual is eligible to participate). (Sec. 102) Increases to $30,000 the aggregate cost taken into account for the option to expense certain depreciable business assets of small businesses. (Sec. 103) Increases from 50 percent to: (1) 60 percent in 2000 and 55 percent for taxable years beginning in 2001 the deduction for meal and entertainment expenses; and (2) 80 percent the deduction of business meal expenses for individuals subject to Federal limitations on hours of service. (Sec. 105) Amends the Code to: (1) extend income averaging to income from the trade or business of catching, taking, or harvesting fish intended to enter commerce through sale, barter, or trade; and (2) disregard income averaging for farmers and commercial fishermen in computing the regular alternative minimum tax. (Sec. 106) Repeals specified occupational taxes relating to distilled spirits, wine, and beer. Revises the record-keeping requirements for wholesale and retail liquor dealers. Makes it unlawful for any liquor dealer (except one selling beer exclusively) to purchase distilled spirits from any person but a wholesale liquor dealer (excluding a wholesale dealer exclusively in beer) subject to specified record-keeping requirements. (Sec. 107) Amends the Code (as amended by the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999) to repeal revisions to the Code (made by the Act) which repealed the use of the installment method of accounting for accrual method taxpayers and modified the pledge rules of installment obligations. Title II: Pension Provisions - Subtitle A: Expanding Coverage - Increases limits on benefits and contributions under qualified pension plans. (Sec. 202) Amends the Code with regard to the tax on prohibited transactions, and in particular certain transactions involving trusts which are part of an owner-employee plan, and which are not exempted from the tax. Limits the meaning of owner-employee, with respect to any non-exempt loan of any part of the corpus or income of a plan to an owner-employee or family member (subchapter S owner, partner, or sole proprietor), to: (1) a participant or beneficiary of an individual retirement plan; or (2) an employer or association of employees which establishes such a plan. (Sec. 203) Modifies top-heavy rules. Redefines certain key employees to: (1) eliminate the ten employees each of whom earns over $30,000 per year and owns the largest interests in the employer; and (2) include an officer of the employer earning more than $150,000 per year. Provides that employer matching contributions shall be taken into account for minimum contribution requirements. Declares that aggregate distributions during the last year (or, for in-service distributions, during the past five years) shall be taken into account when determining: (1) the present value of the cumulated accrued benefit for any employee; or (2) the amount of any employee's account. Excludes from the meaning of top-heavy plan any plan which consists solely of: (1) a cash or deferred arrangement using certain alternative methods of meeting nondiscrimination requirements; and (2) matching contributions which meet certain requirements of a specified additional alternative method of satisfying nondiscrimination tests. Exempts from the minimum benefit requirement, and determination of any employee's years of service with an employer, any service with an employer occurring during a plan year when the plan benefits no current or former employee (frozen plan). Declares that, with respect to top-heavy plans, determination of constructive stock ownership by a five-percent owner shall disregard family attribution requirements. (Sec. 204) Exempts elective deferrals of employer contributions not includable in an employee's gross income from specified limitations on an employer's deductions for such contributions to an employees' trust or annuity plan and compensation under a deferred payment plan. (Sec. 205) Repeals coordination requirements for deferred compensation plans of State and local governments and tax-exempt organizations. (Sec. 206) Eliminates the user fee for requests to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for determination letters with respect to the qualified status of any pension plan maintained solely by one or more eligible employers or any trust which is a part of the plan. (Sec. 207) Subjects participant's compensation to specified limits on deductions for employer contributions. (Sec. 208) Establishes an option to treat employee elective deferrals as qualified plus contributions (which shall not, however, be excludable from gross income). Subtitle B: Enhancing Fairness for Women - Amends the Code to allow eligible participants age 50 or over to make additional elective deferrals (catch-up contributions) in any plan year according to a schedule of percentage increments (from ten percent to 40 percent) between 2001 and 2004 and thereafter. (Sec. 222) Increases from 25 percent to 100 percent of compensation (up to $30,000) the maximum allowable annual addition to a participant's plan account. (Sec. 223) Provides for faster vesting of certain employer matching contributions. (Sec. 224) Directs the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary) to simplify and finalize the regulations relating to specified minimum distribution requirements, and modify them to: (1) reflect current life expectancy; and (2) revise the required distribution methods so that, under reasonable assumptions, the amount of the required minimum distribution does not decrease over a participant's life expectancy. (Sec. 225) Amends the Code to provide for distribution or payment (division of benefits) from an eligible deferred compensation plan upon divorce. (Sec. 226) Directs the Secretary to revise the hardship distribution regulations to provide that six months is the period an employee is prohibited from making elective and employee contributions in order for a distribution to be deemed necessary to satisfy financial need (safe harbor relief for hardship withdrawals from cash or deferred arrangements). Subtitle C: Increasing Portability for Participants - Amends the Code to provide for rollovers among various specified kinds of plans. Revises the requirements for tax-exempt rollovers of individual retirement accounts (IRAs) into eligible (workplace) retirement plans. (Sec. 233) Exempts from certain limitations on the amount of a tax-exempt rollover from an exempt trust: (1) any portion of a distribution transferred in a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer to a qualified trust in a defined contribution plan, which is also separately accounted for; and (2) any portion transferred to an eligible retirement plan. (Sec. 234) Provides a hardship exception to the requirement that a tax-exempt rollover be made within 60 days after distribution. (Sec. 235) Amends the Code to revise the treatment of a plan as failing to meet minimum vesting standards if a participant's accrued benefit is decreased by amendment of the plan. Declares that a defined contribution plan shall not be treated as failing to meet such requirements merely because the transferee plan does not provide some or all of the forms of distribution previously available under another defined contribution plan in specified circumstances. (Sec. 236) Revises certain restrictions on distributions from qualified cash or deferred arrangements. Eliminates a corporation's disposition of assets or of an interest in a subsidiary as events for which lump-sum distributions are covered (while retaining termination of a plan as a covered event). Changes separation from service to severance from employment as a threshold event for the covered distribution of amounts from a qualified cash or deferred arrangement. (Sec. 237) Excludes from gross income any amount transferred to a defined benefit governmental plan in a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer if it is for: (1) purchase of a permissive service credit; or (2) a repayment of cash-outs to which certain limitations on contributions do not apply. (Sec. 238) Amends the Code with respect to restrictions on certain mandatory distributions to allow employers to disregard rollover contributions when determining the present value of nonforfeitable accrued benefits for cash-out purposes. (Sec. 239) Amends the Code, with respect to deferred compensation plans of State and local governments and tax-exempt organizations, to repeal certain additional minimum distribution requirements. Revises requirements for inclusion of deferred compensation in a participant's gross income to limit the taxable year: (1) to the taxable year in which the compensation or income is paid to the participant in the case of a State or local government; and (2) to the taxable year in which the compensation or income is paid or otherwise made available to the participant or other beneficiary in the case of a tax-exempt organization. Subtitle D: Strengthening Pension Security and Enforcement - Amends the Code, with respect to the full-funding limitation, to repeal the current liability funding limit percentage in the case of plan years beginning in 1999 or 2000. Sets the applicable percentage of current liability at 160 percent in 2001, 165 percent in 2002, 170 percent in 2003, and nothing afterwards. (Sec. 242) Revises the special rule for an employer's maximum deductible contribution to change the minimum amount, for plans with more than 100 participants, from the unfunded current liability to the unfunded termination liability. Excludes from termination liability, for plans with under 100 participants, any liability attributable to benefit increases for highly compensated employees resulting from a plan amendment made or effective within the last two years before the termination date. (Sec. 243) Amends the Code with respect to the excise tax on nondeductible contributions to a qualified employer plan. Allows an employer, in determining the amount of nondeductible contributions, to elect not to take into account any contributions to a defined benefit plan except to the extent they exceed the full-funding limitation. (Sec. 244) Establishes an excise tax (of $100 per applicable individual per day) on a defined benefit plan for failing to give notice to participants of any plan amendment providing for a significant reduction in the rate of future benefit accrual. Subtitle E: Reducing Regulatory Burdens - Amends the Code, with respect to annual valuation of a plan's liability, to require actual valuation only once every three years of a plan whose assets are at least 125 percent of its current liability. Permits use of prior year valuations for any two consecutive plan years, so long as an actual valuation takes place in the third year. (Sec. 262) Amends the Code to allow the reinvestment in qualifying employer securities of any employee stock ownership plan dividend paid by a C corporation, without loss of the corporation's deduction from gross income. (Sec. 263) Amend the Tax Reform Act of 1986 to repeal, as of December 31, 2000, the transition rule relating to certain highly compensated employees. (Sec. 264) Directs the Secretary to modify Treasury Regulations to provide that employees of tax-exempt organizations who are eligible to make contributions under a salary reduction agreement may be treated as excludable from a 401 (k) plan or 401 (m) plan if: (1) no such employee is eligible to participate in such 401(k) plan or 401(m) plan; and (2) 95 percent of other employees are eligible to participate in such a plan. (Sec. 265) Amends the Code to make a fringe benefit exclusion from gross income of any qualified retirement planning services provided to an employee and his spouse by an employer maintaining a qualified employer plan. (Sec. 266) Directs the Secretary to modify the annual return filing requirements for one-participant retirement plans (covering only the employer and spouse where the employer owns the entire business, or only one or more partners and spouses in a business partnership) to ensure that any plans with assets of $250,000 or less as of the close of the plan year need not file a return for that year. (Sec. 267) Directs the Secretary to continue to update and improve the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System (or any successor program), giving special attention to certain tasks. (Sec. 268) Amends Code provisions regarding a tax exclusion for cash reimbursements to repeal the requirement that a voucher or similar item which may be exchanged for a transit pass is not readily available for direct distribution. (Sec. 269) Repeals the Secretary's mandate, with respect to the nondiscrimination test for matching contributions and employee contributions, to prescribe regulations to prevent the multiple use of the alternative limitation for any highly compensated employee. (Sec. 270) Directs the Secretary to provide that a plan shall be deemed to satisfy nondiscrimination requirements if it satisfies the facts and circumstances test as in effect before January 1, 1994, but only if: (1) it satisfies conditions prescribed by the Secretary to appropriately limit the availability of such test; and (2) it is submitted to the Secretary for a determination of whether it satisfies such test. Revises minimum coverage requirements to allow a plan that otherwise fails to meet such requirements to constitute a qualified plan if it meets certain requirements that were in effect immediately before enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1986. (Such requirements stated that the plan must at least benefit employees qualifying under a classification set up by the employer and found by the Secretary not to be discriminatory in favor of employees who are officers, shareholders, or highly compensated.) Directs the Secretary to modify certain existing regulations with respect to employers operating separate lines of business to expand the ability of a pension plan to demonstrate compliance with the line of business requirements based upon the facts and circumstances surrounding the design and operation of the plan, even though the plan is unable to satisfy the mechanical tests currently used to determine compliance. (Sec. 271) Amends the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 to extend to international organizations the moratorium on application of certain nondiscrimination rules applicable to State and local governmental plans. (Sec. 272) Increases from 90 to 180 days certain notice and consent periods regarding distributions. Directs the Secretary to modify certain consent regulations to provide that the description of a participant's right, if any, to defer receipt of a distribution shall also describe the consequences of failing to defer such receipt. Subtitle F: Plan Amendments - Prescribes application requirements for plan or contract amendments. Title III: Estate Tax Relief - Subtitle A: Reductions of Estate and Gift Tax Rates - Amends the Code to repeal the two highest estate tax brackets and replace them with a top bracket of "Over $2,500,000", for which the estate tax rate shall be $1,025,800, plus 50 percent of the excess over $2,500,000. Repeals the phase out of graduated rates and the unified credit. Requires additional reductions in estate and gift tax rates of one percent for calendar 2003 and two percent for calendar 2004 and thereafter. (Sec. 302) Declares that it is the sense of Congress that the death tax relief in this Act is considered a first step in the effort to repeal this tax. Subtitle B: Unified Credit Replaced With Unified Exemption Amount - Repeals the unified credits against the estate and gift taxes, and replaces them with a unified exemption amount, determined by specified formulae involving amounts ranging from $675,000 in calendar year 2001 up to $1 million in calendar year 2006 and thereafter. Grants up to a $60,000 exemption to the estate of a nonresident, non-U.S. citizen, with specified variations for residents of U.S. possessions. Subtitle C: Modifications of Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax - Declares that, if any individual makes an indirect skip during such individual's lifetime, any unused portion of such individual's generation-skipping transfer (GST) exemption shall be allocated to the property transferred to the extent necessary to make the inclusion ratio for such property zero. Requires allocation to the property transferred of the entire unused portion if the amount of the indirect skip exceeds such unused portion. (Sec. 322) Declares that, if a trust is severed in a qualified severance, the trusts resulting from such severance shall be treated as separate trusts thereafter. (Sec. 323) Revises valuation rules for gifts for which a gift tax return was filed or deemed allocation made. Provides that, if an allocation of the GST exemption to any transfers of property is deemed to have been made at the close of an estate tax inclusion period, the value of the property shall be its value at such time. (Sec. 324) Directs the Secretary to prescribe circumstances and procedures under which extensions of time will be granted to make an allocation of GST exemption or an election not to apply specified allocation requirements to certain lifetime direct skips, indirect skips, or transfers to a particular trust. Subtitle D: Conservation Easements - Redefines land subject to a qualified conservation easement, for estate tax purposes, to mean land, on the decedent's date of death, located in or within: (1) 50 miles (currently, 25 miles) of a metropolitan area; (2) 50 miles (currently, 25 miles) of a national park or wilderness area; or (3) 25 miles (currently, ten miles) of an Urban National Forest. Title IV: Tax Relief for Distressed Communities and Industries - Subtitle A: American Community Renewal Act of 2000 - American Community Renewal Act of 2000 - Amends the Code to authorize the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to designate (upon local or State nomination) up to 15 renewal communities, of which at least three shall be in rural areas. Requires for nomination purposes that: (1) the area be experiencing high rates of poverty and unemployment and general distress; and (2) State and local governments enter into written contracts with community organizations to promote specified economic growth and employment activities. Excludes from gross income capital gains on the sale or exchange of a qualified community asset (stock, business property, or partnership interest) held for more than five years. Allows a specified deduction for amounts paid into a family development account on behalf of an individual or another qualified individual who is a renewal community resident. Excludes from gross income account distributions used for qualified family development expenses (postsecondary education, first-home purchase, business capitalization, medical, and rollovers). Provides a penalty (with exceptions) in addition to inclusion as gross income for nonqualifying distributions. Authorizes: (1) designation of earned income tax credit payments for family development account deposit; (2) a commercial building revitalization tax deduction; (3) increased first year expensing for renewal community businesses; (4) extension of environmental remediation cost expensing and the work opportunity credit for renewal communities; and (5) similar tax treatment of renewal communities and enterprise zones for specified youth residence requirements. (Sec. 405) Permits a deduction for contributions to a family development account whether or not a taxpayer itemizes. Makes conforming amendments to provisions respecting: (1) tax on excess contributions and prohibited transactions; (2) trust and annuity information; (3) tax exemption applications; and (4) the commercial revitalization credit. Subtitle B: Timber Incentives - Amends the Code, with respect to the deductible amortization of reforestation expenditures, to increase the limitation on the aggregate amount of amortizable basis acquired during the taxable year from $10,000 to $25,000 (and from $5,000 to $12,500 in the case of a separate return by a married individual), but suspends the application of such limitation between December 31, 1999, and January 1, 2004. Title V: Real Estate Provisions - Subtitle A: Improvements in Low-Income Housing Credit - Amends the Code, with respect to the low-income housing credit, to revise the formula for the State housing credit ceiling. Replaces the set multiplicand of $1.25 (to be multiplied by the State population) with a graduated applicable multiplicand rising from $1.35 for calendar year 2001 to $1.65 for calendar year 2004 and thereafter, and a maximum product of $2 million. Provides for cost-of-living adjustments to the State ceiling. (Sec. 502) Revises the housing priority selection criteria a housing credit agency must use to develop a qualified plan for allocating housing credit dollar amounts among projects. Requires such criteria to include: (1) whether the project would use existing housing as part of a community revitalization plan; (2) tenant populations of individuals with children; and (3) projects intended for eventual tenant ownership. Drops from such criteria participation of local tax-exempt organizations. Requires a qualified allocation plan to: (1) give preference in making allocations to projects located in qualified census tracts whose development contributes to a concerted community revitalization plan; and (2) provide a procedure for agency monitoring for noncompliance with habitability standards through regular site visits. (Sec. 503) Requires housing credit agencies to: (1) provide for a comprehensive market study (by a disinterested party, at the developer's expense) of the housing needs of low-income individuals in the area to be served by the project before the credit allocation is made; and (2) make public a written explanation for any allocation of a housing credit dollar amount not made in accordance with the agency's established priorities and selection criteria. (Sec. 504) Revises special rules for the determination of the adjusted basis of buildings eligible for the low-income housing credit. Requires adjusted basis to include property used throughout the taxable year in providing any community service facility designed to serve primarily individuals (even if they are not tenants) whose income is 60 percent or less of area median income. Declares that assistance under the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 shall be disregarded in determining whether a building is federally subsidized for purposes of the low-income housing credit. (Sec. 505) Revises the definition of a qualified building (placed in service not later than the second calendar year following a housing credit dollar amount allocation) with respect to which the amount of a low-income housing credit may exceed the credit amount allocated to the building. Sets an alternative date for valuation of the taxpayer's actual basis in the project of which the building is a part (where the actual basis is more than ten percent of the taxpayer's reasonably expected basis). Allows the valuation of the actual basis to be as of the later of the date which is six months after the date that the allocation was made or (as currently) the close of the calendar year in which the allocation is made. Revises the formula for determination of the amount of State housing credit ceiling returned in a calendar year to include the dollar amount previously allocated to a project which fails to meet the ten percent test on a date after the close of the calendar year in which the allocation was made. Revises special rules for the increased basis of a building located in certain high cost areas to redefine a qualified census tract to include, as an alternative to existing criteria, a tract with a poverty rate of at least 25 percent. (Sec. 506) Revises the formula for determining unused housing credit carryovers allocated among certain States. Subtitle B: Private Activity Bond Volume Cap - Provides for an accelerated phase-in of specified increases in the volume cap on private activity bonds. Subtitle C: Exclusion From Gross Income for Certain Forgiven Mortgage Obligations - Excludes from gross income the discharge of qualified residential indebtedness. Limits such exclusion to the excess (if any) of the outstanding principal amount of such indebtedness (immediately before discharge) over the sum of any sales proceeds and any other outstanding principal indebtedness secured by such property.
United States · United States Congress · 1 March 2000
Expresses the sense of Congress, with respect to a proposed regulation on ergonomics by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), that: (1) Congress should support Federal regulations based solely on sound science and fact; (2) public comments should play a vital role in shaping OSHA's proposed regulation on ergonomics; and (3) adequate time must be provided for the public to review thoroughly a regulation of the magnitude and length of such proposed regulation on ergonomics.
United States · United States Congress · 10 February 2000
Timber and Agriculture Environmental Fairness Act - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from requiring a national pollutant discharge elimination system permit for discharges composed entirely of agricultural stormwater discharges or for discharges from silviculture operations. Excludes discharges of stormwater runoff from silvicultural operations from the definition of "point source."
United States · United States Congress · 8 February 2000
Authorizes presentation of a gold medal on behalf of Congress to former President Ronald Reagan and his wife Nancy Reagan. Authorizes specified sums to be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund for medal costs. Mandates that sale proceeds from duplicate bronze medals be deposited into such Fund.
United States · United States Congress · 24 January 2000
Amends the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to make the Act inapplicable to employment performed in a workplace through the use of a telephone, computer, or other electronic device which is located in the employee's residence.
United States · United States Congress · 10 November 1999
State's and Parental Rights Improvement Act of 2000 - Prohibits, notwithstanding any other provision of law, considering a State to have violated any term or condition of any Federal health care grant-in-aid program by requiring the consent or notification of a parent or guardian regarding dispensing a prescription drug or device (or any class of drugs or devices specified by the State) to a minor.
United States · United States Congress · 14 October 1999
Medicare Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999 - Title I: Provisions Relating to Part A - Subtitle A: PPS Hospitals - Amends SSA title XVIII part D (Miscellaneous), as amended by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA '97), to provide for a one-year delay in the transition of the indirect teaching adjustment factor (under the prospective payment system (PPS) for hospital outpatient department (OPD) services) to its permanent value on or after October 1, 2001 (currently, on or after October 1, 2000) used in determining an additional payment amount for certain hospitals with indirect costs of medical education. Subtitle B: PPS Exempt Hospitals - Amends SSA title XVIII part D to: (1) limit the target amount for described hospitals that are exempt from PPS payment; and (2) direct the Secretary to provide for an appropriate wage adjustment with regard to such hospitals. (Sec. 112) Provides for increased target amounts in computing payments for long-term care and psychiatric hospitals until development of a PPS for those hospitals. (Sec. 113) Directs the Secretary to develop, implement, and report to Congress on: (1) a per discharge PPS for payment for inpatient hospital services of Medicare long-term care hospitals; and (2) develop a per diem PPS for payment for inpatient hospital services of Medicare psychiatric hospitals. Subtitle C: Adjustments to PPS Payments for Skilled Nursing Facilities - Directs the Secretary, for purposes of computing prospective payments for covered skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), to temporarily increase payments for covered skilled nursing facility services for certain high cost patients. (Sec. 122) Amends SSA title XVIII part D to revise provisions on payment to hospitals for inpatient hospital services to: (1) increase for FY 2001 the SNF unadjusted federal per diem rate; (2) permit a SNF to waive a three year transition period and elect to have the amount of payment for all covered facility costs determined pursuant to the adjusted Federal per diem rate applicable to it; (3) exclude certain additional items and services from being covered facility items and services (thus providing for Medicare part A (Hospital Insurance) pass-through payment for such items and services, including certain ambulance services and chemotherapy items) while ensuring budget neutrality for FY 2001; (4) apply to facilities participating in the Nursing Home Case-Mix and Quality Demonstration Project requirements for determining base payments on a per diem basis; and (5) modify requirements for the first cost reporting period update that is used in determining facility specific per diem rates. Title II: Provisions Relating to Part B - Subtitle A: Adjustments to Physician Payment Updates - Amends SSA title XVIII part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance) to modify provisions on: (1) payment for physicians' services with regard to updates to provide for new guidelines for determining updates for years beginning with 2000; and (2) sustainable growth rate with regard to publication and with regard to the data to be used in determining such updates. Subtitle B: Hospital Outpatient Services - Amends SSA title XVIII part B to revise requirements for the PPS for hospital OPD services to: (1) require the Secretary to provide for a specified outlier adjustment for covered OPD services, as well as transitional pass-through payments for additional costs of "innovative" medical devices, drugs, and biologicals, while ensuring budget neutrality; (3) include medical devices as covered OPD services; (4) allow the Secretary to elect to establish relative payment weights based on mean hospital costs for covered OPD services; (5) limit, generally, the variation of costs of covered OPD services classified within a group for purposes of comparable treatment with respect to the use of resources; (6) change the Secretary's optional periodic review of PPS components to a mandatory annual review; and (7) establish a transitional adjustment in the amount of PPS payment for covered OPD services to limit declining payments under Medicare for such services. Subtitle C: Other - Amends SSA title XVIII to provide for: (1) application of separate currently existing caps for speech-language pathology and for other outpatient physical therapy services on a per beneficiary, per facility basis; (2) optional, limited exemption of certain therapy services facilities from any applicable caps for 2000 and 2001; (3) mandatory annual increases in end stage renal disease dialysis composite rate payment amounts; and (4) revised annual covered item updates for 2001 and 2002 for certain durable medical equipment. Title III: Provisions Relating to Parts A and B - Subtitle A: Home Health Services - Provides, in the case of a home health agency that furnishes home health services to a Medicare beneficiary, that for each beneficiary furnished such services during the agency's cost reporting period beginning in FY 2000, the Secretary shall, in accordance with specified restrictions, pay the agency a specified amount out of the Medicare trust funds in addition to any other amount of payment to defray agency costs attributable to data collection and reporting requirements under the Outcome and Assessment Information (OASIS) required under BBA '97. (Sec. 302) Amends BBA '97 and Medicare with regard to the PPS for home health services to delay for one year the application of the 15 percent reduction in payment rates for home health services. Subtitle B: Direct Graduate Medical Education - Amends SSA title XVIII to provide for the use of national average per resident payment system in computing payments for direct graduate medical education (DGME) costs. Title IV: Rural Provider Provisions - Amends SSA title XVIII to permit the reclassification of certain urban hospitals as rural ones. (Sec. 402) Ties the standards applied for geographic reclassification of certain rural hospitals to the most recently available census data. (Sec. 403) Revises the critical access hospital program, permitting for-profit hospitals to qualify for designation as a critical access hospital. Provides for an all-inclusive payment option for outpatient critical access hospital services. Eliminates coinsurance payments for clinical diagnostic laboratory tests furnished by a critical access hospital on an outpatient basis. Allows certain currently excluded hospitals to be providers of extended care services. (Sec. 404) Extends for five years the Medicare-dependent, small rural hospital program. (Sec. 405) Mandates rebasing for certain sole community hospitals that elect such treatment, in accordance with specified guidelines with respect to select fiscal year discharges. (Sec. 406) Revises provisions on payments for direct and indirect graduate medical education costs to expand current graduate medical education training programs for hospitals located in rural areas, and to encourage the training of physicians in underserved rural areas. (Sec. 407) Eliminates the requirement for State certification of need and certain restrictions on a hospital with more than 49 beds that provides extended care services. (Sec. 408) Authorizes the Secretary to award grants to assist eligible small rural hospitals in meeting the costs of implementing data systems required to meet Medicare requirements established by BBA '97. (Sec. 409) Directs the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MEDPAC) to study and report to Congress on rural providers under Medicare. Title V: Provisions Relating to Part C (Medicare+Choice Program) - Subtitle A: Medicare+Choice - Amends SSA title XVIII part C (Medicare+Choice) and D (Miscellaneous) to provide for: (1) phased-in new risk adjustment methodology under provisions for payments to Medicare+Choice organizations; (2) increased monthly payments under such provisions for a limited period to encourage the offering of Medicare+Choice plans in certain areas where such a plan has either not been offered or is offered but slated for termination; (3) modification of the five-year reentry rule for Medicare+Choice organizations whose contracts have been terminated; (4) continued annual computation and publication of county-specific per capita fee-for-service expenditure information; (5) enrollment in alternative Medicare+Choice plans and Medicare supplemental health insurance policy (Medigap) coverage in case of involuntary termination of Medicare+Choice enrollment; (6) authorized variation in premium values within a service area if the annual Medicare+Choice capitation rates vary within the area; (7) a delayed deadline for submission of adjusted community rates and related information; (8) extension of Medicare reasonable cost reimbursement contracts under provisions for payments to health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and competitive medical plans; and (9) permission for religious fraternal benefit societies to offer a range of Medicare+Choice plans. (Sec. 510) Directs MEDPAC to report to Congress on specific legislative changes that should be made to make Medicare medical savings account plans a viable option under the Medicare+Choice program. Subtitle B: Social Health Maintenance Organizations (SHMOs) - Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 to: (1) extend social health maintenance organization (SHMO) demonstration project authority; and (2) replace the current limit on the number of individuals who may participate in a SHMO I or II project site with an aggregate limit for all sites.
United States · United States Congress · 13 October 1999
Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999 - Title I: Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency and Related Provisions - Subtitle A: Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency - Amends part A (General Provisions) of title XI of the Social Security Act (SSA) to direct the Commissioner of Social Security to establish a Ticket to Work and Self-Sufficiency Program (TWSSP) under which a disabled beneficiary may use a TWSSP ticket issued by the Commissioner to obtain employment, vocational rehabilitation services, or other support services, pursuant to an appropriate individual beneficiary work plan that meets specified requirements. Includes among such requirements goals for earnings and job advancement, at the Commissioner's expense, from a participating employment network, public or private. Allows State agencies administering or supervising the administration of the State plan under title I of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to elect to participate as an employment network. Sets forth requirements applicable to agreements between State agencies and employment networks. Describes employment network payment systems. (Sec. 101) Provides that during any period for which an individual is using a TWSSP ticket, the Commissioner and any applicable State agency may not initiate a continuing disability or similar review to determine whether the individual is or is not disabled. Requires payments to employment networks: (1) out of the social security trust funds in the case of SSA title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) disability beneficiaries who return to work; or (2) from the appropriation for making Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments under SSA title XVI, in the case of SSI disability beneficiaries who return to work. Establishes within the Social Security Administration the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Advisory Panel to advise the President, the Congress, and the Commissioner with respect to TWSSP work incentive issues, and those issues under OASDI, SSI, Medicare (SSA title XVIII), and Medicaid (SSA title XIX) as well. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle B: Elimination of Work Disincentives - Amends SSA titles II and XVI (Procedural and General Provisions) to prescribe specified measures designed to eliminate work disincentives. Prohibits review of an individual's disability status on the basis of work activity. Provides for expedited reinstatement of entitlement to OASDI or of eligibility for SSI disability benefits. Subtitle C: Work Incentives Planning, Assistance, and Outreach - Amends SSA title XI part A to direct the Commissioner to establish a community-based work incentives outreach program for disabled beneficiaries that includes technical assistance to organizations and entities designed to encourage disabled beneficiaries to return to work. (Sec. 121) Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 122) Authorizes the Commissioner to make certain minimum payments in each State to the protection and advocacy system established under the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act for the purpose of providing services to disabled beneficiaries, which may include advocacy or other services that such a beneficiary may need to secure or regain gainful employment. Authorizes appropriations. Title II: Expanded Availability of Health Care Services - Amends SSA title XIX to provide for expanding State Medicaid options for workers with disabilities, including options to: (1) eliminate income, assets, and resource limitations for workers with disabilities who buy into Medicaid; and (2) provide opportunity for employed individuals with a medically improved disability to make such a buy. Provides that Federal funds paid to a State for Medicaid payments may not generally be used to supplant the level of State funds expended for a fiscal year for programs to enable working disabled individuals to work. (Sec. 202) Amends SSA title II to extend the period of Medicare coverage for OASDI disability insurance beneficiaries. Directs the Comptroller General to report to Congress on specified consequences of such extension. (Sec. 203) Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) award grants to eligible States to support establishment of State infrastructures to support working disabled individuals as well as to enable State outreach campaigns on infrastructure existence; and (2) submit a recommendation to specified congressional committees on whether such grant program should be continued after FY 2010. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 204) Authorizes State demonstration projects for certain Medicaid coverage of up to a specified maximum number of workers with a potentially severe disability, coverage equal to that afforded under the State option for eliminating income, assets, and resource limitations for disabled workers buying into Medicaid. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 205) Allows disabled Medicare beneficiaries to request the suspension of Medicare supplemental policy (Medigap) insurance when covered under a group health plan. Title III: Demonstration Projects and Studies - Amends SSA title II to provide for an extension of disability insurance program demonstration project authority. Directs the Commissioner to develop and carry out experiments and demonstration projects, subject to specified guidelines which include the authority to waive compliance with benefits requirements, with regard to various alternative methods of treating the work activity of individuals entitled to OASDI disability benefits, altering other limitations and conditions applicable to such individuals, and implementing sliding scale benefit offsets. Authorizes the Commissioner to: (1) expand the scope of any such experiment or demonstration project to include any group of OASDI benefit applicants with impairments that reasonably may be presumed to be disabling for purposes of such demonstration project; and (2) limit any such demonstration project to any such group of applicants, subject to the terms of such demonstration project which shall define the extent of any such presumption. (Sec. 302) Directs the Commissioner to conduct certain demonstration projects designed to provide for specified reductions in disability insurance benefits based on earnings. Requires expenditures for such demonstration projects to come out of the social security and Medicare trust funds, as determined appropriate, to the extent provided in advance in appropriation Acts. (Sec. 303) Directs the Comptroller General to study and report to the Congress on: (1) existing tax credits and other disability-related employment incentives; (2) coordination of the OASDI disability insurance (DI) program and the SSI program as they relate to individuals entering or leaving concurrent entitlement under them; and (3) the impact of the substantial gainful activity limit on return to work. Directs the Commissioner to report to the Congress on disregards under the DI and SSI programs. Requires the Comptroller General to study and report to the Congress on the Social Security Administration's efforts to conduct disability demonstrations. Title IV: Miscellaneous and Technical Amendments - Amends the Contract with America Advancement Act of 1996 with respect to: (1) final adjudication of denied claims by drug addicts and alcoholics for SSA title II disability benefits; and (2) the effective dates of certain requirements concerning representative payees and treatment referrals for such individuals. (Sec. 402) Amends SSA title II to provide for: (1) payments to State and local prisons for monthly reports on the identities of inmates whose OASDI benefits are determined by the Commissioner not to be payable as a result of such reports; (2) a 50 percent reduction in such payments under SSA titles II and XVI in cases involving a comparable payment under the other title with respect to the same prisoner; (3) transfer from the social security trust funds of any sums necessary to enable the Commissioner to make such payments; (4) provision of inmate identification information to any agency administering a Federal or federally-assisted cash, food, or medical assistance program for eligibility purposes under such program; (5) elimination of the requirement that confinement stem only from a crime punishable by imprisonment for more than one year (thus denying OASDI benefits to individuals confined for any criminal offense); and (5) continued denial of benefits to sex offenders remaining confined to public institutions upon completion of prison term. (Sec. 403) Provides for a two-year open season for members of the clergy who wish to revoke their exemption from social security coverage. (Sec. 404) Amends SSA title XI to make a miscellaneous technical amendment relating to cooperative research or development projects under SSA titles II and XVI. (Sec. 405) Amends SSA title XI to make miscellaneous technical amendments to provisions concerning the requirements of State income and eligibility verification systems, among other changes allowing a State to permit certain employers that make returns with respect to domestic service employment taxes on a calendar year basis to instead make such reports on an annual basis. (Sec. 406) Amends SSA title II to direct the Commissioner to impose on attorneys who are owed a fee from a claimant's past-due benefits an assessment, determined according to a specified formula, for crediting to the OASDI trust funds. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 407) Amends SSA title XIX to: (1) grant State Medicaid fraud control units the authority to investigate and prosecute violations of all applicable State laws regarding any and all aspects of suspected fraud in connection with any Federal health care program if the Inspector General of the relevant Federal agency approves the unit's involvement; (2) grant an Inspector General who approves such involvement continuing authority to join the case or investigation or to replace the unit as the primary agency assigned to the matter; (3) include within the unit's authority to recoup overpayments made under the State Medicaid plan to health care facilities authority to recoup overpayments made under any Federal health care program; and (4) revise procedures for unit complaint review, among other changes allowing the unit the option of having procedures for reviewing complaints of abuse or neglect of residents in non-Medicaid board and care facilities. (Sec. 408) Amends SSA title XIX with respect to certain Medicaid payments to States with approved Medicaid plans. Requires a specified payment system approved by the Secretary for the payment of any covered expenditure by, or on behalf of, a local educational agency or school district: (1) in the case of a bundled group of individual items, services, and administrative expenses, in accordance with an actuarially sound payment methodology; or (2) in the case of payment using a fee-for-service methodology, in accordance with reasonable cost reimbursement requirements. Includes among such requirements a competitive bidding process for claims processing contracts and coordination between the local educational agency or school district and Medicaid managed care organization in order for the State to receive Medicaid reimbursement. Formulates the allowable share of the Federal financial participation amount with respect to payment for items and services furnished in a school setting. Directs the Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration to develop and implement a uniform methodology for claims for payment of Medicaid and related administrative expenses furnished by schools.
United States · United States Congress · 30 September 1999
Quality Care for the Uninsured Act of 1999 - Title I: Tax-Related Health Care Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to phase-in a 100 percent deduction (for both itemizers and nonitemizers) for the health and long-term care insurance costs of individuals not participating in employer-subsidized health plans. (Sec. 102) Provides for the deduction of 100 percent of the health insurance costs of self-employed individuals. (Sec. 103) Revises medical savings accounts provisions to: (1) repeal the limitation on the number of accounts; (2) make all employers (currently limited to small employers) eligible to offer accounts; (3) increase contribution deduction amounts; (4) permit employer and employee contributions; (5) reduce high deductible health plan deductibles; and (6) permit accounts to be offered under cafeteria plans. (Sec. 104) Permits offering long-term care insurance under cafeteria plans and flexible spending arrangements. (Sec. 105) Permits a taxpayer an additional exemption for certain elderly family members who need long-term care and who reside with the taxpayer. (Sec. 106) Expands the time frame for human clinical trials qualifying for the orphan drug credit. (Sec. 107) Adds to the list of taxable vaccines any conjugate vaccine of streptococcus pneumoniae. (Sec. 108) Establishes a limited credit for "qualified medical innovation expenses." Defines such expenses as amounts paid by a taxpayer to any qualified academic institution for clinical testing research activities. Title II: Greater Access and Choice Through Association Health Plans - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to establish rules governing health plans sponsored by certain associations, including requirements for: (1) certification; (2) sponsors and boards of trustees, and treatment of franchised networks and collectively bargained plans; (3) participation and coverage of employers and individuals and of previously uninsured employees; (4) plan documents, contribution rates, and benefit options; (5) maintenance of reserves, excess-stop loss insurance, and solvency indemnification for plans providing health benefits in addition to health insurance coverage; (6) applications and related reporting; (7) notice for voluntary termination; (8) corrective actions and mandatory termination; and (9) church plans. (Sec. 201) Directs the Secretary of Labor to apply, to the appropriate Federal district court, to be appointed trustee of certain insolvent association health plans which provide health benefits in addition to health insurance coverage. Allows a State to impose a contribution tax on an association health plan that begins operations in such State after the enactment of this Act. Directs the Secretary to report to specified congressional committees on the effect association health plans have had, if any, on reducing the number of uninsured individuals. (Sec. 202) Revises requirements for treatment of single employer arrangements. (Sec. 203) Revises requirements for certain collectively bargained arrangements. (Sec. 204) Sets forth enforcement requirements relating to association health plans. (Sec. 205) Sets forth State responsibilities, and requirements for cooperation between Federal and State authorities, with respect to association health plans. (Sec. 206) Prescribes special rules for certain existing health benefits programs. Title III: Greater Access and Choice Through Healthmarts - Amends the Public Health Service Act to create a new title on HealthMarts. Requires that HealthMarts: (1) be nonprofit entities composed of employers, employees health care providers, and entities that underwrite or administer health benefits coverage; and (2) make available health coverage to all employers and eligible employees at rates established by the insurance issuer on a policy or product specific basis. Deems HealthMarts group health plans for purposes of specified provisions ERISA and the Internal Revenue Code. Requires that coverage made available to an eligible employee in a geographic area be offered to all eligible employees in the same area. Declares that the HealthMart: (1) provides coverage only through contracts with issuers and does not assume insurance risk; (2) provides administrative services for purchasers; and (3) collects and disseminates consumer information on all offered coverage options. Requires that HealthMart coverage provide full portability of creditable coverage for individuals who remain members of the same HealthMart notwithstanding that they change employers. Allows HealthMart coverage to include coverage through an HMO, a preferred provider or licensed provider-sponsored organization, an insurance company, a medical savings or flexible spending account, a point-of-service option, a community health organization, or any combination of those coverages. Requires a HealthMart to permit any employer to contract for coverage and prohibits varying eligibility conditions. Prohibits the purchaser from obtaining or sponsoring coverage other than through the HealthMart. Prohibits enrollment discrimination based on health. Requires HealthMarts to make at least two coverage options available. Supersedes certain related State laws. Provides for the application of: (1) certain existing ERISA and Public Health Service Act requirements; and (2) renewability requirements when the contract between a HealthMart and an issuer is terminated. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to administer this subtitle through a separate Health Care Marketplace Division. Title IV: Community Health Organizations - Permits the waiver of State licensure requirements for certain community health organizations.
United States · United States Congress · 28 September 1999
International Patient Act of 1999 - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to authorize a three-year pilot program under which the Attorney General may extend the voluntary departure period for certain nonimmigrant aliens admitted under the visa waiver program who require continued U.S. medical treatment.
United States · United States Congress · 23 September 1999
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow an individual to offset the individual's entire regular tax liability, without regard to the minimum tax, by the personal nonrefundable credits (including the dependent care credit, the credit for the elderly and disabled, the adoption credit, the child tax credit, the credit for interest on certain home mortgages, the HOPE Scholarship and Lifetime Learning credits, and the District of Columbia homebuyer's credit ). (Sec. 1) Repeals the requirement that reduces the refundable child credit by the amount of an individual's minimum tax. (Sec. 2) Extends from June 30, 1999, through June 30, 2004, the tax credit for increasing scientific research activities. Revises the alternative incremental research credit rate by specified percentage increases in components of the rate formula. Declares that the research tax credit attributable to the period from June 30, 1999, through September 30, 2000, (suspension period): (1) shall not be taken into account with respect to any failure to pay estimated income tax for any taxable year in determining the amount of any installment due before October 1, 2000; and (2) shall not be allowed for any taxable year ending before October 1, 2000. States that any such credit disallowed for any taxable year ending before October 1, 2000, shall be treated as a payment of the income tax due for such year. Provides for an accelerated refund of any tax overpayment resulting from such treatment of the research tax credit, if the refund application is filed before October 1, 2001. Waives estimated tax penalties for any period before June 30, 1999, for any underpayment of tax created or increased by reason of the treatment of the research tax credit by this Act. (Sec. 3) Extends from January 1, 2000, until January 1, 2005, the subpart F exclusion of active banking, financing, or similar income from taxable foreign personal holding company income, insurance income, and foreign base company services income to which ten- percent U.S. shareholders of a controlled foreign corporation are subject regardless of whether such income is distributed to them. (Sec. 4) Extends from January 1, 2000, until January 1, 2005, suspension of the 100-percent-of-net-income limitation on the deduction for percentage depletion from marginal oil and natural gas wells. (Sec. 5) Extends from June 30, 1999, through December 31, 2001, the work opportunity tax credit (WOTC) (equal to a specified percentage of qualified first-year wages paid to individuals hired from one or more specified target groups) and the welfare-to-work tax credit (equal to a specified percentage of the first $20,000 of eligible wages paid to qualified long-term recipients of family assistance under part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act). Revises the exclusion from qualified first-year wages for WOTC purposes of any wages paid to an individual if, before the hiring date, such individual had been employed by the employer at any time during which he or she was not a member of a targeted group. Repeals the limitation of the exclusion to individuals previously employed while not a member of a targeted group thus excluding the wages of previously employed individuals even if they were members of a targeted group during the previous employment).
United States · United States Congress · 8 September 1999
Authorizes the President, on behalf of the Congress, to present congressional gold medals to astronauts Neil A. Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins, in recognition of their monumental and unprecedented feat of space exploration, as well as their achievements in the advancement of science and promotion of the space program. Authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to strike and sell bronze duplicates. Requires receipts from such sales to be deposited in the U.S. Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
United States · United States Congress · 8 September 1999
Expresses the sense of Congress that making concessions to terrorists is deplorable and that President Clinton should not have offered or granted clemency to the FALN (Armed Forces of National Liberation) terrorists.
United States · United States Congress · 13 July 1999
Financial Freedom Act of 1999 - Title I: Broad-Based Tax Relief - Subtitle A: 10-Percent Reduction in Individual Income Tax Rates - Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to provide for the phase-in of a ten percent individual income tax rate. Subtitle B: Marriage Penalty Tax Relief - Phases-in a standard deduction on a joint (married) return equal to twice the deduction of a single (not married) return. (Sec. 112) Makes the modified adjusted gross income limitation applicable in determining the deduction for interest on educational loans on a joint return double the limit of a single return. (Sec. 113) Raises from $100,000 (currently applicable to any filing status) to $160,000 (in the case of a joint return) the adjusted gross income limit applicable to rollovers from regular IRAs to Roth IRAs. Subtitle C: Repeal of Alternative Minimum Tax on Individuals - Phases-in a repeal of the alternative minimum tax for individuals. Title II: Relief from Taxation on Savings and Investments - Excludes from gross income a limited amount of dividends and interest otherwise includible in gross income. (Sec. 202) Reduces the individual capital gains tax rate. (Sec. 203) Applies the capital gains tax rates to capital gains of designated settlement funds. (Sec. 204) Provides, with respect to exclusion of gain from the sale of a principal residence, for the suspension of the five-year ownership and use requirement during the time that a member (or spouse) of the uniformed services or Foreign Service is on qualified official extended duty (as defined by this Act). (Sec. 205) Treats certain dealer derivative financial instruments, hedging transactions, and supplies as ordinary assets. (Sec. 206) Revises provisions concerning the worthless securities of financial institutions. Title III: Incentives for Business Investment and Job Creation - Phases-in a corporate capital gains tax rate reduction. (Sec. 302) Phases- in a repeal of the alternative minimum tax on corporations. Repeals the 90 percent limitation on the utilization of the foreign tax credit. Title IV: Education Savings Incentives - Renames education individual retirement accounts education savings accounts. Increases to $2,000 the maximum annual contribution allowed to such accounts. Permits tax-free expenditures from such accounts for elementary and secondary education expenses required for attendance at a public, private, or religious school, or for homeschooling that meets State requirements. Waives certain age limitations in cases of children with special needs. Permits corporations to contribute to such accounts. (Sec. 402) Permits private educational institutions to maintain qualified tuition programs which are comparable to qualified State tuition programs. Excludes qualified distributions from such accounts from gross income. (Sec. 403) Excludes from gross income certain amounts received under the National Health Corps Scholarship Program, the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship and Financial Assistance Program, the National Institutes of Health Undergraduate Scholarship Program, or any similar State program. (Sec. 404) Increases the amount by which certain governmental bonds used to finance public school capital expenditures may be exempted from specified arbitrage bond provisions. (Sec. 405) Modifies arbitrage rebate rules applicable to public school construction bonds. (Sec. 406) Repeals the 60-month limitation period on the allowance of the interest deduction on loans for higher education expenses. Title V: Health Care Provisions - Phases-in a 100 percent deduction (for both itemizers and nonitemizers) for the health and long- term care insurance costs of individuals not participating in employer-subsidized health plans. (Sec. 502) Permits offering long-term care insurance under cafeteria plans and flexible spending arrangements. (Sec. 503) Revises medical savings accounts provisions to: (1) repeal the limitation on the number of accounts; (2) make all employers (currently limited to small employers) eligible to offer accounts; (3) increase contribution deduction amounts; (4) permit employer and employee contributions; (5) reduce high deductible health plan deductibles; and (6) permit accounts to be offered under cafeteria plans. (Sec. 504) Permits a taxpayer an additional exemption for certain elderly family members who need long-term care and who reside with the taxpayer. (Sec. 505) Expands the time frame for human clinical trials qualifying for the orphan drug credit. (Sec. 506) Adds to the list of taxable vaccines any conjugate vaccine of streptococcus pneumoniae. Title VI: Estate Tax Relief - Subtitle A: Estate, Gift, and Generation-Skipping Taxes; Repeal of Step Up in Basis At Death - Repeals the estate tax, gift tax, and the tax on generation-skipping transfers, effective January 1, 2009. (Sec. 602) Terminates, effective January 1, 2009, the current provisions providing for determining the basis of property the acquired from a decedent and sets forth new provisions for determining the basis of certain property acquired from a decedent dying after December 31, 2008. Subtitle B: Reductions of Estate and Gift Tax Rates Prior to Repeal - Sets forth additional estate and gift tax reductions applicable to the period prior to repeal. Subtitle C: Unified Credit Replaced Unified Exemption Amount - Replaces the unified credit with a unified exemption amount. Subtitle D: Modifications of Generation-Skipping Tax - Amends provisions concerning the special rules for allocation of the generation-skipping tax (GST) exemption to provide, as a general rule, that: (1) if any individual makes an indirect skip during such individual's lifetime, any unused portion of such individual's GST exemption shall be allocated to the property transferred to the extent necessary to make the inclusion ratio for such property zero; and (2) if the amount of the indirect skip exceeds such unused portion, the entire unused portion shall be allocated to the property transferred. Title VII: Tax Relief for Distressed Communities and Industries - Subtitle A: American Community Renewal Act of 1999 - Authorizes the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to designate (upon local or State nomination) up to 20 renewal communities, of which at least four shall be in rural areas. Requires for nomination purposes that: (1) the area be experiencing high rates of poverty and unemployment and general distress; and (2) State and local governments enter into written contracts with community organizations to promote specified economic growth and employment activities. Excludes from gross income capital gains on the sale or exchange of a qualified community asset (stock, business property, or partnership interest) held for more than five years. Allows a specified deduction for amounts paid into a family development account on behalf of a renewal community resident. Excludes from gross income account distributions used for qualified family development expenses (postsecondary education, first-home purchase, business capitalization, medical, and rollovers). Provides a penalty (with exceptions) in addition to inclusion as gross income for nonqualifying distributions. Provides for designation of up to five qualifying renewal communities as matching demonstration areas eligible to receive family development account matching contributions. Authorizes: (1) designation of earned income tax credit payments for family development account deposit; (2) a commercial building revitalization tax deduction; (3) increased first year expensing for renewal community businesses; (4) extension of environmental remediation cost expensing and the work opportunity credit for renewal communities; and (5) similar tax treatment of renewal communities and enterprise zones for specified youth residence requirements. Permits a deduction for contributions to a family development account whether or not a taxpayer itemizes. (Sec. 705) Makes conforming amendments to provisions respecting: (1) tax on excess contributions and prohibited transactions; (2) trust and annuity information; (3) tax exemption applications; and (4) the commercial revitalization credit. (Sec. 706) Sets forth reporting requirements. Subtitle B: Farming Incentive - Disregards any option to accelerate the receipt of any payment under a production flexibility contract which is payable under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, as in effect on the date of the enactment of this Act, in determining the taxable year for which such payment is properly includible in gross income for purposes of the IRC. Subtitle C: Oil and Gas Incentive - Permits a five-year net operating loss carryback for losses attributable to operating mineral interests of independent oil and gas producers. Subtitle D: Timber Incentive - Increases the maximum permitted amortization of reforestation expenditures. Subtitle E: Steel Industry Incentive - Increases, for steel companies, the credit allowed against the regular tax for prior year minimum tax liability. Title VIII: Relief for Small Businesses - Provides for the deduction of 100 Percent of the health insurance costs of self-employed individuals. (Sec. 802) Increases to $30,000 the amount which may be expensed as section 179 property. (Sec. 803) Makes the 6.2 percent Federal Unemployment Tax Act rate effective through calendar year 2004 (currently, 2007) and the 6.0 percent rate effective through calendar year 2005 (currently, 2008). (Sec. 804) Phases-in an 80 percent meal expenses deduction. Title IX: International Tax Relief - Permits, for interest allocation rule purposes, treating each electing worldwide affiliated group an affiliated group. (Sec. 902) Revises provisions concerning the of application of look-thru rules to dividends from noncontrolled section 902 corporations to provide, in general, that any dividend from a noncontrolled section 902 corporation with respect to the taxpayer shall be treated as income in a separate category in proportion to the ratio of: (1) the portion of earnings and profits attributable to income in such category; to (2) the total amount of earnings and profits. (Sec. 903) Excludes from the definition of "foreign base company oil related income" the pipeline transportation of oil or gas within such foreign country. (Sec. 904) Excludes from the definition of "foreign base company services income" income derived in connection with the performance of services which are related to the transmission of high voltage electricity. (Sec. 905) Defines overall domestic loss and sets forth provisions for determining taxable income for any taxpayer sustaining such a loss. (Sec. 906) Repeals the special rule for military property with respect to exempt foreign trade income. (Sec. 907) Exempts from taxation certain regulated investment company dividends received by nonresident aliens. Treats certain regulated investment company stock owned by nonresident noncitizens as non-U.S. property for estate tax purposes. (Sec. 908) Repeals section 907 (Special Rules In Case of Foreign Oil and Gas Income) of the IRC. (Sec. 909) Requires a study and a report on the feasibility of treating all countries in the European Union as one country under subpart F (Controlled Foreign Corporations) of part III (Income From Sources Without the United States) of subchapter N (Tax Based on Income From Sources Within or Without the United States) of chapter 1 (Normal Taxes and Surtaxes) of the IRC. (Sec. 910) Permits the President to determine that the continued denial of the foreign tax credit with respect to a foreign country is no longer in the national interests of the United States. (Sec. 911) Treats advance pricing agreements as confidential taxpayer information. (Sec. 912) Phases in an increase in the dollar limitation on the section 911 (Citizens or Residents of the United States Living Abroad) exclusion. Title X: Provisions Relating to Tax-Exempt Organizations - Exempts an organization from income tax if it is created by a State to provide property and casualty insurance coverage for property for which such coverage is otherwise unavailable. (Sec. 1002) Amends the Tax Reform Act of 1984 to revise the special arbitrage rule. (Sec. 1003) Amends the IRC to disallow a deduction for the transfer of a charitable contribution to or for the use of a State or charitable tax-exempt organization or trust if in connection with such transfer: (1) the organization directly or indirectly pays, or has previously paid, any premium on any personal benefit contract (life insurance, annuity, or endowment contract, also known as charitable split-dollar life insurance) with respect to the transferor; or (2) there is an understanding (side agreement) that any person will directly or indirectly pay any premium on such contract with respect to such transferor. Imposes on such organization an excise tax equal to the premiums paid by it on the personal benefit contract. Provides that certain persons shall not be treated as indirect beneficiaries: (1) in certain cases in which a charitable organization purchases an annuity contract to fund an obligation to pay a charitable gift annuity; or (2) solely by reason of being a noncharitable recipient of an annuity or unitrust amount paid by a charitable remainder trust that holds a life insurance, annuity or endowment contract. (Sec. 1004) Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a procedure for exemption from the self- dealing tax. (Sec. 1005) Revises provisions concerning: (1) declaratory judgments relating to tax-exempt organizations; and (2) the special rules for certain amounts of unrelated business taxable income received from controlled entities. Title XI: Real Estate Provisions - Subtitle A: Provisions Relating to Real Estate Investment Trusts - Part I: Treatment of Income and Services Provided by Taxable REIT Subsidiaries - Excludes taxable REIT subsidiaries (TRSs) from the five and ten percent asset tests. (Sec. 1102) Allows TRSs to provide non-customary tenant services. (Sec. 1103) Allows a REIT to establish a TRS (as defined). (Sec. 1104) Includes in the definition of "disqualified interest" (Sec. 163 of the IRC) any interest paid or accrued by a TRS to the REIT. (Sec. 1105) Imposes a 100 percent tax on any interest payments by a TRS to the REIT in excess of the commercially reasonable interest rate. Part II: Health Care REITs - Includes within the definition of the term "foreclosure property" any qualified health care property acquired by a REIT as the result of the termination of a lease of such property. Part III: Conformity With Regulated Investment Company Rules - Changes the distribution requirement from 95 percent to 90 percent. Part IV: Clarification of Exception From Impermissible Tenant Service Income - Provides, with respect to the definition of an independent contractor, that in the event that any class of stock of is regularly traded on an established securities market, only owners who own, directly or indirectly, more than five percent of such class of stock shall be taken into account as owning any of the stock of such class for purposes of applying the 35 percent limitation. Part V: Modification of Earnings and Profits Rules - Provides rules for determining whether a Regulated Investment Company (RIC) has earnings and profits form a non-RIC year. Part VI: Study Relating to Taxable REIT Subsidiaries - Directs the: (1) Commissioner of Internal Revenue shall conduct a study to determine how many taxable REIT subsidiaries are in existence and the aggregate amount of taxes paid by such subsidiaries; and (2) the Secretary of the Treasury to submit a report to Congress describing the results of such study. Subtitle B: Modification of At-Risk Rules for Publicly Traded Securities - Revises, with respect to real property, provisions concerning the treatment under the at-risk rules of publicly traded nonrecourse debt. Subtitle C: Treatment of Construction Allowances and Certain Contributions To Capital of Retailers - Amends provisions which exclude from the gross income of a lessee any amount received in cash by a lessee from a lessor under a short-term lease of retail space used for the purpose of such lessee's constructing or improving long-term real property for use in the lessee's business to makes such exclusion inapplicable under a short-term lease if the lessee is a qualified retail business. (Sec. 1172) Defines the term "contribution to the capital of the taxpayer" to include any amount of money or other property received by the taxpayer if: (1) the taxpayer has entered into an agreement to operate a qualified retail business at a particular location for at least 15 years; (2) immediately after the receipt of such money or other property, the taxpayer owns the land and the structure to be used by the taxpayer in carrying on a qualified retail business at such location, or the taxpayer uses such amount to acquire ownership of at least such land and structure; (3) such amount meets the requirements of the expenditure rule; and (4) the contributor of such amount does not hold a beneficial interest in any property located on the premises of such qualified retail business other than de minimis amounts of property associated with the operation of property adjacent to such premises. Defines the terms "expenditure rule" and "qualified retail business." Title XII: Provisions Relating to Pensions - Subtitle A: Expanding Coverage - Increases the $90,000 limit on defined benefit plans to $160,000. Changes the age from which such limit will be reduced from the social security retirement age to 62 and the age from which the limit will be increased from the social security retirement age to 65. Increases the $30,000 limit for defined benefit contribution plans to $40,000. Increases the $150,000 compensation limit to $200,000. Increases the elective deferral limit to $15,000. (Sec. 1202) Eliminates certain current rules concerning plan loans made to an owner-employee. (Sec. 1203) Revises the definition of a top-heavy plan and a key employee for purposes of the special rules for top-heavy plans. Takes into account: (1) matching contributions for minimum contribution requirements; and (2) distributions during the last year before the determination date. (Sec. 1204) Provides that elective deferral contributions are not subject to deduction limits. (Sec. 1205) Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to provide that, during the first five years of a new single-employer plan of a small employer (100 or fewer employees), the flat rate Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PGBC) premium will be five dollars per plan participant. Provides for a reduced additional PGBC variable premium for new and small employers. (Sec. 1207) Repeals specified coordination requirements under the Code for deferred compensation plans of State and local governments and tax-exempt organizations. (Sec. 1208) Eliminates user fee requirements for requests to the IRS concerning the status of pension plans. (Sec. 1209) Revises the definition of compensation, for purposes of the deduction rules, to include salary reduction amounts treated as a participant's compensation. (Sec. 1210) Provides for optional treatment of elective deferrals as plus contributions. Defines such contributions. (Sec. 1211) Phases-in an increase in the minimum annual benefit permitted under a defined benefit contribution plan. Subtitle B: Enhancing Fairness for Women - Allows additional salary reduction catch-up contributions for those approaching retirement under IRC requirements relating to: (1) elective deferrals; (2) simple retirement accounts; and (3) deferred compensation plans of State and local governments and tax-exempt organizations. (Sec. 1222) Sets forth requirements relating to equitable treatment for contributions of employees to defined contribution plans. Requires that certain contributions by church plans are not to be treated as exceeding a specified limit. (Sec. 1223) Provides for faster vesting of certain employer matching contributions. (Sec. 1224) Revises minimum distribution rules under the IRC. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to: (1) simplify and finalize the regulations relating to minimum distribution requirements; and (2) modify such regulations to reflect increases in life expectancy, and revise required distribution methods so that, under reasonable assumptions, the amount of the required minimum distribution does not decrease over a participant's life expectancy. Provides that, during the first year that such revised regulations are in effect, required distributions for future years may be redetermined, with the opportunity to choose a new designated beneficiary and to elect a new method of calculating life expectancy. (Sec. 1225) Revises requirements relating to tax treatment of division of section 457 plan benefits upon divorce. Subtitle C: Increasing Portability for Participants - Permits rollovers from and to various types of plans under the IRC. (Sec. 1232) Permits individual retirement plan (IRA) rollovers only if certain conditions are met. (Sec. 1233) Permits rollover of after-tax contributions in an exempt trust under specified conditions. (Sec. 1234) Sets forth a hardship exception to the 60-day rule. (Sec. 1235) Sets forth requirements for treatment of forms of distribution available under transferor and transferee plans, under the IRC. (Sec. 1236) Revises restrictions on distributions, including the same desk exception. (Sec. 1237) Authorizes trustee-to-trustee transfers to purchase permissive service credit with respect to governmental defined benefit plans. (Sec. 1238) Allows employers to disregard rollovers for purposes of cash-out amounts, under retirement plan provisions of the Code and ERISA. (Sec. 1239) Revises minimum distribution and inclusion requirements for section 457 plans. Subtitle D: Strengthening Pension Security and Enforcement - Amends the IRC to revise the percentage of current liability funding limit. (Sec. 1242) Revises maximum contribution deduction rules and applies them to all defined benefit plans under the IRC. (Sec. 1243) Amends ERISA to revise requirements relating to missing participants. Directs the PBGC to prescribe rules relating to missing participants for multiemployer plans covered by the PBGC that terminate. Allows the administrator of a plan not otherwise subject to such PBGC regulation to elect to transfer a missing participant's benefits to the PBGC upon termination of the plan, under specified conditions. (Sec. 1244) Amends the IRC to allow an employer, in determining the amount of nondeductible contributions for any taxable year, to elect not to take into account any contributions to a defined benefit plan except to the extent that they exceed the full-funding limitation. (Sec. 1245) Imposes an excise tax on a plan failing to provide required notice of a significant reduction in the rate of future benefit accrual. Subtitle E: Reducing Regulatory Burdens -Repeals a multiple use test. Directs the Secretary prescribe regulations permitting appropriate aggregation of plans and contributions. (Sec. 1252) Amends the Code and ERISA to revise requirements relating to timing of plan valuations. (Sec. 1253) Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to modify regulations in order to expand the ability of a pension plan to demonstrate compliance with the nondiscrimination and line of business requirements. (Sec. 1254) Amends ERISA rules for substantial owners relating to plan terminations to revise: (1) the phase-in of the guarantee; and (2) the allocation of assets. (Sec. 1255) Amends IRC requirements for applicable dividends to allow dividends of employee stock ownership plans to be reinvested without loss of dividend deduction. (Sec. 1256) Revises the notice and consent period regarding distributions. Directs the Secretary to modify certain regulations to provide that the description of a participant's right, if any, to defer receipt of a distribution shall also describe the consequences of failing to defer such receipt. (Sec. 1257) Repeals a transition rule relating to certain highly compensated employees under the Tax Reform Act of 1986. (Sec. 1258) Directs the Secretary to modify certain regulations with respect to certain plan participation by employees of tax-exempt entities under the IRC. (Sec. 1259) Excludes qualified retirement planning services from gross income (as a fringe benefit). (Sec. 1260) Prescribes requirements for plan amendments or annuity contract amendments under the IRC. (Sec. 1261) Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue model defined contribution and benefit plans that fit the needs of small businesses. (Sec. 1262) Directs the Secretary to provide for the filing of a simplified annual return in the case of a retirement plan covering less than 25 employees. (Sec. 1263) Directs the Secretary to continue to update and improve the Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System. Title XIII: Miscellaneous Provisions - Subtitle A: Provisions Primarily Affecting Individuals - Provides that the exclusion of State or local government foster care payments from the gross income of foster care providers shall also apply to payments by qualifying placement agencies. (Sec. 1302) Excludes from an individual's gross income amounts received as reimbursement regarding the use of a passenger automobile for the benefit of a charitable organization. Relieves the organization of certain reporting requirements regarding the reimbursements. (Sec. 1303) Requires a W-2 to include employer Social Security taxes paid. Subtitle B: Provisions Primarily Affecting Businesses - Includes income from publicly traded partnerships as qualifying income of regulated investment companies. Excludes distributions from the source-based inclusion limitation applicable to other partnerships. (Sec. 1312) Applies specified passive activity provisions for publicly traded partnerships to regulated investment companies. (Sec. 1313) Makes certain large electric trucks, vans and buses eligible for the $50,000 deduction clean-fuel property deduction, but not the $4,000 electric vehicle credit. (Sec. 1314) Modifies the special rules concerning nuclear decommissioning costs. (Sec. 1315) Repeals certain provisions concerning the filing of consolidated returns by insurance companies. Subtitle C: Provisions Relating to Excise Taxes - Combines the Hazardous Substance Superfund and the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund (LUST) into the Environmental Remediation Trust Fund (established by this Act). (Sec. 1322) Repeals the: (1) LUST taxes on fuel used in trains; and (2) 4.3-cents- per-gallon General Fund excise tax on diesel fuel used by railroads and on fuels used by barges operating on designated inland waterways. (Sec. 1323) Repeals the excise tax on fishing tackle boxes. Subtitle D: Other Provisions - Amends IRC provisions concerning State private activity bond volume limits to repeal the adjustment for years after 1987. (Sec. 1332) Permits, in general, an electing Alaska Native Settlement Trust to exclude contributions, during the year of contribution, from the gross income of a beneficiary. Subtitle E: Tax Court Provisions - Authorizes the Tax Court to charge a filing fee of up to $60 in all cases commenced by petition. (Sec. 1342) Authorizes the Tax Court to make the $30 practice fee available to pro se taxpayers. (Sec. 1343) Permits the Tax Court to apply the doctrine of equitable recoupment to the same extent that it is available in civil tax cases. Title XIV: Extensions of Expiring Provisions - Extends, for five years, the: (1) research credit; (2) subpart F (Controlled Foreign Corporations) exemption for active income financing; (3) taxable income limit on percentage depletion for marginal oil and gas wells; and (4) work opportunity credit and the welfare-to-work credit. Title XV: Revenue Offsets - Amends provisions involving returns relating to the cancellation of indebtedness by certain entities to include within the definition of "applicable financial entity" any organization a significant trade or business of which is the lending of money. (Sec. 1502) Directs the Secretary to establish a program requiring the payment of user fees for requests to the IRS for ruling letters, opinion letters, determination letters, and other similar requests. Terminates fees October 1, 2007. (Sec. 1503) Modifies rules relating to the exemption of certain ten or more employer plans from welfare benefit fund provisions. (Sec. 1504) Increases the withholding rate for nonperiodic distributions from 10 to 15 percent. (Sec. 1505) Makes a controlled entity ineligible to be a REIT. Defines "controlled entity." (Sec. 1506) Treats a gain as an ordinary gain to the extent such gain exceeds the net underlying long-term capital gain where the taxpayer has gain from a constructive ownership transaction with respect to any financial position and such gain otherwise would be treated as a long-term capital gain. Provides that, to the extent such gain is treated as a long-term capital gain after the application of the previous sentence, the determination of the applicable capital gain rate (or rates) shall be determined on the basis of the respective rate (or rates) that would have been applicable to the net underlying long-term capital gain. Sets forth definitions and exceptions. (Sec. 1507) Prohibits transfers of excess pension assets to retiree health account made after September 30, 2009 (currently, after December 31, 2000), from being treated as qualified transfers. (Sec. 1508) Prohibits, in general, the use of the installment method of accounting for accrual method dispositions. Title XVI: Technical Corrections - Sets forth amendments concerning, among other things: (1) the Tax and Trade Relief Extension Act of 1998; (2) the Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998; (3) the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997; (4) the treatment of worthless securities of affiliated corporations; (5) the IRA contribution amount of the lesser earning spouse; (6) modified endowment contracts; (7) lump-sum distributions; and (8) tentative carryback adjustments of losses from section 1256 contracts.
United States · United States Congress · 22 June 1999
History of the House Awareness and Preservation Act - Directs the Librarian of Congress to: (1) prepare a new and complete written history of the U.S. House of Representatives; (2) in preparing the history, consult, commission, or engage the services or participation of eminent historians and Members or former Members of the House; (3) arrange for the printing of the history and the dissemination of excerpts of the history over the Internet; (4) make the history available for sale to the public; and (5) make available, free of charge, a limited number of copies to each Member of the House of Representatives and to the Senate. Sets forth guidelines for the history. Authorizes the Librarian to solicit and accept private funding for the publication, marketing, and public distribution of the history. Directs the Librarian to accept for deposit, preserve, maintain, and make accessible, an oral history of the House as told by its Members and former Members, compiled and updated (on a voluntary or contract basis) by the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress or other outside organization. Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) orientation programs for freshman Members of the House should contain a seminar on the history of the House; and (2) the Speaker of the House should conduct a series of forums on the topic of such history.
United States · United States Congress · 10 June 1999
National Uniformity for Food Act of 1999 - Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) to prohibit any State or political subdivision from establishing or continuing in effect as to any food in interstate commerce any requirement for food labeling or food that is not identical to specified FDCA provisions. Prohibits any State or political subdivision from establishing or continuing in effect any notification requirement for a food that provides for a warning concerning the food's safety that is not identical to FDCA provisions. Allows a State to petition for an exemption and for a national standard regarding any requirement under the FDCA, as amended by this Act, or the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act relating to food regulation. Allows a State to establish a requirement that would otherwise violate FDCA provisions relating to national uniform nutrition labeling or this paragraph if the requirement is needed to address an imminent hazard to health that is likely to result in serious adverse health consequences and if other requirements are met.
United States · United States Congress · 9 June 1999
Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the Bureau of the Census should enumerate all U.S. citizens residing overseas in the 2000 decennial census; and (2) legislation authorizing and appropriating the funds to carry out such an enumeration should be enacted.
United States · United States Congress · 12 May 1999
Expresses the sense of Congress that it: (1) rejects and condemns suggestions in a study recently published by the American Psychological Association that sexual relationships between adults and children might be positive for children; (2) urges the President to likewise reject and condemn any such suggestion; and (3) encourages competent investigations to continue to research the effects of child sexual abuse using the best methodology, so that the public and public policymakers may act upon accurate information.
United States · United States Congress · 5 May 1999
Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to define employees engaged in fire protection activities. Prohibits such definition from being construed to reduce or substitute for compensation standards in a collective bargaining agreement which result in compensation greater than that available to such employees (time-and-a-half) under the overtime exemption to maximum hours of labor requirements under such Act.
United States · United States Congress · 28 April 1999
Patent Fairness Act of 1999 - Amends Federal law to require, if the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks determines that certain standards are met, restoration of the term of any patent, in force on September 24, 1984, and on the filing date of a patent term restoration application under this Act, that claims: (1) a drug product; (2) a method of using a drug product; or (3) a method of manufacturing a drug product. (Sec. 2) Defines such standards as: (1) a regulatory review period from application submission to application approval exceeding 60 months; and (2) the absence of substantial evidence overcoming the rebuttable presumption that the applicant for patent term restoration for the drug product acted with due diligence. Requires subtraction from the total amount of the restoration term of any time during the regulatory review period during which the Commissioner finds that the applicant for patent term restoration did not act with due diligence. Limits a restoration period, after specified adjustments, to five years. Requires restoration term applications to be filed within 90 days after enactment of this Act. Provides for: (1) claim determination procedure; (2) interim restoration of the patent term pending final disposition; and (3) appeal of the Commissioner's determinations to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit only. Entitles to compensation by the patent owner of any person who has submitted an new drug application under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act for a drug product covered by a patent for which a patent term was restored under this Act, if such application has been found by the Food and Drug Administration on or before enactment of this Act to be sufficiently complete to permit substantive review. Sets the amount of compensation at: (1)$1 million; or (2) $500,000 for any holder of a Type II Drug Master File that has permitted a reference to its File to be made in such application. Limits a patent owner's overall liability to: (1) $5 million to persons submitting new drug applications; or (2) $2.5 million to holders of Type II Drug Master Files. Requires the Commissioner to report to Congress: (1) an evaluation of the patent term restoration review procedure established by this Act; and (2) a recommendation whether Congress should consider establishing such a patent term review procedure for patents not covered by this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 1999
Volunteer Firefighter and Rescue Squad Worker Protection Act - Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to exempt from overtime compensation coverage any fire fighters or rescue squad members during the period: (1) in which they volunteer their services at a facility where they are not then regularly employed; and (2) for which they signed a legally binding waiver of overtime compensation for such services. Prohibits employer coercion of such volunteering.
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 1999
Extends the tax benefits available under the Internal Revenue Code for services performed in a combat zone to members of the Armed Forces of the United States for services performed in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia-Montenegro), Albania, the Adriatic Sea, and the northern Ionian Sea.
United States · United States Congress · 25 March 1999
Authorizes the Secretary of the Navy to convey to the city of Dallas, Texas, the Naval Weapons Industrial Reserve Plant No. 387 in Dallas, for economic or other public purposes.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 1999
Social Security and Medicare Safe Deposit Box Act of 1999 - Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to provide a point of order in the House or the Senate against consideration of any concurrent budget resolution or conference report or amendment pertaining thereto that would cause or increase an on-budget deficit for any fiscal year. Makes it out of order in the House or the Senate to consider any bill, joint resolution, amendment, motion, or conference report if the enactment of the reported bill or resolution, the adoption and enactment of an amendment, or the enactment of a bill or resolution in the form recommended in the conference report would cause or increase an on-budget deficit for any fiscal year. Makes such point of order inapplicable to social security or Medicare reform legislation (defined as legislation enacted into law that specifies that it is reform legislation for purposes of this Act). Includes the receipts, outlays, and surplus or deficit in the Federal Old-Age and Survivors and Disability Insurance Trust Funds within the content of the concurrent budget resolution. Authorizes a waiver or suspension in the Senate of points of order under this Act only with a three-fifths majority. Requires the same majority to sustain an appeal on a ruling on such points of order. Requires any official Federal Government statement of the Federal or congressional budget surplus or deficit totals to exclude the outlays and receipts of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program under the Social Security Act. Requires such outlays and receipts to be submitted in separate social security budget documents. Terminates the point of order and budget resolution content amendments made by this Act upon enactment of social security and Medicare reform legislation.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 1999
Enhancement of Trade, Security, and Human Rights Through Sanctions Reform Act - Declares that it is the purpose of this Act to establish an effective framework for consideration by the legislative and executive branches of unilateral economic sanctions in order to ensure coordination of U.S. policy with respect to trade, security, and human rights. (Sec. 3) Declares that it is U.S. policy to: (1) pursue U.S. interests through vigorous and effective diplomatic, political, commercial, charitable, educational, cultural, and strategic engagement with other countries, while recognizing that U.S. national security interests may sometimes require the imposition of economic sanctions on other countries; (2) foster multilateral cooperation on vital matters of U.S. foreign policy, including promoting human rights and democracy, combating international terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and international narcotics trafficking, and ensuring adequate environmental protection; (3) promote U.S. economic growth and job creation by expanding exports of goods, services, and agricultural commodities, and by encouraging investment that supports the sale abroad of U.S. products and services; (4) maintain the reputation of U.S. businesses and farmers as reliable suppliers to international customers of quality products and services; (5) avoid the use of restrictions on exports of agricultural commodities as a foreign policy weapon; and (6) oppose policies of other countries designed to discourage economic interaction with countries friendly to the United States or with any U.S. national, and to avoid use of such measures as instruments of U.S. foreign policy. States that when economic sanctions are necessary, it is U.S. policy to: (1) target them as narrowly as possible on those foreign governments, entities, and officials that are responsible for the conduct being targeted, thereby minimizing unnecessary or disproportionate harm to individuals who are not responsible for such conduct; and (2) to the extent feasible, avoid any adverse impact of economic sanctions on the humanitarian activities of the United States and foreign nongovernmental organizations in a country against which sanctions are imposed. (Sec. 5) Expresses the sense of Congress that any bill or joint resolution imposing or authorizing the imposition of a unilateral economic sanction by the executive branch, and considered by the House of Representatives or the Senate, should: (1) state the U.S. foreign policy or national security objective; (2) terminate after two years unless specifically reauthorized; (3) provide for contract sanctity; (4) provide presidential authority to adjust or waive the sanction in the national interest; (5) target the sanction as narrowly as possible against the parties responsible for the conduct being targeted (without restricting medicine, medical equipment, or food, disaster relief or refugee assistance, or other specified foreign assistance); and (6) provide for expanded export promotion programs if sanctions are likely to target an export market for American farmers. (Sec. 6) Sets forth a procedure for congressional consideration of any bill or joint resolution that imposes, or authorizes the imposition of, any unilateral economic sanction by the executive branch. Requires specified reports: (1) from the President assessing the likelihood that the proposed unilateral economic sanction will achieve its stated objective within a reasonable period of time, as well as the impact of the proposed unilateral economic sanction on U.S. foreign policy, national security, and humanitarian activities; and (2) from the Secretary of Agriculture assessing the extent to which any country or countries proposed or likely to be sanctioned are markets that accounted for more than three percent of all U.S. agricultural export sales in the preceding calendar year, as well as the likelihood that U.S. agricultural exports will be affected by the proposed sanction or by retaliation by any country proposed or likely to be sanctioned, and specific commodities which are most likely to be affected. Considers any bill or joint resolution that imposes any unilateral economic sanction to include a Federal private sector mandate for purposes of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995. Requires the Congressional Budget Office, in its report pursuant to such Act, to assess the likely short- and long-term costs of the proposed sanction to the U.S. economy. (Sec. 7) Requires the President to publish notice in the Federal Register at least 45 days in advance of the imposition of a unilateral economic sanction of his intention to implement such sanction. Authorizes the President to waive such notice in cases where the sanction involves freezing the assets of a foreign country or entity, if it is determined that U.S. national interest would be jeopardized. Requires any executive sanction to include an assessment of whether the sanction is likely to achieve a specific U.S. foreign policy or national security objective within a reasonable and specified period of time. Requires, before imposition of a unilateral economic sanction, that the President and the Secretary of Agriculture report to appropriate congressional committees the same assessments required in connection with any bill or joint resolution imposing or authorizing the imposition of a unilateral economic sanction by the executive branch. Requires the President to request a report by the U.S. International Trade Commission on the likely short- and long-term costs of the proposed sanction to the U.S. economy, including the potential impact on U.S. competitiveness. Provides, in the case of a national emergency, for allowing the President temporarily to waive most of the requirements for executive action in order to act immediately, generally requiring the waived requirements to be met within 60 days after imposition of the sanction (which shall terminate after 90 days if such requirements are not met). Establishes within the executive branch an interagency Sanctions Review Committee to coordinate U.S. policy regarding unilateral economic sanctions and provide appropriate recommendations to the President. (Sec. 8) Authorizes the President to waive any sanction or prohibition contained in specified sections of the Arms Export Control Act, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, or the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 for periods of six months each if it is determined that it would advance the purposes of such Acts or the national security interests of the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 11 March 1999
Regulatory Right-to-Know Act of 1999 - Directs the President, acting through the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to submit annually to the Congress an accounting statement and associated report containing: (1) an estimate of the total annual costs and benefits of Federal regulatory programs in the aggregate; by agency, agency program, and program component; and by major rule; (2) an analysis of direct and indirect impacts of Federal rules and paperwork on Federal, State, local, and tribal government, the private sector, small business, wages, consumer prices, productivity, economic growth, and distributional effects; (3) an identification and analysis of overlaps, duplications, and potential inconsistencies among such programs; and (4) recommendations to reform inefficient or ineffective regulatory programs or program components. Requires the Director, in estimates contained in any submission, to quantify the net benefits or net costs of each program component, each major rule, and each option for which costs and benefits were included in any regulatory impact analysis issued for any major rule. Requires the Director to include in each submission a table stating the number of major and nonmajor rules issued by each agency in the preceding fiscal year. Requires the accounting statement, at a minimum, to: (1) cover expected costs and benefits for the fiscal year for which the statement is submitted and the four following fiscal years; (2) cover previously expected costs and benefits for the two preceding fiscal years, or the most recent revision of such costs and benefits; and (3) with respect to each major rule, include the estimates of costs and benefits for each of the fiscal years referred to that were included in the regulatory impact analysis that was prepared for such major rule. Requires the Director to: (1) issue guidelines to agencies to standardize most plausible measures of costs and benefits and the format of information provided for accounting statements; and (2) review agency submissions for consistency with such guidelines. Requires the Director: (1) before submitting the statement and report and before preparing final guidelines, to provide public notice and an opportunity to comment and to consult with the Director of the Congressional Budget Office; and (2) to include an appendix to the report or guidelines addressing public and peer review comments. Directs the Director to arrange for two or more organizations that are independent of the Government and that have nationally recognized expertise in regulatory analysis and regulatory accounting to provide peer review of each accounting statement and associated report and the guidelines before such statement, report, or guidelines are final.
United States · United States Congress · 11 March 1999
Constitutional Amendment - Requires that any bill, resolution, or other legislative measure changing the internal revenue laws shall require for final adoption in each House the concurrence of two-thirds of the Members of that House voting and present, unless the bill is determined at the time of adoption, in a reasonable manner prescribed by law, not to increase the internal revenue by more than a de minimis amount. States that for purposes of determining any increase, there shall be excluded any increase resulting from the lowering of an effective rate of any tax. Requires journal entry of any vote. Permits the waiver of such requirement, for up to two years, if there is a declaration of war or if the United States is engaged in a military conflict which causes an imminent and serious threat to national security and is so declared by a joint resolution which becomes law.
United States · United States Congress · 4 March 1999
Workplace Preservation Act - Prohibits the Secretary of Labor from promulgating, through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, any standard or guideline on ergonomics until the National Academy of Sciences completes a study and submits a report to the Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 1 March 1999
American Land Sovereignty Protection Act - Amends the National Historic Preservation Act Amendments of 1980 to prohibit the Secretary of the Interior from nominating any Federal lands for inclusion on the World Heritage List pursuant to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage unless: (1) the Secretary publishes a finding that commercially viable uses of nominated lands and lands within ten miles of them will not be adversely affected by such inclusion; (2) the Secretary has reported to the Congress on the lands' natural resources and the impact that the inclusion would have on existing and future uses of such lands; and (3) such nomination is specifically authorized by a law. Authorizes the President to submit proposals for legislation authorizing such a nomination after publication of the Secretary's finding. Requires the Secretary to object to the inclusion of any property in the United States on the list of World Heritage in Danger (established under the Convention) unless the Secretary: (1) has reported to the Congress on the necessity for such inclusion, the natural resources associated with the property, and the impact such inclusion would have on existing and future uses of such property; and (2) is specifically authorized to assent to the inclusion by a joint resolution of the Congress enacted after the report is submitted. Directs the Secretary to submit an annual report to specified congressional committees on the management of each World Heritage Site within the United States. (Sec. 4) Prohibits any Federal official from nominating any lands in the United States for designation as a Biosphere Reserve under the Man and Biosphere Program of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. Provides that any such designation before enactment of this Act shall not have any force or effect, unless the Biosphere Reserve: (1) is specifically authorized by a law enacted before December 31, 2000; (2) consists solely of federally owned lands; and (3) is subject to a management plan that specifically ensures that the use of intermixed or adjacent non-Federal property is not limited or restricted as a result of that designation. Directs the Secretary of State to report annually to specified congressional committees information on the management of each Biosphere Reserve within the United States. (Sec. 5) Prohibits any Federal official from nominating, classifying, or designating any Federal land located within the United States for a special or restricted use under any international agreement for conserving, preserving, or protecting the terrestrial or marine environment, flora, or fauna (with specified exceptions) unless specifically authorized by law, but authorizes the Secretary to submit proposals for authorizing legislation. Provides that any such nomination, classification, or designation of private or State or local lands shall have no force or effect without the owner's consent or specific authorization by State or local law, respectively.
![Official portrait of Rep. Archer, Bill [R-TX-7]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/bc77dff4a9bab01075fa38ab61578e60_200.jpg)