United States · United States Congress · 22 May 1986
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide that the value of transportation provided to any person on a noncommercially operated aircraft shall be considered "no-additional-cost service" and therefore excludible from gross income if: (1) such transportation is provided on a flight made in the ordinary course of the trade or business of the taxpayer owning or leasing such aircraft for use in such trade or business; (2) the flight on which the transportation is provided would have been made whether or not such person was transported on the flight; and (3) no substantial additional cost is incurred in providing such transportation to such person.
United States · United States Congress · 21 May 1986
Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986 - Prohibits U.S. persons from: (1) making loans to South Africa or any organization owned or controlled by South Africa; (2) making any investment in South Africa; (3) contributing technology or technological services to the exploration for, or the research, development, or production of, energy sources in or for South Africa; or (4) making deposits in a foreign bank which is organized under South African law or owned or controlled by South Africans or a branch bank located in South Africa. Prohibits foreign banks organized under South African law or owned or controlled by South Africans from establishing or operating branches in the United States. Excludes from such prohibitions those loans, investments, and technology contracts entered into before May 21, 1986. Prohibits importing uranium ore, uranium oxide, coal, and steel from South Africa. Prohibits: (1) U.S. persons from making or holding any investment in South Africa in a business that sells computers, computer software, or computer services; and (2) exporting computers, computer software, or computer services to South Africa. Provides that such computer investment and export prohibitions shall not apply if, within 12 months of enactment of this Act: (1) the President certifies to the Congress that South Africa has freed Nelson Mandela and all political prisoners and has entered into good faith negotiations with truly representative leaders of the black majority for a new political system or has totally dismantled the apartheid system; and (2) a joint resolution is enacted approving such certification. Provides for expedited consideration of such resolution. Authorizes using additional funds for aid for South Africa under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962. Earmarks such funds for refugee assistance programs and community development projects. Requires the President to give quarterly reports to specified congressional committees on the assistance provided with such funds. Requires the Secretary of Transportation to prohibit the takeoff and landing in the United States of aircraft owned by South Africa or South African nationals except in emergencies. Provides for the enforcement of this Act and for penalties for violations of this Act. Requires the President to try, through negotiations, to persuade other countries to adopt restrictions on activities with respect to South Africa consistent with this Act. Requires the President to report annually to the Congress on the status of such negotiations. Sets forth information to be included in such reports. Requires the President, during June of 1988, to report to the Congress on whether South Africa has: (1) freed Nelson Mandela and all political prisoners and has entered into good faith negotiations with truly representative leaders of the black majority for a new political system; or (2) has totally dismantled the apartheid system. Requires the President, if such conditions have not been met, to include in such report recommendations on whether U.S. persons should be required to divest themselves of their South African investments. Terminates all the provisions of this Act upon enactment of a joint resolution approving a presidential determination that such conditions have been met.
United States · United States Congress · 8 May 1986
Title I: Short Title; Findings - Child Care Act of 1986 - Sets forth congressional findings regarding the child care policies of the country. Title II: Dependent Care Tax Credit and Voucher System - Part 1: Changes in Dependent Care Tax Credit - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to disallow dependent care tax credits when a taxpayer's adjusted gross income exceeds $50,000. Provides for a yearly cost-of-living adjustment to both base and ceiling amounts. Disallows such credit where any of the employment-related expenses are paid with any vouchers. Part 2: Voucher System for Child Care - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to each State having an approved plan for child care vouchers for certain low income individuals. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1987 through 1990. Directs the Secretary to establish criteria, standards, and a timetable for the State plan. Requires the Secretary to reimburse a State for 75 percent of its costs under such plan. Provides for proportional allotments based upon the amount received under title XX (Grants to States for Social Services) of the Social Security Act. Permits a State to use block grant funds for the voucher plan. States that the redemption of a voucher for child care services by a child care provider constitutes receipt of Federal funds for purposes of provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 relating to racial discrimination. Prohibits sex discrimination by any child care program. Exempts child care providers serving seven or fewer children. Permits the Secretary to withhold payment from a noncomplying State. Excludes the amount of any voucher from determinations of income or resources for purposes of any Federal or State law. Requires each State to report biennially to the Secretary on the implementation of the plan including the amounts used on vouchers from block grant funds. Requires the Secretary to report to the Congress an analysis of the State reports.
United States · United States Congress · 6 May 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the President and the Secretary of State should insist at the Vienna Review Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and in discussions with Communist Party and Soviet leaders, that imprisoned and exiled members of the Ukrainian and other Helsinki Monitoring Groups be released and allowed to emigrate to the countries of their choice. Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the Secretary of State should ensure that the U.S. consulate in Kiev reports on Soviet human rights violations in the Ukraine; and (2) such information should be included in reports on compliance with the Helsinki Final Act.
United States · United States Congress · 29 April 1986
Declares that the House of Representatives: (1) condemns the Soviet Union's failure to provide notification and information about the nuclear accident at Chernobyl; and (2) calls upon the Soviet Union to permit outside nuclear experts to assist with the accident and to allow the international press corps to cover the situation.
United States · United States Congress · 23 April 1986
Amends Federal armed forces provisions to direct the Secretary of the military department concerned to conduct an independent operational test and evaluation with respect to a major defense acquisition program under which a major system is to be acquired. Requires such test and evaluation to be conducted before the program may proceed into the production stage. Requires side-by-side testing as part of such test and evaluation. Requires the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation to independently analyze the results of each such operational test and evaluation, and to report such analyses to the Secretary of Defense. Prohibits the operational testing to be conducted until the Director approves in writing the adequacy of the plans for such operational test and evaluation. Authorizes the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary concerned to contract for low-rate initial production of a program only for the purpose of acquiring items for use in operational tests and evaluations. Prohibits a final decision from being made to proceed with full production of a program until 30 days after the congressional defense committees have received the report of the Director. Authorizes the President to suspend any provision of this Act in time of a declared war.
United States · United States Congress · 17 April 1986
Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act to eliminate the requirement that there be at least a three-percent rise in the Consumer Price Index before a cost-of-living adjustment of benefits is made.
United States · United States Congress · 15 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that, in light of specified international human rights agreements, the Soviet Union should approve the exit visa applications of Doctor Naum Meiman and his wife, Inna Kitrosskaya, and arrange for them to go to the country of their choice. Urges the President to: (1) protest the Soviet Government's refusal to consider the exit visa applications of Dr. Meiman and his wife; (2) call upon all other signatory nations of the Helsinki Accords to join in such protest; and (3) instruct the U.S. delegation to the meeting of experts on human contacts organized under the auspices of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to be held in Bern, Switzerland, to pursue this matter.
United States · United States Congress · 10 April 1986
Acid Deposition Control Act of 1986 - Title I: Stationary Sources - Amends the Clean Air Act to require States to develop and submit to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) an emissions limitation compliance schedule for sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen from fossil-fuel-fired electric utility steam generating units. Requires a two-phase reduction in such emissions, the first to be achieved by 1993, the second by 1997. Requires each State to develop and submit to the Administrator a plan to achieve emissions reductions from other fossil-fuel-fired steam generating units by 1977. Directs the Administrator to conduct and update a comprehensive annual inventory of emissions of sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen from stationary sources, identifying achievable reductions which could be made by 1997. Requires States to submit to the Administrator for approval a plan for achieving such reductions. Grants States discretion in their choice of compliance measures. Requires the Administrator to report to the Congress by July 1, 1993, on phase I reductions and the feasibility of meeting phase II reductions. States that phase II reductions will not take effect if the Congress enacts legislation to that effect. Sets forth emissions rates a State without an approved reductions plan must follow. Authorizes the Administrator to impose a fee on the generation and importation of electric energy between December 31, 1988, and December 31, 1996, to subsidize the interest on qualified pollution control debt incurred by the utility. Establishes civil penalties for fee violations. Establishes in the Treasury the Acid Deposition Control Fund to receive such fees and provide interest subsidy payments for pollution control systems meeting specified standards. Revises the standards for nitrogen oxides emissions for new electric utility steam generating units which burn bituminous or subbituminous coal and for certain fossil-fuel-fired steam generating units. Requires certain smelters to be in compliance with the applicable emissions reduction standard by January 2, 1988, without extension or delay. Title II: Control of Emission from Mobile Sources - Sets oxides of nitrogen emission standards for motor vehicles for model years 1988, 1989, and beyond. Modifies hydrocarbon standards for trucks after model year 1989. Directs the Administrator to regulate sulfur in diesel fuel for 1989 and beyond. Requires either the use of onboard hydrocarbon control technology or the use of gasoline vapor recovery of hydrocarbon emissions emanating from fueling motor vehicles. Title III: International Cooperation - Expresses the concern of the Congress over transboundary pollution between the United States and Mexico and directs the Secretary of State and the Administrator to conclude an agreement within three months of enactment. Requires such an agreement to cover specified copper smelters. Requires the Secretary and the Administrator to report to the Congress within six months on negotiating such agreement. Requires EPA to perform atmospheric field experiments to determine the effects of sulfur dioxide emissions, before and after pollution controls, of the Nacozaria smelter, Mexico, on specified western States. Directs the Secretary to establish an international agency, or utilize an existing agency, to report on the effects of transboundary air pollution from copper smelters on public health and welfare in the United States and in Mexico.
United States · United States Congress · 9 April 1986
Prohibits the issuance of a letter of offer with respect to specified proposed sales of Sidewinder, Stinger, and Harpoon missiles and services to Saudi Arabia, as described in the April 8, 1986, certifications from the President to the Congress under the Arms Export Control Act.
United States · United States Congress · 21 March 1986
Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require nonprofit health service entities which dispense prescription drugs to register with the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
United States · United States Congress · 12 March 1986
Terrorist Prosecution Act of 1985 - Amends the Federal criminal code to make it an offense to commit or attempt to commit murder or manslaughter against any U.S. national abroad, or conspire to do so. (Murder is punishable by capital punishment, a life sentence, or for any term of years and voluntary manslaughter is punishable by imprisonment up to ten years and involuntary manslaughter by imprisonment up to three years and/or a fine up to $1,000.) Makes it an offense to (or to attempt to) assault, wound, strike, imprison, endanger, or make any other violent attack upon the person or liberty of any U.S. national in any foreign country (or make violent attack on his or her business premises, private accommodation or means of transport). Provides for a fine of not more than $5,000 and/or imprisonment for not more than three years. Increases the fine to $10,000 and/or imprisonment to ten years if a deadly or dangerous weapon is used. Makes it an offense to conspire, outside the United States, to murder any U.S. national within the United States. Prohibits an indictment under this Act without the written approval of the Attorney General or his designee.
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1986
Disapproves a proposed deferral (number D86-48) of $500,000,000 of budget authority for the community development block grant program, as set forth in the President's message to the Congress on February 5, 1986.
United States · United States Congress · 4 March 1986
Provides that any requirement to substantiate a deduction under the Internal Revenue Code with respect to the business use of a vehicle must be based on regulations in effect before the Tax Reform Act of 1984.
United States · United States Congress · 19 February 1986
Terrorist Firearms Prevention Act of 1986 - Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit the manufacture and importation of any firearm that is not readily detectable as a firearm by standard airport security equipment and readily identifiable as a firearm. Exempts specified firearms from such manufacturing prohibition.
United States · United States Congress · 19 February 1986
Authorizes and requests the President to present, on behalf of the Congress, gold medals to Anatoly and Avital Shcharansky in recognition of their supreme dedication and total commitment to human rights and freedoms. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to determine the design of the medals. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes the Secretary to sell bronze duplicates of the medals.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 1986
Drug Abuse Education Act of 1986 - Requires the Secretary of Education to establish a program of grants to States for drug abuse education in elementary and secondary schools. Lists the State and local educational agency uses of such funds. Restricts the amount States may use for administrative costs. Provides for: (1) the allotment of such grant funds to States; (2) State application for such grant funds; (3) allocations to local educational agencies; and (4) local application to State educational agencies. Provides for the equitable participation of children enrolled in private nonprofit elementary and secondary schools in such program. Requires the Secretary to: (1) collect and disseminate program-related information to State and local educational agencies; (2) provide technical assistance; and (3) identify research and development priorities. Authorizes appropriations for such activities. Provides that the use of such grant funds is to supplement and not supplant other Federal funds. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1987 through 1991.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 1986
General Aviation Tort Reform Act of 1986 - Amends the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to provide uniform rules for negligence and products liability claims arising from general aviation accidents. Allows any person claiming damages from such an accident to bring a products liability action against the general aviation manufacturer if: (1) the product was defective when it left the control of the manufacturer; (2) the defective condition was the proximate cause of the harm; (3) the condition would not have been corrected by actions described in directives issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) or the manufacturer; and (4) the aircraft was being used for a purpose and in a manner for which it was manufactured. Provides an alternative method to establish manufacturer liability where the manufacturer failed to provide reasonable warnings (unless such warnings would not have affected the conduct of the product user). Provides a third method to establish manufacturer liability where: (1) the manufacturer made an express warranty with respect to the product; (2) the warranty related to that aspect of the product which caused the harm; (3) the product failed to conform to the warranty; and (4) such failure was the proximate cause of the harm. States that all actions for damages arising from a general aviation accident shall be governed by the principles of comparative responsibility. Provides that defendants in such actions are severally but not jointly liable for damages (except that manufacturers of airframes and systems or components of aircraft may be jointly and severally liable under certain circumstances). Provides a 12-year limitation on liability of manufacturers. States that express warranties running for a longer period of time and the duty to provide additional warnings shall not be affected by such limitations. Allows awards of punitive damages. Prescribes a statute of limitations for such actions. Preempts State laws to the extent that this Act establishes applicable rules or procedures. Grants Federal district courts (concurrently with State courts) original jurisdiction (without regard to the amount in controversy) in all civil actions for damages arising out of a general aviation accident. Allows the removal of State actions to an appropriate Federal district court by any defendant. Prescribes venue restrictions. Expresses the intent of the Congress that orders to pay reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees, be enforced.
United States · United States Congress · 30 January 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the President should award the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously to Michael J. Smith, Francis R. Scobee, Ronald E. McNair, Ellison S. Onizuka, Sharon Christa McAuliffe, Gregory B. Jarvis, and Judith A. Resnik, all of whom died in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
United States · United States Congress · 29 January 1986
Social Security Trust Funds Safeguard Act of 1986 - Amends titles II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) and XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require that all amounts appropriated to, or deposited in, a trust fund established under one of those programs be immediately and exclusively available for the purposes for which trust fund amounts are specifically made available under such program. Requires the President, in addition to appointing one member of the the public to the Board of Trustees of the social security trust funds (currently two members of the public are chosen), to appoint a Managing Trustee to the board, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, for a term of four years. Provides that the Managing Trustee may be removed only for cause, but is prohibited from engaging in any other business, vocation, or employment. Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to provide the Managing Trustee with appropriate assistance. Directs the Managing Trustee to invest that portion of the social security trust funds which is not required to meet current withdrawals in accordance with an annual investment plan submitted by the Board. Requires the Board to conduct a continuing study and actuarial analysis of the status of investments made by the Managing Trustee and, by August 1 of each year, formulate and submit to the President and each House of the Congress an investment plan to govern the investments of the social security trust funds during the fiscal year. Requires the annual investment plan to set forth standards governing the investment and disinvestment of the trust funds which ensure, so far as is possible, that the OASDI and Medicare programs fulfill their intended purposes in a fiscally and actuarially sound nonpartisan manner, free from the influence of irrelevant budgetary or fiscal considerations. Directs that such plan be accompanied by any recommendations of the Board regarding investment of the social security trust funds. Directs that the investment plan and recommendations be incorporated in a special message to each House. Sets a minimum and maximum on amounts of the social security trust funds to be invested in obligations which are not obligations of the United States but which are guaranteed as to both principal and interest by the United States. Sets forth effective date and transitional provisions.
United States · United States Congress · 28 January 1986
Prohibits any benefits payable from the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, including cost-of-living increases, during calendar year 1987 from being subject to reduction or suspension by statute or presidential order.
United States · United States Congress · 28 January 1986
Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) to exempt cost-of-living increases in Federal retirement and disability programs from reduction under the President's sequestration order for FY 1986. Provides for reducing the outlays of each agency to offset the increased costs.
United States · United States Congress · 23 January 1986
Expresses disapproval of the refusal of the U.S.S.R. to recognize the sovereignty of the Baltic Republics. Designates the 14th day of June 1986 as Baltic Freedom Day. Authorizes and requests the President to submit the issue of Baltic self-determination to the United Nations.
United States · United States Congress · 19 December 1985
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that: (1) the President should continue to express to the Soviet Union U.S. opposition with respect to the harassment and arrests of Hebrew teachers and Jewish activists in the Soviet Union; and (2) the Soviet Union should comply with its commitments under specified international human rights agreements and cease its persecution of individuals on the basis of their Jewish faith.
![Official portrait of Rep. Coughlin, Lawrence [R-PA-13]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/c000807_200.jpg)