United States · United States Congress · 29 April 1986
Requests the Governor of each State (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands) to designate two residents for naturalization as citizens in an appropriate ceremony on Ellis Island on July 3 or 4, 1986. Waives specified naturalization sites provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act for such ceremony. States that this Act authorizes no additional funds for expenses associated with such naturalization ceremony.
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 VII (Unlawful Possession or Receipt of Firearms) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to expand the firearms-related crimes for which persons with multiple convictions may receive increased penalties to include serious drug offenses and crimes of violence. (Previous law provided increased penalties for robbery and burglary only.)
United States · United States Congress · 17 April 1986
Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety Amendments of 1986 - Transfers to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA): (1) the motor carrier safety functions of the Federal Highway Administration; and (2) the hazardous materials transportation functions of the Research and Special Programs Administration. Establishes in the NHTSA the Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety (the Bureau), headed by an Associate Deputy Administrator for Motor Carrier Safety who shall be appointed by the Secretary of Transportation (the Secretary). Outlines the motor carrier safety functions of the Associate Deputy Administrator. Establishes in the NHTSA the Office of Hazardous Materials Transportation, headed by an Associate Administrator for Hazardous Materials Transportation. Outlines the functions of such Associate Administrator. Requires the Associate Deputy Administrator for Motor Carrier Safety to: (1) notify each motor carrier of the safety rating for such carrier; and (2) publish such ratings annually. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1987 through 1988: (1) for motor carrier safety functions; (2) to increase to 150 the number of motor carrier safety inspectors; and (3) for the hazardous materials transportation program. Amends the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 to increase the authorizations used to reimburse the States' pro rata share of costs incurred to implement Federal motor vehicle safety rules. Amends the Surface Transportation Act of 1982 to direct the Secretary to make grants to States and political subdivisions for the designation of: (1) hazardous materials transportation routes; and (2) hazardous materials parking sites. Authorizes appropriations. Amends the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act to require registered carriers of hazardous materials to maintain records of the routes followed in the transportation of such materials. Requires persons engaged in the commercial transportation of certain hazardous materials to prepare an annual registration statement. Authorizes appropriations to make emergency response personnel (police and fire fighters) training grants available to States and local subdivisions for FY 1987 through 1991. Requires the Secretary to: (1) establish guidelines for emergency response training programs; (2) publish emergency response procedures; and (3) establish minimum qualifications for the licensing by the States of drivers of motor vehicles transporting hazardous materials. Prescribes guidelines for: (1) such licensing qualifications; and (2) training and retraining programs for personnel engaged in hazardous materials transportation. Requires the Secretary to: (1) conduct a hazardous materials flow study and to report the results of such study to the Congress; and (2) conduct a risks analysis regarding the transportation of high level nuclear waste and spent nuclear fuel to geologic repository sites and monitored retrievable storage sites, and report the results to the Congress and the Secretary of Energy. Nullifies certain truck brake regulations permitting front brake disconnections. Prohibits the Secretary from issuing new regulations to the same effect. Requires the Secretary to conduct public information programs regarding truck brakes safety.
United States · United States Congress · 17 April 1986
Medicare Fair Hospital Deductible Act - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to change the date by which the Secretary of Health and Human Services must determine the inpatient hospital deductible for the year. Limits the increase in such deductible to no more than the cost-of-living increase reflected in benefit payments under title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Act. Provides that the extended care coinsurance amount for any spell of illness in any year shall equal one-twelfth of the inpatient hospital deductible for illnesses beginning in such year.
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 · 16 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the Veterans Administration should reconsider its internal report which proposes to close the Veterans Administration Insurance Center at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.
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 · 10 April 1986
Designates May 21, 1986, as National Andrei Sakharov Day. Authorizes and requests the President to urge the Soviet Union to permit Andrei Sakharov and Elena Bonner to freely choose their place of residence.
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 · 8 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the Attorney General should examine all available evidence regarding the activities of Kurt Waldheim during the Second World War to determine whether he is ineligible to receive a visa and must be excluded from admission into the United States under provisions of the Immigration and Nationality 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 · 20 March 1986
Extended Unemployment Insurance Reform Act of 1986 - Title I: Improved Program of Extended Unemployment Compensation - Amends the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970 to limit the amount of extended compensation payable to an individual to the amount established in an individual's extended compensation account. Increases the limit on the amount established in an individual's extended compensation account. Sets forth the formula for determining the new limit. Limits an individual's eligibility period for extended compensation to the number of weeks equal to the applicable limit for an individual's compensation account. Requires the amount and duration of extended compensation payable under the interstate benefit payment plan to be the same as if the individual were filing the claim in the State which establishes the individual's extended compensation account. Requires that each unemployment benefit duration period shall be a three-month period beginning on the first Sunday of January of each year and the first Sunday of every third month thereafter. Sets forth formulas, based upon each State's insured unemployment rate, for determining whether a benefit duration period shall be an eight-percent, seven-percent, six-percent, five-percent, or four-percent period. Requires that a benefit duration period shall be a "low-unemployment period" if the State's adjusted insured unemployment rate for the first week of such benefit duration period and the immediately preceding 12 weeks was less than four percent. Sets forth an alternative method of determining a benefit duration period based upon the total rate of unemployment. Requires that each State be paid an amount equal to the applicable percentage of the sum of the sharable extended compensation and the sharable regular compensation paid to individuals under State law. Sets forth the applicable percentage for eight-percent, seven-percent, six-percent, five-percent, and four-percent periods. Defines sharable regular compensation. Amends title IX (Employment Security) of the Social Security Act to authorize appropriations into the extended unemployment compensation account. Sets forth transition provisions. Title II: Demonstration Projects - Directs the Secretary of Labor (the Secretary) to enter into a demonstration program agreement with at least three States whereby extended unemployment compensation under the Act would be available for certain substate areas with specified levels of unemployment. Directs the Secretary to enter into a demonstration program agreement with at least five States for promotion of training programs for unemployment compensation recipients. Directs the Secretary to provide model criteria, technical assistance, and specified information for such State training programs. Directs State Governors to designate State agencies to approve training programs and participants. Directs the Secretary to transmit a study of such demonstration program to the Congress by October 1, 1988. Provides, under the Social Security Act, for interest credits to a State's account in the Unemployment Trust Fund on the basis of State payments of unemployment compensation to individuals in approved training. Sets forth State reporting requirements. Requires the Secretary to report annually, beginning not later than October 31, 1986, on the implementation of such training program provisions and on State regulations and procedures to comply with specified Internal Revenue Code provisions relating to unemployment compensation. Provides that the training program provisions under this title shall not be taken into consideration in determining whether there has been a net decrease in the solvency of any State unemployment compensation system. Title III: Procurement Targeting in Labor Surplus Areas - Directs the head of each Federal agency which procured supplies and equipment at a rate in excess of $1,000,000,000 in FY 1985 to set targets, for FY 1987 and each fiscal year thereafter, for such procurement within labor surplus areas, as defined by the Secretary of Labor. Directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to report annually to specified congressional committees on: (1) the number, amount, and percentage of contracts awarded by each Federal agency in labor surplus areas; (2) the impact of such contracts on the area unemployment rate and on the Federal costs under the extended unemployment compensation program; and (3) whether such contracts could be increased without adverse impact on Federal procurement. Title IV: Report - Directs the Secretary of Labor, within six months of the enactment of this Act, to report to the Congress on the nationwide computerized job bank and matching program authorized under the Job Training Partnership Act.
United States · United States Congress · 17 March 1986
Directs the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration to review (and revise if necessary) the minimum safety standards governing commercial aircraft. Amends the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to increase from $1,000 to $10,000 the civil penalty for certain safety violations of such Act or of its regulations by persons operating aircraft for the carriage of persons or property for compensation or hire. Provides a civil penalty of $1,000 for safety violations relating to notification of proposed construction of structures which could pose a hazard to air navigation. (Current law provides only for a criminal penalty.) Declares that it is the sense of the Congress that each aircraft operated in domestic or foreign air transportation should be reinspected and recertified under such Act to ensure flight safety.
United States · United States Congress · 12 March 1986
Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act - Requires States to provide by law for elections for Federal office: (1) absentee registration and absentee voting for uniformed services voters and overseas voters; and (2) the use of alternative write-in absentee ballots by overseas voters. Directs the President to designate the head of an executive department to have primary responsibility for the administrative functions of this Act, including: (1) prescribing an official postcard form containing a voter registration and an absentee ballot application; (2) prescribing an alternative write-in ballot for overseas voters; (3) prescribing forms and designs for balloting materials; (4) distributing election materials; and (5) reporting to the Congress in even-numbered years on its effectiveness. Provides for the distribution of official postcards. Sets forth recommendations to the States in carrying out provisions of this Act. Authorizes the use of the alternative write-in ballots in lieu of absentee ballots under specified circumstances. Directs the Postmaster to expedite the transport of election materials and declares such materials free of postage.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1986
Establishes a presumption of service-connection for disability purposes for former prisoners of war suffering from the following conditions after active service: (1) organic residuals of hypothermia; (2) spastic colon; and (3) arthritis due to trauma. Decreases from six months to 90 days the amount of time a former prisoner of war must have been incarcerated to be eligible for outpatient dental services.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1986
Railroad Retirement and Unemployment Benefits Protection Act of 1986 - Amends the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 to: (1) provide that certain cost of living increases in railroad retirement annuities shall not be prevented from taking effect by any provision of law other than such Act; (2) prohibit the sequestration of any amounts appropriated to the Dual Benefits Payment Account other than by such Act; and (3) prohibit the sequestration of administrative expenses for the Railroad Retirement Board other than by such Act. Amends the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to prohibit any: (1) legislative limitation from being placed upon the availability of railroad unemployment insurance benefit payments other than by such Act; and (2) sequestration of railroad unemployment insurance administration funds other than by such Act.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the Postmaster General should issue a postage stamp honoring American servicemen and civilians still unaccounted for as a result of the conflict in Indochina.
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1986
Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act of 1986 - Amends the Toxic Substances Control Act to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate regulations for asbestos hazard abatement in the schools. Directs the Administrator to develop a model accreditation plan for States to give accreditation to individuals who inspect, manage, abate, and analyze asbestos problems. Makes the use of accredited personnel a condition for receiving financial assistance under the Asbestos School Hazard Abatement Act of 1984. Requires each State Governor to establish administrative procedures for the certification of school asbestos inspection and abatement programs and for asbestos management plans, all to be carried forward by the local educational agency. Requires warning labels on any asbestos still in routine maintenance areas of a school building. Makes any local educational agency which fails to comply with this Act liable for civil penalties, including injunctive action. Requires the Administrator or appropriate Governor to investigate citizen complaints Authorizes the Administrator or the appropriate State Governor to take necessary response measures where asbestos in a school building may be hazardous and adequate local measures have not been taken. Sets forth the relationship of pollution liability insurance risk retention groups to State law, including securities law. Establishes the Asbestos Trust Fund in the Treasury to carry out the Asbestos Hazards Abatement Assistance Program. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1987 through 1990.
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the U.S. Government should not provide any support for military or paramilitary operations in Angola until the President has informed the Congress and the public that such support is important to the national security and the Congress has approved such support. Authorizes any U.S. agency during FY 1986 and 1987 to use its funds to conduct military or paramilitary operations in Angola or to provide aid to any group engaged in such operations only if such use of such funds is the openly acknowledged U.S. policy. Provides that such policy is considered openly acknowledged only if: (1) the President determines that U.S. support for such operations is important to national security and requests the Congress to approve support for such operations; and (2) the Congress enacts a joint resolution approving support for such operations.
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 1986
Amends Federal law relating to competition requirements in defense contracts to direct the head of a defense agency to require any firm that submits a bid or proposal in response to a solicitation to disclose in such bid or proposal any significant interest in that firm that is owned or controlled by a foreign government or a foreign national. Requires the head of an agency to exclude from consideration for a contract exceeding $100,000 a firm in which a hostile foreign government or covered foreign national owns or controls a significant interest. Directs the Secretary of Defense to prescribe regulations listing hostile foreign governments. Makes this Act inapplicable to the Coast Guard or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
![Official portrait of Rep. Dwyer, Bernard J. [D-NJ-6]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/d000586_200.jpg)