United States · United States Congress · 12 February 1997
Security and Freedom Through Encryption (SAFE) Act - Amends the Federal criminal code to permit any person within any State, and any U.S. person in a foreign country, to use any encryption regardless of the encryption algorithm selected, encryption key length chosen, or implementation technique or medium used, with an exception for the unlawful use of encryption in furtherance of a criminal act. Allows any person within any State to sell in interstate commerce any encryption. Specifies that no person in lawful possession of a key to encrypted information may be required by Federal or State law to relinquish to another person control of that key, with an exception for access for law enforcement purposes. Sets penalties for the willful use of encryption in furtherance of the commission of a criminal offense. (Sec. 3) Amends the Export Administration Act of 1979 to grant the Secretary of Commerce exclusive authority to control exports of all hardware, software, and technology for information security (including encryption), except that which is specifically designed or modified for military use. Prohibits requiring any validated license (with limited exceptions pursuant to the Trading With The Enemy Act or the International Emergency Economic Powers Act) for the export or reexport of any: (1) software, including software with encryption capabilities that is generally available as is and that is designed for installation by the purchaser, or that is in the public domain for which copyright or other protection is not available or is available to the public because it is generally accessible to the public in any form; or (2) computing device solely because it incorporates or employs in any form software (including software with encryption capabilities) exempted from any requirement for a validated license under this section. Directs the Secretary to authorize the export or reexport of: (1) software with encryption capabilities for nonmilitary end-uses in any country to which exports of software of similar capability are permitted for use by financial institutions not controlled in fact by U.S. persons, unless there is substantial evidence that such software will be diverted to a military end-use or an end-use supporting international terrorism, modified for military or authorization that may be required under the Act; and (2) computer hardware with encryption capabilities if the Secretary determines that a product offering comparable security is commercially available outside the United States from a foreign supplier without effective restrictions.
United States · United States Congress · 12 February 1997
Fair Trade in Meat and Pork Products Act of 1997 - Directs the United States Trade Representative (USTR), for purposes of identifying foreign countries not in compliance with the terms of any trade agreement with the United States, to determine whether the European Union has failed to implement its obligations under the Exchange of Letters, the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, or any other agreement. Requires the USTR, in the event of such a failure, to: (1) promptly request proceedings under the formal dispute settlement procedures applicable under the agreement; and (2) request the Secretary of Agriculture to direct the Food Safety and Inspection Service of the Department of Agriculture to review certifications for European Union facilities that import meat and other agricultural products into the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 11 February 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Commemorative Coins Title II: Circulating Coins Thomas Alva Edison Sesquicentennial Commemorative Coin Act - Title I: Commemorative Coins - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to mint one-dollar silver coins emblematic of the inventions of Thomas Alva Edison in commemoration of the sesquicentennial of his birth. Directs the Secretary to conduct an open design competition for the design of the obverse and reverse of the coins. Terminates the authority to mint such coins after December 31, 1997. Requires that certain surcharges received from coin sales be distributed to specified entities. Title II: Circulating Coins - Amends Federal law to declare that half-dollar coins minted between specified dates shall have the same design as the commemorative coins minted under this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 10 February 1997
Amends the Clean Air Act to delete from the glycol ether category in the list of hazardous air pollutants ethylene glycol monobutyl ether as used or emitted by metal or composite can manufacturing. Amends the toxic chemical release forms provisions of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act of 1986 to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to delete from the lists of toxic chemicals and extremely hazardous substances employed under such Act any substance that has been deleted or removed from the hazardous air pollutants list unless the Administrator demonstrates on the basis of convincing evidence significant human health or environmental threats posed by the substance's storage, use, or release.
United States · United States Congress · 4 February 1997
Expresses the sense of the Congress that cost-of-living adjustments for Federal retirees should be paid beginning in January of each year, as current law prescribes, and should not be delayed, whether as part of a budget agreement or otherwise.
United States · United States Congress · 21 January 1997
Medicare Provider-Sponsored Organization Act of 1997 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to give Medicare beneficiaries the option of receiving Medicare coverage through enrollment with provider-sponsored organizations (PSOs) organized and licensed under State law, and certified as meeting certain Federal standards. Requires a PSO to: (1) deliver a spectrum of health care services (including basic hospital and physicians services) to enrolled purchasers; and (2) provide a substantial proportion of the health care items and services under its Medicare contract through the provider or affiliated group of providers composing the organization. (Sec. 2) Provides for direct Federal Medicare certification as a qualified PSO through calendar 2001. Authorizes State licensure of PSOs after January 1, 2002, only if: (1) State financial solvency and capital adequacy standards are identical with Federal standards; and (2) State licensure standards are substantially equivalent to Federal standards. Allows a PSO seeking to operate under a full-risk contract or a partial risk contract to apply to the Secretary of Health and Human Services for waiver of State licensure if: (1) the State has failed to act on the PSO's State application within a certain period of time; or (2) the State has denied the PSO's application, but the State's licensing standards or review process impose unreasonable barriers to market entry. Declares that a fiscally sound PSO meets Medicare financial solvency requirements. Prescribes general requirements for a PSO's ongoing quality assurance program (including case-by-case utilization review). Treats such requirements as met if the PSO is accredited by a private organization under a process approved by the Secretary. Sets forth physician-participation procedure requirements and other special rules. Directs the Secretary to issue regulations regarding qualified PSO standards, which shall preempt State law. (Sec. 3) Authorizes the Secretary to pay all Medicare health plans on a partial risk basis. (Sec. 4) Treats Medicare-eligible organizations, including PSOs, as meeting the "50-50" enrollment composition rule (which requires that a health plan's Medicare and Medicaid enrollees cannot exceed 50 percent of its total enrollment) if they demonstrate: (1) their capability of providing coordinated care in accordance with the quality assurance standards established by this Act; and (2) their experience providing coordinated care to enrollees of a health plan or State Medicaid plan. (Sec. 5) Provides that a health maintenance organization under Medicaid includes a public or private organization which may be a PSO. (Sec. 6) Directs the Secretary to provide for demonstration projects in at least ten States that permit Medicaid programs to be treated as Medicare-eligible organizations for individuals eligible to enroll with a Medicare organization and also eligible for Medicaid, for the purpose of demonstrating the delivery of primary, acute, and long-term care through an integrated delivery network that emphasizes noninstitutional care. (Sec. 7) Prescribes rules on coverage of emergency services by all Medicare plans. (Sec. 8) Limits State law restrictions on managed care arrangements; but exempts from such restrictions any law that has the effect of preventing involuntary denial of life-saving medical treatment when such denial would cause the patient's involuntary death pending transfer to a health care provider willing to provide such treatment. (Sec. 9) Requires the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to provide jointly for the development and publication of explicit, binding guidelines on the application of antitrust laws to PSO activities, addressing PSO formation, development, and operation issues of PSOs and facilitating their development and operation.
United States · United States Congress · 7 January 1997
Reconstructive Breast Surgery Benefits Act of 1997 - Amends the Public Health Service Act and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to require group health plans and insurers offering group health coverage, if they cover a mastectomy, to also cover reconstructive breast surgery resulting from the mastectomy, including surgery on a nondiseased breast to establish symmetry. Prohibits related: (1) denial of coverage or monetary incentives to women; and (2) penalties or incentives to providers. Amends the Public Health Service Act to apply the above requirements to individual health insurance coverage.
United States · United States Congress · 7 January 1997
National Right-to-Work Act - Amends the National Labor Relations Act and the Railway Labor Act to repeal those provisions that permit employers, pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement (union security agreement), to require employees to join a union as a condition of employment (including provisions permitting railroad carriers to require, pursuant to such an agreement, payroll deduction of union dues or fees as a condition of employment).
United States · United States Congress · 7 January 1997
Truth in Budgeting Act - Prohibits (subject to the Line Item Veto Act of 1996) the receipts and disbursements of the Highway Trust Fund, the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund from being counted as new budget authority, outlays, receipts, or deficit or surplus for purposes of the Federal budget as submitted by the President, the congressional budget, or the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act). Exempts such trust funds from any general statutory budget outlays limitation. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to limit the amount of interest that may be credited to such trust funds. Amends Federal transportation law to require the Secretary of Transportation to estimate annually: (1) what, but for this Act, would be at the close of the next fiscal year the amount of unfunded aviation authorizations; and (2) the net aviation receipts at the close of such year.
United States · United States Congress · 7 January 1997
Amends Federal law to exclude the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund from the Federal and congressional budgets, and exempt it from any general budget limitation imposed by statute on U.S. budget outlays and from certain orders issued under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act).
United States · United States Congress · 7 January 1997
Constitutional Amendment - Prohibits outlays for a fiscal year (except those for repayment of debt principal) from exceeding total receipts (except those derived from borrowing) for that fiscal year unless the Congress, by a three-fifths roll call vote of each House, authorizes a specific excess of outlays over receipts. Requires a three-fifths roll call vote of each House to increase the public debt. Directs the President to submit a balanced budget to the Congress. Requires the approval of a majority of each House by roll call vote before any bill to increase revenue may become law. Authorizes the Congress to waive these provisions when: (1) a declaration of war is in effect; or (2) the United States is engaged in a military conflict which poses a threat to national security as declared by a joint resolution adopted by a majority of each House. Makes this article effective beginning with FY 2002 or with the second fiscal year beginning after its ratification, whichever is later.