United States · United States Congress · 6 January 2017
Protecting Our Democracy Act This bill establishes in the legislative branch the National Commission on Foreign Interference in the 2016 Election to examine any attempts or activities by the Russian government or other governments, persons or entities associated with such governments, or persons or entities within Russia to use electronic means to influence, interfere with, or sow distrust in elections for public office held in the United States in 2016.
United States · United States Congress · 6 January 2017
Condemns the Dog Meat Festival in Yulin, China, because it: (1) is a spectacle of extreme animal cruelty, (2) is a commercial activity not grounded in Chinese history, (3) is opposed by a majority of the Chinese people, and (4) threatens global public health. Urges: the government of China and the Yulin authorities to ban the killing and eating of dogs as part of Yulin's festival and to enforce China's food safety laws regulating the processing and sale of animal products and the 2011 Agriculture Ministry of China Regulation on the Quarantine of Dogs at the Place of Origin requiring one certificate for one dog on trans-provincial transport trucks, and the National People's Congress of China to enact an animal anticruelty law that bans the dog meat trade. Affirms the commitment of the United States to the protection of animals and to the progress of animal protection.
United States · United States Congress · 6 January 2017
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the U.S. Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to restore mail delivery service standards in effect as of July 1, 2012.
United States · United States Congress · 6 January 2017
Requires both chambers of Congress to assemble annually in the Hall of the House of Representatives to receive a presentation from the Comptroller General on the Government Accountability Office's audited financial statement of the accounts and associated activities of the executive branch, together with an analysis of the financial position and condition of the federal government.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 2017
Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017 This bill includes as part of the Republic of Vietnam its territorial seas for purposes of the presumption of service connection for diseases associated with exposure by veterans to certain herbicide agents while in Vietnam.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 2017
Presidential Tax Transparency Act This bill amends the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 to require the President and certain candidates for President to disclose federal income tax returns for the three most recent taxable years in reports filed with either the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) or the Federal Election Commission (FEC), in the case of a candidate. The OGE or the FEC must make the disclosed tax returns publicly available after making appropriate redactions. If the income tax returns are not disclosed as required by this bill, the OGE or the FEC must request the returns from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to require the IRS, upon receiving a written request from the FEC or the OGE, to provide any income tax return that is required to be disclosed under this bill. The bill also establishes civil and criminal penalties for failing to file or falsifying income tax returns that are required to be disclosed pursuant to this bill.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 2017
Disabled Veterans Tax Termination Act This bill amends federal military retired pay provisions to: (1) permit veterans with a service-connected disability of less than 50% to concurrently receive both retired pay and disability compensation; (2) eliminate provisions requiring a phase-in between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2013, of concurrent receipt of retired pay and disability compensation; (3) eliminate a phase-in of concurrent receipt of retired pay and disability compensation for disabled veterans determined to be individually unemployable; and (4) require a limited reduction in retired pay for qualified disability retirees with less than 20 years of retirement-creditable service.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 2017
Retired Pay Restoration Act This bill: (1) allows the receipt of both military retired pay and veterans' disability compensation with respect to any service-connected disability (currently, only for a disability rated at 50% or more), and (2) repeals provisions phasing in the full concurrent receipt of such pay through December 31, 2013. Individuals who were retired or separated from military service due to a service-connected disability shall be eligible for the full concurrent receipt of both veterans' disability compensation and either military retired pay or combat-related special pay.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 2017
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the U.S. Postal Service should take all appropriate measures to ensure the continuation of door delivery for all businesses and residential customers.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 2017
Declares that a viable and sustainable two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can only be achieved through direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Calls for the United States to continue to: support a durable and sustainable two-state solution; oppose, and if necessary, veto future United Nations Security Council resolutions that seek to impose solutions to final status issues or that are one-sided and anti-Israel; and work with Israelis and Palestinians to create the conditions for successful final-status peace negotiations.
United States · United States Congress · 4 January 2017
Calls upon President-elect Donald J. Trump to: (1) follow the precedent established by prior Presidents and convert his assets to conflict-free holdings, adopt blind trusts, or take other equivalent measures to ensure compliance with the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution; and (2) not use the powers or opportunities of his position as President-elect or President of the United States for any purpose related to the Trump Organization. Declares that in the absence of such actions or specific authorization by Congress, Congress regards dealings that Donald Trump, as President, may have through his companies with foreign governments or entities owned or controlled by foreign governments to be potential violations of such clause.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 2017
Multinational Species Conservation Funds Reauthorization Act This bill reauthorizes the African Elephant Conservation Act, the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act of 1994, the Asian Elephant Conservation Act of 1997, the Great Ape Conservation Fund, and the Marine Turtle Conservation Fund through FY2022. This bill amends the Great Ape Conservation Act of 2000 to authorize Department of the Interior to award a multi-year grant to carry out a project that is an effective, long-term conservation strategy for great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, orangutans, or gibbons) and their habitats. Interior is required to convene a panel of experts to identify the greatest needs and priorities for the conservation of great apes within a year and every five years thereafter. Current law authorizes Interior to convene a panel to consider the greatest conservation needs every two years. The panel is required to consider relevant great ape conservation plans or strategies. This bill amends the Marine Turtle Conservation Act of 2004 to make a wildlife management authority of a U.S. territory eligible for financial assistance for marine turtle conservation.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 2017
Safe Freight Act of 2017 This bill prohibits the operation of a freight train or light locomotive engine used in the movement of freight unless it has a crew of at least two individuals, one of whom is certified by the Federal Railroad Administration as a locomotive operator and the other as a train conductor.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 2017
Protect Medical Innovation Act of 201 7 This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to repeal the excise tax on the sale of a medical device by the manufacturer, producer, or importer.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 2017
Veterans' Access to Child Care Act This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide child care assistance to an eligible veteran for any period that the veteran: (1) receives covered health care services at a VA facility, and (2) is required to travel to and return from such facility for the receipt of such services. The bill defines: (1) "covered health care services" to mean regular mental health care services, intensive mental health care services, or such other intensive health care services to which the VA determines that provision of child care assistance would improve the veteran's access; and (2) "eligible veteran" as a veteran who is the primary caretaker of a child and who is receiving covered health care services from the VA or who is in need of, and who would receive, such services from the VA but for lack of child care. Included among child care assistance to be provided under this bill are: a stipend for the payment of the full cost of child care offered by a licensed child care center, which shall be modeled after the VA's Child Care Subsidy Program; direct provision of child care at an on-site VA facility; a payment made directly to a private child care agency; and collaboration with a facility or program of another federal department or agency.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 2017
Hire A Hero Act of 201 7 This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) allow small businesses a work opportunity tax credit for hiring a member of the Ready Reserve or the National Guard, and (2) make such credit with respect to the hiring of qualified veterans and members of the Ready Reserve and National Guard permanent.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 2017
Support Our Start-Ups Act This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend the tax deduction for new business expenditures to organizational expenditures, generally defined as expenditures incident to the creation of a corporation or a partnership. The bill also increases the maximum deduction amount for start-up and organizational expenditures from $5,000 to $20,000 and increases from $50,000 to $120,000 the threshold amount after which the maximum deduction amount for such expenditures is reduced.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 2017
Encourage New Legalized Immigrants to Start Training Act or the ENLIST Act This bill authorizes the enlistment in the Armed Forces of aliens unlawfully present in the United States on December 31, 2012, who: (1) have been continuously present in the United States since such date; (2) were younger than 15 years of age when they initially entered the United States; and (3) are otherwise eligible for original enlistment in a regular component of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard. The Department of Homeland Security shall adjust the status of an alien enlisted under such authority to the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence under provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act applicable to aliens who entered the United States prior to January 1, 1972. The bill rescinds such lawful permanent resident status if the alien is separated from the Armed Forces under other than honorable conditions before serving the term of enlistment.
United States · United States Congress · 8 December 2016
Presidential Tax Disclosure Act of 2016 This bill requires any individual holding the office of President to submit federal tax returns to the Office of Government Ethics (OGE). The individual must submit: (1) each return filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for any year ending while the individual is President, and (2) each return filed with the IRS for the three years before the individual assumed office. After receiving the returns, the OGE must: (1) make the returns publicly available on the Internet, and (2) submit the returns to specified congressional committees. No information may be redacted from the disclosed returns except for: (1) Social Security, tax identification, and account identification numbers; and (2) the names of any dependent of the taxpayer. The bill establishes civil and criminal penalties to enforce the disclosure requirements. It also amends the Internal Revenue Code to permit the IRS to disclose to the OGE any federal tax return that is required to be disclosed by this bill, but has not been submitted to the OGE within a specified deadline.
United States · United States Congress · 5 December 2016
U.S. Insurance Regulation Works Act of 2016 This bill requires parties representing the federal government on international insurance regulatory proposals to ensure that any proposals they assent to: are consistent with, and reflective of, existing federal and state insurance laws and regulations, including the primacy of policyholder protection in solvency regulation; and recognize existing federal and state laws and regulations as satisfying such proposals. Federal government representatives must consult with, and seek to include, state insurance commissioners in meetings of any international regulatory, standard-setting, or supervisory forum or in any negotiations of international agreements relating to insurance.
United States · United States Congress · 2 December 2016
Promoting Travel, Commerce, and National Security Act of 2016 This bill amends the federal criminal code to allow the United States to prosecute certain U.S. employees who engage in conduct in Canada that would constitute a federal criminal offense if the conduct had occurred in the United States. This bill applies to a Department of Homeland Security or Department of Justice employee, contractor, or employee of a contractor who is stationed in Canada pursuant to a border security initiative.
United States · United States Congress · 29 November 2016
Retirement Security for American Workers Act This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to modify the qualification requirements for certain multiple employer retirement plans. A multiple employer plan that meets certain criteria may not be disqualified or otherwise lose its tax-favored status because one or more participating employers fail to take actions required with respect to the plan. The bill applies to a multiple employer defined contribution plan or a plan that consists of Individual Retirement Accounts that either: (1) is sponsored by employers that both have a common interest other than having adopted the plan and control the plan, or (2) have a pooled plan provider. The bill does not apply unless the terms of the plan require a noncompliant employer to, subject to the discretion of the Internal Revenue Service, (1) transfer assets of the plan attributable to the employees of the noncompliant employer to other specified retirement plans, and (2) be liable for plan liabilities attributable to employees of the noncompliant employer. For the purposes of this bill, a defined contribution plan that is established or maintained for the purpose of providing benefits to the employees of two or more employers and that meets certain requirements (a pooled employer plan) is treated for the purposes of ERISA as a single plan that is a multiple employer plan. The bill modifies reporting requirements under ERISA that apply to pooled employer and multiple employer plans.
United States · United States Congress · 18 November 2016
No Religious Registry Act This bill prohibits U.S. government officials from collecting information or utilizing a registry or database to classify on the basis of religious affiliation: (1) U.S. nationals or aliens lawfully present in the United States, or (2) aliens who apply for a visa or seek admission to the United States or on whose behalf a petition under the immigration laws is submitted. The bill also prohibits studies related to the collection of such information or the establishment or utilization of such a registry or database. Nothing in this bill may be construed to prohibit the collection of information that is provided voluntarily, including information relating to the decennial census.
United States · United States Congress · 17 November 2016
National Observations of Hate, Assaults, and Threats to Equality Act of 2016 or the NO HATE Act of 2016 This bill requires a state or local government that receives funding under the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program to report hate crime information to the Department of Justice (DOJ). DOJ must reduce the JAG allocation of a state or local government state that fails to comply. The bill directs the Federal Bureau of Investigation to include hate crime information in the Uniform Crime Reports and the National Incident-Based Reporting System.
United States · United States Congress · 17 November 2016
Presidential Accountability Act This bill amends the federal criminal code to make it a crime for the President or Vice President to personally and substantially participate in official matters that affect their financial interests, unless the financial interests are held in a blind trust or the President or Vice President discloses the financial interests and receives an exemption. It imposes criminal penalties—a prison term, a fine, or both—on a President or Vice President who commits the offense. It also authorizes civil penalties and injunctions. Additionally, a violation constitutes a high crime and misdemeanor (i.e., grounds for impeachment) under Article II, Section 4 of the U.S. Constitution. Finally, the bill prohibits the President or Vice President from entering into contracts with the U.S. government.
United States · United States Congress · 16 November 2016
Applauds the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) for 75 years of continuous service. Recognizes the critical emergency services, training support, and mission capabilities that the CAP offers state and national homeland security agencies, as well as the Armed Forces. Commends the more than 23,500 youth and 32,500 adult volunteers of the CAP.
United States · United States Congress · 28 September 2016
Hospital Outcomes Act of 2016 This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to replace the existing methodology for calculating Medicare payment adjustments for subsection (d) hospitals based on outcomes in readmissions and complications with a new methodology based on potentially avoidable outcomes in those areas. (In general, a "subsection (d) hospital" is an acute care hospital that receives payments under Medicare's inpatient prospective payment system.) The bill: (1) establishes a methodology for determining a hospital's financial impact attributable to potentially avoidable outcomes performance with regard to complications and readmissions, and (2) requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to select methodologies for identifying potentially avoidable outcomes in these categories. Subject to both a ceiling and a floor, a hospital's payment adjustment factor for an applicable prospective period shall be based on the ratio of the hospital's financial impact to the aggregate amount of standardized payments made to the hospital with respect to that period. CMS must ensure budget neutrality with respect to application of the payment adjustment factor across all subsection (d) hospitals. CMS shall regularly report to hospitals and to the public on each hospital's performance with regard to potentially avoidable outcomes.
United States · United States Congress · 28 September 2016
Establishes an ad hoc Joint Committee on the Organization of the Congress to make a full and complete study of the organization, operations, functions, and relevant interactions of the Members of Congress and to make recommendations that serve specified objectives. Requires the committee to include in its report to both chambers at the end of a congressional session recommendations for its continuation or designation of a similar entity to continue the pursuit of improvements in the congressional process.
United States · United States Congress · 27 September 2016
Export Control Reform Act This bill requires all of the following items that are on the United States Munitions List and the import or export of which is controlled by the President under the Arms Export Control Act on the date of this bill's enactment to be transferred to the Commerce Control List of dual-use items in the Export Administration Regulations: non-automatic and semi-automatic firearms, including all rifles, carbines, pistols, revolvers, and shotguns; non-automatic and non-semi-automatic rifles, carbines, revolvers, or pistols of a caliber greater than .50 inches (12.7 mm) up to and including .72 inches (18.0 mm); ammunition for such firearms excluding caseless ammunition; silencers, mufflers, and sound and flash suppressors; rifle scopes; barrels, cylinders, receivers (frames), or complete breech mechanisms; and related components, parts, accessories, attachments, tooling, and equipment.
United States · United States Congress · 22 September 2016
Secondary Payer Advancement, Rationalization, and Clarification Act or the SPARC Act This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to specify recovery rules with respect to secondary claims responsibility under the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Under current law, secondary payor provisions apply under the benefit in the same manner as they apply with respect to Medicare Advantage plans.
United States · United States Congress · 22 September 2016
Comprehensive Immunosuppressive Drug Coverage for Kidney Transplant Patients Act of 2016 This bill amends titles II (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) and XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to indefinitely extend Medicare coverage of immunosuppressive drugs for kidney transplant recipients. Under current law, such coverage is limited to 36 months following a transplant.
United States · United States Congress · 22 September 2016
Encourages the observance of National Wildlife Refuge Week. Acknowledges the importance of national wildlife refuges for their recreational opportunities and contribution to local economies. Reaffirms the support of the House of Representatives for wildlife conservation and the National Wildlife Refuge System.
United States · United States Congress · 22 September 2016
Fruit Labeling Accuracy Act of 2016 This bill amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prohibit the Food and Drug Administration from requiring the percent daily value of added sugars to appear on the label of dried fruit or vegetables that are naturally low in sugar or juice beverages made from fruit or vegetables that are naturally low in sugar.
United States · United States Congress · 22 September 2016
Expresses support for the designation of National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month. Recognizes the importance of preventing childhood obesity and decreasing its prevalence in the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 15 September 2016
Synthetics Trafficking and Overdose Prevention Act of 2016 or the STOP Act of 2016 This bill amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to make the Postmaster General or Postmaster General designee, including a person holding a valid customs broker's license, the importer of record for non-letter class mail imported into the United States. The term "non-letter class mail" means any product of the U.S. Postal Service or a Universal Postal Union designated operator that is provided pursuant to: the Universal Postal Union's Parcel Post Regulations and Final Protocol; or the Universal Postal Union's Letter Post Regulations and Final Protocol, except small letters, as in effect upon enactment of this bill. The bill amends the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 to impose a duty of $1 on each item of non-letter class mail imported into the United States. The bill amends the Trade Act of 2002 to direct the Department of the Treasury to require the Postmaster General to provide for the advanced electronic transmission to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection of certain information on non-letter class mail imported into the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 15 September 2016
No Lead in School Water Act This bill amends the Safe Drinking Water Act to reauthorize through FY2022 a grant program for state programs that test and remediate lead contamination in the drinking water of schools and day care facilities.
United States · United States Congress · 13 September 2016
Race to the Job Initiative Act This bill requires the Department of the Treasury to establish and administer a grant program to provide anchor institution (i.e., a hospital, college, research center, or nonprofit institution) grants and infrastructure grants to eligible low-income communities for community development. Treasury shall select: (1) within the first year after enactment of this bill, 30 of such low-income communities to receive these grants; and (2) within the second year, an additional 20 of these communities. Treasury must award a capital assistance grant to each community development financial institution specified in the grantee's application to make loans to, and invest in, businesses, organizations, or public-private partnerships located in the eligible low-income community. The bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a new markets tax credit for investment in a partner community development financial institution without regard to allocation limitations on such credit. The bill amends the Community Development Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 to limit to $20 million (in the aggregate, during a three-year period) an award from the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund to a community development financial institution and its subsidiaries and affiliates receiving a capital assistance grant under this bill. CDFI funds are limited annually for these entities to: (1) $10 million for financial assistance, and (2) $500,000 for technical assistance.
United States · United States Congress · 12 September 2016
Global War on Terrorism War Memorial Act This bill allows the Global War on Terror Memorial Foundation to establish the National Global War on Terrorism Memorial as a commemorative work on federal land in the District of Columbia to commemorate and honor the members of the Armed Forces who served on active duty in support of the Global War on Terrorism. No federal funds may be used to pay any expense to establish the memorial.
United States · United States Congress · 8 September 2016
This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to modify the tax treatment of certain life insurance contract transactions. The bill establishes reporting requirements for acquisitions of life insurance contracts in a reportable policy sale. Specified details must be reported regarding: the payments, contracts, and people involved in the acquisition; the seller's basis; and payments of death benefits. A "reportable policy sale" is the acquisition of an interest in a life insurance contract, directly or indirectly, if the acquirer has no substantial family, business, or financial relationship with the insured apart from the acquirer's interest in such life insurance contract. The bill also: (1) specifies that no basis adjustment shall be made for mortality, expense, or other reasonable charges incurred under an annuity or life insurance contract; and (2) exempts the transfer of a life insurance contract, or any interest therein, in a reportable policy sale from the transfer for valuable consideration rule. (Under current law, the transfer for valuable consideration rule provides that, if a life insurance contract or an interest in a contract is transferred for a valuable consideration, the tax exclusion for amounts received under a life insurance contract due to the death of the insured is limited to the sum of the actual value of the consideration and the premiums and other amounts subsequently paid by the transferee.)
United States · United States Congress · 7 September 2016
Dialysis PATIENTS Demonstration Act of 2016 or the Dialysis Patient Access to Integrated-care, Empowerment, Nephrologists, Treatment, and Services Demonstration Act of 2016 This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to establish a demonstration program for the provision of integrated care to Medicare beneficiaries with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Under the voluntary program, eligible participating providers may form organizations to offer ESRD integrated care models and serve as medical homes for program-eligible beneficiaries. Such a model: (1) shall cover medical and hospital services, other than hospice care, under Medicare; (2) must include benefits for transition into palliative care; and (3) may cover prescription drug benefits. An organization must offer at least one open network model but may also offer one or more preferred network models. An organization shall return savings achieved under the models to program-eligible beneficiaries. A beneficiary shall have the opportunity to: (1) opt out of the program, (2) make an assignment change into an open network model offered by a different organization, or (3) elect a preferred network model. The bill establishes requirements regarding: (1) benefits for program-eligible beneficiaries who are also eligible for Medicaid benefits, (2) program quality and reporting, (2) ESRD integrated care strategy, (3) program operation and scope, (4) beneficiary notification, and (5) payment.
United States · United States Congress · 25 July 2016
Expresses support for the designation of National Obesity Care Week. Encourages open communication to break barriers of misunderstanding and stigma regarding obesity and to improve the lives of individuals affected by obesity and their families.
United States · United States Congress · 14 July 2016
Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act This bill requires the Government Publishing Office (GPO) to establish and maintain a website that provides the public free electronic access to all congressionally mandated reports within 30 calendar days after submission to Congress. Each federal agency shall publish congressionally mandated reports on such website. A report submitted for publication may only be changed or removed, with the exception of technical changes, by the agency concerned with the express, written consent of the chairman of each congressional committee to which the report is submitted. Each agency: (1) must redact from such a report any information that may not be publicly released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), (2) may withhold information otherwise required to be disclosed pursuant to this bill only if the agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would harm an interest protected by FOIA exemptions or if disclosure is prohibited by law, and (3) shall consider whether partial disclosure of information is possible whenever full disclosure is not and take reasonable steps necessary to segregate and release nonexempt information.
United States · United States Congress · 14 July 2016
This bill prescribes requirements and deadlines for Senate consideration and votes on nominations submitted by the President, including referrals of such nominations to a single Senate committee and jointly to more than one committee. If each committee to which the nomination has been referred reports it favorably to the Senate or discharges it without recommendation, the Senate shall hold a vote on the nomination within 60 days after the last such committee reports or discharges it. If the President submits to the Senate the nomination of an individual for appointment to an office and it is not referred to any Senate committee, the Senate shall hold a vote on the nomination within 150 days. In the case of the nomination of an individual for appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States, a vote in the Senate on a motion to invoke cloture on a motion to proceed to consideration of the nomination shall be treated as a vote on the nomination for purposes of this bill.
United States · United States Congress · 14 July 2016
Rural Access to Hospice Act of 2016 This bill amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to allow payment under Medicare for certain services furnished to hospice patients by rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). With respect to a patient who elects to receive hospice care under Medicare, current law generally limits payment for services that are either duplicative of such care or related to the treatment of the individual's terminal illness. However, current law exempts from this limitation: (1) physicians' services furnished by the individual's attending physician, if not an employee of the hospice program; and (2) services provided or arranged by the hospice program. The bill expands this exemption with regard to rural health clinic and FQHC services. Specifically, the Medicare payment limitation shall not apply to such services that: (1) would otherwise be physicians' services if furnished by an individual unaffiliated with a rural health clinic or FQHC; and (2) are either arranged by the hospice program or furnished by the individual's attending physician, if not an employee of the hospice program.
United States · United States Congress · 14 July 2016
Fishing Equipment Tax Relief Act of 2016 This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to reduce from 10% to 3% the excise tax rate that applies to the sale of portable, electronically-aerated bait containers by the manufacturer, producer, or importer.
United States · United States Congress · 14 July 2016
Overtime Reform and Enhancement Act This bill directs the Department of Labor, by December 1, 2016, to revise the rule published in the Federal Register on May 23, 2016, relating to exemptions (from the minimum wage and overtime pay requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act) regarding the rates of pay for executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and computer employees. Labor shall revise specified regulations to increase the defining rates of pay of exempted employees from $455 per week to: $692 per week for executive employees effective December 1, 2016; $765 per week for administrative employees effective December 1, 2017; $839 per week for professional employees effective December 1, 2018; and $913 per week for computer employees effective December 1, 2019; and Such revisions shall also nullify the automatic updates to the amounts of salary and compensation required for such exemptions. Labor may only update any rate of pay related to these exemptions in accordance with federal rulemaking requirements.
United States · United States Congress · 13 July 2016
Promotes increased public awareness on the issue of motorcycle profiling. Encourages collaboration and communication with the motorcycle community and law enforcement to engage in efforts to end such profiling. Urges state law enforcement officials to include statements condemning motorcycle profiling in written policies and training materials.
United States · United States Congress · 13 July 2016
S Corporation Modernization Act of 2016 This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to the tax treatment of S corporations, to: allow a nonresident alien to be a qualifying beneficiary of an electing small business trust (ESBT), which is a type of trust that is permitted to hold shares in an S corporation; allow S corporations to increase passive investment income from 25% to 60% without incurring additional taxes; eliminate a provision terminating the S corporation status of corporations with excessive passive income for three consecutive years; allow any S corporation bank to have individual retirement account shareholders; allow ESBTs to claim expanded tax deductions for charitable contributions; and allow an adjustment to the basis of an S corporation's assets upon the death of a shareholder, in the form of a 15-year amortization deduction.
United States · United States Congress · 12 July 2016
Uniting Families Act of 2016 This bill amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to establish a non-immigrant W-visa category for an alien who: (1) is 18 or older and is the genetic son or daughter of a U.S. citizen who served in the Armed Forces on active duty abroad, or (2) is the spouse or child of such alien and is accompanying, or following to join, such alien. A visa shall not be issued until a petition has been filed in the United States by the applicant's citizen parent and approved by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Such petition shall include: DNA evidence establishing that the alien is the petitioner's genetic child, a written agreement that the parent will provide financial support until the alien's status is adjusted to lawful permanent resident status, and information establishing that the petitioner is a U.S. citizen who served in the Armed Forces on active duty abroad. The bill provides that: (1) the period of authorized admission for a W-visa alien is five years, which may be extended for one additional two-year period; and (2) the total number of principal W-visa aliens who may be admitted during any fiscal is 5,000. The bill prescribes the criteria that a W-visa alien must meet in order to adjust to lawful permanent resident status, including an understanding of the English language and U.S. history. (Such language and history requirements for naturalization purposes shall not apply to a person who has satisfied them in adjusting from W-visa status to lawful permanent resident status.)
![Official portrait of Rep. Kind, Ron [D-WI-3]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/116_rp_wi_3_kind_ron_200.jpg)