United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Prohibits rules promulgated by any Federal agency (except an emergency rule which must become immediately effective to prevent serious injury or the substantial frustration of legislative policies or intent) from becoming effective until such proposed rules have been submitted to Congress and a 60-day period has lapsed thereafter. Prevents such rules from becoming effective if disapproved by either House of Congress within such 60-day period. Permits disapproval of emergency rules. Prohibits the submission to Congress of any rule identical to one which has been disapproved unless submitted pursuant to new legislative authority which has been enacted affecting agency's powers with respect to the subject matter of such rule. Renders agency rules dealing with emergency or routine matters or which will have an insignificant impact effective without publication of advance notice of proposed rulemaking proceedings in the Federal Register as is currently required. Renders any rule granting an exemption to another rule or which is exempt from public notice and comment requirements effective immediately.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Soft Drink Interbrand Competition Act - Declares that exclusive territorial arrangements made as a part of a licensing agreement for the manufacture, distribution, or sale of a trademarked soft drink product are lawful under the antitrust laws provided such product is in substantial and effective competition with other products of the same general class.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Congressional Oversight and Regulatory Responsibility Act of 1979 - Requires a copy of each proposed rule of a Federal agency to be sent to Congress. States that such rule, other than an emergency rule, shall not become effective if it is disapproved within 60 days by either House of Congress. Establishes, as a joint committee of Congress, the Joint Committee on Agency Rules. Makes it the responsibility of such committee to study agency rules promulgated on or after the effective date of this Act, and to report a resolution to Congress if such committee determines such a rule should be disapproved. Sets forth the membership and administrative procedure of such committee. Requires the Administrative Conference of the United States to study Congressional review of agency rulemaking under this Act, and to report its findings to Congress before October 1, 1983. Requires Federal agencies: (1) to give interested persons at least 60 days to participate in rulemaking procedures; and (2) at the request of any such person, to hold a public hearing on a proposed rule. Makes this Act effective at the beginning of the second session of the 96th Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Requires, upon application by the insured, waiver of the payment of premiums for National Service Life Insurance during any time after which the insured has attained the age of 70 and has paid premiums on the insurance for not less than 25 years.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Grants a Federal charter to the Gold Star Wives of America. Declares that the purpose of such corporation is to aid widows and children of persons who died in the service of their country.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Title I: Authorizations and Miscellaneous Amendments - Amends the Small Business Act to authorize appropriations for specified programs and expenses of the Small Business Administration. States that all appropriations, whether specifically or generally authorized, shall remain available until expended. Authorizes the Administration to make disaster loans available to small business concerns affected by a shortage of energy-producing resources caused by a strike, boycott, or embargo unless such strike, boycott or embargo is directly against such small business concern. Makes specified low-interest disaster loans available until October 1, 1982. Amends the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 to repeal the authority of the Administration to invest sums from the revolving fund for surety bond guarantees in Treasury bonds, obligations, and other guaranteed debt securities. Authorizes such investments from the revolving fund for qualified contract guarantees. Transfers specified provisions of the Act which established an Office of Advocacy within the Small Business Administration to the Small Business Act. Title II: Small Business Development Centers - Authorizes the Small Business Administration to make grants to States, State agencies, regional entities, State-chartered development credit corporations, and institutions of higher learning to assist in establishing Small Business Development Centers. Requires such grants to be matched in equal amounts by funds from non-Federal sources. Establishes additional restrictions on such grants for fiscal years 1979 through 1982. States that Small Business Development Centers shall have a full-time staff, business and technology analysts, information and professional specialists, and access to laboratory and engineering facilities. Requires such Centers to provide small businesses with business and technology counseling, information on government regulations, library services, and comprehensive studies and surveys. Directs federally funded laboratories and innovation centers to cooperate with the Small Business Development Centers. Requires the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to appoint a Deputy Associate Administrator for Management and Technical Assistance to administer the Small Business Development Center program. Establishes a National Small Business Development Center Advisory Board consisting of nine civilian members. Sets forth provisions governing the appointment of members, a Chairman, meetings, and compensation of the Board. Directs the Small Business Administration to conduct an evaluation of the Development Center program and to submit a report to the appropriate committees of Congress within three years. Title III: White House Conference on Small Business - White House Conference on Small Business Act - Directs the President to convene a White House Conference on Small Business by June 30, 1980, to identify the problems of small business concerns and to make recommendations for executive and legislative action. Requires the Conference to submit a report to the President and the Congress within one year of the date it convenes. Requires the Small Business Administration to report to the Congress within three years on the status and implementation of the findings and recommendations of the Conference. Authorizes appropriations for the expenses of the Conference.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Directs the Secretary of the Interior to permit the National Committee of American Airmen Rescued by General Mihailovich to construct a monument to General Mihailovich on Federal public land within the District of Columbia or its environs.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Authorizes the inclusion of military service performed by an individual after December, 1956 in the aggregate period of service on which a civil service annuity is based. Stipulates that this Act applies only to individuals becoming eligible for such annuity after the date of enactment. Directs the Civil Service Commission, upon request, to recompute the annuity of an individual receiving such annuity before the date of enactment.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Amends the Small Business Act to make the following loans available until October 1, 1982, for the relief of small business concerns affected by disasters occurring on or after October 1, 1978: (1) loans bearing interest at three percent for amounts not exceeding $55,000, for the repair or replacement of a principal residence or personal property; and (2) loans bearing interest at five percent on amounts not exceeding $250,000 for relief from major disasters declared by the President or natural disasters determined by the Secretary of Agriculture pursuant to the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from terminating the tax-exempt status of an educational institution for reasons of racial discrimination unless such organization has been adjudicated as racially discriminatory by a State or Federal court.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Adds to the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 a new title (Title XI: Regulatory Budget Procedure) to require Congress, on or before September 15 of each year, to complete action on a concurrent resolution which establishes a regulatory budget for each Federal agency that sets the maximum costs of compliance with all rules and regulations declared by the agency. Directs the President to establish a Business Advisory Council to include representatives of each major industrial and commercial sector, and each geographic region, to provide such information, advice and consultation as he may require to develop and carry out regulatory costs analysis procedures. Directs the President, in consultation with the Council, to formulate the criteria for determining the costs of compliance with Federal rules and regulations. Requires the head of each agency, using such criteria, to conduct a study of the costs of compliance with rules and regulations set forth by the agency and to submit such reports to the President, Congress, and the Comptroller General. Directs the Comptroller General to review such agency reports and to submit its findings to Congress. Requires the President to include regulatory budget recommendations in the Budget to Congress. Directs Congress to utilize such findings and recommendations in developing the regulatory budget for each agency. Requires Congressional committee reports on bills or resolutions to contain a statement of the estimate of the costs of compliance with agency rules or regulations to carry out the provisions of such bill or resolution. Sets forth the rules for consideration of any bill, resolution, or amendment that would cause the level of costs of compliance for any agency to exceed the maximum costs of compliance as established in the regulatory budget for the agency.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to repeal the carryover basis provisions enacted by the Tax Reform Act of 1976 which provide that beneficiaries receiving property from a decedent's estate will retain the decedent's basis in the property. Restores prior law which "stepped up" or "stepped down" the property's basis to its market value at the time of death without imposing tax consequences on the appreciation or depreciation the property underwent while held by the decedent.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Military Registration and Mobilization Assessment Act of 1979 - Directs the President to: (1) report to the Congress by June 30, 1979, on the plans for a modern and efficient system of selective service registration; (2) commence military selective service registration by October 1, 1979; and (3) establish a National Advisory Committee to make recommendations for achieving adequate military medical personnel. Requires the Secretary of Defense, in the Secretary's annual report to Congress on military manpower requirements, to include an assessment of the Nation's capabilities to mobilize such additional manpower as may be needed to meet national security requirements under emergency situations, including the feasibility of a program for three months of active duty assignment for selected persons, followed by a three-year reserve obligation. Amends the Military Selective Service Act of 1967 to transfer the personnel and funds of the Selective Service System to the Department of Defense. Stipulates that enlisted or appointed military personnel when released from active duty shall be transferred to a reserve component for three years, or as otherwise obligated by law, whichever is longer. Authorizes regulations to grant the Selective Service System access to age and address information in the records of any school, any agency of the United States, or any agency or political subdivision of any State for the sole purpose of conducting selective service registration.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Sunset Act of 1979 - Title I: Reauthorization of Government Programs - Sets forth a ten-year schedule for reauthorization of all Federal programs according to budget function and subfunction as set forth in the Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 1979. Sets forth the procedure in the House of Representatives and the Senate for the consideration of any bill, resolution, or amendment which authorizes new budget authority. States that it is not in order for either House to consider any legislation which authorizes the enactment of new budget authority for a program for a period of more than ten years, for an indefinite period, or for any fiscal year beginning after the next reauthorization date applicable to such program. Provides that before the Congress can appropriate funds for any program, after its first reauthorization date, there must be a specific authorization in law to support the appropriation. Requires the committees of the Senate and House of Representatives to conduct a sunset review of programs during the Congress in which such programs are scheduled for review. Requires that the report accompanying such reauthorization contain specified information, and that the report be completed during the Congress in which the program is scheduled for reauthorization. Exempts from the requirements of this Act specified programs such as interest on Federal debts, health care services, general retirement and disability payments, as well as litigation activities which have as their objectives the protection and implementation of civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and specified retirement pay and benefits. Allows the reauthorization schedule set forth in this Act to be changed by concurrent resolution of the two Houses of Congress and sets forth the procedure for such change. Requires all legislation and other matters related to changes in the dates for programs under this Act to be referred to the committee with legislative jurisdiction over any program affected by the proposal and, sequentially, to the Committee on Rules in the House of Representatives and to the Committee on Rules and Administration in the Senate. Requires such committees to report any concurrent resolution or bill referred to it by a committee of legislative jurisdiction within 30 days, with a statement on each of its recommendations. Makes provisions for any proposed change which has been reported by a committee before June 1, 1980. Title II: Program Inventory - Directs the Comptroller General and the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, in cooperation with the Director of the Congressional Research Service, to prepare an inventory of Federal programs. Declares that the purpose of such program inventory is to advise and assist Congress in carrying out the reauthorization and reexamination requirements and to link such reauthorization and review process with the budget process. Requires the Comptroller General to submit such program inventory to each House of Congress no later than January 1, 1980. Sets forth the contents of the inventory program, including the type of authorization provided for such programs' new budget authority; and the manner in which related program areas may be grouped for evaluation and review. Permits the congressional committees, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Congressional Research Service to review the program inventory and suggest revisions. Requires that the program inventory be revised at the end of each session of Congress, and that such revisions be reported to each House. Requires that periodic reports tabulate the progress of congressional action on bills and resolutions authorizing budget authority for programs in the inventory. Requires the Comptroller General and the Director of the Congressional Budget Office to submit periodic reports to the Congress on the adequacy of the functional and subfunctional categories for grouping programs of like missions or objectives. Title III: Program Reexamination - Requires each committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives to reexamine selected programs or groups of programs over which it has jurisdiction. Sets forth procedures for such review, and criteria for selection of program areas for evaluation. Directs each committee to consult with the appropriate committees of either the House of Representatives or the Senate in order to achieve coordination of program reevaluation and inform itself of the related activities of or available assistance from the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office, the Congressional Research Service, the Office of Technology Assessment, and appropriate instrumentalities in the executive and judicial branches. Requires each committee to deliver a report on the reexamination to the Secretary of the Senate or the Clerk of the House at the date specified in the funding resolution first reported by such committee in 1981 and thereafter for the first session of each Congress. Allows two or more committees which have legislative jurisdiction over the same programs or portions of the same programs to examine such programs jointly and submit a joint report. Stipulates that such report: (1) contain the findings, recommendations, and justifications of the program; and (2) include specified information including, but not limited to, an assessment of the cost-effectiveness of the program and an identification of any trends, developments, and emerging conditions which are likely to affect the nature and extent of the problems or needs which the program is intended to address. Requires each executive department or agency which is responsible for a program selected for reexamination to submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget and to the appropriate committees of the Congress on its findings, recommendations, and justifications of specified aspects of the program. Title IV: Citizens' Commission on the Organization and Operation of Government - Establishes, as an independent instrumentality of the United States, the Citizens' Commission on the Organization and Operation of Government to conduct a nonpartisan study and investigation of the organization and methods of operation of all departments, agencies, independent instrumentalities, and other authorities of the executive branch of the Government, and to make such recommendations as it determines are necessary to promote economic, efficient and improved services in the transaction of public business. Requires the Commission to submit interim reports to the President and the Congress, and to submit a final report with its findings and recommendations. Requires the Comptroller General to report once a year for two years after submission of the Commission's final report on the status of actions taken as a result of the report. Specifies the composition of the 15-member Commission and sets forth the duties and powers of the Commission. States that the Commission shall cease to exist 90 days after submission of its final report. Authorizes to be appropriated until September 30, 1984, without fiscal year limitations, $4,000,000 to carry out the provisions of this Title. Title V: Regulatory Impact - Requires the President to submit, at the beginning of each of the five congresses beginning with the 97th Congress, an analysis of the purposes, function, and efficiency of 16 specified regulatory agencies. Requires the President to submit legislative plans, based on such analyses, for the improvement of operations of such agencies. Establishes a schedule according to which plans for specified agencies will be submitted early in each of the five congresses for which the required analyses are submitted. Directs the President, with each plan, to submit a report on the cumulative impact of government regulatory activity on specific industry groupings. Directs the Comptroller General and the Director of the Congressional Budget Office to assess each of the agencies included in the President's plan and to analyze the plan, and submit such information to the Congress. Title VI: Government Accountability - Requires the President, beginning with the first year of the 97th Congress, to submit biennially, as part of the budget, a report on the management of the executive branch. Requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to provide an evaluative report on Federal programs to the President to be included with the President's report. Title VII: Tax Expenditures - Requires the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, after consultation with the Joint Committee on Taxation of the Congress, to prepare an inventory of tax expenditure provisions and to submit a report on such inventory to the Committee on Ways and Means of the House and the Senate Finance Committee. Defines the term "tax expenditure provision" as any provision of Federal law which allows a special exclusion, exemption, or deduction in determining liability for any tax or which provides a special credit against any tax, a preferential rate of tax, or a deferral of tax liability. Specifies the contents of the report which include an estimate of the revenue loss from each tax provision. Requires the Director to: (1) submit a revised inventory to each House of Congress by December 1, 1980; (2) revise the inventory after the close of each session of Congress and report such revisions to Congress; and (3) periodically report on congressional action on bills and resolutions which create or affect tax provisions. Directs the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance to prepare a reauthorization schedule for all tax provisions similar to the schedule set out for Federal programs in title I of this Act. Requires Congress to take final action on the reauthorization schedule for tax provisions before the end of the 96th Congress. Provides that each tax expenditure provision shall expire unless it is reauthorized by a law enacted during the Congress in which it is scheduled for review. Sets forth procedures and restrictions for the consideration of bills reauthorizing tax provisions, which are similar to the restrictions and procedures governing bills authorizing new budget authority for Federal programs as described in title I. Requires that the report accompanying a reauthorization bill include specified information. Permits Congress to prescribe technical rules as may be necessary to mitigate adverse effects which might result for taxpayers who rely on a certain tax provision. Title VIII: Miscellaneous - Amends the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 to permit the committees of Congress to obtain from the agencies of the Government estimates or requests for appropriations or requests for increases in an item of any such estimate or request, and recommendations as to how the revenue needs of the Government should be met. Declares that nothing shall require the public disclosure of records which are specifically authorized under criteria established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy and are in fact properly classified pursuant to such Executive order, or which are otherwise specifically protected by law. Sets forth administrative procedures and requirements. Directs the President, with the cooperation of the head of each appropriate agency, to submit to the Congress a "Regulatory Duplication and Conflicts Report" for all programs scheduled for reauthorization in the next Congress. Stipulates that each such report identify duplicative or conflicting rules and regulations promulgated by executive departments, independent agencies, and State and local governments and contain recommendations which address such conflicts or duplications. Defines the term "required authorization waiver resolution" for purposes of this Act. Sets forth the procedure which the chairman of the committee of the Senate or the House of Representatives having legislative jurisdiction over programs must follow in order to introduce a required authorization waiver resolution. Makes it the duty of the Committees on Governmental Affairs and on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committees on Government Operations and on Rules of the House of Representatives to review the operation of the procedures established by this Act and to submit a report every five years beginning December 31, 1986. Authorizes to be appropriated through fiscal year 1990 such sums as may be necessary to carry out the review requirements and for the compilation of the inventory of Federal programs.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Amends the Saccharin Study and Labeling Act to extend from 18 to 36 months the period during which the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare may not take specified actions to restrict the continued use of saccharin or of any food, drug, or cosmetic containing saccharin.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Constitutional Amendment - States that Congress shall make no appropriations for any fiscal year which exceed the total revenues of the United States for such year. Prohibits spending by, or on behalf of, the United States which exceeds the total revenue for that year. Suspends such requirements when Congress declares war or national emergency.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Constitutional Amendment - Requires Congress to assure that the total outlays of the Government, during any fiscal year, do not exceed the total receipts of the Government during such fiscal year. Provides for the phased implementation of this requirement after the ratification of this amendment. Permits expenditures to exceed national revenues in time of national emergency, but states that such expenditures shall never exceed receipts by more than ten percent. Provides that during the fourth fiscal year beginning after the ratification of this amendment and for the next 19 succeeding fiscal years thereafter, the total receipts of the Government shall exceed outlays by an amount equal to five percent of the Federal indebtedness at the beginning of the fourth year fiscal year.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Constitutional Amendment - Balanced Budget Amendment - Prohibits total Federal expenditures from exceeding total receipts. Authorizes suspension of such prohibition for a congressional term in time of war or national emergency upon the concurrence of three-fourths of the Members of both Houses of Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Constitutional Amendment - Provides that total appropriations shall not exceed estimated revenues. Authorizes the suspension of such prohibition in time of war or national emergency. Prohibits any increase in the national debt as it exists on the date this article is ratified. Sets forth a schedule for repayment of the national debt.
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