United States · United States Congress · 29 January 2003
Condemns the practice of execution by stoning, and calls upon the international community to recognize this practice as a gross violation of human rights. Requests that the President: (1) communicate this resolution to governments imposing this cruel punishment and urge the suspension of sentences of death by stoning; and (2) direct the Secretary of State to work with the international community to repeal stoning laws and adhere to international standards of human rights.
United States · United States Congress · 28 January 2003
National AMBER Alert Network Act of 2003 - Requires the Attorney General to assign an AMBER Alert Coordinator of the Department of Justice to act as the national Coordinator of the AMBER Alert communications network regarding abducted children. Requires the coordinator to: (1) seek to eliminate gaps in the network; (2) work with States to encourage the development of additional network elements and to ensure regional coordination; and (3) act as the nationwide point of contact for network development and for regional coordination of alerts on abducted children through the network. Directs the Coordinator to: (1) notify and consult with the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning each child abduction for which an AMBER Alert is issued; and (2) establish minimum standards for the issuance of alerts and for the extent of their dissemination (limited to the geographic areas most likely to facilitate the recovery of the abducted child). Requires the Secretary of Transportation to provide grants to States for the development or enhancement of notification or communications systems along highways for alerts and other information for the recovery of abducted children. Includes among permissible activities the development or enhancement of electronic message boards, and the placement of additional signage, along highways. Directs the Attorney General to provide grants to States for the development or enhancement of programs and activities for the support of AMBER Alert communications plans.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 2003
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that: (1) the Attorney General of the United States should undertake to protect and expand equality of opportunity for qualified minorities, disabled persons, and women at every opportunity; (2) Affirmative action is a powerful, effective, and necessary tool for achieving such equal opportunity without quotas and should be utilized in the public and private sectors to increase diversity and correct patterns of past and current discrimination; and (3) the President should incorporate Affirmative action into the employment, contracting, granting, educational, and program activities of the United States and all its subcontractors and grantees.
United States · United States Congress · 8 January 2003
Civic Participation and Rehabilitation Act of 2003 - Declares that the right of a U.S. citizen to vote in any election for Federal office shall not be denied or abridged because that individual has been convicted of a criminal offense, unless the individual is serving a felony sentence in a correctional institution or facility at the time of the election. Authorizes the Attorney General, in a civil action, to obtain any declaratory or injunctive relief necessary to remedy a violation of this Act. Creates a private right of action, subject to specified requirements.
United States · United States Congress · 8 January 2003
Retired Pay Restoration Act of 2003 - Permits retired members of the armed forces with service-connected disabilities to be paid both military retired pay and veterans' disability compensation. Repeals provisions providing for special compensation for certain severely disabled military retirees and certain combat-related disabled uniformed services retirees.
United States · United States Congress · 8 January 2003
Housing Bond and Credit Modernization and Fairness Act of 2003 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) repeal the required use of certain principal repayments on mortgage subsidy bond financings to redeem bonds; (2) modify the purchase price limitation under mortgage subsidy bond rules based on median family income; and (3) define the term "area median gross income" for low-income housing credit projects.
United States · United States Congress · 8 January 2003
Student Bill of Rights - Directs the Secretary of Education to make annual determinations as to whether each State's public school system provides all its students with educational resources to succeed academically and in life. Requires such education to enable students to: (1) acquire knowledge and skills necessary for responsible citizenship; (2) meet challenging academic achievement standards; and (3) compete and succeed in a global economy. Requires each system to do so through: (1) providing specified fundamentals of educational opportunity to students at each public elementary and secondary school; (2) providing educational services in school districts that receive funds for disadvantaged students that are, taken as a whole, at least comparable to educational services provided in school districts not receiving such funds; and (3) complying with any final Federal or State court order in any matter concerning the adequacy or equitableness of the system. Requires withholding of specified portions of its Federal funding for administrative expenses if a system: (1) fails to meet a yearly interim goal; (2) does not remedy, after two school years, a failure to provide comparable educational services to schools that receive funds for disadvantaged children; or (3) does not comply with a court order. Allows students or parents aggrieved by violations of this Act to bring civil actions for enforcement in Federal district courts. Directs the Commissioner of Education Statistics to study the effects of educational disparities on economic growth and on national defense.
United States · United States Congress · 7 January 2003
Amends the Microenterprise for Self-Reliance Act of 2000 to make as one of its purposes that in implementation of this Act at least 50 percent of all microenterprise assistance be targeted to the very poor, that is, those persons living either in the bottom 50 percent below the poverty line or on less than the equivalent of one dollar per day. Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1964 to authorize the President to provide assistance to increase the availability of financial services (not just credit) to microenterprise households lacking full access to credit, including through: (1) loans and guarantees to microfinance institutions to expand the availability of savings and credit to poor and low-income households; (2) training programs to enable such institutions to better meet the financial services needs of their clients; and (3) training programs to enable clients to make better use of credit, increase their financial literacy, and to better manage their enterprises to improve their quality of life. Declares that, in order to maximize the sustainable development impact of microenterprise development grant assistance authorized under the Act, the Administrator of the agency primarily responsible for administering such assistance shall establish a monitoring system that, among other things, adopts the widespread use of proven and effective poverty assessment tools to identify the poorest of the poor and ensure that they receive needed microenterprise credits, loans, and assistance. Requires the Administrator of the Agency for International Development to develop and certify no fewer than two low-cost methods for measuring the poverty levels of the current or prospective clients of microenterprise organizations for purposes of the provision of microenterprise development grant assistance.
United States · United States Congress · 7 January 2003
Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act - Establishes the Commission to Study Reparation Proposals for African-Americans to examine: (1) the institution of slavery which existed within the United States and the colonies that became the United States from 1619 through 1865; (2) the extent to which the Federal and State governments supported the institution of slavery in constitutional and statutory provisions; (3) Federal and State laws that discriminated against freed African slaves and their descendants; and (4) the lingering negative effects of the institution of slavery on living African-Americans and on society in the United States. Instructs the Commission to address the following issues when making its recommendations to Congress: (1) whether the Federal government should offer a formal apology for the perpetration of gross human rights violations on African slaves and their descendants; (2) whether African-Americans still suffer from the lingering effects of slavery; and (3) whether any form of compensation to the descendants of African slaves is warranted.
United States · United States Congress · 7 January 2003
Community Choice in Real Estate Act - Amends the Bank Holding Company Act of 1956, and the Revised Statutes of the United States, to prohibit the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Secretary of the Treasury, respectively, from determining that real estate brokerage activity or real estate management activity is financial in nature, is incidental to any financial activity, or is complementary to a financial activity. (In effect, prohibits financial holding companies and national banks from engaging, directly or indirectly, in real estate brokerage or real estate management activities.) Exempts from such prohibition: (1) activities of a bank holding company (or any affiliate) that directly relate to managing any real property owned by national banks or their affiliates; and (2) the right, power, or ability of any financial holding company to engage in any activity, or acquire or retain the shares of any company engaged in an activity authorized for financial holding companies on December 6, 2001 ("grandfather clause").
United States · United States Congress · 7 January 2003
Homeland Emergency Responders Organization Act of 2002 - Amends the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to include an incident of terrorism within its definition of "major disaster" for purposes of authorized disaster relief. Establishes in the Federal Emergency Management Agency the Office of National Preparedness, to be headed by a Deputy Director who shall establish standards for: (1) emergency communications equipment to ensure interoperability, and equipment to be used by personnel responsible for homeland preparedness or security, or both, that are under the jurisdiction of a first responder to respond to incidents of terrorism (including incidents involving weapons of mass destruction incidents); (2) terrorism preparedness and response by State governments to ensure interstate and intrastate response capabilities; and (3) training of such personnel. Directs the Deputy Director to lead a coordinated and integrated effort to build a nationwide viable terrorism preparedness and response capability, including the creation of a Web site for use by States and local first responders to share information on homeland security preparedness. Directs the Deputy Director to establish a program to make grants to first responders and States to prepare for and respond to incidents of terrorism, including incidents involving weapons of mass destruction. Sets forth grant requirements.
United States · United States Congress · 7 January 2003
Clean Water Infrastructure Financing Act of 2003 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to remove certain requirements for States with respect to construction of treatment works under capitalization grant agreements. Requires architectural and engineering contracts to be awarded consistent with procedures under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 or an equivalent State qualifications-based requirement. Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to assist States in establishing simplified procedures for small water systems to obtain assistance under the Act. Requires revolving funds to be used only for providing assistance for activities which have as a principal benefit the improvement or protection of water quality of navigable waters. Makes revisions concerning uses of funds for: (1) innovative technologies; (2) administrative expenses; (3) small system technical, planning, and management assistance; and (4) financially distressed communities. Revises requirements related to consistency with plans and eligibility of treatment works not considered publicly owned. Requires States to make grants to financially distressed communities in any fiscal year in which the Administrator has more than $1.4 billion available for obligation and allows a State to give priority to such communities in making loans. Directs the Administrator to provide technical and financial assistance to owners and operators of publicly-owned treatment works for: (1) inventorying critical treatment works assets; (2) evaluating the performance and condition of these assets; and (3) developing a plan for maintaining and replacing treatment works. Reauthorizes appropriations for FY 2004 through 2008 for the revolving fund program.
![Official portrait of Rep. Meek, Kendrick B. [D-FL-17]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/m001148_200.jpg)