United States · United States Congress · 13 April 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Countervailing and Antidumping Duty Amendments Title II: Intellectual Property Amendments Title III: Market Opening Measures GATT Fair Trade Enforcement Act of 1994 - Title I: Countervailing and Antidumping Duty Amendments - Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to require every importer of record making an entry of merchandise to declare: (1) whether such merchandise is subject to any antidumping or countervailing duty order; and (2) whether the importer disclosed to the manufacturer of such merchandise in the country of exportation that its destination is the United States. (Sec. 101) Requires such importer with respect to merchandise subject to an antidumping duty order to disclose to the manufacturer that such merchandise has been purchased for exportation to the United States, unless at the time of purchase, the importer did not: (1) intend to export the merchandise to the United States; (2) import it for a period of at least six months from the date of purchase; and (3) regularly engage in a pattern of importation of such merchandise. Subjects importers who fail to make such disclosures to Federal prosecution. (Sec. 102) Sets forth an alternative method for determining the exporter's sales price. (Sec. 103) Directs the International Trade Commission (ITC), with respect to the award of compensation, to forward to the Commissioner of the United States Customs Service within 60 days of the issuance of an antidumping or countervailing duty order a list of petitioners and companies that support the petition with respect to the dollar value of their shipments during the last year covered by the original ITC investigation. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary) to establish a special compensation account composed of all antidumping or countervailing duties, including interest, that are collected under a antidumping or countervailing duty order. (Sec. 104) Declares that diversionary input dumping occurs when: (1) a manufacturer incorporates into merchandise under investigation a component which is the subject of an antidumping duty order, a finding issued under the Antidumping Act, 1921, or an international agreement or agreement to eliminate the injurious effect of imports that is entered into after an affirmative preliminary determination with respect to antidumping; and (2) such manufacturer under investigation purchased such component at a price which is less than the foreign market value. Requires the administering authority to commence an antidumping investigation whenever it has reasonable grounds to believe that: (1) diversionary input dumping is occurring; (2) it has a significant effect on the cost of producing the merchandise under investigation; and (3) subsequent to the imposition of an antidumping duty order or entry into force of an agreement relating to the components in question, U.S.-bound shipments of the merchandise under investigation have increased. Provides for extension of the period of time for preliminary determinations of diversionary input dumping by the administering authority. (Sec. 105) Requires the administering authority to decide that a competitive benefit has been bestowed when the price for the input product is lower than the price that the manufacturer of merchandise which is the subject of a countervailing duty proceeding would otherwise pay for the product in obtaining it from an unsubsidized seller (currently any seller) in an arms-length transaction. Sets forth specified factors to be considered in the determination of such price. (Sec. 106) Revises the method by which the administering authority determines the foreign market value of dumped merchandise with respect to their sale at less than the cost of production in their home market. (Sec. 107) Requires the administering authority, when determining whether imported parts or components are circumventing an antidumping or countervailing duty order or finding, and whether to include such parts or components in such order or finding, to consider, among other things, the value and sources of supply parts or components historically used in completion or assembly of the merchandise subject to such order. Authorizes the administering authority to include within the scope of such order or finding imported parts or components used in the completion or assembly of certain merchandise sold in the United States and subject to such order or finding, provided: (1) such merchandise is completed or assembled in the United States or a foreign country from parts or components supplied by the exporter or producer with respect to which such order or finding applies, from suppliers that have historically supplied the parts or components to that exporter or producer, or from any party in the exporting country supplying parts or components on behalf of such exporter or producer; (2) the difference between the value of such imported parts and components and the total value of all parts or components used in the assembly or completion operation, excluding packing, is significant; and (3) consideration of specified factors established a pattern of circumvention of such order or finding. (Sec. 108) Declares that if an antidumping duty petition alleges its petitioning members of the domestic industry account for 25 percent or more of the total production of the like product produced by it, the administering authority shall not be required to further investigate the standing of such petitioners unless a written objection to initiation is filed by a member of the domestic industry. (Sec. 109) Revises, for purposes of determining the foreign market value of imported merchandise, the method for calculating its constructed value. (Sec. 110) Revises provisions regarding the: (1) administrative review, and period of time for review, of quantitative import restriction agreements and antidumping duty or countervailing duty orders or findings; (2) revocation of such orders or findings; and (3) termination of suspended antidumping duty or countervailing duty investigations. (Sec. 111) Revises provisions regarding: (1) foreign market value determinations with respect to imported merchandise to include the effects of fluctuations in currency exchange rates; (2) sampling and averaging in determining the U.S. price or foreign market value of imported merchandise; (3) market viability as it relates to foreign market value determinations; (4) negligible imports as they affect material injury determinations; (5) captive production as it relates to defining the domestic industry; and (6) adjustments to the calculation of the exporter's sales price of merchandise. Title II: Intellectual Property Amendments - Amends the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 to revise and specify new U.S. objectives with respect to the international protection of intellectual property rights. (Sec. 202) Prohibits the President from negotiating any new free trade agreement with a foreign country, unless such country: (1) has substantially implemented the Uruguay Round Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS); and (2) expresses willingness to negotiate an agreement with the United States to provide intellectual property protection equivalent to that set forth in the Model Intellectual Property Agreement. Requires the President to amend existing free trade agreements to provide greater protection of such rights. Prohibits fast track procedures from applying to any implementing legislation of a free trade agreement if the above-mentioned requirements are not met. (Sec. 203) Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to require the United States Trade Representative (USTR), among other things, to identify those foreign countries that deny non-discriminatory market access opportunities for U.S. persons, including access related to any exploitation or enjoyment of commercial benefits from exercising rights in protected works, fixations, or products embodying protected works. Sets forth additional factors the USTR must take into account in identifying a priority foreign country. Revises provisions regarding a foreign country's denial of: (1) adequate protection of intellectual property rights; and (2) fair market access. Specifies when a foreign country denies non-discriminatory market access opportunities for U.S. persons in respect of establishing business operations or any use, benefit, or exploitation of protected works, fixations, or products embodying protected rights. (Sec. 204) Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to make it unlawful for an owner, distributor, or consignee to sell articles, including semiconductor chip products, in the United States that: (1) infringe a valid U.S. patent or copyright; (2) are made or mined by means of a process covered by a valid U.S. patent; (3) infringe a valid U.S. trademark; and (4) infringe a mask work. Requires the Secretary of Commerce to investigate any violations committed under this Act. Sets forth civil penalties. (Sec. 205) Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to prohibit the President, one year after the effective date of the Uruguay Round Agreement establishing the World Trade Organization, from designating any country a beneficiary developing country if it has not implemented the TRIPS. Authorizes the President to designate: (1) a least developed country a beneficiary developing country for four additional years; and (2) a non-least developed country certified to the Congress to be making significant progress toward implementation of TRIPS a beneficiary developing country for one additional year. (Sec. 206) Requires the USTR to: (1) maintain a Model Intellectual Property Agreement that embodies provisions for intellectual property protection that strengthen the standards contained in TRIPS and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); and (2) review periodically the Model Intellectual Property Agreement to ensure it reflects new developments in intellectual property protection and new technologies. (Sec. 207) Requires the Secretary of State to instruct all heads of U.S. diplomatic missions abroad to include intellectual property protection as a priority objective of the mission. (Sec. 208) Requires the USTR to develop a procedure to ensure the exchange of information between interested U.S. private sector representatives and the USTR in preparation for international intellectual property-related dispute settlement proceedings to which the United States is a party. (Sec. 209) Authorizes the President to undertake specified actions with respect to developing countries to encourage them to improve their protection of intellectual property. (Sec. 210) Urges the USTR to negotiate with foreign countries the implementation of the border enforcement provisions against the importation of infringing goods enumerated in TRIPS, and if warranted, require those countries that chronically violate intellectual property rights to establish an export control monitoring system. Title III: Market Opening Measures - Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to authorize the President to impose civil penalties on foreign or domestic persons that engage in restrictive business practices, including price-fixing, bid-rigging, joint restraint of output, market allocation, boycotts, tying arrangements, or similar activities, when such practices foreclose U.S. exports or burden or restrict U.S. foreign commerce. Authorizes the President to negotiate settlement agreements with parties or governments which result in the elimination of: (1) the practice under investigation; or (2) the restriction on U.S. exports or the burden or restriction on U.S. commerce. Provides for the imposition of civil penalties. (Sec. 302) Authorizes the President to take trade action with respect to any area pertinent to relations with a foreign country that is that target of such action, including but not limited to, trade in any goods or services. Declares unreasonable any act, policy, or practice which denies fair and equitable provision of adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights, notwithstanding that the foreign country may have implemented TRIPS or any other bilateral, regional, or multilateral agreement with respect to intellectual property protection. Requires the USTR to initiate an investigation whenever a petition alleges that: (1) a foreign country fails to provide adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights; and (2) acts, policies, or practices of the country either deny benefits to the United States under a trade agreement, or burden or restrict U.S. commerce. (Sec. 303) Expresses the sense of the Congress that every effort be taken to conclude the Multilateral Steel Agreement (MSA) before implementation of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Declares that a principal U.S. negotiating objective in the MSA shall be to obtain rules ensuring the elimination of all injurious subsidies. Requires, prior to implementation of GATT, that U.S. negotiators consider the potential impact the elimination of tariffs on specialty steel products would have on the specialty steel industry absent a successful conclusion of the MSA.
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Aviation Investment Act of 1994 Title II: Federal Aviation Act of 1958 Amendments Title III: Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Act of 1979 Amendments Title IV: General Provisions Title V: Amendments to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 Title I: Aviation Investment Act of 1994 - Aviation Investment Act of 1994 - Amends the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982 to declare that it is in the national interest to encourage projects that employ innovative technology that promotes safety, capacity, and efficiency improvements in air transportation. (Sec. 103) Makes the acquisition or installation by a public-use airport of explosive detection devices and universal access systems an "airport development" activity. (Sec. 104) Authorizes appropriations for: (1) FY 1994 through 1997 for airport development and airport planning projects; (2) FY 1996 through 1997 for airport improvement projects; and (3) FY 1995 through 1997 for research, engineering and development, and demonstration projects. (Sec. 107) Authorizes the appropriation of the balance of available funds in the Airport and Airway Trust Fund for costs incurred by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in operating the aviation system in a safe and efficient manner. (Sec. 109) Extends through FY 1997 the requirement that any obligation or expenditure of amounts appropriated from the Trust Fund for navigation services and facilities be expressly authorized by amendment of specified law. (Sec. 110) Declares that, if the Congress limits the apportionment for airport development and airport planning projects in any fiscal year to less than $1.9 billion, the total apportionment for primary and cargo service airports shall not exceed 44 percent of such amount. (Sec. 111) Requires not less than five percent (currently, ten percent) of funds for airport development and airport planning to be distributed to reliever airports. Requires not less than 1.5 (currently, 2.5 percent) of such funds to be distributed to: (1) nonprimary commercial service airports; and (2) certain noncommercial service public airports. Makes permanent the set-aside of airport development and airport planning funds for the development of current and former military airports. (Sec. 112) Authorizes the Secretary of Transportation (Secretary) to designate one or more military airports to receive such funds. Requires the Secretary in making such designations to consider only those military airports listed in the reports issued by the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission whose conversion would enhance civil airport and air traffic control system capacity. Authorizes the Secretary to designate military airport set-aside participation to obtain grants to operate and repair airport facilities during the transition to civil operations. Limits participants who receive such funds to $250,000 apiece. (Sec. 113) Reduces from two to one the minimum number of airports that may benefit from a State's project application for airport development or airport planning projects. (Sec. 114) Allows as a project cost reimbursable by the U.S. Government airport development and airport planning costs incurred: (1) not more than two years before a project grant agreement was executed; (2) after September 30, 1993; (3) in accordance with an approved airport layout plan and applicable statutory requirements; and (4) after the Secretary's approval. (Sec. 115) Allows the unlimited use of discretionary funds for terminal development at commercial service airports enplaning no more than .05 percent of the total U.S. enplanements (small airports) annually. (Sec. 116) Declares that nothing in such Act shall be construed to prohibit the obligation of amounts for airport development and planning projects pursuant to a letter of intent in the same fiscal year as the letter of intent is issued. (Sec. 117) Extends the State block grant pilot program for airport development and planning through September 30, 1997. Authorizes such program to provide funding for integrated airport system planning. Requires such planning to include at least one primary airport enplanning 0.25 percent or more of the total number of passengers enplanned annually at all commercial services airports. (Sec. 118) Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to State and local governments for land use compatibility planning projects that make the use of land areas around airports compatible with aircraft operations. (Sec. 119) Authorizes the Administrator of the FAA to contract with the Center for Aviation Research and Education of the National Association of State Aviation Officials for the collection of airport safety data. (Sec. 120) Revises the term "integrated airport system planning" to include, among other things, the role which airports play in the transportation system in a specific area. Mandates that not less than one percent (currently, one-half of one percent) of airport development and airport planning funds be distributed during each fiscal year to planning agencies for integrated airport system planning. Sets forth certain requirements for the approval of a grant to a planning agency for integrated airport system planning. (Sec. 121) Authorizes the Secretary, in a manner that advances the overall infrastructure needs of the aviation sector of the nation's economy, to enter into innovative financing agreements that produce a greater amount of investment in airport development per dollar of Federal expenditure than generally prevails in the existing Federal airport improvement program. Authorizes appropriations. Title II: Federal Aviation Act of 1958 Amendments - Amends the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to authorize the Administrator of the FAA to enter into cooperative agreements on a cost-shared basis with Federal and non-Federal entities to promote aviation research, engineering, and development, including the development of prototypes and demonstration models. (Sec. 202) Authorizes the Administrator of the FAA to provide safety-related training and operational services for foreign aviation authorities with or without reimbursement, if it promotes aviation safety or U.S. aviation interests. Requires reimbursed air travel, to the extent practicable, to be provided on U.S. air carriers. (Sec. 203) Authorizes the Administrator of the FAA to collect fees for providing the following aviation services outside the United States: any test, authorization, certificate, permit, rating, evaluation, approval, inspection, or review. (Sec. 204) Revises the mandatory features of a fee proposal the Secretary must find when granting a public agency controlling a commercial service airport the authority to impose a passenger facility fee to finance specific projects. Requires the application for such authority to include adequate justification for each of the specific projects. Title III: Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Act of 1979 Amendments - Amends the Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Act of 1979 to revise and make uniform the Federal share of costs for airport noise compatibility projects. (Sec. 302) Provides for projects to soundproof residential buildings if specified conditions are met. (Sec. 303) Repeals a certain annual reporting requirement concerning the status of the implementation of collision avoidance systems in the national air traffic control system. Title IV: General Provisions - Requires compensation received by the United States from the transfer of the San Jacinto Disposal Area to the City of Galveston, Texas, to include compensation to the FAA for costs to replace existing airway facilities on such area. (Sec. 402) Amends the Aviation Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 to provide certain waiver authority with respect to foreign air carriers. (Sec. 403) Amends the Airport and Airway Development Act of 1970 to repeal a provision requiring local government approval of airport development projects for general aviation airports that are located astride a line separating two counties within a single State. Title V: Amendments to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend certain aviation-related taxes and trust fund spending authority.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 1994
United States Botanic Garden Commemorative Coin Act of 1995 - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to: (1) issue one-dollar silver coins to commemorate the 175th anniversary of the founding of the United States Botanic Garden; and (2) pay all surcharges received from such coin sales to the National Fund for the United States Botanic Garden.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 1994
Applauds the President for maintaining the U.S. nuclear testing moratorium and for taking a leadership role toward negotiation of a comprehensive test ban treaty. Encourages all nuclear powers to refrain from conducting nuclear explosions prior to conclusion of such a treaty. Urges the Conference on Disarmanent to make all possible progress toward a comprehensive test ban treaty by the end of 1994.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 1994
A Child is Waiting Resolution - Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) any health care reform legislation include guaranteed full funding for the special supplemental food program for women, infants, and children (WIC); and (2) specified amounts should be made available to move toward such full funding goal.
United States · United States Congress · 23 March 1994
Governors Island Reinforcement Act of 1994 - Sets forth trade, assistance, and air transport sanctions against Haiti, and against other nations not cooperating with U.S. or international sanctions. Terminates such sanctions upon the reinstatement of the democratically elected President of Haiti and the military's meeting its obligation under the Governors Island Agreement. States congressional support for: (1) the return of human rights observers to Haiti; (2) the creation of a multinational border patrol between Haiti and the Dominican Republic; and (3) socioeconomic and peacekeeping assistance to Haiti. Directs the President to terminate the bilateral migrant interdiction agreement with Haiti. Provides for the nonrefoulement of Haitians by the United States. Grants temporary protected status under the Immigration and Nationality Act to qualifying Haitians. Excludes from U.S. admission, and blocks U.S. assets of, certain Haitians connected with the military or related activities.
United States · United States Congress · 17 March 1994
Youth Development Block Grant Act of 1993 - Establishes a youth development block grant program. Authorizes appropriations. Sets forth formulas for allocation of funds to States and for distribution of funds through State commissions to local boards for community-based youth development services. Requires establishment of county or multicounty Local Youth Development Boards to receive such assistance. Requires establishment of a State Youth Development Commission in each State desiring to receive such assistance. Establishes a National Youth Development Commission to advise the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services on implementation of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 17 March 1994
National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Coin Act - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue gold and silver coins emblematic of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. Establishes the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Maintenance Fund to be administered by the Secretary of the Interior for Memorial-related purposes and to provide educational scholarships to the immediate family members of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty whose names appear on the Memorial.
United States · United States Congress · 16 March 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Comprehensive Program for Worker Reemployment Title II: One-Stop Career Center System Title III: National Labor Market Information System Title IV: Reinvention Labs for Job Training for the Economically Disadvantaged Reemployment Act of 1994 - Establishes: (1) a comprehensive program for worker reemployment; (2) a one-stop career center system; (3) a national labor market information system; and (4) reinvention labs for job training for the economically disadvantaged. (Sec. 4) Authorizes appropriations for titles I, III, and IV of this Act. Title I: Comprehensive Program for Worker Reemployment - Allots funds among States and reserves certain funds for national activities. (Sec. 103) Makes certain permanently laid-off workers and long-term unemployed individuals (as well as workers facing imminent plant shutdowns and self-employed individuals unemployed because of community economic conditions or natural disasters) eligible for services under this title. Makes dislocated homemakers eligible if a State Governor deems this appropriate and certain conditions are met. Part A: State and Substate Delivery System - Makes States responsible for administrative and management systems under this title. (Sec. 112) Requires the Governor to designate or establish a dislocated worker unit at the State level, with specified rapid response, information, and coordination functions. Directs such unit to coordinate with substate grantees and career centers, and to promote worker-management transition assistance committees. Provides for rapid response coverage of certain layoffs, State funding of preliminary assessments of worker buyouts of plants, prohibition of State transfer of rapid response functions, and Federal oversight of such functions. (Sec. 113) Requires the Governor to develop and maintain a comprehensive labor market information system in the State that meets certain requirements relating to the national system of effective labor market information. (Sec. 114) Requires the Governor to coordinate programs under this title with the worker profiling system under the Social Security Act and the retraining income support program under this Act. (Sec. 115) Authorizes the Governor to award supplementary grants to eligible entities to provide authorized services to eligible individuals in areas of the State experiencing substantial increases in numbers of such individuals due to plant closures, base closures, and mass layoffs. Allows such grant funds to be used to establish additional service centers, including on-site transition centers. (Sec. 116) Authorizes the Governor to award job retention project grants for: (1) upgrading skills of workers at risk of permanent layoff; and (2) retraining workers in new technologies and work processes to help convert or restructure businesses into high performance work organizations and avert plant closings or substantial layoffs. Requires State and employer contributions. Requires consultation with unions. (Sec. 117) Requires establishment of substate area administrative structures. (Sec. 118) Requires each designated substate grantee to establish one or more career centers in that area. Allows additional, temporary on-site transition centers. (Sec. 119) Authorizes the use of substate area funds for the following services for eligible individuals: (1) basic reemployment services; (2) intensive reemployment services; (3) education and training services; (4) retraining income support; (5) supportive services; and (6) supplemental wage allowances for older workers. (Sec. 120) Allows a career center to issue a certificate of continuing eligibility for services to eligible individuals who are accepting employment at a significantly lower wage than their previous one or in an occupation significantly different from their previous one. Part B: Federal Service Delivery System - Directs the Secretary of Labor to establish a program of national discretionary grants to address large-scale economic dislocations resulting from plant closures, base closures, or mass layoffs. Allows the use of such grants to: (1) provide comprehensive planning services to assist communities in addressing and reducing the impact of an economic dislocation; and (2) establish on-site transition centers. (Sec. 132) Directs the Secretary to make funds available for disaster relief employment assistance to States for substate allocation. (Sec. 133) Directs the Secretary to provide for: (1) evaluation of programs under this title; (2) research on addressing economic dislocation, facilitating the transition of permanently laid-off workers to reemployment, and upgrading skills of employed workers; and (3) demonstration projects to develop and improve methods of addressing economic dislocation and promoting worker adjustment. (Sec. 134) Directs the Secretary to provide staff training and technical assistance to various entities to enhance their capacity to develop and deliver adjustment assistance services to workers, and to avert plant closings or substantial layoffs. Requires integration of such activities with those of the Capacity Building and Information and Dissemination Network. (Sec. 135) Directs the Secretary to provide for delivery of programs, activities, and services under this title in any State that chooses not to participate. Part C: Performance Standards and Quality Assurance Systems - Directs the Secretary to establish a process, including an annual meeting, in each State to promote development of a customer service compact among parties administering programs under this title. (Sec. 152) Directs the Secretary to prescribe performance standards relating separately to the substate grantees and the career centers. Directs Governors to prescribe adjustments to such standards and award incentive grants to grantees and centers exceeding such standards. (Sec. 153) Requires each substate grantee to establish methods for obtaining customer feedback from eligible individuals and employers who have received services from a career center. (Sec. 154) Makes providers of education and training services eligible to receive funds under this title if they are eligible to participate under student aid provisions of the Higher Education Act of 1965 or are determined eligible under alternative procedures established by Governors, and if they provide performance-based information. Exempts on-the-job training providers from such requirements. Part D: General Requirements - Sets forth general requirements for programs under this title, including provisions for benefits, labor standards, and grievance procedures. Part E: Fiscal Administrative Provisions - Sets forth various administrative provisions, including ones for program year, prompt allocation of funds, monitoring, fiscal controls and sanctions, reports, recordkeeping, and investigations, administrative adjudication, nondiscrimination, judicial review, nondiscrimination, and criminal provisions. Part F: Miscellaneous Provisions - Provides for transition, on July 1, 1995, to programs authorized under this title from the following programs, which this Act repeals, under employment and training assistance for dislocated workers provisions of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA): (1) Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance program; (2) Defense Conversion Adjustment Program; (3) Defense Diversification Program; and (4) Clean Air Employment Transition Assistance Program. Terminates the Disaster Relief Employment Assistance program under JTPA. Title II: One-Stop Career Center System - Part A: Components of Voluntary One-Stop Career Center System - Requires a State's one-stop career center system, in order to receive a grant or waiver under this title, to include: (1) local workforce investment boards; (2) one-stop career centers established in accordance with specified procedures; (3) provision of specified services; (4) participation of specified Federal programs; (5) operating agreements for such centers; (6) quality assurance systems; and (6) a State Human Resource Investment Council. (Sec. 212) Directs the Governor to designate one-stop service areas within the State. Directs local officials to establish a workforce investment board for each such area. (Sec. 213) Directs the Governor and local officials to jointly select a consortium option or a multiple independent operator option as the method for establishing one-stop career centers for each service area. (Sec. 214) Requires each center to make available: (1) certain basic services to the public free of charge; and (2) certain intensive services to participants in the title I comprehensive program for worker reemployment who are unable to obtain employment through the basic services (and, optionally, to other individuals in accordance with the written agreement). Authorizes each center to provide specialized services to employers and additional services specified in the agreement. Authorizes charging fees under specified conditions, with all program income to be used to expand or enhance services. (Sec. 215) Requires the following programs to be made available to participants through the centers (and to participate in operation of such centers as parties to the agreement): (1) comprehensive programs for worker reemployment under title I of this Act; (2) Wagner-Peyser Act programs (employment services); (3) job counseling, training, and placement for veterans; (4) training services for the disadvantaged under title II of JTPA; (5) community service employment for older Americans programs under title V of the Older Americans Act; and (6) programs authorized under Federal and State unemployment compensation laws. Allows other human resource programs to provide services through and participate in operation of the centers, under specified conditions, including the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills program for AFDC recipients, the Food Stamp Employment and Training program, the Job Corps, veterans' employment programs under JTPA, and programs under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, Adult Education Act, Vocational Rehabilitation Act, and School-to-Work Opportunities Act. (Sec. 216) Sets forth requirements for operating agreements and quality assurance systems. (Sec. 218) Requires each State to establish a State human resource investment council that meets specified JTPA requirements and carries out certain additional functions including advising on development and implementation of the one-stop career center system. Part B: Grants and Waivers to Promote the Development and Implementation of One-Stop Career Center System - Authorizes the Secretary to establish programs of competitive grants to States for planning and development and for implementation of comprehensive statewide networks of one-stop career centers. (Sec. 233) Allows a State, at any point during such development or implementation, to request from the Secretary a waiver of one or more statutory or regulatory provisions. Sets forth waiver criteria. Subjects to such waiver authority the mandatory participating programs of the centers. (Sec. 234) Provides for pooling of administrative resources. Part C: Additional Activities in Support of One-Stop Career Center Systems - Directs the Secretary to establish a process, with each State implementing the one-stop career center system, including an annual meeting, to promote development of a customer service compact among the parties administering the system. (Sec. 235) Makes each State implementing such a system responsible for administration, management, monitoring, and technical assistance. (Sec. 236) Makes the Secretary responsible for monitoring compliance, staff training and technical assistance (integrated with the Capacity Building and Information Dissemination Network under JTPA), a national logo and name, and evaluation of one-stop career center programs. Part D: Effective Date - Sets forth effective dates for this title and for performance standards. Title III: National Labor Market Information System - Directs the Secretary to develop, in coordination with other Federal, State, and local entities, a strategy to establish a nationwide system of local labor market information. (Sec. 303) Directs the Secretary, in cooperation with such other entities and public-private partnerships, to develop such system to make available specified types of information. Requires certain technical standards, consumer reports, and evaluation. (Sec. 304) Directs the Secretary to provide for coordination and integration of such system and appropriate dissemination of information. Title IV: Reinvention Labs for Job Training for the Economically Disadvantaged - Amends the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to establish a five-year Reinvention Labs program to: (1) encourage innovative program designs to improve provision of services to and labor market outcomes for economically disadvantaged youth and adults; (2) develop, through service delivery areas (SDAs) and States, knowledge of effective approaches to providing employment and training to the economically disadvantaged; and (3) provide SDAs with increased flexibility in operating job training programs, in exchange for greater accountability. (Sec. 401) Sets forth requirements for SDA applications for waivers of Federal requirements relating to JTPA programs for employment and training of the economically disadvantaged. Authorizes the Secretary to waive certain of such requirements under specified conditions and to provide technical assistance to SDAs, States, and service providers for Reinvention Labs programs. (Sec. 402) Modifies the definition of tuition under JTPA.
United States · United States Congress · 16 March 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Comprehensive Program for Worker Reemployment Title II: Retraining Income Support and Flexibility in Unemployment Compensation Title III: One-Stop Career Center System Title IV: National Labor Market Information System Title V: Reinvention Labs for Job Training for the Economically Disadvantaged Reemployment Act of 1994 - Establishes: (1) a comprehensive program for worker reemployment; (2) retraining income support and flexibility in unemployment compensation; (3) a one-stop career center system; (4) a national labor market information system; and (5) reinvention labs for job training for the economically disadvantaged. (Sec. 4) Authorizes appropriations for titles I, III, and IV of this Act. Title I: Comprehensive Program for Worker Reemployment - Allots funds among States and reserves certain funds for national activities. (Sec. 103) Makes certain permanently laid-off workers and long-term unemployed individuals (as well as workers facing imminent plant shutdowns and self-employed individuals unemployed because of community economic conditions or natural disasters) eligible for services under this title. Makes dislocated homemakers eligible if a State Governor deems this appropriate and certain conditions are met. Part A: State and Substate Delivery System - Makes States responsible for administrative and management systems under this title. (Sec. 112) Requires the Governor to designate or establish a dislocated worker unit at the State level, with specified rapid response, information, and coordination functions. Directs such unit to coordinate with substate grantees and career centers, and to promote worker-management transition assistance committees. Provides for rapid response coverage of certain layoffs, State funding of preliminary assessments of worker buyouts of plants, prohibition of State transfer of rapid response functions, and Federal oversight of such functions. (Sec. 113) Requires the Governor to develop and maintain a comprehensive labor market information system in the State that meets certain requirements relating to the national system of effective labor market information. (Sec. 114) Requires the Governor to coordinate programs under this title with the worker profiling system under the Social Security Act and the retraining income support program under this Act. (Sec. 115) Authorizes the Governor to award supplementary grants to eligible entities to provide authorized services to eligible individuals in areas of the State experiencing substantial increases in numbers of such individuals due to plant closures, base closures, and mass layoffs. Allows such grant funds to be used to establish additional service centers, including on-site transition centers. (Sec. 116) Authorizes the Governor to award job retention project grants for: (1) upgrading skills of workers at risk of permanent layoff; and (2) retraining workers in new technologies and work processes to help convert or restructure businesses into high performance work organizations and avert plant closings or substantial layoffs. Requires State and employer contributions. Requires consultation with unions. (Sec. 117) Requires establishment of substate area administrative structures. (Sec. 118) Requires each designated substate grantee to establish one or more career centers in that area. Allows additional, temporary on-site transition centers. (Sec. 119) Authorizes the use of substate area funds for the following services for eligible individuals: (1) basic reemployment services; (2) intensive reemployment services; (3) education and training services; (4) retraining income support; (5) supportive services; and (6) supplemental wage allowances for older workers. (Sec. 120) Allows a career center to issue a certificate of continuing eligibility for services to eligible individuals who are accepting employment at a significantly lower wage than their previous one or in an occupation significantly different from their previous one. Part B: Federal Service Delivery System - Directs the Secretary of Labor to establish a program of national discretionary grants to address large-scale economic dislocations resulting from plant closures, base closures, or mass layoffs. Allows the use of such grants to: (1) provide comprehensive planning services to assist communities in addressing and reducing the impact of an economic dislocation; and (2) establish on-site transition centers. (Sec. 132) Directs the Secretary to make funds available for disaster relief employment assistance to States for substate allocation. (Sec. 133) Directs the Secretary to provide for: (1) evaluation of programs under this title; (2) research on addressing economic dislocation, facilitating the transition of permanently laid-off workers to reemployment, and upgrading skills of employed workers; and (3) demonstration projects to develop and improve methods of addressing economic dislocation and promoting worker adjustment. (Sec. 134) Directs the Secretary to provide staff training and technical assistance to various entities to enhance their capacity to develop and deliver adjustment assistance services to workers, and to avert plant closings or substantial layoffs. Requires integration of such activities with those of the Capacity Building and Information and Dissemination Network. (Sec. 135) Directs the Secretary to provide for delivery of programs, activities, and services under this title in any State that chooses not to participate. Part C: Performance Standards and Quality Assurance Systems - Directs the Secretary to establish a process, including an annual meeting, in each State to promote development of a customer service compact among parties administering programs under this title. (Sec. 152) Directs the Secretary to prescribe performance standards relating separately to the substate grantees and the career centers. Directs Governors to prescribe adjustments to such standards and award incentive grants to grantees and centers exceeding such standards. (Sec. 153) Requires each substate grantee to establish methods for obtaining customer feedback from eligible individuals and employers who have received services from a career center. (Sec. 154) Makes providers of education and training services eligible to receive funds under this title if they are eligible to participate under student aid provisions of the Higher Education Act of 1965 or are determined eligible under alternative procedures established by Governors, and if they provide performance-based information. Exempts on-the-job training providers from such requirements. Part D: General Requirements - Sets forth general requirements for programs under this title, including provisions for benefits, labor standards, and grievance procedures. Part E: Fiscal Administrative Provisions - Sets forth various administrative provisions, including ones for program year, prompt allocation of funds, monitoring, fiscal controls and sanctions, reports, recordkeeping, and investigations, administrative adjudication, nondiscrimination, judicial review, nondiscrimination, and criminal provisions. Part F: Miscellaneous Provisions - Provides for transition, on July 1, 1995, to programs authorized under this title from the following programs, which this Act repeals, under employment and training assistance for dislocated workers provisions of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA): (1) Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance program; (2) Defense Conversion Adjustment Program; (3) Defense Diversification Program; and (4) Clean Air Employment Transition Assistance Program. Terminates the Disaster Relief Employment Assistance program under JTPA. Title II: Retraining Income Support and Flexibility in Unemployment Compensation - Part A: Retraining Income Support Program - Establishes a retraining income support program to assist permanently laid-off individuals participating in long-term training programs. (Sec. 202) Sets forth eligibility requirements for tenured workers (who have been employed for more than three years before being permanently laid off) and for trade-impacted workers. Provides, at a later date, for additional eligibility coverage for workers who have been employed for more than one year but less than three years before being permanently laid-off. (Sec. 203) Sets forth formulae for determining weekly amounts of such assistance. (Sec. 204) Limits the maximum duration of such assistance to: (1) 52 weeks for individuals with three years or more of job tenure; and (2) 26 weeks for individuals with less than three years of job tenure. Provides for coordination with the extended unemployment compensation benefit program. (Sec. 205) Provides for agreements with States, administration absent State agreement, liabilities of certifying and disbursing officers, fraud and recovery of overpayments, and penalties. Part B: Retraining Income Support Account - Amends the Social Security Act to establish a Retraining Income Support Account in the Unemployment Trust Fund. Provides for transfers to such Account and transfers to States. (Sec. 222) Provides for funds to assist States in administering cash benefits for retraining income support. Part C: Financing Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to raise the rate of the Federal unemployment tax. (Sec. 232) Provides for voluntary withholding of Federal individual income tax on unemployment and other benefits, including retraining income support. Requires States to provide for a system for deduction and withholding of Federal individual income tax from unemployment compensation upon the recipient's voluntary request. Part D: Integration of Trade-Impacted Workers into the Comprehensive Reemployment System - Phases out the trade adjustment assistance program. (Sec. 242) Establishes within the Department of Labor a temporary, transitional certification program to integrate trade-impacted workers into the comprehensive system of worker reemployment and retraining income support. Part E: Unemployment Compensation Flexibility - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow States, under their unemployment compensation programs, to conduct: (1) short-time compensation programs; (2) reemployment bonus programs. (Sec. 253) Amends the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act to repeal a sunset provision which would terminate the self-employment assistance program after five years. (Thus this Act extends such program indefinitely.) Title III: One-Stop Career Center System - Part A: Components of Voluntary One-Stop Career Center System - Requires a State's one-stop career center system, in order to receive a grant or waiver under this title, to include: (1) local workforce investment boards; (2) one-stop career centers established in accordance with specified procedures; (3) provision of specified services; (4) participation of specified Federal programs; (5) operating agreements for such centers; (6) quality assurance systems; and (6) a State Human Resource Investment Council. (Sec. 312) Directs the Governor to designate one-stop service areas within the State. Directs local officials to establish a workforce investment board for each such area. (Sec. 313) Directs the Governor and local officials to jointly select a consortium option or a multiple independent operator option as the method for establishing one-stop career centers for each service area. (Sec. 314) Requires each center to make available: (1) certain basic services to the public free of charge; and (2) certain intensive services to participants in the title I comprehensive program for worker reemployment who are unable to obtain employment through the basic services (and, optionally, to other individuals in accordance with the written agreement). Authorizes each center to provide specialized services to employers and additional services specified in the agreement. Authorizes charging fees under specified conditions, with all program income to be used to expand or enhance services. (Sec. 315) Requires the following programs to be made available to participants through the centers (and to participate in operation of such centers as parties to the agreement): (1) comprehensive programs for worker reemployment under title I of this Act; (2) Wagner-Peyser Act programs (employment services); (3) job counseling, training, and placement for veterans; (4) training services for the disadvantaged under title II of JTPA; (5) community service employment for older Americans programs under title V of the Older Americans Act; and (6) programs authorized under Federal and State unemployment compensation laws. Allows other human resource programs to provide services through and participate in operation of the centers, under specified conditions, including the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills program for AFDC recipients, the Food Stamp Employment and Training program, the Job Corps, veterans' employment programs under JTPA, and programs under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, Adult Education Act, Vocational Rehabilitation Act, and School-to-Work Opportunities Act. (Sec. 316) Sets forth requirements for operating agreements and quality assurance systems. (Sec. 318) Requires each State to establish a State human resource investment council that meets specified JTPA requirements and carries out certain additional functions including advising on development and implementation of the one-stop career center system. Part B: Grants and Waivers to Promote the Development and Implementation of One-Stop Career Center System - Authorizes the Secretary to establish programs of competitive grants to States for planning and development and for implementation of comprehensive statewide networks of one-stop career centers. (Sec. 333) Allows a State, at any point during such development or implementation, to request from the Secretary a waiver of one or more statutory or regulatory provisions. Sets forth waiver criteria. Subjects to such waiver authority the mandatory participating programs of the centers. (Sec. 334) Provides for pooling of administrative resources. Part C: Additional Activities in Support of One-Stop Career Center Systems - Directs the Secretary to establish a process, with each State implementing the one-stop career center system, including an annual meeting, to promote development of a customer service compact among the parties administering the system. (Sec. 335) Makes each State implementing such a system responsible for administration, management, monitoring, and technical assistance. (Sec. 336) Makes the Secretary responsible for monitoring compliance, staff training and technical assistance (integrated with the Capacity Building and Information Dissemination Network under JTPA), a national logo and name, and evaluation of one-stop career center programs. Part D: Effective Date - Sets forth effective dates for this title and for performance standards. Title IV: National Labor Market Information System - Directs the Secretary to develop, in coordination with other Federal, State, and local entities, a strategy to establish a nationwide system of local labor market information. (Sec. 403) Directs the Secretary, in cooperation with such other entities and public-private partnerships, to develop such system to make available specified types of information. Requires certain technical standards, consumer reports, and evaluation. (Sec. 404) Directs the Secretary to provide for coordination and integration of such system and appropriate dissemination of information. Title V: Reinvention Labs for Job Training for the Economically Disadvantaged - Amends the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to establish a five-year Reinvention Labs program to: (1) encourage innovative program designs to improve provision of services to and labor market outcomes for economically disadvantaged youth and adults; (2) develop, through service delivery areas (SDAs) and States, knowledge of effective approaches to providing employment and training to the economically disadvantaged; and (3) provide SDAs with increased flexibility in operating job training programs, in exchange for greater accountability. (Sec. 501) Sets forth requirements for SDA applications for waivers of Federal requirements relating to JTPA programs for employment and training of the economically disadvantaged. Authorizes the Secretary to waive certain of such requirements under specified conditions and to provide technical assistance to SDAs, States, and service providers for Reinvention Labs programs. (Sec. 502) Modifies the definition of tuition under JTPA.
United States · United States Congress · 15 March 1994
National Highway System Designation Act of 1994 - Designates the National Highway System (HNS), as submitted by the Secretary of Transportation, within the United States, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Authorizes the Secretary, at the request of a State, to add new NHS segments (including intermodal connections) and to delete existing route segments and connections if the total NHS miles do not exceed 165,000 miles. Requires: (1) the State to establish that the requested route changes have been indentified cooperatively with local officials through the metropolitan and statewide transportation planning processes; and (2) the Secretary to determine that the requested changes meet criteria established for, and enhance the national transportation characteristics of, the NHS.
United States · United States Congress · 3 March 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Research and Related Programs Title II: Construction Grants Title III: Standards and Enforcement Title IV: Permits and Licenses Title V: General Provisions Title VI: State Water Pollution Control Revolving Funds Title VII: Miscellaneous Provisions Water Quality Act of 1994 - Title I: Research and Related Programs - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (the Clean Water Act or CWA) to add national goal and policy provisions with respect to water quality programs. Title II: Construction Grants - Removes limitations on the use of grants for the construction of publicly owned treatment works and authorizes the use of such grants for purposes for which grants may be made under nonpoint source management and groundwater quality programs. (Sec. 201) Requires grant applicants to demonstrate, along with other existing requirements, that water use efficiency options have been studied and evaluated and, if cost-effective implemented. (Sec. 202) Prohibits the approval of a grant for a treatment works unless the applicant has adopted a system of charges that will recover the costs of operation and maintenance (O&M) of treatment works within the jurisdiction. (Current provisions require the applicant to insure adequate construction and O&M.) (Sec. 205) Requires value engineering reviews to be conducted for any treatment works construction projected in excess of $25 million (currently, $10 million). (Sec. 206) Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to make grants under title II of the CWA for the construction of treatment works to specified cities and counties. Title III: Standards and Enforcement - Revises provisions concerning the use of innovative technology to comply with effluent reduction requirements to authorize the Administrator, if a facility achieves reductions with an innovative system that has the potential for reducing the release of pollutants to other media, to extend the date of compliance for such facility for up to three (currently, two) years if the system has industry-wide application potential. (Sec. 302) Directs States to develop antidegradation policies. Requires the Administrator to publish guidance for States to assist in the designation and protection of outstanding national resource waters. (Sec. 303) Authorizes the Administrator to issue regulations to prohibit or restrict the use of mixing zones with respect to chemicals which are persistent, acutely toxic, or bioaccumulative and pose a sufficient health or environmental risk. (Sec. 304) Requires the Administrator to publish guidance for the States on development and adoption of water quality standards applicable to arid areas. (Sec.305) Directs the Administrator to publish regulations providing guidance for effluent limitations for discharges into the ground or groundwater that are subject to permit requirements for groundwater discharges. (Sec. 307) Requires the Administrator to allow States to use a specified amount of funds to carry out citizen water quality monitoring programs. (Sec. 308) Directs the Administrator, in publishing any revised list of toxic pollutants subject to effluent limitations, to take into account the bioaccumulation potential of, and magnitude and risk of exposure to, a pollutant. Requires effluent standards to take such factors into account as well. Authorizes any person to petition the Administrator to limit or prohibit discharges of toxic pollutants or classes of such pollutants which contribute to water quality impairment. Provides that if the Administrator issues chemical-specific numeric water quality criteria for toxic pollutants and a State has not adopted water quality standards for navigable waters within three years of the issuance of such criteria, the criteria shall be: (1) treated as adopted by the State as a water quality standard for purposes of Federal and State law; and (2) applied consistent with designated uses if the State has designated uses for such waters. Requires the Administrator to develop additional criteria for water quality with respect to pollutants entering navigable waters with an emphasis on pollutants entering such waters from nonpoint sources. Authorizes the Administrator to develop and issue guidance that States may use in: (1) issuing fish consumption advisories and scientific protocols for testing contamination levels of fish; (2) developing a monitoring program for contaminants in fish and shellfish; and (3) monitoring water quality at beaches and issuing health advisories with respect to beaches. Directs the National Academy of Sciences to study and report to the Congress on the current scientific knowledge of chemicals which are present in U.S. waters and for which there is evidence that exposure to such chemicals may result in endocrine, immune, or nervous system or developmental health effects in human, fish, or wildlife. (Sec. 309) Revises Federal enforcement and penalty provisions. (Sec.310) Revises provisions regarding water pollution control at Federal facilities to waive the sovereign immunity of the United States with respect to any requirement, administrative authority, or sanctions that may be imposed for violations. Provides that Federal employees may be subject to criminal sanctions but exempts Federal agencies from such sanctions. Authorizes the Administrator to commence administrative enforcement actions against Federal agencies under this Act. Includes Federal agencies in the definition of "person." (Sec. 311) Includes within the required elements of nonpoint source management programs: (1) a description of monitoring and assessment of program effectiveness; (2) a description of program measures that will apply to land owners and a description of land owners, activities, or areas exempt from such measures; (3) an identification of activities for which land owners will be required to implement site-specific management plans; (4) an identification of methods to inform landowners of sources of assistance for developing such plans; (5) designation of watersheds or other areas for which best management practices will be undertaken; (6) a schedule for addressing nonpoint sources of pollution; and (7) an identification of activities on Federal lands that are inconsistent with such programs. Requires the Administrator to prepare nonpoint source management plans for States that fail to do so or whose plans are not approved. Extends the authorization of appropriations for grants for assessment reports, nonpoint source management programs, and groundwater protection programs through FY 2000. Directs the Administrator to publish guidance to identify best management practices and measures which may be undertaken under such management programs. (Sec. 313) Requires the Administrator to establish a schedule under which major nonmunicipal dischargers of pollutants and significant industrial users are required to submit pollution prevention or reduction plans. Directs the Administrator to report to the Congress on innovative and alternative technologies which are available for preventing and reducing pollution of navigable waters. Requires each publicly owned treatment works that is required to develop a pretreatment program and each federally owned treatment works to develop toxic reduction action plans. Directs the Administrator to publish guidance on such plans and on providing technical assistance to small communities to assist them in reducing the introduction of toxic pollutants and hazardous wastes into treatment works. Makes such plans a precondition for issuance or renewal of a national pollutant discharge elimination system permit for a treatment works that is required to have a pretreatment program. (Sec. 314) Authorizes States to submit watershed management programs to the Administrator for approval. Permits States implementing approved watershed management programs to transfer funds for various water pollution control programs between programs (thus, allowing States to use funds for one program for another program). Authorizes the Administrator, in any year in which a State is implementing such a program, to extend the terms of permits for discharges into watersheds or point source discharges into State waters, subject to certain conditions. Title IV: Permits and Licenses - Revises stormwater discharge permitting provisions. (Sec. 402) Makes stormwater discharges that are composed entirely of stormwater subject to requirements for nonpoint source management programs. Adds to the list of discharges for which permits are required: (1) a discharge associated with any industrial activity that is subject to regulation by a State or local stormwater program and is from a construction activity which disturbs fewer than five acres of total land area and is not part of a larger common plan of development or sale; and (2) a discharge from a municipal separate storm sewer system serving an urbanized area with a population between 50,000 and 100,000. Establishes additional requirements for permits for municipal separate storm sewer systems, including that they: (1) require reasonable progress toward attainment of water quality standards as expeditiously as possible, but by no later than December 31, 2009; and (2) have additional requirements for the control of discharges to attain or maintain such standards if they are renewed after this Act's enactment. Authorizes the issuance of general or group permits for any discharges, other than those from municipal separate storm sewer systems, if the discharges are similar in nature and application of similar management measures will reduce pollution occurring from such discharges. Prohibits the Administrator from requiring, as a permit condition, compliance with a numeric effluent limitation or an applicable water quality standard before December 31, 2009, except to implement management measures under regulations for municipal separate storm sewer systems. Sets forth requirements for regulations for permits for urbanized and municipal separate storm water discharges. (Sec. 403) Subjects existing permits for discharges from municipal combined sewer systems resulting from wet weather overflows to this Act's requirements. Directs the Administrator to issue regulations to require permits for such discharges that provide for: (1) technology-based controls for such overflows and set forth a compliance schedule for a long-term control plan; and (2) reasonable progress toward attainment of water quality standards by no later than December 31, 2009. Prohibits such permits from requiring compliance with a numeric effluent limitation or water quality standard before such date. (Sec. 404) Treats a discharge of a pollutant into groundwater as a discharge into navigable waters if: (1) there is a reasonably foreseeable and demonstrable direct hydrologic connection between the ground and surface waters in the proximity of the discharge; (2) a greater than de minimis quantity of the pollutant is able to reach surface waters; and (3) no other Federal law directly addresses the activity resulting in the discharge. Bars penalties for such a discharge unless the person should have known that there is a direct hydrologic connection between the ground and surface waters in the proximity of the discharge. (Sec. 405) Requires the Administrator to issue guidance on the beneficial use of sewage sludge. Title V: General Provisions - Requires a CWA cost and needs estimate to be submitted quadrennially (currently, biennially) to the Congress. (Sec. 504) Reauthorizes the CWA through FY 2000. (Sec. 505) Requires the Administrator to make grants to Indian tribes to pay the full cost of sewage treatment and nonpoint source management projects. Increases amounts to be reserved for Indian tribes for such projects. Permits State water pollution control revolving funds (SRFs) to be used for assistance to Indian tribes. Title VI: State Water Pollution Control Revolving Funds - Authorizes SRFs to be used for water use efficiency measures whose principal purpose is improving or protecting water quality. (Sec. 602) Requires the Administrator to establish simplified procedures for small communities to obtain assistance from SRFs. (Sec.603) Provides for an extended repayment period for loans made from SRFs for service areas in which the average annual residential sewage treatment charge, after completion of a project, will be greater than 1.25 percent of the median family income for such area. Authorizes negative interest rates for such loans. Permits SRFs to be used to provide technical and planning assistance to small communities. (Sec. 605) Extends the authorization of appropriations for the SRF program through FY 2000. Title VII: Miscellaneous Provisions - Authorizes the Administrator to provide financial assistance to States for planning, design, and construction of international wastewater treatment works in the vicinity of the U.S.-Mexican border. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 702) Authorizes the Administrator to make grants to States along such border to provide assistance for planning, design, and construction of treatment works to provide wastewater service to colonias. Makes funds appropriated before this Act's enactment available for such purposes. (Sec. 703) Requires the Administrator to study and report to the Congress on pollutants to navigable waters which originate from mobile sources and impair or threaten water quality and to submit recommendations for reducing pollution from such sources.
United States · United States Congress · 3 March 1994
Designates March 23, 1994, the 92d birthday of the Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (leader of the worldwide Lubavitch movement), as Education and Sharing Day, U.S.A.
United States · United States Congress · 3 March 1994
Honors James Norman Hall for his outstanding contributions to the United States, France, Tahiti, and the South Pacific. Requests the President to provide for the presentation of a copy of this concurrent resolution to the President of Tahiti Nui (French Polynesia) to be publicly displayed at the James Norman Hall Museum in Tahiti.
United States · United States Congress · 24 February 1994
Fair Market Access Act of 1994 - Directs the Secretary of Commerce to report annually to the Congress an assessment of the access to the Japanese market of goods and services produced or originating in the United States in each sector specifically identified in the Japan-United States Framework for a New Economic Partnership signed on July 10, 1993 (Framework Agreement). Specifies contents of such access assessments. Authorizes the President to enter into agreements or other understandings with Japan for the purpose of obtaining the market access opportunities described in such assessments. Requires the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to determine for which sectors identified in each assessment to pursue negotiations in order to conclude such agreements or understandings. Directs the Secretary to monitor compliance with each agreement or understanding between the United States and Japan reached under this Act, as well as with existing trade agreements between both countries. Deems an unreasonable and discriminatory act, policy, or practice burdening or restricting U.S. commerce each barrier to access to the Japanese market that is the subject of negotiations under this Act which fail to conclude an agreement or understanding. Requires the USTR to determine what "Super 301" sanction to impose in response to such acts, policies, or practices, as well as in instances of material noncompliance with new or existing agreements or understandings.
United States · United States Congress · 24 February 1994
Higher Education Accumulation Program Act of 1994 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a deduction for amounts paid to a Higher Education Accumulation Program (HEAP) account established to accumulate funds to pay the educational expenses of a child of the taxpayer. Declares such accounts exempt from tax. Allows the deduction in arriving at adjusted gross income. Imposes an excise tax on excess contributions and prohibited transactions. Imposes a penalty for failure to meet reporting requirements.
United States · United States Congress · 23 February 1994
1995 Special Olympics World Games Commemorative Coin Act - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue one-dollar silver coins emblematic of the 1995 Special Olympics World Games. Mandates that the surcharges collected from the sale of such coins be paid to the 1995 Special Olympics World Games Organizing Committee, Inc.
United States · United States Congress · 22 February 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: General Provisions Title II: Policy Coordination and Technology Programs Subtitle A: Policy Coordination and Program Planning Subtitle B: Environmental Technology Innovation Initiative Subtitle C: Other Research Activities Title III: Performance Measurements Title IV: Authorization of Appropriations Title I: General Provisions - Environmental Technologies Act of 1994 - Sets forth congressional findings and purposes. Title II: Policy Coordination and Technology Programs - Subtitle A: Policy Coordination and Program Planning - Requires the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to: (1) ensure the coordinated, interagency promotion of the research, development, integration, and deployment of environmental technologies; and (2) develop priorities for Federal environmental technology efforts. (Sec. 202) Requires the Director to coordinate Federal activities and resources that are applied to life-cycle assessment in order to maximize the contribution of such assessments to the efficient design, development, and use of such technologies and to sustainable economic development. (Sec. 203) Amends the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 to include goals for sustainable economic development within technology innovation programs. Includes such goals in other existing programs under specified Acts. Subtitle B: Environmental Technology Innovation Initiative - Establishes an Environmental Innovation Initiative, to be administered by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to promote the research, development, integration, and deployment of technologies that will contribute to sustainable economic development. Includes programs established under this Act in the Initiative. Provides assistance to eligible entities. (Sec. 211) Requires the Administrator to encourage the participation of socially and economically disadvantaged individuals and entities located in economically depressed areas in carrying out the Initiative. (Sec. 212) Directs the Administrator to conduct an interagency innovative environmental technology program to develop or demonstrate advanced precommercial environmental technologies. Makes U.S. companies and partnerships eligible for financial assistance for projects subject to certain conditions. (Sec. 213) Establishes the President's Total Environmental Quality Award to be awarded periodically to companies and other organizations which have benefited the United States through environmental technologies. Establishes a National Environmentally Sound Technology Award for individuals who have pioneered the development and use of a highly innovative environmental technology. (Sec. 214) Directs the Administrator to use existing information network capabilities to provide access to data on environmental technologies developed, tested, or verified by programs under this Act and by other appropriate sources. (Sec. 215) Requires the Administrator to establish a program to demonstrate the performance of environmental technologies at Federal laboratories and facilities. (Sec. 216) Directs the Administrator to enter into an agreement with the National Research Council to study the influences on technological innovation in environmental technologies of economic, governmental, and other incentives and barriers. Subtitle C: Other Research Activities - Requires the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support research activities that will advance the integration of engineering practices and environmental protection in the development of advanced technologies. (Sec. 222) Directs the Administrator to submit a strategic plan for interagency coordination of Federal programs related to innovative environmental control and remediation technologies. Title III: Performance Measurements - Requires the Secretary of Commerce, through the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, to establish a program that provides for performance measurements for environmental technology products. (Sec. 302) Authorizes the Administrator to designate entities to perform environmental technology verification. (Sec. 303) Requires the President to establish a program for evaluating and approving the purchase by the Federal Government of environmental technology products. Title IV: Authorization of Appropriations - Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 11 February 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Office of Minority Health Title II: Primary Health Services Title III: Health Professions Programs Title IV: Research Title V: Native Hawaiian Health Care Title VI: Miscellaneous Provisions Title VII: General Provisions Minority Health Improvement Act of 1994 - Title I: Office of Minority Health - Amends the Public Health Service Act to revise the duties of the Office of Minority Health. Provides for the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Minority Health to advise the Secretary of Health and Human Services concerning minority health. Authorizes appropriations through FY 1997. (Sec. 102) Requires each of the following agencies to establish its own Office of Minority Health: (1) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; (2) Agency for Health Care Policy and Research; (3) Health Resources and Services Administration; (4) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; and (5) National Institutes of Health. Reserves 0.5 percent of an agency's appropriation for such Office. Title II: Primary Health Services - Provides for the treatment of pregnant women for substance abuse by migrant health centers and community health centers. Authorizes the development and operation of more than one migrant or community health center in a catchment area if specified circumstances exist. Permits such centers to offer offsite services. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 202) Extends, through FY 1998, authorizations of appropriations for health services for: (1) the homeless; and (2) residents of public housing. (Sec. 204) Sets forth provisions concerning grants for: (1) loan repayment programs regarding obligated service of health professionals; (2) the operation of State offices of rural health; and (3) demonstrations for community scholarship programs regarding obligated services of health professionals. (Sec. 207) Revises provisions concerning programs regarding birth defects. (Sec. 208) Authorizes grants for up to 19 demonstration prjects for the purpose of reducing the incidence of: (1) infant mortality; (2) fetal deaths; (3) maternal mortality; (4) fetal alcohol syndrome; and (5) low-birthweight births. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 209) Provides for demonstration projects regarding diabetic-retinopathy. Authorizes appropriations. Title III: Health Professions Programs - Revises provisions concerning scholarships for students of exceptional financial need. Requires students receiving such a scholarship to be from a disadvantaged background. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 304) Revises provisions concerning Centers of Excellence. Requires grants to be made only to designated health professions schools. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 305) Revises provisions concerning educational assistance regarding undergraduates. Authorizes grants to assist disadvantaged students who are interested in a career in the health professions who are students of either elementary, secondary, or higher level schools. Authorizes appropriations. Title IV: Research - Directs the Director of the Office of Research on Minority Health to establish the Advisory Committee on Research on Minority Health. (Sec. 402) Revises activities of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. (Sec. 403) Authorizes appropriations for the National Center for Health Statistics for health statistical and epidemiological activities. Title V: Native Hawaiian Health Care - Revises the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act completely, including: (1) the findings, declaration of policy, and intent of the Congress; (2) the comprehensive health care master plan for Native Hawaiians; (3) functions of Papa Ola Lokahi; (4) provisions concerning Native Hawaiian health care systems; (5) administration of grants and contracts; (6) scholarship provisions; (7) assignment of personnel; and (8) definitions. Authorizes appropriations through FY 2000 to carry out the Act. Title VI: Miscellaneous Provisions - Authorizes appropriations through FY 1997 for health services for Pacific Islanders under the Disadvantaged Minority Health Improvement Act of 1990. (Sec. 604) Provides for the establishment of such technical and scientific peer review groups and scientific program advisory committees as are necessary to carry out the functions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Title VII: General Provisions - Sets forth effective date provisions.
United States · United States Congress · 10 February 1994
Head Start Act Amendments of 1994 - Amends the Head Start Act to reauthorize and revise Head Start programs. (Sec. 2) Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish quality standards for Head Start agencies and programs, including standards for performance in providing required health, education, parental involvement, social, and other services, for administrative and financial management, and for facilities' condition and location. Provides for monitoring and for corrective actions or terminations if minimum standards are not met. (Sec. 3) Eliminates a provision freezing regulations. Provides that terminations, reductions, or suspensions of financial assistance upheld in administrative hearings shall not be stayed pending any judicial appeal. (Sec. 4) Revises classroom teacher qualifications and waiver requirements. Directs the Secretary to: (1) provide technical assistance and training to enable Head Start agencies to establish positions for mentor teachers; and (2) review and revise standards for family service workers, and promote model curricula and credentials for such workers. Authorizes the Secretary to establish a program of Head Start Fellowships for staff in local Head Start programs and other individuals working in the field of child development and Directs the Secretary to develop model staffing pattern plans to guide local Head Start agencies and programs. (Sec. 5) Sets forth goals and priorities for training and technical assistance. (Sec. 6) Allocates funds for program expansion. (Sec. 7) Authorizes the Secretary to allow certain amounts to be allocated to quality improvement activities (in addition to the required 25 percent portion of appropriations). Sets forth goals and authorized activities for which quality improvement funds are to be used. (Sec. 8) Requires each Head Start agency to coordinate with schools and promote parental involvement to facilitate children's transition from program to school. Directs the Secretaries of HHS and of Education to assess results of demonstration projects under the Head Start Transition Project Act and provide technical assistance to communities to implement promising practices from those demonstrations. Extends the set-aside for the Head Start Transition Project Act. (Sec. 9) Directs the Secretary to carry on a continuing program of research, demonstrations, and evaluations of Head Start programs, and to report on such activities. (Sec. 10) Establishes programs for families with infants and toddlers. Directs the Secretary to make grants for: (1) programs providing family-centered services for low-income families with very young children, designed to promote child development, parental role fulfillment, and movement toward self-sufficiency; and (2) evaluation of, and training and technical assistance for, projects under the Comprehensive Child Development Centers Act of 1988. (Repeals the latter Act because its functions are being consolidated under the Head Start Act.) (Sec. 11) Revises parental involvement considerations with respect to designation of new Head Start agencies well as functions of such agencies. Requires agencies to offer family literacy services and parenting skills training to parents of participating children. Allows agencies also to opt to offer such parents parental social self-sufficiency training, substance abuse counseling, or other partnership in education activities. Requires a family needs assessment, including consultation with the parents, for each participating family. (Sec. 12) Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 13) Revises the poverty line definition. Updates hold-harmless provisions for Indian and Migrant programs. Specifies that each Head Start program may use Head Start funds for full-day and full-year services and shall be permitted to provide more than one year of services to eligible children in the State.
United States · United States Congress · 9 February 1994
Amends Federal civil service law to entitle certain honorably discharged veterans who served on active duty to additional points on examinations for entrance into the competitive service.
United States · United States Congress · 8 February 1994
World War II Peace Accords Commemorative Coin Act - Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the 50th anniversary of the signing of the World War II peace accords on the U.S.S. Missouri should not go unrecognized at the national level; and (2) the United States should recognize such anniversary by minting and issuing a commemorative coin. Sets forth specifications for half dollar clad coins. Mandates that the surcharges received from the sale of such coins be paid by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Admiral Nimitz Foundation for the purpose of preserving the Pacific War heritage of the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 7 February 1994
Provides amounts for expenses of investigations and studies by the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation in the second session of the 103d Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 3 February 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Community Participation and Human Health Title II: State Roles Title III: Voluntary Response Title IV: Liability and Allocation Title V: Remedy Selection and Cleanup Standards Title VI: Miscellaneous Title VII: Funding Title VIII: Environmental Insurance Resolution Fund Title IX: Taxes Superfund Reform Act of 1994 - Title I: Community Participation and Human Health - Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to direct the President to provide for community involvement in each significant phase of response activities taken under this Act. (Sec. 103) Requires the President to provide the opportunity to establish a representative public forum, known as a Community Working Group (CWG), to achieve direct and regular consultation with community members throughout all stages of a response action. Requires a CWG to serve as a facility information clearinghouse for the community and authorizes a CWG to offer recommendations to the President on anticipated future land uses. (Sec. 104) Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (Administrator) to ensure that an independent Citizen Information and Access Office is established in each State and on each tribal land affected by a National Priorities List (NPL) facility. (Sec. 106) Requires the Administrator to select at least ten demonstration projects to be implemented over a five-year period that relate to the assessment and management of, and response to, multiple sources of risk in and around designated facilities. Directs the Administrator, if a distinct pattern of adverse health effects is identified in the surrounding community, to consider additional health benefits for the community. Provides for demonstration projects in locations that coincide with areas identified as empowerment zones under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1994. (Sec. 107) Includes standards and procedures for assessing risks posed by the release or threatened release of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants in the list of required elements of the national hazardous substance response plan. (Sec. 114) Requires the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Administrator to develop and distribute educational materials on human health effects of hazardous substances to the public. (Sec. 115) Authorizes the ATSDR Administrator to provide grant or contract assistance to individuals who may be affected by releases or threatened releases when: (1) a public health assessment or related health activity is conducted at a facility on the NPL; or (2) a release is being evaluated for inclusion on the NPL. Title II: State Roles - Authorizes States to apply to the Administrator to carry out response actions and enforcement activities at all facilities listed or proposed for listing on the NPL. Makes this authority inapplicable with respect to Federal facilities listed on the NPL if an interagency agreement for such a facility has been entered into. Grants a State such authority if it possesses the legal authority, technical capability, and resources necessary to conduct response actions in a manner consistent with this Act. Makes such States eligible for response action financing from the Hazardous Substance Superfund (Superfund). Requires States to pay 15 percent of the costs of all response actions and program support or other costs for which the State receives funds from Superfund. Makes such cost-sharing requirement inapplicable to Indian tribes. (Sec. 201) Authorizes a State to select a response action that achieves a level of cleanup that is more stringent than required if it agrees to pay for the incremental increase in response cost attributable to achieving the more stringent level. Provides for the retention of the President's authority to take response actions at facilities listed or proposed for listing on the NPL that are not being addressed by States. (Sec. 206) Provides for public notice and comment before a facility is to be listed on the NPL. Authorizes persons to request a facility to be listed on, or removed from, the NPL. Title III: Voluntary Response - Directs the Administrator to establish a program to provide assistance to the States to establish and expand voluntary response programs. Makes this title applicable to facilities at which a release or threat of release of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant has occurred. Excludes certain facilities. (Sec. 303) Requires the Administrator to establish a program to provide assistance to municipalities to conduct site characterizations for facilities at which voluntary response actions are being conducted or proposed. Title IV: Liability and Allocation - Authorizes the President to issue administrative subpoenas to require the attendance and testimony of witnesses and production of information regarding response actions. Revises confidentiality requirements with respect to such information. (Sec. 403) Absolves of liability for response actions a person who does not impede a response action or natural resource restoration to the extent liability is based solely on: (1) arrangement, transportation, or acceptance provisions relating to the disposal or treatment of hazardous substances and such activities involved fewer than 500 pounds of municipal solid waste (MSW) or sewage sludge or such amount as the Administrator may determine; (2) such provisions and such activities involved fewer than ten pounds or liters of materials containing hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants or such amount as the Administrator may determine; (3) ownership or operation of a vessel or facility and the person is a bona fide prospective purchaser of the facility; (4) ownership by a Federal agency and activities that resulted in a release occurred prior to 1976, the activities were pursuant to a statutory authority, the agency did not cause or contribute to the release, and there are other persons who are potentially liable and fully capable of performing or financing the response action; or (5) ownership by a Federal, State, or local entity of a road or other right of way over which hazardous substances are transported or on the granting of a license or a permit to conduct business. Makes persons who are solely liable under arrangement, transportation, or acceptance provisions regarding disposal or treatment of hazardous substances liable for no more than ten percent of total response costs if such activities only involved MSW or sewage sludge. Applies such limitation only if: (1) acts or omissions giving rise to liability occurred before the date 36 months after enactment of this Act or the person asserting the limitation participates in a qualified household hazardous waste collection program; and (2) the disposal did not occur on lands owned by the United States or on tribal land. Grants the United States a lien upon a facility for unrecovered response costs that inure to the benefit of a potential purchaser. Confers the right of contribution protection on a Federal agency when such agency resolves its share of liability, including liability for all penalties and fines. Applies State laws respecting liability for releases at non-Federal facilities to Federal agencies when such facilities are referred to a State pursuant to this Act or are part of a State-authorized program. Bars immunity for Federal employees from processes or sanctions of State or Federal courts with respect to enforcement of this Act. Entitles the United States to remove any action filed in State court against a Federal agency or employee to the appropriate Federal district court. Absolves Federal employees of personal liability for civil or administrative penalties for acts or omissions within the scope of official duties. (Sec. 404) Makes persons liable under CERCLA liable for other necessary costs of response incurred by any other person, other than the United States, a State, or an Indian tribe (currently, any other person). (Sec. 405) Authorizes adversely affected persons (currently, interested persons) to file petitions for the review of regulations promulgated under CERCLA. Revises contribution provisions to require an action by a potentially responsible party (PRP) against another PRP for recovery of any response costs or damages to be commenced within the later of: (1) three years after completion of a removal action or within six years after initiation of physical on-site construction of the remedial action; or (2) three years after the date of judgment in any action for recovery or the date of any administrative order or judicial settlement for recovery of costs or damages. (Sec. 406) Limits the right to seek contribution from other potentially liable parties where: (1) the person asserting the right has waived such rights in a settlement; (2) the person from whom the contribution is sought is liable solely under provisions regarding arrangement or transportation of hazardous substances for treatment or disposal and contributed fewer than ten pounds or liters of material containing hazardous substances or such amount as the Administrator may determine; or (3) the person from whom the contribution is sought has entered into a final settlement with the United States. Makes any person who commences a contribution action against a person who is not liable pursuant to limitations set forth in this Act or is protected from suits liable to the person against whom the claim is brought for reasonable costs of defending against the claim. Provides that a person who has resolved liability to a State in an administrative or judicially approved settlement shall not be liable for claims to persons other than the United States regarding response costs for damages addressed in the settlement. Provides the same protection for persons who have resolved liability to the United States. Includes protection against all claims that may be asserted against the settling party for recovery of costs or damages paid by another person if addressed in the settlement, except claims based on contractual indemnification. (Sec. 408) Removes provisions regarding guidelines for preliminary allocations of responsibility. Requires (currently, authorizes) the President to offer PRPs (currently, any person) who enter into settlement agreements a final covenant not to sue concerning liability to the United States for response actions or costs, provided that: (1) the settling party agrees to perform a final remedial action for the release that is the subject of the settlement; (2) the agreement has been reached prior to the commencement of litigation against the settling party; (3) the settling party waives all contribution rights against other PRPs at the facility; and (4) the settling party pays a premium that compensates for the risks of remedy failure, unanticipated increases in the cost of any uncompleted action (unless the party is performing the action), and the U.S. litigation risk with respect to persons who have not resolved liability to the United States unless the settlement covers 100 percent of U.S. response costs. Authorizes the President, for all other settlements, to provide any person with a covenant not to sue concerning any liability to the United States if the covenant not to sue is in the public interest. Adds the following to the list of conditions that a PRP must meet in order to be eligible for an expedited settlement: (1) liability must be based solely on provisions regarding arrangement, transportation, or acceptance of MSW or sewage sludge for treatment or disposal; and (2) the PRP must be a small business or a municipality that has demonstrated a limited ability to pay response costs. (Sec. 409) Requires the President to initiate a specified allocation of liability process for remedial actions at multi-party facilities. Establishes a moratorium on the commencement of liability actions regarding response actions for which allocations must be performed or have been initiated. Sets forth allocation procedures, including notice to PRPs and selection of an allocator. Requires the allocator, if the allocation parties do not agree to a negotiated allocation of shares, to prepare a report with a nonbinding, equitable allocation of percentage shares for the facility based on factors including: (1) the amount of hazardous substances contributed by each party; (2) the degree of toxicity and mobility of substances contributed by each party; (3) the degree of involvement of each party in the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, or disposal of the hazardous substance; (4) the degree of care exercised by each party with respect to the substance; and (5) the cooperation of each party in contributing to the response action and providing information. Authorizes the allocator to determine that a percentage share is specifically attributable to an orphan share. Limits orphan shares to specified cases, including shares attributable to identified but insolvent responsible parties who are not affiliated with another allocation party. Requires shares that cannot be attributed to any party to be allocated among the allocation parties. Provides for reimbursements from Superfund to eligible parties for costs attributable to orphan shares. Authorizes the Administrator and the Attorney General to determine not to settle on the basis of the allocator's allocation. Requires settlements based on allocated shares to include: (1) a waiver of contribution rights against all PRPs for the response action; (2) covenants not to sue and provisions regarding performance of such actions; (3) a premium that compensates for the U.S. litigation risk with respect to PRPs who have not resolved liability to the United States, except in cases where the settlement covers 100 percent of costs; (4) contribution protection; and (5) provisions for reimbursement from Superfund for any response costs incurred in excess of the allocated share. Authorizes the United States to commence a liability action against any person who has not resolved liability following allocation on or after 60 days following issuance of the allocator's report. Makes PRPs liable for the unrecovered response costs in such actions. Requires the Administrator and the Attorney General to issue guidelines to ensure that relief sought against de minimis parties under principles of joint and several liability will not be grossly disproportionate to their contribution to the facility. Restricts the admissibility in court of the allocator's report with respect to claims brought by or against the United States, except in its capacity as a nonsettling PRP or for the determination of liability. Title V: Remedy Selection and Cleanup Standards - Revises provisions regarding the degree of cleanup required under remedial actions. Directs the Administrator to promulgate national goals to be applied at all facilities and national generic cleanup levels for specific hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants that: (1) reflect reasonably anticipated future land uses; (2) reflect other variables which can be easily measured at a facility and whose effects are scientifically well-understood to vary on a site-specific basis; and (3) represent concentration levels below which a response action is not required. Authorizes the Administrator to rely on a site-specific risk assessment to determine the proper level of cleanup if a national generic cleanup level has not been developed or to account for particular characteristics of a facility. (Sec. 502) Requires remedial actions to comply with substantive requirements of Federal and State laws and standards. Authorizes the President to select a remedial action that does not attain a level of control equivalent to such standards under certain conditions. (Sec. 503) Revises general rules for remedial actions. Requires the President to establish cost-effective generic remedies for categories of facilities. (Sec. 504) Permits a State to enforce only those Federal and State requirements to which the Administrator has determined the remedial action is required to conform. (Sec. 505) Removes a condition on the President's authority to acquire property needed to conduct a response action that requires the State in which the property is located to agree to accept transfer of the property when the action is completed. (Sec. 506) Alters the criteria for the continuance of obligations for removal actions to provide that actions shall not continue after $6 million (currently, $2 million) has been obligated or three years (currently, 12 months) has elapsed from the date of initial response to a release or threatened release of hazardous substances. Title VI: Miscellaneous - Exempts a Federal agency from actions required for Federal facilities under CERCLA, with the exception of certain reporting requirements, if the agency owned or operated a facility over which it exercised no regulatory or other control over activities that resulted in a release of a hazardous substance if: (1) no Federal agency was the primary or sole source or cause of such release; (2) the activities resulting in the release were pursuant to statutory authority and occurred prior to 1976; and (3) the persons primarily responsible for the release are financially viable and capable of performing or financing the response action. (Sec. 604) Authorizes the Administrator, in order to achieve required levels of response, to reimburse up to 50 percent of response costs incurred by a potentially liable party that employs an alternative or innovative technology that fails to achieve the required level. (Sec. 605) Includes a trust or estate within the definition of "owner or operator" for purposes of determining liability under CERCLA. Excludes from such definition: (1) a person who holds title to a vessel or facility solely in the capacity as fiduciary, provided that the person does not participate in management operations that result in a release of hazardous substances and complies with other requirements; or (2) the United States, a Federal agency, or a conservator or receiver appointed by a Federal agency which acquired ownership of a facility or vessel in connection with receivership, conservatorship, forfeiture, or seizure authority or pursuant to an Act of the Congress provided such entity does not participate in operations that result in a release. Title VII: Funding - Extends the authorization of appropriations to carry out specified Superfund authorities through FY 1999. Title VIII: Environmental Insurance Resolution Fund - Environmental Insurance Resolution and Equity Act of 1994 - Establishes the Environmental Insurance Resolution Fund to provide for the resolution of disputes between certain PRPs and their insurers. Describes eligible persons, costs, and sites. (Sec. 802) Directs eligible persons that accept Fund resolutions to waive existing and future claims against an insurer for eligible costs. Requires the Fund to make pre- and post-resolution payments to eligible persons who accept a resolution. Makes any eligible person who litigates a claim and obtains a judgment that is less favorable than the resolution offered by the Fund liable to the insurer for 20 percent of reasonable legal fees incurred in the litigation. Provides for Fund reimbursements of certain costs incurred by insurers in cases where a person rejected a resolution and obtained a final judgment against an insurer. Deems payments made by the Fund pursuant to a resolution offer to be payments made by an insurer. (Sec. 804) Provides that this title acts as a stay of all pending litigation regarding claims for indemnity or arising from insurance coverage for eligible costs. Bars stays of litigation after May 31, 2000. (Sec. 805) Terminates the Fund's authority to: (1) accept requests for resolution after FY 1999; and (2) offer resolutions after March 31, 2000. Title IX: Taxes - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend the applicability of the environmental tax to tax years before January 1, 2001 (currently, 1996). Extends certain provisions regarding the Superfund financing rate. (Sec. 903) Requires all expenditures of the Resolution Fund to be paid out of fees and assessments imposed by the Internal Revenue Code. Exempts the Fund from Federal, State, and local taxation.
United States · United States Congress · 26 January 1994
Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Disaster Assistance Because of the Los Angeles Earthquake Act of 1994 - Makes emergency supplemental appropriations for FY 1994 for disaster assistance activities resulting from the January 1994 earthquake in Southern California and other disasters. Makes additional funds available to: (1) the Small Business Administration for the disaster loans program account; (2) the Department of Education for impact aid and student financial assistance; (3) the Department of Transportation for the Federal Highway Administration; (4) the Department of Veterans Affairs for medical care; (5) the Department of Housing and Urban Development for housing programs and community development; (6) the Federal Emergency Management Agency for disaster relief; and (7) the President for unanticipated needs.
United States · United States Congress · 25 January 1994
Allows payments to members of the armed forces under the Special Separation Benefits program of the Department of Defense without a concurrent pro rata reduction of veterans' disability compensation paid to such members through the Department of Veterans Affairs.
United States · United States Congress · 25 January 1994
Expresses the sense of the Congress that a postage stamp should be issued to honor the 100th anniversary of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States and that the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee of the U.S. Postal Service should make such recommendation to the Postmaster General.
United States · United States Congress · 22 November 1993
Child Abuse Accountability Act - Permits the garnishment of an annuity under the Civil Service or Federal Employees' Retirement Systems in order to satisfy a judgment against an annuitant for physically abusing a child.
United States · United States Congress · 22 November 1993
Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide that community college employees in classified positions are not required to receive overtime compensation for additional service, on their own volition, in certified or academic positions.
United States · United States Congress · 22 November 1993
American Museum of Natural History 125th Anniversary Commemorative Coin Act - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to: (1) issue one-dollar silver coins emblematic of a prehistoric dinosaur and a view of the east front of the American Museum of Natural History (located on Central Park West in New York City); and (2) pay surcharges received from coin sales to the Budgetary Fund for the Museum.
United States · United States Congress · 22 November 1993
Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the President shall not enter into any trade agreement requiring changes in U.S. antidumping laws which would reduce their effectiveness as a remedy against injurious dumped imports; (2) the U.S. Government shall not condone distorting subsidies by foreign governments, including development subsidies, that cause material injury to U.S. industries; and (3) the United States not enter into any trade agreement on dispute settlement contained in the Draft Final Act embodying the Results of the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations (Negotiations) of December 21, 1991, unless, with respect to the review of countervailing duty and antidumping duty actions taken by General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) members, the settlement mechanisms and procedures shall not allow specified review actions. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the principal U.S. negotiating objective regarding situations of global structural excess capacity is to negotiate multilateral rules to permit rapid realignment of capacity to demand. Urges the President to review antidumping duty provisions contained in the Negotiations and to seek changes in such provisions that are necessary to maintain the effectiveness of U.S. antidumping laws, including, but not limited to, changes proposed by the United States in December 1992, any changes needed to clarify the right to cumulate and cross-cumulate imports under investigation, and the prohibition of procedures to sunset dumping and countervailing duty orders.
United States · United States Congress · 21 November 1993
Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to: (1) establish the California Urban Environmental Research and Training Center; and (2) enter into a cooperative agreement with California State University, Hayward, to establish the Center if the university agrees and meets a specified matching fund requirement. Authorizes universities in California to become members of the Center. Requires the Center to: (1) develop an ongoing program of environmental research, education, and outreach to ensure that future government policies to encourage economic development in California are grounded on sustainable environmental and economic policies; (2) foster public-private partnerships to find solutions to the environmental problems of California; (3) bring together researchers to focus on the most important environmental problems related to sustainable economic development; (4) support specified activities, including collaborative university research, analysis of public policy implications of economic development programs, the conduct of seminars and conferences, the development of educational programs, the preparation of minority students for environmental professions, and the development of a repository of information on key environmental and economic development issues; (5) assist small businesses in meeting environmental regulations by providing short courses and conferences; (6) work on alternative uses for military installations to assist in planning the environmental aspects of conversion and clean-up; and (7) develop a plan to extend its activities throughout the State within two years. Authorizes the Center to provide: (1) undergraduate scholarships for individuals studying in environmental fields at universities that are members of the Center; and (2) graduate assistantships and fellowships to encourage study in fields related to sustainable economic development and research grants to faculty. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 21 November 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS Title I: General Provisions Title II: Policy Coordination and Technology Programs Subtitle A: Policy Coordination and Program Planning Subtitle B: Environmental Technology Title III: Education Title IV: Standards Title V: International Programs Title VI: Financial and Regulatory Incentives Title VII: Authorization of Appropriations Title I: General Provisions - Environmental Technologies Act of 1993 - Sets forth congressional findings and purposes. Title II: Policy Coordination and Technology Programs - Subtitle A: Policy Coordination and Program Planning - Requires the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to: (1) ensure the coordinated, interagency promotion of the research, development, and adoption of environmental technologies; and (2) develop priorities for Federal environmental technology research, development, and adoption efforts. (Sec. 202) Requires the Director to coordinate Federal activities and resources that are applied to life-cycle assessment in order to maximize the contribution of such assessments to sustainable economic development. (Sec. 203) Amends the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 to include goals for sustainable economic development within technology innovation programs. Includes such goals in other existing programs under specified Acts. Subtitle B: Environmental Technology - Establishes an Environmental Technologies Development and Integration Program, to be administered by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to promote the research, development, and integration of technologies that will contribute to sustainable economic development. Makes eligible for assistance projects that: (1) develop advanced, precommercial environmental technologies, with emphasis on technologies that will contribute to sustainable economic development; and (2) develop the integration of multiple steps in the conversion of materials that are involved in the manufacture, reuse, or recycling of a product, the recycling of process wastes, or the provision of a service. (Sec. 211) Prohibits intellectual property owned and developed by a business receiving financial assistance from being disclosed by the Federal Government except in accordance with an agreement. Provides that title to such property arising from assistance shall vest in a company incorporated in the United States or an institution of higher education in the United States. (Sec. 212) Directs the Administrator and the Secretaries of Energy and Defense to submit a strategic plan for interagency coordination of programs for the development, demonstration, and deployment of innovative environmental control and remediation technologies. (Sec. 213) Establishes the President's Total Environmental Quality Award to be awarded periodically to companies and other organizations which have benefited the United States through the development and deployment of environmental technologies. Establishes a National Environmentally Sound Technology Award for individuals who have pioneered the development and use of a highly innovative environmental technology. (Sec. 214) Directs the Administrator, acting through the EPA Office of Research and Development, to use existing information network capabilities to provide access to data on environmental technologies developed, tested, or verified by programs under this Act and by other appropriate sources. Authorizes the Administrator to enter into partnership agreements ("alliances") with State or local government agencies and other specified entities to: (1) facilitate access to information incorporated in the networks; and (2) transfer to such entities other information that would enhance the development and adoption of environmental technologies. Encourages alliances to disseminate information, and provide technical assistance, to U.S. companies on opportunities for the more efficient use of materials and energy and for waste minimization, materials conversion, and recycling. Authorizes the Administrator to provide financial assistance to alliances under certain conditions. (Sec. 215) Directs the Administrator to establish a program to demonstrate the performance of environmental technologies at Federal laboratories and other Federal facilities. Makes U.S. companies and small businesses, nonprofit organizations, and institutions of higher education eligible to carry out demonstration projects. (Sec. 216) Directs the Administrator to establish a three-year pilot program to promote research on, and development of, environmentally efficient building materials through use of such materials in new and existing Federal facilities and buildings. Directs the Administrator to promulgate guidelines for Federal agencies on minimizing the creation of solid waste and maximizing the use of environmentally efficient building materials. Title III: Education - Requires the Director of the National Science Foundation to support undergraduate and graduate activities in the development of coursework materials and curricula in all scientific, engineering, and technical disciplines to incorporate environmental soundness and total cost accounting into the corresponding curricula. (Sec. 302) Requires the Director of the EPA Office of Research and Development to develop and support programs to improve understanding of the relationships between technology and the environment. Title IV: Standards - Directs the Secretary of Commerce to establish: (1) a program to support the clarification of standards of performance for environmental technologies to clarify quality, performance, and substitutability for conventional products; and (2) a mechanism for recognizing non-Federal organizations engaged in environmental standards setting and associated product performance verification activities for purposes of ensuring quality and enhancing consumer confidence and international recognition. (Sec. 402) Authorizes the Administrator to enter into joint agreements with State and local governments and private sector representatives to support Environmental Technology Verification Centers that verify, evaluate, and disseminate information on the performance and cost of environmental technologies. Authorizes financial assistance to such Centers. Authorizes the Administrator to engage directly with private sector organizations through verification partnerships if the Centers cannot verify the performance of technologies because of scale or complexity. (Sec. 403) Directs the Federal Trade Commission to: (1) conduct a study of scientific and technological information needed for the fair evaluation of commercial performance claims regarding environmental technologies; and (2) develop a plan for collaboration with Federal agencies that have expertise in such technologies to ensure the use of the best available scientific and technological information in evaluating such claims. Title V: International Programs - Encourages the Administrator to support programs in other nations for purposes of enhancing U.S. exports of environmental technologies and promoting the contribution of such technologies to international sustainable economic development. (Sec. 503) Directs the Secretary of Commerce to support activities to promote the export of U.S. environmental technologies. (Sec. 504) Establishes the Environmental Technologies Export Revolving Fund for purposes of providing financial assistance for the adaption and demonstration of U.S. environmental technologies to enhance exports to major international markets. Authorizes the Secretary to use the Fund for financial assistance to U.S. companies, research centers, institutions of higher education, and other appropriate organizations. Sets forth priority projects and conditions for financial assistance. Title VI: Financial and Regulatory Incentives - Directs the President to establish a program for evaluating and approving Federal purchases of environmental technology products. (Sec. 602) Requires the Administrator to study and report to the Congress on current environmental regulations and their effect upon innovation in environmental technologies and the introduction of new environmental products. (Sec. 603) Requires the President to study the potential for efficiently encouraging the development and use of environmental technologies through tax incentives. Title VII: Authorization of Appropriations - Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 19 November 1993
John F. Kennedy Center Act Amendments of 1993 - Amends the John F. Kennedy Center Act to transfer operating responsibilities for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts from the Secretary of the Interior to the Center's Board of Trustees. Authorizes appropriations.
![Official portrait of Rep. Mineta, Norman Y. [D-CA-15]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/m000794_200.jpg)