United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1981
Sunset Act of 1981 - Title I: Reauthorization of Government Programs - Sets forth a ten-year schedule for reauthorization of all Federal programs according to budget function and subfunction as set forth in the Budget of the United States Government for fiscal year 1979. Sets forth the procedure in the House of Representatives and the Senate for the consideration of any bill, resolution, or amendment which authorizes new budget authority. States that it is not in order for either House to consider any legislation which authorizes the enactment of new budget authority for a program for a period of more than ten years, for an indefinite period, or for any fiscal year beginning after the next reauthorization date applicable to such program. Provides that before the Congress can appropriate funds for any program, after its first reauthorization date, there must be a specific authorization in law to support the appropriation. Requires the committees of the Senate and House of Representatives to schedule and conduct a sunset review of programs to be reauthorized. Requires that the report accompanying such reauthorizations contain specified information and be completed during the Congress in which the program is scheduled for reauthorization. Exempts from the requirements of this Act specified programs such as interest on Federal debts, health care services, general retirement and disability payments, as well as litigation activities which have as their objectives the protection and implementation of civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and specified retirement pay and benefits. Allows the reauthorization schedule set forth in this Act to be changed by concurrent resolution of the two House of Congress and sets forth the procedure for such change. Requires all legislation and other matters related to changes in the dates for programs under this Act to be referred to the committee with legislative jurisdiction over any program affected by the proposal and, sequentially, to the Committee on Rules in the House Representatives and to the Committee on Rules and Administration in the Senate. Requires such committees to report any concurrent resolution or bill referred to it by a committee of legislative jurisdiction within 30 days, with a statement on each of its recommendations. Makes provisions for any proposed change which has been reported by a committee before June 1, 1982. Title II: Program Inventory - Directs the Comptroller General and the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, in cooperation with the Director of the Congressional Research Service, to prepare an inventory of Federal programs. Declares that the purpose of such program inventory is to advise and assist Congress in carrying out reauthorization and reexamination requirements and to link such reauthorization and review process with the budget process. Requires the Comptroller General to submit such program inventory to each House of Congress no later than January 1, 1982. Sets forth the contents of the inventory program, including the type of authorization provided for such programs' new budget authority and the manner in which related program areas may be grouped for evaluation and review. Permits the Congressional committees, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Congressional Research Service to review the program inventory and to suggest revisions. Requires that the program inventory be revised at the end of each session of Congress, and that such revisions be reported to each House. Requires that periodic reports tabulate the progress of Congressional action on bills and resolutions authorizing budget authority for programs in the inventory. Requires the Comptroller General and the Director of the Congressional Budget Office to submit periodic reports to the Congress on the adequacy of the functional and subfunctional categories for grouping programs of like missions or objectives. Title III: Program Reexamination - Requires each committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives to reexamine selected programs or groups of programs over which it has jurisdiction. Sets forth procedures for such review, and criteria for selection of program areas for evaluation. Directs each committee to consult with the appropriate committees of either the House of Representatives or the Senate in order to achieve coordination of program reevaluation. Directs each Committee to inform itself of the related activities of or available assistance from the General Accounting Office, the Congressional Budget Office, the Congressional Research Service, the Office of Technology Assessment, and other appropriate instrumentalities in the executive and judicial branches. Requires each committee to deliver a report on the reexamination to the Secretary of the Senate or the Clerk of the House at the date specified in the funding resolution first reported by such committee in 1983 and thereafter for the first session of each Congress. Allows two or more committees which have legislative jurisdiction over the same programs or portions of the same programs to examine such programs jointly and submit a joint report. Stipulates that such report: (1) contain the findings, recommendations, and justifications of the program; and (2) include specified information including, but not limited to, an assessment of the cost-effectiveness of the program and an identification of any trends, developments, and emerging conditions which are likely to affect the nature and extent of the problems or needs which the program is intended to address. Requires each executive department or agency which is responsible for a program selected for reexamination to submit a report to the Office of Management and Budget and to the appropriate committees of the Congress on its findings, recommendations, and justifications of specified aspects of the program. Title IV: Tax Expenditures - Requires the Director of the Congressional Budget Office, after consultation with the Joint Committee on Taxation of the Congress, to prepare an inventory of tax expenditure provisions and to submit a report on such inventory to the Committee on Ways and Means of the House and the Senate Finance Committee. Defines the term "tax expenditure provision" as any provision of Federal law which allows a special exclusion, exemption, or deduction in determining liability for any tax or which provides a special credit against any tax, a preferential rate of tax, or a deferral of tax liability. Specifies the contents of the report, which include an estimate of the revenue loss from each tax provision. Requires the Director to: (1) submit a revised inventory to each House of Congress by December 1, 1982; (2) revise the inventory after the close of each session of Congress and report such revisions to Congress; and (3) periodically report on Congressional action on bills and resolutions which create or affect tax provisions. Directs the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance to prepare a reauthorization schedule for all tax provisions similar to the schedule set out for Federal programs in title I of this Act. Requires Congress to take final action on the reauthorization schedule for tax provisions before the end of the 97th Congress. Provides that each tax expenditure provision shall expire unless it is reauthorized by a law enacted during the Congress in which it is scheduled for review. Sets forth procedures and restrictions for the consideration of bills reauthorizing tax provisions, which are similar to the restrictions and procedures governing bills authorizing new budget authority for Federal programs as described in title I. Requires that the report accompanying a reauthorization bill include specified information. Permits Congress to prescribe technical rules necessary to mitigate adverse effects which might result for taxpayers who rely on a certain tax provision. Title V: Miscellaneous - Amends the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 to permit the committees of Congress to obtain from the agencies of the Government estimates or requests for appropriations, or requests for increases in an item of any such estimate or request, and recommendations as to how the revenue needs of the Government should be met. Sets forth administrative procedures and requirements. Directs the President, with the cooperation of the head of each appropriate agency, to submit to the Congress a "Regulatory Duplication and Conflicts Report" for all programs scheduled for reauthorization in the next Congress. Requires that each such report identify duplicative or conflicting rules and regulations promulgated by executive departments, independent agencies, and State and local governments and contain recommendations which address such conflicts or duplications. Directs the chairmen of the House and Senate committees having jurisdiction over a program scheduled for reauthorization during a Congress, to introduce a bill constituting a reauthorization within 15 days of the beginning of the second session of that Congress. Declares that it shall be in order to discharge a committee from consideration of such a bill if the committee fails to report the bill by a specified date. Makes it the duty of the Committees on Governmental Affairs and on Rules and Administration of the Senate and the Committees on Government Operations and Rules of the House of Representatives to review the operation of the procedures established by this Act and to submit a report every five years beginning December 31, 1988. Authorizes appropriations through fiscal year 1992.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1981
Regulation Reform Act of 1981 - Title I: The Analysis, Management, and Organization of Agency Functions - Requires the head of each Federal agency to publish for each proposed major rule a preliminary regulatory analysis which describes: (1) the need for the rule; (2) the reasonable alternative approaches; (3) regional differences; (4) the projected benefits, adverse economic effects, and effectiveness of the proposed rule and alternatives; (5) the estimated effect on small businesses, organizations, and governmental jurisdictions and competition in interstate and foreign commerce; and (6) the advantages and disadvantages of adopting performance standards rather than design standards. Requires each agency to provide interested persons 60 days after the preliminary analysis is issued to submit written comments and to provide 20 additional days for persons to respond to such comments. Requires that each agency publish for each final major rule a final regulatory analysis which includes: (1) a justification over alternatives which are more cost-effective or which have less adverse economic effects; (2) a summary of the significant issues raised by public comments; (3) a statement on the possibilities of providing requirement exemptions or less burdensome compliance standards for small businesses, organizations, or governmental jurisdictions; and (4) the total costs of the agency of the preliminary and final regulatory analysis. Directs each agency to: (1) include in the notice of each proposed and final major rule instructions of how the public may obtain copies of such analyses; and (2) send a copy of such analyses to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Authorizes an agency to delay completing such analyses by publishing a finding that the rule is being adopted in response to an emergency that makes completion of such analyses impossible. Terminates any such emergency rule if such analyses are not completed within 180 days of the publication of the rule. Bars judicial review of such regulatory analyses. Directs an agency to issue a rule providing exemptions or less burdensome compliance standards to small businesses, organizations, or governmental jurisdictions when it has indicated in the final regulatory analysis that such regulatory flexibility is lawful, feasible, and desirable. Requires the Director of OMB and the Comptroller General to report to Congress on agency compliance with the requirements of this title. Requires each agency to publish in the Federal Register, semiannually, a regulatory agenda containing a list of major and other rules for the next year and certain specified information concerning such rules. Directs each agency to submit its proposed major rules to the President for incorporation, semiannually, into the Calendar of Federal Regulations. Requires the Director of OMB to review and publish a list of rules submitted which potentially duplicate or conflict with other proposed or existing rules. Directs each agency to: (1) include in the notice of rulemaking or adjudicatory proceeding the date by which the agency intends to complete such proceeding; and (2) prepare and publish in the first regulatory agenda of the year a report on such proceedings which includes the number of proceedings the agency failed to complete by the established deadline and the reasons for such failure. Requires that such report also disclose specified information concerning the use of funds by the agency for procuring services for the preparation of any report in connection with such a proceeding. Requires each agency, within six months of the effective date of this act, to: (1) establish an office, within such agency, to be responsible for regulatory planning and management; (2) issue guidelines for determining which rules are significant rules according to specified standards; and (3) issue guidelines to insure that an adopted major or significant rule meets certain criteria including requirements that: (a) the rule is written to be easily understood; (b) there has been full consideration with affected State and local governments; and (c) the public has been given a full opportunity to participate in the rulemaking process. Directs each agency to publish and report to Congress on the costs of performing regulatory analyses and of reviewing its rules during the preceding year. Requires that each agency submit to OMB and publish in the Federal Register a draft schedule for the review, over a ten-year period, of its major rules and practices. Sets forth guidelines for such review. Directs each agency to publish a final review schedule within one year. Requires that each agency announce the review date for each major rule upon its publication. Requires each agency to publish an assessment of each precept reviewed. Declares that such review requirements shall not apply to precepts involving the internal revenue laws of the United States. Title II: Reorganizing and Improving Agency Proceedings - Requires that the general notice of a proposed rule include: (1) a statement that the agency seeks proposals from the public of alternative methods; and (2) a statement of where the file of the rulemaking proceeding may be inspected or how file copies may be obtained. Subjects rules concerning public property, loans, grants, benefits, or contracts to notice and comment rulemaking procedures. Directs each agency to maintain a file of each rulemaking proceeding. Requires each agency to prepare, semiannually, and transmit to the appropriate Congressional committees an agenda listing all areas in which the agency intends to propose major rules during the following year. Directs each agency to transmit a copy of each final rule to each House of Congress and to such committees on the day the rule is published. Prohibits the rule from becoming effective: (1) within 30 days after it is received by such committees; (2) until the earlier of the expiration of 60 days after the date on which a committee reports a resolution disapproving the rule or the date on which such resolution is rejected; or (3) if such a resolution is enacted. Exempts from such time constraints any major rule promulgated in response to an emergency situation. Prohibits an agency from promulgating a new rule substantially the same as a disapproved rule. Requires agencies to respond in an appropriate manner to good faith requests from interested persons for interpretations of agency rules. Creates a new procedure for administrative proceedings required by statute. Establishes an "expedited procedure" which applies to any proceeding predominantly concerning policy issues of a general character, including rulemaking and initial licensing. Requires "trial-type procedures" for proceedings concerning specific factual questions, including proceedings to assess a civil penalty or fine or to determine a claim for certain individual benefits. Enumerates the powers and responsibilities of a presiding employee at proceedings under trial-type procedure. Directs the agency, in such a proceeding, to conduct a hearing to afford parties an opportunity to submit written data, arguments, and responses, and an opportunity for oral argument. Authorizes the presiding employee to designate disputed questions for formal cross-examination. Sets forth procedures for issuing subpoenas in formal proceedings under the expedited or trial-type procedures. Allows an agency to designate an appropriate employee to recommend a decision for a proceeding under expedited procedure when the presiding employee submits a record of the proceeding without a recommended decision. Authorizes each agency to establish employee boards to review the decisions of presiding employees. Directs each agency to specify conditions under which it will accept an appeal of a decision of a presiding employee or such a board and conditions under which it will exclude a decision from the jurisdiction of a review board. Requires an action to be brought in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the review of an agency rule for which there is no applicable special statutory review procedure. Prohibits a court reviewing an agency action involving a rule from making any presumption in favor of the agency action if either the House of Representatives or the Senate has agreed to a resolution finding that the rule exceeded the agency's statutory authority or is inconsistent with legislative intent. Title III: Organizational and Program Improvements - Amends the Administrative Conference Act to repeal a requirement that the public members of the Conference be attorneys, scholars in government, or otherwise especially informed about Federal administrative procedure. Prohibits an agency from providing financial assistance for the costs of public participation in agency proceedings without specific statutory authority. Limits the maximum amount of such assistance. Requires any person awarded such assistance to enter into an agreement with the Chairman which outlines the representation to be provided by such person in the proceeding and permits the Chairman to examine expenditures from such assistance. Directs the Chairman to examine expenditures from such assistance. Directs the Chairman and the Director of OMB to report to Congress on the identity of applicants for such assistance and the amounts of assistance provided for fiscal years 1981 through 1984. Directs the Comptroller General to audit and report to Congress regarding the financial assistance procedures. Title IV: Congressional Review of Agency Regulations - Establishes the Committee on Regulatory Affairs as a permanent select committee of the House of Representatives to monitor the rulemaking activities of Federal agencies on a continuing basis. Requires each agency, upon proposing and upon promulgating a rule, to notify the Committee of certain information about the rule. Authorizes the Committee to investigate any such rule and report to the House. Specifies grounds for objections. Requires the Committee to transmit copies of such a report to the House committees with jurisdiction over the rule and to the promulgating agency. Directs the agency head to submit to the Speaker of the House within 30 days a statement indicating that the report has been reviewed, responding to issues raised by the Committee, and describing any accommodative agency actions. Precludes the House from considering any legislation appropriating funds to promulgate or implement such rule if the agency fails to submit such statement. Authorizes the Committee to report a joint resolution to prevent the promulgation of, postpone the effectiveness of, or repeal any rule on which it has issued a report. Permits the Speaker of the House to refer to the Committee: (1) any bill or resolution which authorizes an agency to issue rules which carry civil or criminal penalties for noncompliance; and (2) any resolution other than a joint resolution introduced pursuant to a provision of law authorizing Congressional disapproval of an agency rule. Directs the Committee to submit to the Ninety-eighth Congress a report on its activities during the Ninety-seventh Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1981
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from gross income up to $10,000 interest income earned on savings accounts. Makes such exclusion permanent.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1981
Economic Recovery and Job Creation Act of 1981 - Title I: Capital Cost Recovery - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow individuals and corporations a recovery deduction for a percentage of the cost of depreciable tangible property (equipment or machinery), used in a trade or business or held for the production of income, which is placed in service after December 31, 1980. Establishes four classes and recovery periods for such property: (1) Class 1, two years; (2) Class 2, four years; (3) Class 3, seven years; and (4) Class 4, ten years. Requires assignment of property to the class which has a recovery period at least 40 percent shorter than its present midpoint useful life under the Asset Depreciation Range (ADR) system. Permits the taxpayer to elect: (1) placement of any item of property in the class with the next longer recovery period than the class to which it would otherwise belong; or (2) placement of qualified recovery property (defined as property placed in service in areas of high unemployment or used primarily in the manufacture or distribution of certain alternative fuels or energy products) in the class having the next shorter recovery period than the class to which it would otherwise belong. Defines the recovery percentage as the percentage (100 percent, 150 percent, or 200 percent) selected by the taxpayer for a class of items, divided by the number of years in the corresponding recovery period. Requires a taxpayer to establish a recovery account for each class of recovery property. Denies eligibility for a recovery deduction to livestock, property subject to amortization, property depreciable on a basis other than time, public utility property, oil or gas fired boilers, and property used predominantly outside the United States. Increases from 20 percent to 30 percent the permissible ADR variance from class life for public utility property. Revises the applicable percentage for determination of the investment tax credit to: (1) 25 percent of the basis of an asset if its useful life is between two and four year (currently, 33 1/3 percent if its useful life is between three and five years); (2) 60 percent of asset basis if its useful life is between four and seven years (currently, 66 2/3 percent if its useful life is between five and seven years); and (3) 100 percent of basis if its useful life is seven years or greater (currently the same). Sets the energy percentage and employee plan percentage for qualified recovery property at: (1) 66 2/3 percent of the basis of an asset if its useful life is between two and four years; and (2) 100 percent of basis if its useful life is four years or greater. Allows election of: (1) 20 year straight line depreciation for depreciable realty; (2) 15 year straight line depreciation for low-income housing; and (3) 15 year depreciation computed under the declining balance method at a rate not exceeding 150 percent of the straight line depreciation rate for certain qualified owner-occupied industrial and commercial buildings. Allows an irrevocable election to treat the first $40,000 ($20,000 in the case of a married individual filing a separate return) of expenditures for recovery property which is purchased for use in a trade or business as currently deductible non-capital expenses. Sets forth rules for treatment of the depreciation allowance for any recovery property in computing the earnings and profits of a corporation. Revises the progress expenditure rules to eliminate the useful life requirement for depreciable property constructed by or for a taxpayer for use in trade or business (qualified progress expenditure property) and to apply to such property the revised percentages for determining the investment tax credit under this Act. Allows current depreciation of any qualified progress expenditure property not yet placed in service. Increases from ten to 25 percent the rehabilitation tax credit for nonresidential structures. Title II: Targeted Jobs Credit - Revises the rules for computing credits for employment of certain new employees to include an individual as a member of a targeted group if such individual has been terminated from previous employment as a result of modernization of equipment or facilities. Title III: Treatment of Certain Federally Required Nonproductive Expenditures As Expenses - Allows taxpayers to treat federally required nonproductive expenditures as currently deductible business expenses. Defines "federally required nonproductive expenditures" as expenditures in connection with a business which are required by Federal or State law, but which do not significantly increase the profitability of the business.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1981
Establishes a Commission on More Effective Government to study and recommend ways of promoting economy, efficiency, and improved service within the Executive branch of Government. Directs the Commission to recommend methods to improve the relationship between Federal, State, and local governments. Directs the Commission to submit a final report to the Congress ten days after the Ninety-eighth Congress convenes. Terminates the Commission 90 days after such date. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1981
Capital Investment Incentive Act of 1980 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to increase from 60 percent to 70 percent the noncorporate capital gains deduction from gross income. Reduces from 28 percent to 21 percent the corporate alternative minimum tax rate on capital gains.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1981
Constitutional Amendment - Prohibits the total appropriations of Congress from exceeding estimated revenues. Authorizes the suspension of such prohibition in time of war or national emergency. Prohibits any increase in the national debt as it exists on the date this article is ratified. Sets forth a schedule for repayment of the national debt.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1981
Authorizes the President, subject to specified conditions, to negotiate agreements with foreign governments limiting imports of automobiles, trucks, and their parts. Restricts such authorization and such agreements to a specified period of time. Requires consultation with the private sector. Prohibits treating actions taken pursuant to such agreements as violations of U.S. laws.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1981
Declares that it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States should establish and actively pursue a national energy plan that emphasizes and demands the use of domestic coal as a means of displacing current foreign energy imports. Declares that the President should establish a task force to examine modifications in the implementation of the Clean Air Act that could increase coal use without violating national ambient air quality standards. States that the President should submit to Congress within 60 days of enactment a plan which will achieve the goals of this resolution.
United States · United States Congress · 13 December 1980
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System should immediately take all necessary steps to reduce interest rates.
United States · United States Congress · 21 November 1980
Entitles veterans to wartime disability compensation for disabilities or diseases attributable to exposure to atomic or nuclear radiation during active service at the Nevada Test Site and specified sites in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands from June 30, 1945, to December 12, 1962.
United States · United States Congress · 19 November 1980
Free Enterprise Postage Stamp Act - Establishes a Free Enterprise Postage Stamp Advisory Committee consisting of the Postmaster General, the Deputy Postmaster General, and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. Directs the Committee to advise the United States Postal Service regarding the approval of bids for the printing, distribution, and sale of postage stamps containing the logos of domestic corporations. Authorizes the Postal Service to enter into a contract to print, distribute, and sell an issue of 50,000 of such stamps for any domestic corporation for a minimum price of $10,000. Requires the Committee to advertise the availability of such service, to review the bids received for each issue, and to recommend the bids which would be the most economically advantageous to the Postal service. Directs the Commiottee and the Postal Service to reject all bids for an issue if such action is in the public interest. Declares that the Postal Service shall receive all of the revenues from the sale of such stamps. Requires the Postal Service to report to Congress on the merits of the provisions of this Act as a revenue-raising mechanism.
United States · United States Congress · 12 November 1980
Title I: Quantitative Restrictions on the Importation of Automobiles During 1981, 1982, and 1983 - Limits the total quantity of automobiles which may be imported into the United States during each of the calendar years 1981-1983. Directs the Secretary of Commerce to allocate the permissible quantity of automobile imports among supplying countries on the basis of each such country's share of the U.S. market during calendar year 1979 and to certify such allocations to the Secretary of the Treasury. Directs the Secretary to ensure that domestic retail dealers of each make of automobile receive a quantity based on their 1979 market share. Authorizes the President to suspend such quota for a specified period if such suspension is in the national interest and would not adversely affect employment in the domestic automobile industry.
United States · United States Congress · 12 November 1980
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow income tax deductions related to the rental of a residence to a family member of the taxpayer if such family member pays a fair rental and uses such residence as the principal place of residence.
United States · United States Congress · 12 November 1980
Expresses congressional tribute and thanks to those Americans and Canadians who participated in the rescue of the people onboard the burning passenger vessel Prinsendam off the coast of Alaska during October 4-6, 1980.
United States · United States Congress · 25 September 1980
Agricultural Disaster Relief Act of 1980 - Amends the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to permit the deferral for at least one year of payments on loans administered by the Farmers Home Administration when circumstances beyond the borrower's control prevent making such payments without undue hardship. Authorizes the Secretary to implement a national moratorium on the repayment or foreclosure on loans made or held by the Secretary or under the provisions of any law administered by the Farmers Home Administration for up to three years if warranted by emergencies adversely affecting the agricultural economy. Requires the Secretary to implement a local moratorium on repayment or foreclosure for any county or area which has been declared a disaster area in 1980. Authorizes the Secretary to consolidate or reschedule such loans for payment. Sets forth the terms for such payment.
United States · United States Congress · 24 September 1980
Public Right to Comment Act - Allows any person to participate in the rulemaking of a Federal agency by submitting written data, views, or arguments, within not less than 30 days after the publication in the Federal Register of general notice of the proposed rulemaking. Provides that any persons making a submission shall not become a party to the rulemaking. Requires such submissions to be maintained in a separate portion of the public record of the rulemaking.
United States · United States Congress · 22 September 1980
Industrial Energy Conservation Incentive Tax Act of 1980 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to increase the investment tax credit energy percentage from ten to 20 percent for alternative energy property, specially defined energy property, and recycling equipment. Makes such credit refundable. Provides for a refundable 20 percent investment tax credit for qualified conservation property. Defines "qualified conservation property" as property which is used by a taxpayer as an energy-saving modification to an existing industrial facility. Excludes public utility property from such definition.
United States · United States Congress · 22 September 1980
Declares that the Congress accepts the gift of a red oak tree as a symbol of American hopes for the immediate release of the hostages in Iran. Dedicates the tree to the principles of individual freedom and world peace.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 1980
Honors Raoul Wallenberg for his work in Hungary during World War II. Expresses the sense of Congress that the U.S. delegation to the Madrid meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe should urge the consideration of the Wallenberg case. Requests the State Department to discover the whereabouts of Raoul Wallenberg from the Soviet Union and secure his return to Sweden.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 1980
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the peaceful resolution of the Polish workers' strike contributes to international peace. Encourages implementation of the strike settlement without outside interference.
United States · United States Congress · 5 September 1980
Authorizes the President to negotiate agreements with foreign governments limiting exports of automobiles and trucks to the United States. Terminates such authority and any agreements pursuant to such authority on July 1, 1985. States that action taken pursuant to such agreements shall not be treated as violating U.S. laws.
United States · United States Congress · 27 August 1980
Urges the peaceful resolution of issues raised by Polish workers in accordance with international agreements. Requests the Polish government to release persons unjustly imprisoned during recent worker unrest. Asks all signatories to observe the Declaration on Principles Guiding Relations between Participating States.
United States · United States Congress · 22 August 1980
Financial Integrity Act of 1980 - Amends the Accounting and Auditing Act of 1950 to require the head of each executive agency to prepare and transmit to the President an annual report on the adequacy of the agency's systems of internal auditing and administrative control. Directs the Comptroller General of the United States: (1) in consultation with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to establish a method of reporting and a general framework to guide the agencies in evaluating their systems of internal accounting and administrative control, and to modify such method or framework as necessary; and (2) to define internal accounting and administrative controls to provide assurances that: (a) obligations and costs were in compliance with applicable law; (b) funds, property, and other assets were safeguarded against waste, loss, unauthorized use, or misappropriation; and (c) agency revenues and expenditures were properly accounted for and recorded. Requires any inadequacy in the agency's systems which prevents the systems from achieving such assurances to be identified, and a plan for correcting such an inadequacy to be described in detail. Requires the Inspector General or the head of the internal audit staff of each agency to receive and investigate any allegation that an agency employee provided false or misleading information in connection with an evaluation or report concerning the agency's accounting or control systems. Directs the head of an agency to take action against such an employee as necessary.
United States · United States Congress · 22 August 1980
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Secretary of the Treasury should exercise his regulatory authority by designating energy efficient wood-burning stoves as eligible for the residential energy tax credit.
United States · United States Congress · 20 August 1980
Authorizes the President to negotiate agreements with foreign governments limiting exports of automobiles and trucks to the United States. Terminates such authority and any agreements pursuant to such authority on July 1, 1985. States that action taken pursuant to such agreements shall not be treated as violating U.S. laws.
United States · United States Congress · 20 August 1980
Declares that the people of Poland should be allowed to settle their own affairs, including the formation of independent trade unions and the right to strike, without foreign interference.
United States · United States Congress · 18 August 1980
Establishes the Sunday after the first Monday in November in 1982, 1984, 1986, and 1988 as the day for election of Representatives and Delegates to the Congress. Requires electors of the President and Vice President for 1984 and 1988 to be appointed on the Sunday after the first Monday in November. Specifies the hours during which polling places shall be opened for such presidential elections. Requires the Federal Election Commission to report to Congress and the President on the amendments made by this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 18 August 1980
Expresses the sense of the Congress that persons from Eastern European countries wishing to enter the United States because of oppression in their countries should be admitted into the United States to the same extent as other refugees.
United States · United States Congress · 31 July 1980
First-Year Capital Cost Recovery Act of 1980 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a first-year income tax deduction for a specified percentage of the basis of property used in a trade or held for the production of income (recovery property). Excludes from the category of recovery property: (1) property placed in service before January 1, 1981; (2) residential rental property; and (3) property eligible for amortization. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe tables for the classification of types of recovery property into not more than 30 categories. Provides for an annual 20 percent phase-in of the full recovery property percentage beginning in 1981. Disqualifies capital cost recovery property from investment tax credit treatment and from additional first-year depreciation. Requires the recapture as ordinary income excess depreciation from recovery property which is subsequently sold or exchanged. Exempts accelerated depreciation on recovery property from classification as an item of tax preference for purposes of computing the minimum tax.
United States · United States Congress · 30 July 1980
Farm Labor Contractor Act of 1980 - Amends the Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act of 1963 to exclude any labor union from the definition of "farm labor contractor" (thus exempting labor unions from coverage under such Act). Excludes also from such definition of "farm labor contractor" (but only grants a limited exemption from registration to): any farm, processor, cannery, gin, packing shed, or nursery which, whether or not for a fee, recruits, solicits, hires, furnishes, or transports migrant workers for its own operation, and its employees. Requires such entity and such employees to comply with specified obligations of farm labor contractors to ascertain and disclose certain information to each worker at the time the worker is recruited. Excludes also from such definition of "farm labor contractor" (thus exempting from coverage): (1) any farmer, processor, canner, ginner, packing shed operator, or nurseryman, regardless of the legal form of business organization, if he or she engages in any such activity individually on behalf of an operation owned and operated only by one or more members of his or her immediate family; (2) any employee of such entity who does not recruit, solicit, hire, furnish, or supervise migrant workers, but who may, at any one time, transport not more than two other employees in a vehicle owned or controlled by the entity for which the entity has complied with specified requirements as they pertain to vehicles; and (3) any farmer, processor, ginner, packing shed operator, or nurseryman that engages in such activity for its own operation, regardless of the legal form of business organization, which is owned and operated by one or more members of the same immediate family, or its employees, provided that not more than ten non-family employees performed agricultural labor for it on any single day during the preceding 12-month period. Makes the requirement that every farm contractor ascertain and disclose specified information to each worker at the time the worker is recruited applicable at the time the worker is hired, if the worker is not recruited. Makes inapplicable the requirement that a farm labor contractor inform a worker of the sums paid to such contractor on account of the labor of such worker, whenever a specified exempt entity pays agricultural workers directly by check. Requires that the itemized statement of wages and withholdings, which contractors are required to give workers, include a statement of net earnings. Requires that every farm, processor, cannery, gin, packing shed, or nursery, and its employees (as described in the limited exemption above): (1) deal only with properly registered farm labor contractors and comply with specified obligations (except registration) and prohibitions for farm labor contractors and with other specified requirements of such Act; (2) maintain a policy of insurance or show satisfactory proof of financial responsibility under such Act; (3) maintain all vehicles and housing in accordance with specified standards; (4) refrain from knowingly giving false or misleading information to migrant workers concerning the terms, conditions, or existence of agricultural employment; and (5) not fail, without justification, to comply with the terms of any working arrangements made with migrant workers. Makes penalty provisions of such Act applicable to such entities and their employees that have been granted such limited exemption from coverage.
United States · United States Congress · 28 July 1980
Reaffirms congressional support for full implementation of the Helsinki Final Act. Expresses the sense of Congress that human rights concerns should be given serious attention at the Madrid meeting to review such Act. Declares that any new measures should be balanced among all sections of the Final Act. Directs the U.S. delegation to seek another review meeting within two years.
United States · United States Congress · 24 July 1980
Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act Amendments of 1980 - Amends the Farm Labor Contractor Registration Act of 1963 to revise the definition of "farm labor contractor" to: (1) broaden specified exclusions from such definition (thus broadening certain exemptions from coverage under such Act); and (2) exclude from such definition (and such coverage) any nonprofit or cooperative association of farmers, growers, or ranchers, duly incorporated under appropriate State laws, and operated solely for the mutual benefit of the members thereof, and any full-time or regular employee of such association or cooperative who engages in such activity solely for such employer. Adds other definitions relating to such revisions. Revises the definition of "agricultural employment" to specify that listed activities take place on a farm or ranch. Limits the definition of "migrant worker" to mean (among individuals engaged in agricultural employment on a farm or ranch on a seasonal or temporary basis) only those who cannot regularly return to their domicile each day after working hours, or who are transported from and to their domicile each workday by the person who recruits, solicits, hires, or furnishes such worker for agricultural employment on a farm or ranch owned or operated by another person.
United States · United States Congress · 23 July 1980
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives regarding a rehabilitation plan designed to correct current economic adversities in the basic steel industry through import restrictions, temporary suspensions of Government regulations, and revisions of the current tax structure.
United States · United States Congress · 2 July 1980
Amends the Black Lung Benefits Act to require employment in a mine after June 30, 1973 (currently, December 31, 1969) in order to receive black lung benefits from a mine operator. Makes the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund available for: (1) paying the claims of miners last employed before July 1, 1973; and (2) reimbursing operators for claims of miners last employed between January 1, 1970, and June 30, 1973.
United States · United States Congress · 2 July 1980
Expresses the sense of the Congress that U.S. foreign policy should reflect a national strategy of peace through strength with specified principles and goals.
United States · United States Congress · 1 July 1980
California Wilderness Act of 1980 - Designates specified lands in the State of California as wilderness and components of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
United States · United States Congress · 27 June 1980
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide homebuilders with an income tax credit for the construction of residences which incorporate a passive solar energy system. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury, after consultation with the Secretaries of Energy and Housing and Urban Development, to prescribe regulations setting forth a solar construction credit table for purposes of determining the amount of the credit for which the incorporator of the solar energy system is eligible. Limits the dollar amount of such credit to $2,000 for calendar years prior to 1986 and phases out the amount of the credit by $500 decrements until 1989 when such credit terminates. Defines "passive solar energy system" as a system which contains a solar collection area, an absorber, a storage mass, a heat distribution method, and heat regulation devices. Requires such system to be installed in a new residence after September 30, 1980 and before January 1, 1989.
United States · United States Congress · 25 June 1980
Directs the Postmaster General to issue a commemorative postage stamp in honor of Father Michael J. McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus, as the Knights of Columbus celebrate their 100th anniversary. Requires that such stamp be issued in the denomination used for first class mail and be placed on sale in 1982.
![Official portrait of Rep. Murphy, Austin J. [D-PA-20]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/m001088_200.jpg)