United States · United States Congress · 13 May 1986
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to disallow the tax exclusion for interest earned on industrial development bonds issued by a State or local government if the proceeds of such bonds are used to finance milk production. Exempts from such requirement a limited amount of bonds used for first-time farmers and at times when there is a certification by the Secretary of Agriculture of a nationwide shortage of milk.
United States · United States Congress · 8 May 1986
Rural Health Care Improvement Act of 1986 - Amends part A (General Provisions) of title XI of the Social Security Act to require that whenever the Secretary of Health and Human Services proposes a regulation or promulgates a final version of a regulation under titles XVIII (Medicare), XIX (Medicaid), or part B (Peer Review) of title XI of the Act which will have a substantial impact on small rural hospitals, the Secretary make a regulatory impact analysis available to the public. Amends the Medicare program to continue, beyond FY 1986, current law regarding Medicare payment to sole community hospitals for capital-related costs, treating such costs as distinct from operating costs of inpatient hospital services. Provides certain small sole community and rural hospitals with payment for extremely high cost cases (outlier payments) which represent five or six percent of the total payments made to such hospitals. Sets aside ten percent of amounts expended by the Secretary on certain experiments and demonstration projects for projects relating exclusively to rural health issues. Requires fiscal intermediaries to pay certain small rural hospitals for Medicare claims, at the latest, 30 days after receiving the request for such payment. Amends title VII (Administration) of the Act to establish an Office of Rural Health Policy in the Office of the Administrator of the Health Care Financing Administration to: (1) advise the Administrator regarding the effects of changes in the Medicare and Medicaid programs on rural health; and (2) oversee compliance with provisions of this Act requiring regulatory impact analysis and rural health demonstration projects.
United States · United States Congress · 8 May 1986
States that U.S. defense programs should not carry out any development, test, or deployment activity of any antiballistic missile system or component. (This is in conformance with the defense system restrictions of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.)
United States · United States Congress · 7 May 1986
Directs the Administrator of General Services to assign specified surplus Government property in Duluth, Minnesota, to the Secretary of Education for conveyance to the University of Minnesota.
United States · United States Congress · 6 May 1986
Torture Victim Protection Act of 1986 - Amends the United Nations Participation Act of 1945 to impose civil liability on anyone who, under actual or apparent authority of any foreign nation, subjects any person to torture or extrajudicial killing. Grants jurisdiction over such cases to U.S. district courts only after claimants have exhausted all available remedies in the place in which the conduct giving rise to the claim occurred.
United States · United States Congress · 6 May 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the President and the Secretary of State should insist at the Vienna Review Meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and in discussions with Communist Party and Soviet leaders, that imprisoned and exiled members of the Ukrainian and other Helsinki Monitoring Groups be released and allowed to emigrate to the countries of their choice. Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the Secretary of State should ensure that the U.S. consulate in Kiev reports on Soviet human rights violations in the Ukraine; and (2) such information should be included in reports on compliance with the Helsinki Final Act.
United States · United States Congress · 1 May 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that, in order to encourage the continued improvement of relations between the United States and Romania, the Romanian Government should consider taking specified humanitarian actions in light of the upcoming Bern Human Contacts Experts Meeting of Helsinki signatory states. Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the Secretary of State should: (1) pursue such humanitarian concerns at every possible opportunity, including at the Bern meeting of Helsinki signatory states; and (2) convey to the Romanian Government the importance of progress on such matters so that the Congress may take such progress into account during the 1986 Most Favored Nation deliberations.
United States · United States Congress · 1 May 1986
Declares that the House of Representatives urges: (1) the Soviet Union to share with the international scientific community information about the Chernobyl accident and to open the nuclear site for international inspection; (2) the establishment of an international emergency alert system; (3) the International Atomic Energy Agency to establish safety standards for nuclear power plants; and (4) the United States and other member nations of the Agency to implement standards by directing the Agency to establish an international emergency response force. Encourages the formation of an international commission to examine the causes of the Chernobyl accident.
United States · United States Congress · 23 April 1986
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to disallow, while a declaration of national emergency is in effect: (1) a foreign income tax credit for any income, war profits, or excess profits taxes paid or accrued to Libya; (2) a business expense income tax deduction for any such taxes paid to Libya; and (3) the income tax exclusion of earned income of U.S. citizens living abroad for any income attributable to Libya. Describes such a declaration as a declaration by the President of a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act after a finding that the policies and actions of Libya constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 22 April 1986
Nuclear Waste Policy Reform Amendments Act of 1986 - Amends the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 to prohibit the Secretary of Energy from implementing nuclear waste disposal activities with respect to more than one repository. Declares that any such activities commenced (or decisions made by the Secretary) before the date of enactment of this Act shall be rescinded or terminated. Prohibits the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from authorizing the construction of more than one repository under such Act. Provides that if the Secretary does not meet the January 31, 1998, deadline for high-level radioactive waste disposal then the Secretary must cease all repository activities until: (1) the Nuclear Waste Repository Review Commission (established by this Act) submits a certain report to the Congress; and (2) the Congress specifically authorizes the continuation of such repository activities (thus imposing a moratorium on repository development). Removes the deadlines by which the Secretary and the President must submit candidate site nominations for second repository site characterizations. Prohibits the Secretary from nominating or recommending any crystalline rock site for site characterization for a repository. Removes the volume limitation placed upon a first repository. Establishes the Nuclear Waste Repository Review Commission (if a repository moratorium takes effect) to: (1) review scientific data regarding repository suitability; and (2) compare the use of repositories for radioactive waste disposal with alternative technologies for the permanent isolation of such waste. Requires the Review Commission to report to the Congress by a certain date regarding its activities and recommendations. Authorizes appropriations. Terminates such Commission upon submission of its report. Sets deadlines for draft revisions of the Secretary's mission plan under such Act.
United States · United States Congress · 17 April 1986
Prohibits the United States from making available any STINGER air defense guided missile (or any comparable portable ground-to-air missile) to any foreign military or paramilitary force other than: (1) the armed forces of a government with which the United States has diplomatic relations; (2) the North Atlantic Treaty Organization; or (3) any other international organization, all of whose members have diplomatic relations with the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 16 April 1986
Agricultural Credit Act of 1986 - Title I: Interest Subsidy Incentives for Restructuring Loans - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture, and a State at its option, to provide interest rate subsidies to lenders who defer principal or interest payments on agricultural loans. Limits eligible aggregate loan amounts. Sets forth rate reductions. Establishes a three-year deferral period. States that at the end of such period lenders may not charge interest rates in excess of existing comparable rates. Permits lenders to enforce pre-deferral loan terms in the event of a nonmonetary borrower default. Requires lenders to make a good faith effort to reduce principal or interest due before foreclosing, except in the case of a bankruptcy. Requires lenders to develop debt restructuring guidelines. Terminates Federal and State subsidy payments upon foreclosure. Directs the Secretary to use the Agricultural Credit Insurance Fund to carry out such subsidy program. Authorizes the use of additional specified funds under the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act. Title II: Conservation Provisions - Amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to prohibit such loan deferral assistance to producers who cultivate crops on erodible land or wetlands. Title III: Accounting Provisions - Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to require the appropriate Federal banking agency to: (1) permit an insured agricultural bank to account for debt restructuring according to generally accepted accounting principles by not requiring a change in the recorded investment unless the investment exceeds total, reasonably anticipated, future receipts given the new terms of the loan; (2) establish a program of capital standard forbearance for such an insured bank for which capital reduction is attributable to problems in the agricultural sectors of the economy; and (3) implement call report requirements for renegotiated loans which authorize such loans to be disclosed as "restructured and in compliance with modified terms." Requires States to conform their appropriate regulations to such amendments. Prohibits a national banking association from holding real estate under mortgage or purchased to secure debts for longer than ten years with no extension (currently, five years with a five-year extension if approved by the Comptroller of the Currency). Directs the Comptroller of the Currency to establish new lending limits for banks covered by the capital standard forbearance program. Prohibits such lending limitation from exceeding 20 percent of the unimpaired capital and unimpaired surplus of the lending institution. Title IV: Miscellaneous - Directs the Secretary to prescribe implementing regulations within 30 days. States that any State law prohibiting fixed rate loans shall not apply to credit extensions under this Act. Sets forth penalties for misuse of funds under this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 16 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the Veterans Administration should reconsider its internal report which proposes to close the Veterans Administration Insurance Center at Fort Snelling, Minnesota.
United States · United States Congress · 15 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that, in light of specified international human rights agreements, the Soviet Union should approve the exit visa applications of Doctor Naum Meiman and his wife, Inna Kitrosskaya, and arrange for them to go to the country of their choice. Urges the President to: (1) protest the Soviet Government's refusal to consider the exit visa applications of Dr. Meiman and his wife; (2) call upon all other signatory nations of the Helsinki Accords to join in such protest; and (3) instruct the U.S. delegation to the meeting of experts on human contacts organized under the auspices of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to be held in Bern, Switzerland, to pursue this matter.
United States · United States Congress · 10 April 1986
Acid Deposition Control Act of 1986 - Title I: Stationary Sources - Amends the Clean Air Act to require States to develop and submit to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) an emissions limitation compliance schedule for sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen from fossil-fuel-fired electric utility steam generating units. Requires a two-phase reduction in such emissions, the first to be achieved by 1993, the second by 1997. Requires each State to develop and submit to the Administrator a plan to achieve emissions reductions from other fossil-fuel-fired steam generating units by 1977. Directs the Administrator to conduct and update a comprehensive annual inventory of emissions of sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen from stationary sources, identifying achievable reductions which could be made by 1997. Requires States to submit to the Administrator for approval a plan for achieving such reductions. Grants States discretion in their choice of compliance measures. Requires the Administrator to report to the Congress by July 1, 1993, on phase I reductions and the feasibility of meeting phase II reductions. States that phase II reductions will not take effect if the Congress enacts legislation to that effect. Sets forth emissions rates a State without an approved reductions plan must follow. Authorizes the Administrator to impose a fee on the generation and importation of electric energy between December 31, 1988, and December 31, 1996, to subsidize the interest on qualified pollution control debt incurred by the utility. Establishes civil penalties for fee violations. Establishes in the Treasury the Acid Deposition Control Fund to receive such fees and provide interest subsidy payments for pollution control systems meeting specified standards. Revises the standards for nitrogen oxides emissions for new electric utility steam generating units which burn bituminous or subbituminous coal and for certain fossil-fuel-fired steam generating units. Requires certain smelters to be in compliance with the applicable emissions reduction standard by January 2, 1988, without extension or delay. Title II: Control of Emission from Mobile Sources - Sets oxides of nitrogen emission standards for motor vehicles for model years 1988, 1989, and beyond. Modifies hydrocarbon standards for trucks after model year 1989. Directs the Administrator to regulate sulfur in diesel fuel for 1989 and beyond. Requires either the use of onboard hydrocarbon control technology or the use of gasoline vapor recovery of hydrocarbon emissions emanating from fueling motor vehicles. Title III: International Cooperation - Expresses the concern of the Congress over transboundary pollution between the United States and Mexico and directs the Secretary of State and the Administrator to conclude an agreement within three months of enactment. Requires such an agreement to cover specified copper smelters. Requires the Secretary and the Administrator to report to the Congress within six months on negotiating such agreement. Requires EPA to perform atmospheric field experiments to determine the effects of sulfur dioxide emissions, before and after pollution controls, of the Nacozaria smelter, Mexico, on specified western States. Directs the Secretary to establish an international agency, or utilize an existing agency, to report on the effects of transboundary air pollution from copper smelters on public health and welfare in the United States and in Mexico.
United States · United States Congress · 10 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that Federal funds for the Department of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service should be maintained at a level sufficient to prevent the reduction of benefits provided by such Service.
United States · United States Congress · 10 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the present three-year basis recovery rule on the taxation of retirement annuities for government employees should be maintained and provisions requiring the repeal of such treatment in certain tax reform legislation (H.R. 3838) should be deleted.
United States · United States Congress · 9 April 1986
Non-Smokers' Rights Act of 1986 - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, within 180 days of enactment of this Act, to promulgate regulations designating the areas in which smoking shall be allowed within buildings or building sections occupied by the Government. Requires the conspicuous display of signs at building entrances and in areas where smoking is permitted. Directs the Secretary to solicit comments from labor organizations and local health organizations prior to promulgating regulations. Prohibits such regulations from superseding those which provide more stringent restrictions on smoking. Declares that nothing in this Act prevents more stringent regulations from being promulgated.
United States · United States Congress · 9 April 1986
Prohibits the issuance of a letter of offer with respect to specified proposed sales of Sidewinder, Stinger, and Harpoon missiles and services to Saudi Arabia, as described in the April 8, 1986, certifications from the President to the Congress under the Arms Export Control Act.
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that Federal telecommunications policy should maintain universal telephone service, retain nationwide toll rate averaging for interstate long distance calls, and reduce regulatory and administrative burdens on small telephone systems. Provides that any Federal access charge plan should: (1) support rural telephone systems through a universal service fund designed to ensure affordable rural telephone rates; (2) allocate to interstate long distance service no less than the proportion of the local telephone system access costs currently allocated to such service; (3) retain the current arrangement for the pooling of such costs; and (4) avoid collecting all of such costs by means of flat rate access charges.
United States · United States Congress · 21 March 1986
Non-Smokers' Protection Act of 1986 - Establishes the policy of the United States to provide an environment free from tobacco smoke to the maximum extent practicable in Government buildings. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, in consultation with the Surgeon General, to promulgate regulations to carry out such policy. Requires such regulations, at a minimum, to provide that smoking be prohibited in buildings or building sections occupied by the Government. Authorizes the Secretary to exempt certain limited areas from such restriction and grants precedence to the rights of nonsmokers in any dispute. Requires the posting of signs where smoking is permitted in a building. Directs the Secretary to solicit comments from labor organizations prior to promulgating regulations. Prohibits such regulations from superseding those that provide more stringent restrictions on smoking. Declares that nothing in this Act prevents more stringent regulations from being promulgated.
United States · United States Congress · 21 March 1986
Amends Federal military pay and allowances provisions to provide increased authority for the temporary storage of household effects of members of the armed forces in connection with a change of duty station.
United States · United States Congress · 12 March 1986
Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act - Requires States to provide by law for elections for Federal office: (1) absentee registration and absentee voting for uniformed services voters and overseas voters; and (2) the use of alternative write-in absentee ballots by overseas voters. Directs the President to designate the head of an executive department to have primary responsibility for the administrative functions of this Act, including: (1) prescribing an official postcard form containing a voter registration and an absentee ballot application; (2) prescribing an alternative write-in ballot for overseas voters; (3) prescribing forms and designs for balloting materials; (4) distributing election materials; and (5) reporting to the Congress in even-numbered years on its effectiveness. Provides for the distribution of official postcards. Sets forth recommendations to the States in carrying out provisions of this Act. Authorizes the use of the alternative write-in ballots in lieu of absentee ballots under specified circumstances. Directs the Postmaster to expedite the transport of election materials and declares such materials free of postage.
United States · United States Congress · 11 March 1986
Interstate Sales Tax Collection Act of 1986 - Allows any State or political subdivision to require retailers engaged in business in that State to collect a State and local sales or use tax on the sale or use of tangible personal property shipped or delivered into that State or political subdivision. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to require interstate retailers to file information returns with the Internal Revenue Service for the purpose of assisting States in the collection of such sales or use taxes. Authorizes disclosure of such information to State tax officials. Imposes penalties for failure to file such information returns.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1986
Amends provisions which established the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota to change the authorization of appropriations for resource management review and grants.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1986
Railroad Retirement and Unemployment Benefits Protection Act of 1986 - Amends the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 to: (1) provide that certain cost of living increases in railroad retirement annuities shall not be prevented from taking effect by any provision of law other than such Act; (2) prohibit the sequestration of any amounts appropriated to the Dual Benefits Payment Account other than by such Act; and (3) prohibit the sequestration of administrative expenses for the Railroad Retirement Board other than by such Act. Amends the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to prohibit any: (1) legislative limitation from being placed upon the availability of railroad unemployment insurance benefit payments other than by such Act; and (2) sequestration of railroad unemployment insurance administration funds other than by such Act.
![Official portrait of Rep. Oberstar, James L. [D-MN-8]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/o000006_200.jpg)