United States · United States Congress · 8 March 1978
Authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to make grants for research and development of new methods of research, experimentation, and testing which minimize the use of and the pain inflicted upon, live animals. Authorizes appropriations to carry out the purposes of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 8 March 1978
United States Academy of Peace and Conflict Resolution Commission Act - Establishes a Commission on Proposals for a United States Academy for Peace and Conflict Resolution to study the establishment of such academy and alternative proposals which would assist the Federal Government in promoting peace. Directs the Commission to review the theory and techniques of conflict resolution and the institutions for conflict resolution. Directs the Commission to report its findings to the President and the Congress within one year from the availability of appropriations. Authorizes the appropriation of $500,000 to carry out this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 7 March 1978
Rehabilitation Cost Assistance Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to provide grants to States: (1) to make a study of the costs involved in removing architectural, communications, and attitudinal barriers against handicapped persons in federally assisted programs; and (2) to pay the costs involved in assisting in such removal.
United States · United States Congress · 7 March 1978
Solar Photovoltaic Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act - Requires the Secretary of Energy to develop research, development, and demonstration programs concerning the use of solar photovoltaic energy systems. Authorizes the Secretary to provide up to 75 percent of the purchase and installation costs of selected systems used for research purposes. Requires the Secretary to formulate definitive performance criteria concerning solar photovoltaic systems and to develop a system of certification for conforming systems. Directs the Secretary to consult with relevant Federal agencies concerning the use of solar photovoltaic systems in Federal facilities. Requires the Secretary to set up a development and demonstration program of prototype photovoltaic systems at the Solar Energy Research Institute in Golden, Colorado. Directs the Secretary to establish a solar energy data bank at the Golden facility. Requires relevant Federal officials to ensure that small business concerns are granted realistic and adequate opportunities to participate, to the maximum extent possible, in the programs under this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 7 March 1978
Elephant Protection Act - Prohibits the import, export, possession, transport, or sale of any elephant product. Directs the Secretary of the Interior to administer this Act. Authorizes the Secretary to issue permits for acts herein prohibited for scientific purposes. Establishes civil and criminal penalties for violation of this Act. Establishes rewards for persons providing information regarding violations of this Act. Requires the Secretaries of the Interior, Treasury, and the department in which the Coast Guard is operating to enforce this Act, and to promulgate regulations for such enforcement. Permits citizens suits to enforce this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1978
Directs that orders of a State court or a court of the District of Columbia relative to the custody of children of divorced or separated parents be given full faith and credit by every other State and the District of Columbia until such issuing court no longer has under the law of the State in which it is located, or declines to exercise, jurisdiction over modifications of such orders. Permits a court to refuse to recognize a custody order obtained by a parent or other person who removed the child from a State in order to conceal the child from the other parent or from a person acting as a parent.
United States · United States Congress · 1 March 1978
Amends Title XX (Grants to States for Services) of the Social Security Act to increase the ceiling imposed upon payments for services under such Title for the fiscal years 1979, 1980, 1981 and maintains the 1981 level for succeeding years.
United States · United States Congress · 23 February 1978
Directs the Postal Service to issue a commemorative postage stamp in observance of the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the modern State of Israel.
United States · United States Congress · 23 February 1978
Congressional Award Program Act - Establishes the Congressional Award Program in the United States and its territories to recognize and promote youth leadership and excellence in the areas of expedition fitness, personal creative development, and public service. Creates a Congressional Award Board with a Director to supervise such program. Authorizes the appointment of State award directors under this Act. Creates three Congressional Award Medals to be awarded under this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 22 February 1978
Social Security Refinancing Act - Amends Title II (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) and XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act, and the Internal Revenue Code to finance the payment of disability insurance benefits and hospital insurance benefits through general tax revenues, rather than through employment and self-employment tax revenues. Reduces employment and self-employment tax rates below the rates established by the Social Security Financing Amendments of 1977.
United States · United States Congress · 22 February 1978
Merit Selection for United States Attorneys Act - Revises the method for selection of United States Attorneys to establish a United States Attorney Selection Commission for each judicial district. Provides for appointment of commission members by the appropriate State chief executive. Directs a Commission to select and forward to the President and Attorney General a list of four to eight candidates within 90 days of the expiration of the incumbent's term. Requires the President to nominate a commission candidate or to request another list. Limits U. S. attorneys to two four year terms. Restricts the power of the President to unilaterally remove a U.S. attorney.
United States · United States Congress · 16 February 1978
Permits the Governor of any State with jurisdiction to establish a disaster area Recovery Planning Council to contract the performance of Council functions to any Federal agency, State agency, or private nonprofit organization receiving Federal funds, which has economic development functions.
United States · United States Congress · 16 February 1978
Condemns the recent poisoning of Israeli oranges. Declares it the sense of the House of Representatives that the President direct the United States delegations to the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament and the United Nations Special Session on Disarmament to urge that the poisoning incident be placed high on the agenda of these organizations. Declares it the sense of the House of Representatives that the President direct the United States delegation to the Conference of the Committee on Disarmament to recommit itself to efforts to negotiate an effective prohibition of chemical weapons.
United States · United States Congress · 15 February 1978
Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs Memorial Act - Authorizes the Commissioner of Education to provide financial assistance to assist in the development of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. Authorizes up to $5,000,000 to be appropriated for such purpose.
United States · United States Congress · 15 February 1978
Title I: Establishment of Park - Establishes, in the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, the Lowell National Cultural Park, consisting of a preservation zone and an intensive use zone, to preserve sites and structures through implementation of the plan of the Lowell Historic Canal District Commission. Title II: Role of the Secretary - Requires the Secretary of the Interior to submit a park management plan to Congress. Provides for consultation with the Lowell city manager and the Lowell National Cultural Park Commission, established by this Act, in setting preservation, restoration, and use standards. Sets requirements for acquisition of property within the preservation zone. Directs the Secretary to provide technical assistance in preservation, restoration, and other use of park properties. Permits withholding of park management plan funds by the Secretary if the city of Lowell fails to meet specified criteria. Title III: Role of the Commission - Establishes within the Department of the Interior the Lowell National Cultural Park Commission to administer the preservation zone. Requires the Commission to submit management plans and an index of Federal Register and other potentially significant historic cultural or architectural properties. Directs the Commission to make loans, grants, and technical assistance for the preservation, restoration, or development of the park. Provides for the acquisition and disposition of property by the Commission. Enumerates the powers of the Commission, including the holding of hearings, and provides for the staff of the Commission.
United States · United States Congress · 15 February 1978
Alcohol Fuel Encouragement Act - Requires all gasoline stations, within three years of the passage of this Act, to sell a mixture of gasoline and alcohol in the same manner as they sell gasoline. Imposes a civil penalty for violations of such requirement. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow rapid amortization of facilities producing alcohol for use as a fuel in motor vehicles. Amends the Clean Air Act with respect to the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the use of alcohol as a fuel additive.
United States · United States Congress · 9 February 1978
Graduated Income Tax Rate Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide graduated income tax rates for corporations ranging from a 14 percent rate on the first $25,000 in income to a 48 percent rate on income in excess of $100,000,000.
United States · United States Congress · 8 February 1978
Federal Disclosure and Accountability Act - Prohibits any Federal employee from coercing any individual for the purpose of interfering with the right of such individual to disclose any illegal or otherwise improper Government action to the Review Board on Improper Government Actions, established by this Act and from taking any adverse personnel action against such individual who is a Federal employee in retaliation for such disclosure. Requires the Board to investigate any such disclosure and, in the event further investigation or action is warranted, to notify the person, the head of the agency in which such person is employed, and, if appropriate, the Attorney General and/or the Comptroller General.
United States · United States Congress · 8 February 1978
Small Business Tax Reform Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to replace the corporate income tax rates with a graduated, five-tier rate schedule, imposing the uppermost (48 percent) marginal rate upon income in excess of $100,000.
United States · United States Congress · 7 February 1978
Authorizes the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to acquire the Museum of African Art. Establishes a Commission for the Museum of African Art to assist the Board in the operation and development of the Museum. Authorizes appropriations to carry out the purposes of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 7 February 1978
Amends Title II (Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code to reduce tax rates below the level established by the Social Security Amendments of 1977 on employment income for both employers and employees and on self-employment income. Increases Federal contributions to the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, and the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund established under Title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act by 50 percent. Increases the ceiling on the amount of income that is subject to social security taxation to $100,000 in 1979.
United States · United States Congress · 7 February 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a deduction of up to $1,500 for household expenses to any taxpayer who maintains a household in which a dependent aged 65 or over resides.
United States · United States Congress · 7 February 1978
Amends rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives to prohibit the inclusion in any appropriation bill or amendment thereto of a provision which changes existing law or imposes any limitation not contained in existing law.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 1978
Amends the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Act of 1968 to establish a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship in Social and Political Thought at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars at the Smithsonian Institution. Establishes the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Trust Fund in the Treasury.
United States · United States Congress · 6 February 1978
Declares the sense of the Congress that the President and the Secretary of State should take all necessary steps to bring the Baltic States question before the United Nations and to urge the United Nations to request the Soviet Union to withdraw all non-native troops, agents, colonists, and controls from the Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and to return all Baltic exiles from Siberia and from prisons and labor camps in the Soviet Union. Requires the Secretary of State to do his utmost to bring the matter of the Baltic States to the attention of all nations by means of special radio programs and publications. Declares that the United States should not agree to the recognition of the Soviet Union's annexation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Directs the President to take steps to provide that all maps of Europe show the Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as independent states. Calls for a return of self-determination to the peoples of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia through free elections conducted under the auspices of the United Nations.
United States · United States Congress · 2 February 1978
Veterans' and Survivors' Pension Improvement Act - Title I: Amendments to Pension Program for Non-service-connected Disability or Death - Revises the list of specified catagories of payments excluded from the determination of annual income for benefit payment purposes. Requires persons applying for a non-service-connected disability pension to report the income and estate of each spouse and child on account of whom added pension is applied for or received. Sets increased flat pension and aid-and-attendance allowance rates, reduced by the amount of a veteran's annual income, and in specified instances, by the amount of a spouse's or child's income which is reasonably available to or for such veteran. Sets increased flat benefit rates, with similar reductions, for the surviving spouses and children of such veterans. Requires annual adjustments in such pension and benefit rates in conjunction with cost-of-living increases in Social Security benefits. Title II: Miscellaneous Provisions and Effective Dates - Sets the effective dates for provisions of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 1 February 1978
Expresses the insistence of the House of Representatives that the Government of the Republic of Korea cooperate with a certain investigation of the House of Representatives Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. Declares that failure of the Government to cooperate with such investigation will have a negative impact on relations between the United States and the Republic of Korea, including assistance for the latter country.
United States · United States Congress · 31 January 1978
Constitutional Amendment - Provides that the District of Columbia be treated as a State for purposes of representation in the Congress, election of the President and Vice President, and Article V of the Constitution of the United States. Repeals the provisions of the twenty-third amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 30 January 1978
Confers jurisdiction upon Federal district courts to enforce a State child custody order against a parent who, in violation of such order, took the child to another State.
United States · United States Congress · 26 January 1978
Increases from $250 to $400 the burial and funeral expense allowance which may be paid by the Veterans Administration on behalf of certain deceased veterans.
United States · United States Congress · 24 January 1978
Establishes an 11-member Commission on the Humane Treatment of Animals to study the treatment of animals. Requires that the membership include zoologists, veterinarians, and representatives from humane societies. Requires the Commission to determine if animals are caused needless pain or suffering as a result of their treatment on farms and in laboratory experimentation. Requires Commission investigation into domestic pet growth rates and the effectiveness of existing laws regarding the treatment of animals. Excludes the study of the treatment of animals occurring in connection with the exercise of any religion. Directs the Commission to report its findings to the Congress and the Commission 60 days after it submits its final report. Authorizes appropriations of $750,000 per year to carry out the provisions of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 23 January 1978
Veterans' and Survivors' Pension Improvement Act - Title I: Amendments to Pension Program for Non-service-connected Disability or Death - Revises the list of specified catagories of payments excluded from the determination of annual income for benefit payment purposes. Requires persons applying for a non-service-connected disability pension to report the income and estate of each spouse and child on account of whom added pension is applied for or received. Sets increased flat pension and aid-and-attendance allowance rates, reduced by the amount of a veteran's annual income, and in specified instances, by the amount of a spouse's or child's income which is reasonably available to or for such veteran. Sets increased flat benefit rates, with similar reductions, for the surviving spouses and children of such veterans. Requires annual adjustments in such pension and benefit rates in conjunction with cost-of-living increases in Social Security benefits. Title II: Miscellaneous Provisions and Effective Dates - Sets the effective dates for provisions of this Act.
![Official portrait of Rep. Ottinger, Richard L. [D-NY-20]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/o000134_200.jpg)