United States · United States Congress · 25 January 1983
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to increase to $2,500 the maximum deduction for contributions to retirement savings plans. Allows certain individuals to compute the amount of the income tax deduction for retirement savings on the basis of the earned income of their spouses, without regard to any community property laws.
United States · United States Congress · 6 January 1983
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to permit States and local governments to provide statements of tax refunds, credits, and offsets to individuals at any time during the calendar year for which such governments make a return, but not later than January 31 of the year following the year of the return. (Current law requires such statements to be furnished in January of the year following the year of the return.) Eliminates the requirement to furnish such statements with respect to any refunds, credits, or offsets made before January 1, 1983.
United States · United States Congress · 6 January 1983
Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act to provide that disability insurance benefits for an individual having a terminal illness shall begin with the first month during which such individual has such illness.
United States · United States Congress · 6 January 1983
Directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to commence a rulemaking relating to natural gas pipeline rate designs, and to report its findings, conclusions, and recommendations to the President and the appropriate congressional committees.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1983
Directs the President to negotiate an agreement with the Soviet Union for the establishment of a permanent joint United States-Soviet Communications Center to provide an additional channel for communications between the United States and the Soviet Union in order to reduce the threat of an accidental nuclear war. Declares that the agreement should provide that: (1) the function of the Center would be to serve as a direct and secure means of communications between the two countries; (2) the Center would have no intelligence gathering capabilities and would not be used for espionage; (3) the Center would be located in an agreed upon third country with the operating costs shared equally; and (4) the Center would be staffed by an equal number of personnel from each country. Requires the agreement to be either a treaty or an executive agreement which will enter into force only upon its approval by both Houses of Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1983
Requires that an annual special use fee be assessed for all recreational residences on national forest system lands. Sets such fee at four percent of the value of the recreational residence as established by the county or the local tax assessing authority within which the property is located. Makes the Forest Service responsible for property valuations which the county elects not to provide. Limits the annual special use fee to not less than $200 and not more than $3,000. Sets forth allocation requirements with respect to such fees. Requires that fees for new and reissued permits for recreational residences be determined under this Act. Permits other permittees either to go under the fee system provided in this Act or to remain under the existing fee system established by the Secretary of Agriculture. Prohibits administrative review of annual special use fees which are established by local tax assessing authorities.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1983
Authorizes the Administrator of Veterans Affairs to provide scholarships of up to $6,000 per school year to medical students who agree to practice for a specified length of time at a Veterans Administration (VA) facility upon completion of their professional training. Provides the United States with a right to recover expenses against an individual who fails to meet such VA service condition. Provides that certain qualified veterans and dependents of veterans shall have priority with regard to such scholarships. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1983
Taxpayer Protection Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to subject the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in the collection of taxes, to provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act regarding communication and harassment in connection with debt collection. Prohibits the publication of any tax deficiency which has not been adjudged to be payable by a competent court. Permits individual taxpayers to bring a civil action in a U.S. district court for damages resulting from collection practices prohibited by this Act. Requires a Federal court order before property of a taxpayer may be levied upon for the collection of tax. Specifies that a showing of fraud or malfeasance or a misrepresentation, for purposes of modifying or reconsidering a closing agreement between an individual taxpayer and the Secretary of the Treasury, shall be taken into account only if such a showing or misrepresentation is determined by a competent court. Prohibits the Secretary from consenting to extend for more than one year the period for assessment of the income tax liability of any individual taxpayer. Requires the Secretary to prepare, for distribution to taxpayers, brief but comprehensive statements which set forth in nontechnical terms: (1) the rights and obligations of taxpayers during an audit; (2) the procedures which the IRS may use in enforcing revenue laws; and (3) the procedures by which a taxpayer may appeal adverse decisions, prosecute refund claims, and file taxpayer complaints. Requires a copy of such statement to accompany any tax forms sent to taxpayers. Prescribes criminal penalties for: (1) any investigation by employees of the United States in connection with Federal tax laws which inquires into the beliefs, associations, or activities of any individual or organization; or (2) the maintenance of any records containing information derived from such an investigation. Creates a civil cause of action for any taxpayer aggrieved by a prohibited investigation or by the deprivation of any civil rights. Permits the award of a judgment of costs, including reasonable attorney's fees, to a prevailing taxpayer in any proceeding before the Tax Court. Makes binding on the Secretary : (1) a tax return prepared for the taxpayer by an officer or employee of the IRS acting in his official capacity to provide such assistance; and (2) written information or advice given to the taxpayer by such an officer or employee acting in his official capacity. Places the burden of proof, in administrative and judicial proceedings involving the IRS and a taxpayer, upon the IRS. Directs that all property of taxpayers, for purposes of the estate and gift tax, be valued at historical cost (original cost to the taxpayer or the basis of the property if it was not purchased). Prohibits the use in IRS personnel evaluations of amounts collected pursuant to audits or investigations. Precludes the Secretary from exercising any enforcement authority over churches or certain other organizations. Prohibits the audit of any group of taxpayers unless the Secretary has first met certain notice requirements or permitted members of the group to file an amended return. Sets forth conditions which must be met by the IRS before any action is taken to interfere with the property rights of a taxpayer. Requires the IRS, before securing the records of or personal data concerning any taxpayer, to: (1) notify the taxpayer in writing of the demand, the material sought, and the need for the material; (2) have commenced an action in a competent court against the taxpayer; and (3) have justified its need before the court consistent with the discovery rules of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. States that the IRS shall have no authority, in enforcing the tax obligations of any person, which conflicts with rights and privileges granted under the Constitution.
United States · United States Congress · 3 January 1983
Expresses the support of Congress for the present strategic arms reductions talks. Urges the Soviet Union to join with the United States to: (1) conclude an equitable and verifiable agreement which freezes strategic nuclear forces at equal and substantially reduced levels; (2) negotiate an effective means of verification of the terms of such agreements; (3) negotiate measures which are likely to reduce the risk of nuclear war by error or misunderstanding; and (4) concentrate on reducing weapons which are judged to be destabilizing.
United States · United States Congress · 20 December 1982
Sets annual special use permit fees for all recreation residences on national forest system lands. Sets such fees at four percent of the value of the recreational residence, on the site under permit, as established by the county or other local tax assessing authority within which the property is located. Provides for Forest Service valuation of such residences where the county elects not to establish and furnish such valuation. Limits such annual fees to no less than $200 and no more than $3,000. Provides that: (1) 50 percent of such fee be credited to the local property assessing authority; (2) 25 percent be available for Forest Service recreation programs in the national forest where the permit is situated; and (3) 25 percent be deposited in the General Fund of the U.S. Treasury. Requires that such fees for new and reissued permits, issued after enactment of this Act, be determined according to this Act. Allows other permittees to voluntarily request to go under the fee system provided for in this Act or to remain under the existing fee system established by the Secretary of Agriculture. Provides for a five-year period of no increase in fees for permittees who volunteer to go under the new system. Provides that the amount of such a fee shall not be subject to administrative appeal before the Secretary or the Forest Service, if the fee is determined by the local tax assessing authority.
United States · United States Congress · 29 September 1982
Balanced Monetary Policy and Price Stability Act of 1982 - Amends the Federal Reserve Act to require the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve System to establish monthly ranges of targets for short-term interest rates, consistent with historical levels of real interest rates, sustained economic growth, stable prices, and stable foreign exchange rates. Declares that if such objectives cannot be achieved simultaneously, the object of stable prices, as measured by an index of current prices, shall take precedence. Requires yearly targets for the growth or diminution of money and credit aggregates to also be established. Requires the Board and the Federal Open Market Committee to take necessary actions to assure that the targets for monetary and credit aggregates are achieved on an annual basis and short-term interest rates are achieved on a monthly basis. Requires a written report to specified congressional committees if such targets cannot or should not be achieved because of unfavorable economic conditions. Requires the Board of Governors to transmit specified information to Congress biannually. Requires the Board to announce publicly changes in objectives and plans at the time those changes are determined. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the United States excutive director of the International Monetary Fund to request a conference of the Board of Governors of the International Monetary Fund for the purpose of considering reforms of the international monetary system which would promote price stability, financial confidence, and expanded world trade.
United States · United States Congress · 28 September 1982
Declares that in order to protect the rights of all persons by the equal protection clause of the Constitution, it is necessary to establish a uniform nationwide standard governing classifications based on gender. Prohibits the Federal Government and any State or local government from making and enforcing a classification based upon gender unless it is necessary to achieve a compelling interest of that government and is the least burdensome alternative possible.
United States · United States Congress · 22 September 1982
Urges the President to declassify and publicize to the American people existing intelligence information on the military threat to the United States and its allies posed by the Soviet Union.
United States · United States Congress · 2 August 1982
Constitutional Amendment - Prohibits any bill for borrowing money on the credit of the United States or for raising revenue from being presented to the President, except in time of war, unless three fifths of the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed it.
United States · United States Congress · 2 August 1982
Constitutional Amendment - Prohibits any bill for borrowing money on the credit of the United States or for raising revenue from being presented to the President, except in time of war, unless three fifths of the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed it.
United States · United States Congress · 29 July 1982
Constitutional Amendment - Prohibits any bill for borrowing money on the credit of the United States from being presented to the President, except in time of war, unless three fifths of the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed it.
United States · United States Congress · 28 July 1982
Agricultural Export Promotion Act of 1982 - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture, for FY 1983 through 1985, to: (1) enter into agreements with private trade organizations, friendly countries, and financial institutions to make payments to reduce the interest rate on loans made for up to ten years in connection with agricultural export credit sales and to guarantee the repayment of such loans; (2) implement export subsidy programs for farm products; or (3) undertake any combination of the above measures. Directs the Secretary to implement export subsidy programs for farm products if it is determined under provisions of the Trade Act of 1974 that the product has been affected by foreign export subsidies. Directs the Secretary to spend a specified amount for interest reduction and export subsidy payments for each of FY 1983 through 1985. Directs the Secretary to: (1) determine the relative portion of such funds that will be used for such purposes; (2) use such funds to promote U.S. exports of farm products as appropriate to neutralize the effect of foreign subsidy programs; (3) subsidize U.S. exports of farm products as necessary to obtain the elimination of a foreign practice that could result in the substantial displacement of U.S. farm exports; (4) safeguard the usual marketing of U.S. farm produce; and (5) obtain commitments from purchasers that will prevent resale or transhipment of products acquired through export credit sales or that will prevent such products from being used for any purpose other than a domestic purpose.
United States · United States Congress · 20 July 1982
Extends the congratulations of Congress to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the individuals who contributed to the successful completion of the test flight phase of the Space Shuttle program and the entry of the United States into a new era of space flight.
United States · United States Congress · 15 July 1982
Expresses the support of the Congress for beginning strategic arms reductions talks. Urges the Soviet Union to join with the United States in concluding an equitable and verifiable agreement which freezes strategic nuclear forces at equal and substantially reduced levels. Reaffirms congressional support for the position that the United States should not enter into an arms agreement which provides for force levels inferior to those of the Soviet Union. Declares that the United States should propose practical measures to: (1) reduce the danger of accidental nuclear war; (2) prevent the use of nuclear weapons by third parties, including terrorists; and (3) halt the worldwide proliferation of nuclear weapons. Insists that any arms control agreement must be fully verifiable.
United States · United States Congress · 22 June 1982
Expresses the sense of Congress that legislation should be proposed and enacted to: (1) establish parity between the compensation of Government Printing Office (GPO) employees and the compensation of other Federal employees performing similar work; (2) fix the wages of GPO employees in accordance with the prevailing wage rate system applicable to executive branch employees; and (3) strengthen the Public Printer's ability to manage without infringing on the oversight responsibilities of the Joint Committee on Printing.
United States · United States Congress · 17 June 1982
Prohibits economic assistance to Warsaw Pact countries until the Soviet Union has signed a nuclear arms limitation agreement. Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) private commercial interests in the United States should refrain from making loans to Warsaw Pact countries until the Soviet Union has signed a nuclear arms limitation agreement; (2) the United States should not help if such loans are made and result in defaults; and (3) the President should seek agreements with our allies to halt the flow of economic assistance to Warsaw Pact countries until the Soviet Union has signed a nuclear arms limitation agreement.
United States · United States Congress · 8 June 1982
Wilderness Protection Act of 1982 - Withdraws from disposition under all laws pertaining to oil, gas, mineral, and geothermal leasing: (1) wilderness areas; (2) lands recommended for wilderness designation, until Congress determines otherwise or until the lands concerned are recommended for other uses; (3) wilderness study areas, for the period of interim wilderness protection and management required by law; and (4) lands identified for further planning in Executive Communication 1504, 96th Congress, until one year after the final approval and implementation of an initial forest plan covering the further planning area. Exempts from the withdrawal pursuant to this Act: (1) national forest system land released to management for nonwilderness uses; (2) lands designated as congressional wilderness study areas in Colorado and New Mexico and certain lands within the River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho; (3) Bureau of Land Management wilderness study areas; and (4) lands designated as a conservation system unit under the Alaska National Interest Land Conservation Act. Permits activities compatible with the preservation of the wilderness environment for the purpose of inventorying energy, mineral, and other resource values in areas withdrawn by this Act. Requires the Secretary of the Interior to augment recurring surveys of mineral values of wilderness areas and to acquire information on the areas withdrawn by this Act by conducting nondestructive mineral inventories of such areas. Authorizes the President to recommend to Congress that minerals exploration, development, or extraction be permitted in specified areas withdrawn under this Act, if: (1) there is an urgent national need for the mineral activity; and (2) such need outweighs the public values of the wilderness lands involved and the potentially adverse environmental impacts likely to result. Makes such a recommendation effective only upon enactment of a joint resolution of approval by Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 7 June 1982
Amends titles II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) and XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to prohibit the inclusion of the disbursements from the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, and the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and of the receipts from the old age, survivors and disability insurance taxes and the hospital insurance taxes on self-employment income, employees, and employers in the totals of the Federal budget. Exempts such disbursements and receipts from any general statutory limitation on Federal budget outlays.
United States · United States Congress · 27 May 1982
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit an Immigration and Naturalization Service official or employee from entering a farm or agricultural operation without a warrant or the owner's consent.
United States · United States Congress · 27 May 1982
Amends Federal judicial procedure provisions relating to venue to provide that: (1) if proceedings have been instituted in two or more courts of appeals with respect to the same agency action and the first such proceeding was instituted more than five days before the second, the record shall be filed in that court in which the proceeding was first instituted; and (2) if the first such proceeding was not instituted more than five days before the institution of a later proceeding with respect to the same agency action and the agency has received written notice from the parties instituting each of these proceedings, the agency shall advise the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, with respect to the first proceeding and all proceedings instituted within five days after the first proceeding, that such multiple proceedings have been instituted and shall identify each court for which it has notice that such proceedings are pending. Directs the Administrative Office, pursuant to a system of random selection, to select the court in which the record shall be filed from those identified by the agency, in the situation where the first proceeding was not instituted more than five days before the institution of a later proceeding. Requires all proceedings to be transferred to the court of appeals in which the record has been filed. Authorizes any court in which a proceeding with respect to any agency action is pending, including a court selected pursuant to a system of random selection, to transfer such proceeding to any other court of appeals in which the action under review would have a substantially greater impact, unless the interests of justice require the court to: (1) retain such proceedings; or (2) transfer the proceedings to a circuit other than one in which the impact would be substantially greater. Directs the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to administer the system of random selection. Prohibits a civil action in which the defendant is a Federal officer or employee, a Federal agency, or the United States from being brought in a judicial district in which a defendant resides or the plaintiff resides if no real property is involved, unless the action that is the subject of the lawsuit would substantially affect the residents of that judicial district. Requires that, in any action of a local environmental nature brought against the United States in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the plaintiff must forward a copy of the complaint to the attorney general of each affected State (but not more than five States). Requires a district court, in any civil action in which a defendant is a Federal officer or employee, a Federal agency, or the United States, upon motion of any party, to transfer an action to a district where the action might have been brought and in which the action would have substantially greater impact, unless the interests of justice require the court to: (1) retain the action; or (2) transfer the action to a district other than one in which the impact would be substantially greater.
United States · United States Congress · 25 May 1982
Establishes in the House of Representatives the Ad Hoc Committee on Entitlements to conduct a full investigation of factors contributing to, and methods to restrain, costs of entitlement programs. Requires the committee to report its findings as soon as practicable during the current Congress.