United States · United States Congress · 14 November 2017
This bill nullifies a rule finalized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on November 13, 2017, that modifies payment under Medicare for certain drugs purchased through the 340B discount program.
United States · United States Congress · 9 November 2017
Small Scale LNG Access Act of 2017 This bill amends the Natural Gas Act to state that an application under the Natural Gas Act for the exportation of natural gas that does not exceed 51.1 billion cubic feet per year shall be deemed to be consistent with the public interest and granted without modification or delay.
United States · United States Congress · 9 November 2017
Blast Exposure Protection Act of 2017 This bill establishes a Department of Veterans Affairs' presumption of service-connection for a veteran's injury or illness associated with a blast exposure during active military, naval, or air service in spite of there being no record of the injury or illness during a period of service.
United States · United States Congress · 9 November 2017
Hear Our Heroes Act of 2017 This bill establishes a presumption of service-connection for veterans with permanent hearing loss, tinnitus, or both, who served on active duty in combat or in a military occupational specialty in which they were exposed to a high level of acoustic trauma.
United States · United States Congress · 8 November 2017
Fallen Warrior Battlefield Cross Memorial Act This bill states that the Department of Veterans Affairs may not prohibit the display of a Battlefield Cross in any national cemetery. "Battlefield Cross" means a memorial monument in honor of fallen members of the Armed Forces that may include a replica of an inverted rifle, boots, helmets, and identification tag.
United States · United States Congress · 3 November 2017
Strengthening the Economy with Critical Untapped Resources to Expand American Energy Act or the SECURE American Energy Act Accessing Strategic Resources Offshore Act or the ASTRO Act This bill addresses offshore and onshore oil and gas resources on the outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and other federal lands. The bill amends the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to establish a revenue sharing framework to distribute revenues collected from oil and gas leasing on the OCS to certain states (Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alaska). The bill also increases, for FY2029-FY2059, the amount of qualified OCS revenues available for distribution to Gulf producing states (Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas). The bill limits the President's authority to prohibit oil and gas leasing on the OCS. Under the bill, the Department of the Interior must conduct wind lease sales on the OCS off the coast of California and Hawaii. Opportunities for the Nation and States to Harness Onshore Resources for Energy Act or the ONSHORE Act The bill allows states with an established permitting and regulatory programs to manage certain federal permitting and regulatory responsibilities for oil and gas development on federal lands within their borders. The bill amends the Mineral Leasing Act to provide a mechanism for states to receive their entitled percentage of sales, bonuses, royalties, and rentals for all public land or deposits located in the state. Interior must defer to state regulations, guidance, and permit requirements for all activities regarding hydraulic fracturing relating to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities on federal land.
United States · United States Congress · 2 November 2017
Better Evaluation of Science and Technology Act or the BEST Act This bill requires a federal agency, to the extent it is making a decision based on science when issuing a rule, to use scientific information, technical procedures, methods, protocols, methodologies, or models in a manner that is consistent with the best available science and the intended use of the information, based on the weight of the scientific evidence. Each federal agency shall make available to the public: (1) all of its notices, determinations, findings, rules, consent agreements, and orders in connection with a rule; (2) a nontechnical summary of each risk evaluation conducted in connection with a rule; and (3) a list of the studies considered by the agency in carrying out each evaluation, along with the results of those studies.
United States · United States Congress · 2 November 2017
Preparing Homeless Youth for Education and Employment Act This bill amends the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to allow grants awarded through the Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program to be used for providing in-person dropout prevention services and college and career counseling services.
United States · United States Congress · 26 October 2017
Disabled Veterans Life Insurance Act of 2017 This bill amends the service-disabled veterans life insurance program, including by extending the filling and enrollment eligibility date from 2 years to 10 years after the Department of Veterans Affairs determines that a disability is service-connected.
United States · United States Congress · 25 October 2017
No Abortion Bonds Act This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to impose taxes on state, local, and tax credit bonds that are used to provide a facility owned or used (for any purpose) by an abortion provider for more than 30 days during a year in which interest is paid on the bond. An entity is not considered an abortion provider solely as a result of performing abortions if: (1) the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest; or (2) a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself. The Department of the Treasury may exempt certain hospitals from being considered an abortion provider by making the name of the hospital available on Treasury's public website.
United States · United States Congress · 24 October 2017
School Milk Nutrition Act of 2017 This bill revises the requirements for milk provided by the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and other Department of Agriculture (USDA) programs. The bill amends the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to permit schools participating in the NSLP to offer students low-fat and fat-free milk, including low-fat flavored milk containing no more than 150 calories per 8-ounce serving. For students who cannot consume fluid milk because of a medical or other dietary need, schools may offer a nondairy beverage that is: (1) nutritionally equivalent to low-fat and fat-free milk; and (2) meets USDA nutritional standards, including fortification of calcium, protein, vitamin A, vitamin D, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, riboflavin, and vitamin B-12. (Under current law, the substitute is only required to include fortification of calcium, protein, vitamin A, and vitamin D to levels found in cow's milk.) In establishing national school nutritional standards, USDA must provide that containers of all beverages sold in schools have the same maximum volume. USDA must also: (1) report to Congress on recent trends in fluid milk consumption in schools; (2) carry out a pilot program to test and demonstrate strategies by which schools can increase the consumption of fluid milk; and (3) make lactose-free milk with an extended shelf life available to schools. If available evidence indicates that woman and children participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) typically consume fewer than the number of daily servings of dairy recommended in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, USDA must ensure that women have access to reduced fat milk for themselves and their children upon request.
United States · United States Congress · 24 October 2017
USS Indianapolis Congressional Gold Medal Act This bill requires the House of Representatives and the Senate to make appropriate arrangements for the award, on behalf of Congress, of a single gold medal of appropriate design to the crew of the USS Indianapolis, in recognition of their perseverance, bravery, and service. Following the award of the gold medal, it shall be given to the Indiana War Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana, where it will be displayed and made available for research. The bill expresses the sense of Congress that the Indiana War Memorial Museum should make the gold medal available for display elsewhere, particularly at other locations and events associated with the USS Indianapolis.
United States · United States Congress · 24 October 2017
This bill provides that the Department of Veterans Affairs per diem payment calculation for an entity receiving homeless veterans shelter grants for a homeless veteran who has care of a minor dependent while receiving services from such entity shall be the sum of the daily cost of care for the veteran plus, for each minor dependent, an amount that equals 50% of the veteran's daily cost of care.
United States · United States Congress · 12 October 2017
Beneficiary Travel Act of 2017 This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs to report annually on the total payments and allowances made for beneficiary travel per state and the amount of any increase or decrease in such amounts from the previous year. Savings resulting from any decrease shall be transferred to the Veterans Choice Fund.
United States · United States Congress · 11 October 2017
Reach Every Mother and Child Act of 2017 This bill directs the President to establish a five-year strategy to accelerate progress toward ending preventable child and maternal deaths within a generation and ensure healthy and productive lives for women and children. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shall: (1) identify target countries with the greatest need and the highest burden of preventable child and maternal deaths, and (2) designate a current USAID employee serving in the Senior Executive Service or at the level of a Deputy Assistant Administrator or higher to serve concurrently as the Senior Coordinator for Child and Maternal Survival.
United States · United States Congress · 10 October 2017
Free Veterans from Fees Act This bill waives the application fee for any special use permit for a veterans demonstration or special event at war memorials on federal land.
United States · United States Congress · 5 October 2017
Keep America's Refuges Operational Act This bill amends the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 to reauthorize through FY2022: (1) the volunteer services, community partnerships, and national wildlife refuge education programs of the National Wildlife Refuge System; and (2) provisions authorizing the Department of the Interior to accept and use gifts, devises, or bequests of real and personal property for the benefit of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the performance of its activities and services. The bill eliminates the prohibition on the use for the operation or administration of any nonfederal entity of any federal funds that are used for a project or program for a national wildlife refuge or a complex of geographically related refuges under a cooperative agreement between Interior and a partner organization, academic institution, state or local government agency, or other person under the community partnerships program.
United States · United States Congress · 5 October 2017
TRID Improvement Act of 2017 This bill amends the Real Estate Settlement Procedures of 1974 to modify disclosure requirements applicable to mortgage loan transactions. Specifically, the disclosed charges for any title insurance premium shall be equal to the amount charged for each individual title insurance policy, subject to any discounts as required by either state regulation or the title company rate filings.
United States · United States Congress · 28 September 2017
Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Reauthorization Act of 2017 This bill provides federal housing assistance to Indians, including Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians, including by: amending the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (NAHASDA) to reauthorize through FY2022 and revise the Indian Housing Block Grant and the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant; amending the United States Housing Act of 1937 to authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to implement a supportive housing and rental assistance program for the benefit of Native American, including Alaska Natives, veterans who are homeless, or at risk of homelessness, and who are eligible to receive block grants under NAHASDA; amending the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 to authorize HUD through FY2022 to guarantee housing loans for Native Americans and Native Hawaiians; extending from 50 years to 99 years the limit on the lease of Native American trust or restricted lands for housing purposes; and establishing a demonstration program that requires a participating Native American tribe, with an investor partner, to develop and implement a HUD-approved plan to address the tribe's housing needs.
United States · United States Congress · 18 September 2017
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that: (1) the J-1 visa programs, specifically the Summer Work Travel, Au Pair, Camp Counselor, and Intern and Trainee programs, are vital to the U.S. economy and national interest; and (2) Congress should continue to monitor the administration of such programs.
United States · United States Congress · 14 September 2017
Save American Workers Act of 2017 This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to change the definition of "full-time employee" for purposes of the employer mandate to provide minimum essential health care coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act from an employee who is employed on average at least 30 hours of service a week to an employee who is employed on average at least 40 hours of service a week.
United States · United States Congress · 13 September 2017
Carbon Capture Act This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend and modify the tax credit for carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration. The bill modifies the credit to: allow certain new industrial or direct air capture facilities to qualify for the credit if construction begins before 2024; allow qualified projects to claim the credit for 15 years, beginning on the date the equipment was originally placed in service; increase the credit amounts for certain projects placed in service upon or after the enactment of this bill; expand the purposes for which captured CO2 may be used; modify the requirements for the amount of CO2 that must be captured; specify that the 75 million metric ton cap on the CO2 that may qualify for the credit applies only to projects placed in service before the enactment of this bill; allow the credit to be transferred from the entity that owns and uses the capture equipment to the entity that disposes of or uses the CO2; and allow certain facilities that were placed in service after 2015 and have not previously claimed the credit to be treated as placed in service on the date of the enactment of this bill.
United States · United States Congress · 7 September 2017
Commemorates the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Air Force as an independent military service. Honors and commends the achievements of the Air Force in serving and defending the United States through global vigilance, global reach, and global power.
United States · United States Congress · 4 August 2017
Military Sexual Assault Victims Empowerment Act or the Military SAVE Act This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), through the Office of Community Care, to carry out a three-year pilot program of hospital care and medical services for eligible veterans at non-VA health care providers to treat physical and psychological injuries or illnesses that, in the judgment of a VA mental health professional, resulted from sexual assault or battery or sexual harassment while the veteran was serving on active duty, active duty for training, or inactive duty training. The program shall be carried out at not more than five locations, at least one of which shall be a rural location, based upon criteria including: (1) distance from a military installation, (2) city size, and (3) rates of sexual assault and rape. An eligible veteran may elect to participate in the pilot program. The VA may not restrict a participant's ability to choose the non-VA health care provider. The bill: (1) sets forth payment provisions for current and new non-VA providers, and (2) provides for program data collection and analysis.
United States · United States Congress · 28 July 2017
Endangered Species Transparency and Reasonableness Act This bill amends the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) to require the Department of the Interior or the Department of Commerce, as appropriate, to make publicly available on the Internet, subject to privacy or administrative limitations, the best scientific and commercial data available that are the bases for the determination of whether a species is an endangered species or a threatened species, including each proposed regulation for the listing of a species.
United States · United States Congress · 28 July 2017
Rightsizing Pension Premiums Act of 2017 This bill amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to: (1) modify the formula that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) uses to calculate the funded percentage of single-employer pension plans, and (2) reduce single-employer PBGC premiums for pension plans that are sponsored by certain small employers or have specified PBGC funded percentages. The bill also prohibits the budget effects of provisions that change PBGC premiums from being counted for the purposes of determining budget points of order for legislation in the House or the Senate. (The PBGC is a federal agency that insures the benefits of private sector, defined benefit pension plans. The PBGC is financed by insurance premiums paid by sponsors of the plans, investment income, assets from pension plans taken over by the PBGC, and recoveries from the companies formerly responsible for the plans.)
United States · United States Congress · 27 July 2017
Modernization of Medical Records Access for Veterans Act of 2017 This bill directs the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to carry out in at least one Veterans Integrated Services Network a pilot program for at least a 12-month period during which veterans enrolled in the VA's patient enrollment system will use a portable medical records storage system to store and share with VA health care providers and community health care providers records of their individual medical histories. The VA shall seek to enter into a contract, using competitive procedures, with an appropriate entity to furnish such storage system. The bill specifies system requirements, including: (1) the capability to store at least four gigabytes of electronic health records on a physical device no larger than a credit card, and (2) the capability to be used by substantially all electronic health records systems certified by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT on or before January 1, 2017.
United States · United States Congress · 27 July 2017
Save Local Business Act This bill amends the National Labor Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to provide that a person may be considered a joint employer in relation to an employee only if such person directly, actually, and immediately, and not in a limited and routine manner, exercises significant control over the essential terms and conditions of employment (including hiring employees, discharging employees, determining individual employee rates of pay and benefits, day-to-day supervision of employees, assigning individual work schedules, positions, and tasks, and administering employee discipline).
United States · United States Congress · 27 July 2017
Secure Miles with All Resources and Technology Act This bill amends the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 to direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deploy the most practical and effective technology available (such as radar, tunnel detection technology, unmanned aerial vehicles, and sensors) to achieve situational awareness and operational control along the U.S. border. DHS shall submit to Congress a comprehensive southern border strategy, which shall include: (1) a list of known physical barriers, technologies, tools, and other devices to achieve situational awareness and operational control of the border and their related cost estimates; and (2) information from federal, state, local, and private sources. DHS shall begin eradicating the carrizo cane plant and salt cedar along the Rio Grande River. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 is amended to establish Operation Stonegarden in DHS to provide border security grants to law enforcement agencies: (1) in a state bordering Canada or Mexico or a maritime border state or territory, and (2) involved in an ongoing U.S. Customs and Border Protection operation coordinated through a sector office. DHS shall establish a two-year grant program to improve emergency communications in the southern border region for individuals who: (1) reside or work in a southern border state, and (2) are at greater risk of violence due to border proximity and a lack of residential or business cellular and LTE network service. Such grants may be used to purchase satellite telephone communications systems and services that provide access to 9-1-1 service and that are equipped with Global Positioning System receivers.
United States · United States Congress · 27 July 2017
Creating Additional Residency Expansion Act or the CARE Act This bill temporarily expands the Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education Program by requiring the Health Resources and Services Administration to make payments to additional teaching health centers, with priority given to centers that are located in counties with high Medicaid enrollment.
United States · United States Congress · 24 July 2017
Recognizes that international education and exchange programs enhance national security, significantly further U.S. foreign policy goals and economic competitiveness, and promote mutual understanding and cooperation among nations. Encourages such programs to ensure that the United States maintains a broad international knowledge base. Supports such programs as a means to strengthen foreign language skills and foster a better understanding of the world by U.S. citizens. Commends American and international education and exchange participants, volunteers, educators, program alumni, host families, high schools, institutions of higher education, and host communities for their involvement in such programs. Celebrates the integral role such programs play for the United States and its people.
United States · United States Congress · 20 July 2017
This joint resolution nullifies a rule submitted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) regarding arbitration agreements. (The rule regulates the use of arbitration agreements in contracts for specific consumer financial products and services. It prohibits the use of a predispute arbitration agreement to prevent a consumer from filing or participating in certain class action suits. The rule also requires consumer financial product and service providers to furnish the CFPB with particular information regarding arbitrations.)
United States · United States Congress · 20 July 2017
National Strategy for Combating Terrorist, Underground, and Other Illicit Financing Act This bill directs the Department of the Treasury to develop a national strategy to combat the financing of terrorism and related forms of illicit finance.
United States · United States Congress · 19 July 2017
Systemic Risk Designation Improvement Act of 2017 This bill amends the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to allow the Federal Reserve Board (FRB) to subject a bank holding company to enhanced supervision if: (1) the company has been identified as a global systemically important company; or (2) the risk of the company's financial distress, or the nature of the company's activities, could pose a threat to the financial stability of the United States. Currently, companies are subject to this type of oversight if they possess at least $50 billion in assets or are a nonbank financial company under the FRB's supervision. The Financial Stability Oversight Council must approve of any metrics used by the FRB in determining by regulation that a category of bank holding companies is subject to enhanced supervision. Under this bill, companies subject to enhanced supervision may be required to limit mergers and acquisitions, restrict products offered, or maintain a certain debt ratio. The FRB must publish the list of companies that have been identified as requiring enhanced supervision.
United States · United States Congress · 19 July 2017
Wounded Officers Recovery Act of 2017 This bill authorizes the Capitol Police Board to make payments from the United States Capitol Police Memorial Fund to employees of the U.S. Capitol Police who have sustained serious line-of-duty injuries. The board is required to issue specific regulations governing the fund's use for making such payments. These regulations shall ensure that the payments are in addition to, and do not otherwise affect, other forms of compensation payable to the employee, including worker's compensation benefits. The bill requires amounts received by the board in response to the shooting incident at the practice for the Congressional Baseball Game for Charity on June 14, 2017, to be deposited into the fund.
United States · United States Congress · 18 July 2017
ELD Extension Act of 2017 This bill delays for an additional two years the effective date of regulations implementing the requirement that a commercial motor vehicle involved in interstate commerce and operated by a driver subject to federal hours of service (HOS) and record of duty status regulations be equipped with an electronic logging device to improve vehicle operator compliance with HOS regulations.
United States · United States Congress · 17 July 2017
Veteran Education Empowerment Act This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to make grants to institutions of higher education (IHEs) or consortia of IHEs for the establishment, maintenance, improvement, and operation of veteran student centers. A veteran student center is a dedicated space on a campus that provides students who are veterans or members of the Armed Forces with: (1) a lounge or meeting space for themselves, their spouses or partners, and veterans in the community; (2) a centralized office for veteran services that serves as a single point of contact to coordinate veterans support services; and (3) comprehensive academic and tutoring services to veterans.
United States · United States Congress · 29 June 2017
All-American Flag Act This bill requires U.S. flags acquired for use by the federal government to be manufactured entirely in the United States from articles, materials, or supplies grown, produced, or manufactured in the United States. Such requirement shall not apply if: (1) articles, materials, or supplies to be used are not grown, produced, or manufactured in the United States in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities and are not of a satisfactory quality; or (2) the President determines a waiver is necessary to comply with a trade agreement.
United States · United States Congress · 29 June 2017
Transparency and Honesty in Energy Regulations Act of 2017 This bill prohibits the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of the Interior, and the Council on Environmental Quality from considering the social cost of carbon, methane, or nitrous oxide as part of any cost benefit analysis in the rule making process, unless a federal law is enacted authorizing such consideration. They may also consider those social costs if they use an estimate that: (1) complies with the requirements of the Office of Management and Budget's "Circular A-4" document; (2) uses the discount rates of three and seven percent specified in that document; (3) considers only the domestic costs and benefits of the activity; and (4) uses only the most up to date and empirically estimated equilibrium climate sensitivity distributions, and realistic time horizons. The EPA must report on the number of proposed and final rulemakings, guidance documents, and agency actions since January 2009 that use those social costs, including as part of any cost benefit analysis required under Executive Order 12866 or other relevant authority.
United States · United States Congress · 29 June 2017
Endangered Species Litigation Reasonableness Act This bill amends the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to replace the current standard for awarding court costs, including attorney fees, in citizen suits with the federal judicial code standard for awarding costs to a prevailing party.
United States · United States Congress · 29 June 2017
Financial Stability Oversight Council Insurance Member Continuity Act This bill amends the Financial Stability Act of 2010 to modify the term of the independent member with insurance expertise of the Financial Stability Oversight Council to allow the current member to continue to serve in the event of a delay in the naming of a successor by the end of the member's six-year term. In such a case, the independent member may continue to serve until 18 months after the end of the term or until a successor is confirmed, whichever is earlier.
United States · United States Congress · 29 June 2017
Aiding Development of Vital Assets in Native Communities and Environments Act of 2017 or the ADVANCE Act This bill amends the Riegle Community Development and Regulatory Improvement Act of 1994 to require the Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund to provide outreach and training with respect to the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) in low-income communities with a disproportionately low amount of low-income community investments by community development entities. (The NMTC is a non-refundable tax credit intended to encourage private capital investment in low-income communities. NMTCs are allocated by the CDFI Fund, a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, using a competitive application process.) The CFDI Fund must also: (1) include in the application for the NMTC questions to determine and consider, as an innovative use or a comparable incentive in evaluating applications, the extent to which the applicant intends to make low-income community investments within Indian country; and (2) to the maximum extent practicable, ensure that at least one community development entity whose primary mission is to fund projects within or that directly benefit Indian country receives an allocation for each allocation round.
United States · United States Congress · 29 June 2017
This bill amends the Clean Air Act to exclude energy efficiency projects, pollution control projects, and reliability projects from the new source review process (requiring stationary sources of air pollution to get approval before construction or modification).
United States · United States Congress · 27 June 2017
This bill directs the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate to arrange for the collective award of a single Congressional Gold Medal to American military personnel who fought in defense of Bataan, Corregidor, Guam, Wake Island, and the Philippine Archipelago between December 7, 1941, and May 10, 1942, and who died or were imprisoned by the Japanese military in the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Wake Island, and Guam from April 9, 1942, until September 2, 1945, in recognition of their personal sacrifice and service to their country. Following its award, the medal shall be given to the Smithsonian Institution where it shall be displayed and made available for research. The bill expresses the sense of the Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should make the medal available for display at other locations, particularly at locations associated with such American military personnel.
United States · United States Congress · 22 June 2017
Border Enforcement Accountability, Oversight, and Community Engagement Act of 2017 This bill establishes: (1) the Department of Homeland Security Border Oversight Commission, and (2) a northern border subcommittee and a southern border subcommittee within the commission. The commission and the subcommittees shall: (1) recommend border enforcement policy improvements; (2) evaluate policies of federal agencies operating along the borders to protect due process and human rights of border residents and visitors, protect land owner private property rights, and reduce the number of migrant deaths; (3) recommend safety improvements for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel; and (4) evaluate training and the extent to which CBP supervisory and management personnel practices encourage workforce development and promote field safety. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 is amended to rename the position of Citizenship and Immigration Services Ombudsman in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the Ombudsman for Border and Immigration Related Concerns. Related function and administrative provisions are revised, including requiring the ombudsman to establish a Border Community Liaison Office in each Border Patrol sector on the northern and southern borders. The bill sets forth specified training and continuing education requirements for CBP personnel. DHS shall submit to Congress an assessment of current guidelines for managing ports of entry under DHS control. The bill requires: (1) the CBP to report to Congress regarding deaths occurring along the U.S.-Mexico border and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to review such report; (2) the GAO to examine the extent to which the CBP has clarified use of force policies and DHS to require the CBP to implement any recommendations contained in such examination; and (3) the CBP to report to Congress on body camera use.
United States · United States Congress · 21 June 2017
21st Century Conservation Service Corps Act of 2017 This bill amends the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 to replace provisions that established the Public Lands Corps with provisions establishing the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps (21CSC) to: engage youth and veterans in civilian national service positions to conserve, rebuild, and enhance the natural resources, infrastructure, and recreation assets of the United States; increase public access to, and use of, public and tribal land and water, infrastructure, and natural, cultural, and historical resources, while spurring economic development and outdoor recreation and addressing backlogged maintenance on public land; conserve, restore, and enhance such resources by carrying out high-quality, cost-effective projects; ensure that the activities and expertise of corpsmembers will be accessible to any public, nonprofit, or tribal entity responsible for the stewardship of land and water in coordination with the land or water owner; place youth and veterans in civilian national service positions to protect, restore, and enhance U.S. natural resources, infrastructure, and recreation assets in a cost-effective manner without undue duplication or overlap of federal agency activities or programs; and channel widespread interest among youth and veterans in serving in such positions to help conserve, restore, and enhance public and tribal land and water, infrastructure, and natural, cultural, and historical resources and to develop the next generation of outdoor stewards, entrepreneurs, recreationists, and sportsmen. The 21CSC shall be implemented jointly by the participating entities, which shall include the Corporation for National and Community Service, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Departments of Interior, Agriculture, Transportation, Labor, Energy, Defense, Veterans Affairs, Commerce, Education, and Housing and Urban Development. Such entities shall: (1) establish a process for an organization to become a 21CSC organization, and (2) support 21CSC projects. A 21CSC organization shall provide to each youth or veteran corpsmember a wage, stipend, living allowance, and/or an educational credit, as well as skills development, credentials, and education, for participation in a 21CSC project that involves: specified conservation and restoration projects; the support, development, and enhancement of outdoor recreation or urban green space; service that is primarily indoors with a clear benefit for natural, cultural, or historic resources or treasures; or a project on private land or water having a direct or recognized public or environmental benefit or the funding of which originated from a governmental entity. The bill sets forth provisions governing 21CSC conservation centers and program support, the provision of resource assistants, and Corpsmember eligibility for a noncompetitive hiring status and national service educational awards. A participating entity may offer to enter into a cooperative agreement with a tribal agency or a 21CSC organization to establish and administer the Indian Youth 21st Century Conservation Service Corps, which shall carry out 21CSC projects on tribal land or water.
United States · United States Congress · 20 June 2017
Water Rights Protection Act of 2017 This bill prohibits the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture from: conditioning the issuance, renewal, amendment, or extension of any permit, approval, license, lease, allotment, easement, right-of-way, or other land use or occupancy agreement (permit) on the transfer of any water right to the United States or on any impairment of title or interest granted or otherwise recognized under state law by federal or state action; or requiring any water user (including a federally recognized Indian tribe) to apply for or acquire a water right in the name of the United States under state law as a condition of the issuance, renewal, amendment, or extension of such a permit. In developing any rule or similar federal action relating to the issuance, renewal, amendment, or extension of any permit, such departments: (1) shall recognize the longstanding water use authority of the states and coordinate with the states to ensure that any federal action is consistent with applicable state water law; and (2) shall not adversely affect the authority of a state in permitting the beneficial use of water or adjudicating water rights.
![Official portrait of Rep. Pearce, Stevan [R-NM-2]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/p000588_200.jpg)