United States · United States Congress · 8 June 1994
Family Investment and Self-Sufficiency Act of 1994 - Amends part A (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) (AFDC) of title IV of the Social Security Act to permit a State agency to disregard: (1) the earned income of AFDC recipients; and (2) the child support payments received by them. Amends the Internal Revenue Code relating to refunding credits to allow as a credit against tax a specified percentage of any cash paid by or on behalf of a low-income individual to a qualified asset account for the individual's benefit. Exempts such accounts from taxation. Increases the amount of income that a State agency shall disregard with respect to the stepparent of an AFDC child recipient. Repeals the mandate that State AFDC plans provide aid to dependent children of unemployed parents in accordance with specified requirements. Denies AFDC benefits for applicants who have abandoned a child. Grants a State AFDC plan the option to: (1) deny benefits for additional children and for children who have not received required immunizations; (2) disregard certain income and resources designated for education, training, employability, or self-employment; and (3) increase to $3,000 the disregard limitation on the value of an AFDC family's automobile. Modifies the treatment of student earnings under the AFDC program.
United States · United States Congress · 8 June 1994
Persian Gulf War Veterans' Compensation Act of 1994 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to: (1) develop and implement a uniform case assessment protocol to ensure thorough assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of all Persian Gulf War (War) veterans suffering from illnesses the origins of which are currently unkown but which may be attributable to service in the Southwest Asia theater of operations during such War; (2) develop case definitions or diagnoses for such illnesses; and (3) implement a comprehensive outreach program, including a newsletter and a toll-free telephone number, to inform War veterans and their families of the medical care and other benefits that may be provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs as a result of service in such War. Directs the Secretary to pay compensation to a War veteran suffering from a disability resulting from an undiagnosed illness if such disability becomes manifest to a degree of ten percent or more within three years of separation from active military service. Provides exceptions to the payment of such compensation (i.e., when there is a preponderance of evidence to show that the disability was not incurred during such service or occurred after such service). Allows the Secretary to cease such payments after providing specified congressional committees with a scientific report showing that such disabilities are not connected to service in the War. Directs the Secretary to enter into: (1) an agreement with the Secretary of Defense for access to all clinical data on War veterans who remain on active duty, and to continually compile such data (with a required annual report); and (2) a contract for the conduct of an epidemiological study designed to assess the short- and long-term health consequences of service in such War (with appropriate oversight, a status report, and annual and final reports). Authorizes appropriations for FY 1995 through 2000 for such study. Authorizes appropriations to the Department for FY 1995 through 1998 for the conduct of research to advance the understanding of health risks and effects of service in the Gulf during such War and the means of treating such health effects.
United States · United States Congress · 26 May 1994
Newborn Infant HIV Notification Act - Requires a State, if it requires that the results of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) testing of an infant be reported to it (or if the State conducts an HIV test of the infant), to disclose such results to: (1) the biological mother of the infant if the mother is the legal guardian; or (2) specified State agencies if the State is the legal guardian of the infant. Directs the State, in disclosing such results (other than to State agencies), to ensure that appropriate counseling on HIV is provided to the individual.
United States · United States Congress · 25 May 1994
Authorizes the President to present, on behalf of the Congress, to the Lubavitcher rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a gold medal in recognition of his outstanding and enduring contributions toward world education, morality, and acts of charity. States that no appropriations are authorized to implement this Act. Declares that the medals struck pursuant to this Act are national medals.
United States · United States Congress · 25 May 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: AFDC Amendments Title II: Housing Amendments Title III: Food Stamp Amendment Title IV: Head Start Amendment Title V: Effective Date Job Start for America Act of 1994 - Title I: AFDC Amendments - Amends part A of title IV (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) (AFDC) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to require each State agency to provide to the caretaker relative of each first phase family (as defined by this Act) vouchers entitling any child care provider meeting applicable State and local standards to State payments equal to the provider's cost of providing child care with respect to the family. (Sec. 101) Provides for continuance of AFDC benefits for first phase and second phase families (as defined by this Act) for: (1) two years after the principal earner parent becomes gainfully employed; or (2) six months after the family income exceeds 300 percent of the poverty line. Disregards the assets of a spouse who marries an AFDC recipient for the first six months after the wedding. (Sec. 103) Increases from $1,000 (or any State-determined lower amount) to $2,500 the eligibility resource threshold for receipt of AFDC benefits. (Sec. 104) Requires a State plan to provide that a State agency shall provide job training and job search counseling to all AFDC recipients, including educational activities, job skills training, job readiness activities, job development, and job placement. Sets priorities for provision of job training and job search counseling, first to all first phase families, then to all second phase families, then to any family neither one nor the other. (Sec. 105) Defines: (1) first phase family as one whose principal earner parent has never been gainfully employed for three or more months (whether or not consecutive); and (2) second phase family as one whose principal earner parent has graduated from secondary school or received a high school equivalency certificate, but has never been gainfully employed. (Sec. 106) Repeals: (1) part F of SSA title IV (Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) Training Programs); and (2) requirements for treating families differently based on the number of parents in the home. Title II: Housing Amendments - Prohibits for a 24-month period any rent increase for a qualified dwelling unit because of increased income due to employment with respect to a family: (1) whose income increases as a result of the employment of a family member who was previously unemployed; and (2) who was receiving AFDC payments immediately before such employment. Title III: Food Stamp Amendment - Amends the Food Stamp Act of 1977 to exclude for food stamp eligibility purposes all earned income of a household that includes a member who is employed and who in the most recent two-year period participated fully in a State job training and job search counseling program under this Act, unless the household's aggregate income exceeds the poverty line by more than 300 percent. Title IV: Head Start Amendment - Amends the Head Start Act to authorize appropriations for full-day and full-year services. Title V: Effective Date - Sets forth the effective date of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 25 May 1994
Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) a U.S. postage stamp should be issued in recognition of the distinctive life and scientific achievements of Lewis Howard Latimer and his civic contributions to U.S. social and technological advancement; and (2) the Citizen's Stamp Advisory Committee of the U.S. Postal Service should recommend to the Postmaster General that such a postage stamp be issued.
United States · United States Congress · 18 May 1994
Permanent Housing for Homeless Families Act - Amends part A of title IV (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) (AFDC) of the Social Security Act to deem as emergency assistance to needy families with children any qualified State expenditures for construction, rehabilitation, purchase, or rental by State or local government or a nonprofit organization of permanent rental housing for homeless AFDC families. Requires a State to provide assurances that the average amount the State intends to expend per family for such emergency assistance for the fiscal year would not exceed such average amount for the immediately preceding fiscal year. Encourages the States to combine funds available for such purposes under the AFDC program with funds available under other Federal, State, or local programs, including the Community Development Block Grant program, the Home Investment Partnership program, and the programs under the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act.
United States · United States Congress · 11 May 1994
Grant's Tomb National Memorial Act of 1994 - Redesignates General Grant National Memorial, located at Riverside Drive and West 122d Street, New York, New York, as Grant's Tomb National Memorial. Requires the Secretary of the Interior to: (1) design and construct a visitors center at the Memorial to aid in its interpretation and to maintain its historical significance; and (2) acquire from the city of New York non-Federal lands located within the boundaries of the Memorial. Authorizes the Secretary to lease such lands or enter into a cooperative agreement for the management of them. Requires the Secretary to establish a study commission to review security and maintenance at the Memorial as well as plan for interpretive programs and for the complete restoration of it and to submit a written report regarding such study to the Secretary. Directs the Secretary to: (1) submit a final plan for such projects consistent with such report to the Congress; and (2) in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, acting through the Secretary of the Army, to provide at least three military guards to protect the Memorial and the Site on a 24-hour basis every day in perpetuity. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 10 May 1994
AIDS Cure Act - Requires the President to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a project to develop a cure for acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Prohibits the program from being administered by any officer or employee of the National Institutes of Health. Requires the Governing Council established in this Act to ensure that the project: (1) pursues comprehensive basic science investigations, based on diverse theories and schools of thought which elucidate the pathogenesis of AIDS; and (2) identifies, based on this work, all promising curatives and oversees their timely and adequate testing. Establishes a Governing Council to set policy and oversee research priorities, ethical standards, conflict of interest rules, and hiring of researchers and administrators. Establishes a coordinating committee to facilitate communication among the different scientists working on the project, evaluate the progress of its work, and convene the entire staff on a regular schedule (or when necessary) to evaluate the progress of the project as a whole, identify gaps in research, reevaluate its direction, and consider newly developed theories emanating from both within and outside the project. Requires the Secretary to convene a one-time national AIDS Congress solely to make recommendations to the President for selecting the Governing Council. Grants the Secretary extraordinary powers in carrying out such project, including the power to exercise the right of eminent domain to obtain samples of potential curatives and data on their development. Vests power in the Congress to reauthorize the project after five years of operation.
United States · United States Congress · 25 April 1994
Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act - Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit the manufacture, transfer, or possession of a semiautomatic assault weapon as defined or listed under this Act. Sets penalties for violations and for use or possession of such a weapon during a crime of violence or drug trafficking crime. Requires the serial number of any such weapon manufactured after enactment of this Act to clearly show the date on which the weapon was manufactured. Makes such provisions inapplicable to: (1) the transfer or possession of any firearm lawfully possessed before the effective date of this Act; (2) certain hunting and sporting firearms; (3) the United States or a department or agency of the United States, or a State or department, agency, or political subdivision of a State; and (4) the manufacture, transfer, or possession of a firearm by a licensed manufacturer or importer for purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury. Prohibits: (1) the sale, shipment, or delivery of an assault weapon to a person who does not fill out a form 4473 (prescribed by the Secretary) in connection with the purchase of an assault weapon; and (2) the purchase, possession, or acceptance of delivery of such weapon by a person who has not completed such form. Sets forth: (1) additional recordkeeping requirements; and (2) penalties for violations. Prohibits the transfer or possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device, with exceptions. Treats such devices as firearms. Sets penalties for violations. Requires any such device manufactured after the date of this Act's enactment to be identified by a serial number that clearly shows that the device was manufactured or imported after the effective date of this Act. Directs the Attorney General to: (1) investigate and study the effect of this Act and determine its impact, if any, on violent and drug trafficking crime; and (2) report to the Congress. Itemizes firearms under various categories as an appendix to Federal firearms provisions.
United States · United States Congress · 21 April 1994
Waterways Restoration Act of 1994 - Amends the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act to delete the requirement that each watershed improvement under such Act must contain benefits directly related to agriculture that account for at least 20 percent of the total project benefits. Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to establish and implement a Waterways Restoration Program which provides technical assistance and grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible entities for carrying out waterway restoration projects. Requires such projects to achieve ecological restoration or protection and one or more of the following objectives: (1) flood damage reduction; (2) erosion control; (3) stormwater management; or (4) water quality enhancement. Provides project descriptions and priorities, including the location of projects in low-income or economically depressed areas adversely impacted by poor watershed management. Outlines other project requirements, including a cost-benefit analysis. Requires the Secretary to designate Program administrators for each participating State (including a State agency if approved by the Secretary). Requires program grants to be awarded on an annual basis. Provides project application and selection requirements, including the establishment in each participating State of an interdisciplinary team of specialists to assist in reviewing project applications under the Program. Outlines conditions for receiving assistance under the Program, with sponsor and cosponsor requirements. Requires a non-Federal share of 25 percent of project costs, with a waiver for economically depressed communities. Limits the administrative and technical assistance costs of the Program. Requires the governor of each participating State to establish a citizens oversight committee to evaluate management of the Program in that State. Requires program administrators to issue annual reports summarizing the Program evaluations of the oversight committees. Provides funding.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 1994
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow the reduction of any tax credit or refund to pay past-due, legally enforceable State tax obligations. Provides for the disclosure of information to States requesting such a reduction.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 1994
Lower East Side Tenement Museum National Historic Site Act of 1994 - Designates the Lower East Side Tenement Museum at 97 Orchard Street, New York, New York, as a National Historic Site. Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to acquire the Site with donated or appropriated funds, to enter into cooperative agreements with the Museum designed to assure preservation and interpretation of the Site, and to acquire properties owned, operated, or required by the Museum. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 1994
Revitalizing Cities Through Parks Enhancement Act - Directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to make grants to eligible community organizations to establish urban open space and parks on municipally owned vacant lots. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 24 March 1994
Neighborhood Crime Fighters Housing Assistance Act - Amends the United States Housing Act of 1937 to provide public housing rental assistance on behalf of a family that has provided law enforcement assistance and is likely to be subject to retaliatory violence. Amends the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to set aside funds for such program.
United States · United States Congress · 23 March 1994
Governors Island Reinforcement Act of 1994 - Sets forth trade, assistance, and air transport sanctions against Haiti, and against other nations not cooperating with U.S. or international sanctions. Terminates such sanctions upon the reinstatement of the democratically elected President of Haiti and the military's meeting its obligation under the Governors Island Agreement. States congressional support for: (1) the return of human rights observers to Haiti; (2) the creation of a multinational border patrol between Haiti and the Dominican Republic; and (3) socioeconomic and peacekeeping assistance to Haiti. Directs the President to terminate the bilateral migrant interdiction agreement with Haiti. Provides for the nonrefoulement of Haitians by the United States. Grants temporary protected status under the Immigration and Nationality Act to qualifying Haitians. Excludes from U.S. admission, and blocks U.S. assets of, certain Haitians connected with the military or related activities.
United States · United States Congress · 23 March 1994
Senior Safe Corridors Act - Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to authorize the Director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance to make grants to States, and to units of local government with populations exceeding 100,000, to fund programs that create corridors of safety for senior citizens in high-density senior citizen areas. Directs that such grants be used to fund programs that seek to decrease violent crime against senior citizens by increasing the numbers, protective presence, and watchfulness of police, community group members, and others, and the watchfulness of business owners and employees, in high-density senior citizen areas. Specifies that such programs may include escorting senior citizens. Sets forth provisions regarding: (1) application requirements; (2) criteria for application approval and priorities; (3) limits on grant amounts; and (4) reports by grant recipients. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 16 March 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Comprehensive Program for Worker Reemployment Title II: One-Stop Career Center System Title III: National Labor Market Information System Title IV: Reinvention Labs for Job Training for the Economically Disadvantaged Reemployment Act of 1994 - Establishes: (1) a comprehensive program for worker reemployment; (2) a one-stop career center system; (3) a national labor market information system; and (4) reinvention labs for job training for the economically disadvantaged. (Sec. 4) Authorizes appropriations for titles I, III, and IV of this Act. Title I: Comprehensive Program for Worker Reemployment - Allots funds among States and reserves certain funds for national activities. (Sec. 103) Makes certain permanently laid-off workers and long-term unemployed individuals (as well as workers facing imminent plant shutdowns and self-employed individuals unemployed because of community economic conditions or natural disasters) eligible for services under this title. Makes dislocated homemakers eligible if a State Governor deems this appropriate and certain conditions are met. Part A: State and Substate Delivery System - Makes States responsible for administrative and management systems under this title. (Sec. 112) Requires the Governor to designate or establish a dislocated worker unit at the State level, with specified rapid response, information, and coordination functions. Directs such unit to coordinate with substate grantees and career centers, and to promote worker-management transition assistance committees. Provides for rapid response coverage of certain layoffs, State funding of preliminary assessments of worker buyouts of plants, prohibition of State transfer of rapid response functions, and Federal oversight of such functions. (Sec. 113) Requires the Governor to develop and maintain a comprehensive labor market information system in the State that meets certain requirements relating to the national system of effective labor market information. (Sec. 114) Requires the Governor to coordinate programs under this title with the worker profiling system under the Social Security Act and the retraining income support program under this Act. (Sec. 115) Authorizes the Governor to award supplementary grants to eligible entities to provide authorized services to eligible individuals in areas of the State experiencing substantial increases in numbers of such individuals due to plant closures, base closures, and mass layoffs. Allows such grant funds to be used to establish additional service centers, including on-site transition centers. (Sec. 116) Authorizes the Governor to award job retention project grants for: (1) upgrading skills of workers at risk of permanent layoff; and (2) retraining workers in new technologies and work processes to help convert or restructure businesses into high performance work organizations and avert plant closings or substantial layoffs. Requires State and employer contributions. Requires consultation with unions. (Sec. 117) Requires establishment of substate area administrative structures. (Sec. 118) Requires each designated substate grantee to establish one or more career centers in that area. Allows additional, temporary on-site transition centers. (Sec. 119) Authorizes the use of substate area funds for the following services for eligible individuals: (1) basic reemployment services; (2) intensive reemployment services; (3) education and training services; (4) retraining income support; (5) supportive services; and (6) supplemental wage allowances for older workers. (Sec. 120) Allows a career center to issue a certificate of continuing eligibility for services to eligible individuals who are accepting employment at a significantly lower wage than their previous one or in an occupation significantly different from their previous one. Part B: Federal Service Delivery System - Directs the Secretary of Labor to establish a program of national discretionary grants to address large-scale economic dislocations resulting from plant closures, base closures, or mass layoffs. Allows the use of such grants to: (1) provide comprehensive planning services to assist communities in addressing and reducing the impact of an economic dislocation; and (2) establish on-site transition centers. (Sec. 132) Directs the Secretary to make funds available for disaster relief employment assistance to States for substate allocation. (Sec. 133) Directs the Secretary to provide for: (1) evaluation of programs under this title; (2) research on addressing economic dislocation, facilitating the transition of permanently laid-off workers to reemployment, and upgrading skills of employed workers; and (3) demonstration projects to develop and improve methods of addressing economic dislocation and promoting worker adjustment. (Sec. 134) Directs the Secretary to provide staff training and technical assistance to various entities to enhance their capacity to develop and deliver adjustment assistance services to workers, and to avert plant closings or substantial layoffs. Requires integration of such activities with those of the Capacity Building and Information and Dissemination Network. (Sec. 135) Directs the Secretary to provide for delivery of programs, activities, and services under this title in any State that chooses not to participate. Part C: Performance Standards and Quality Assurance Systems - Directs the Secretary to establish a process, including an annual meeting, in each State to promote development of a customer service compact among parties administering programs under this title. (Sec. 152) Directs the Secretary to prescribe performance standards relating separately to the substate grantees and the career centers. Directs Governors to prescribe adjustments to such standards and award incentive grants to grantees and centers exceeding such standards. (Sec. 153) Requires each substate grantee to establish methods for obtaining customer feedback from eligible individuals and employers who have received services from a career center. (Sec. 154) Makes providers of education and training services eligible to receive funds under this title if they are eligible to participate under student aid provisions of the Higher Education Act of 1965 or are determined eligible under alternative procedures established by Governors, and if they provide performance-based information. Exempts on-the-job training providers from such requirements. Part D: General Requirements - Sets forth general requirements for programs under this title, including provisions for benefits, labor standards, and grievance procedures. Part E: Fiscal Administrative Provisions - Sets forth various administrative provisions, including ones for program year, prompt allocation of funds, monitoring, fiscal controls and sanctions, reports, recordkeeping, and investigations, administrative adjudication, nondiscrimination, judicial review, nondiscrimination, and criminal provisions. Part F: Miscellaneous Provisions - Provides for transition, on July 1, 1995, to programs authorized under this title from the following programs, which this Act repeals, under employment and training assistance for dislocated workers provisions of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA): (1) Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance program; (2) Defense Conversion Adjustment Program; (3) Defense Diversification Program; and (4) Clean Air Employment Transition Assistance Program. Terminates the Disaster Relief Employment Assistance program under JTPA. Title II: One-Stop Career Center System - Part A: Components of Voluntary One-Stop Career Center System - Requires a State's one-stop career center system, in order to receive a grant or waiver under this title, to include: (1) local workforce investment boards; (2) one-stop career centers established in accordance with specified procedures; (3) provision of specified services; (4) participation of specified Federal programs; (5) operating agreements for such centers; (6) quality assurance systems; and (6) a State Human Resource Investment Council. (Sec. 212) Directs the Governor to designate one-stop service areas within the State. Directs local officials to establish a workforce investment board for each such area. (Sec. 213) Directs the Governor and local officials to jointly select a consortium option or a multiple independent operator option as the method for establishing one-stop career centers for each service area. (Sec. 214) Requires each center to make available: (1) certain basic services to the public free of charge; and (2) certain intensive services to participants in the title I comprehensive program for worker reemployment who are unable to obtain employment through the basic services (and, optionally, to other individuals in accordance with the written agreement). Authorizes each center to provide specialized services to employers and additional services specified in the agreement. Authorizes charging fees under specified conditions, with all program income to be used to expand or enhance services. (Sec. 215) Requires the following programs to be made available to participants through the centers (and to participate in operation of such centers as parties to the agreement): (1) comprehensive programs for worker reemployment under title I of this Act; (2) Wagner-Peyser Act programs (employment services); (3) job counseling, training, and placement for veterans; (4) training services for the disadvantaged under title II of JTPA; (5) community service employment for older Americans programs under title V of the Older Americans Act; and (6) programs authorized under Federal and State unemployment compensation laws. Allows other human resource programs to provide services through and participate in operation of the centers, under specified conditions, including the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills program for AFDC recipients, the Food Stamp Employment and Training program, the Job Corps, veterans' employment programs under JTPA, and programs under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, Adult Education Act, Vocational Rehabilitation Act, and School-to-Work Opportunities Act. (Sec. 216) Sets forth requirements for operating agreements and quality assurance systems. (Sec. 218) Requires each State to establish a State human resource investment council that meets specified JTPA requirements and carries out certain additional functions including advising on development and implementation of the one-stop career center system. Part B: Grants and Waivers to Promote the Development and Implementation of One-Stop Career Center System - Authorizes the Secretary to establish programs of competitive grants to States for planning and development and for implementation of comprehensive statewide networks of one-stop career centers. (Sec. 233) Allows a State, at any point during such development or implementation, to request from the Secretary a waiver of one or more statutory or regulatory provisions. Sets forth waiver criteria. Subjects to such waiver authority the mandatory participating programs of the centers. (Sec. 234) Provides for pooling of administrative resources. Part C: Additional Activities in Support of One-Stop Career Center Systems - Directs the Secretary to establish a process, with each State implementing the one-stop career center system, including an annual meeting, to promote development of a customer service compact among the parties administering the system. (Sec. 235) Makes each State implementing such a system responsible for administration, management, monitoring, and technical assistance. (Sec. 236) Makes the Secretary responsible for monitoring compliance, staff training and technical assistance (integrated with the Capacity Building and Information Dissemination Network under JTPA), a national logo and name, and evaluation of one-stop career center programs. Part D: Effective Date - Sets forth effective dates for this title and for performance standards. Title III: National Labor Market Information System - Directs the Secretary to develop, in coordination with other Federal, State, and local entities, a strategy to establish a nationwide system of local labor market information. (Sec. 303) Directs the Secretary, in cooperation with such other entities and public-private partnerships, to develop such system to make available specified types of information. Requires certain technical standards, consumer reports, and evaluation. (Sec. 304) Directs the Secretary to provide for coordination and integration of such system and appropriate dissemination of information. Title IV: Reinvention Labs for Job Training for the Economically Disadvantaged - Amends the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to establish a five-year Reinvention Labs program to: (1) encourage innovative program designs to improve provision of services to and labor market outcomes for economically disadvantaged youth and adults; (2) develop, through service delivery areas (SDAs) and States, knowledge of effective approaches to providing employment and training to the economically disadvantaged; and (3) provide SDAs with increased flexibility in operating job training programs, in exchange for greater accountability. (Sec. 401) Sets forth requirements for SDA applications for waivers of Federal requirements relating to JTPA programs for employment and training of the economically disadvantaged. Authorizes the Secretary to waive certain of such requirements under specified conditions and to provide technical assistance to SDAs, States, and service providers for Reinvention Labs programs. (Sec. 402) Modifies the definition of tuition under JTPA.
United States · United States Congress · 16 March 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Initiatives Within the Department of the Interior Title II: Initiatives Within the Department of Energy Lower Mississippi Delta Initiatives Act of 1994 - Title I: Initiatives Within the Department of the Interior - Establishes within the Department of the Interior an Office of Education to: (1) promote education in selected areas of environmental, natural, historic, and cultural resources; and (2) establish initiatives at minority schools of higher education. Directs the Secretary of the Interior to: (1) submit annual status reports to the Congress regarding the inventory and coordination of Departmental education programs; (2) report annually to certain congressional committees on opportunities for minority schools of higher education to participate in Departmental programs; (3) establish a scholarship program for degrees in natural resource and environmental related fields at minority schools of higher learning in the Lower Mississippi Delta Region; (4) encourage pre-college education programs in designated subject areas; (5) implement a volunteer educational enrichment program in cooperation with State departments of education and local school districts in the Delta Region; (6) establish a Center for Excellence in the Sciences and a Center for Aquaculture to encourage women and minority students in the Delta Region to pursue careers in the sciences and in aquaculture; and (7) coordinate the educational programs under this Act with those of other Federal agencies. (Sec. 103) Directs the Secretary to transmit to the Congress: (1) a study of nationally significant sites within the Delta Region; (2) recommendations for a transportation network linking such sites; and (3) a study outlining recommendations for funding a Delta Region Native American Heritage Corridor and Heritage and Cultural Center, and a Delta Region African American Heritage Corridor and Heritage and Cultural Center (including a Music Heritage Program). Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to State Humanities Councils to assist minority and rural museums and related associations in the Delta region. (Sec. 105) Directs the Secretary to provide technical and financial assistance to historically Black colleges and universities to undertake: (1) a survey of historic and prehistoric structures on campus; and (2) their preservation. (Sec. 106) Directs the Secretary to: (1) transmit to the Congress a feasibility study regarding the establishment of a Delta Antiquities Trail or Delta Antiquities Heritage Corridor; and (2) conduct a research and preservation program of significant historic and archaeological resources in the Delta. (Sec. 108) Authorizes appropriations. Title II: Initiatives Within the Department of Energy - Directs the Secretary of Energy (the Secretary) to establish the Delta Energy Technology and Business Development Center (the Center). Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to the Center. (Sec. 203) Amends the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to require the Secretary to make grants to schools or hospitals for energy conservation projects, and to provide supplemental Federal financing for energy conservation projects at schools and hospitals in the Delta Region. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 204) Requires the Secretary to: (1) report annually to certain congressional committees regarding opportunities for minority colleges and universities to participate in Department of Energy (DOE) activities and laboratories; (2) establish scholarship programs for students pursuing energy-related and/or technical disciplines either at minority colleges or universities in the Delta Region; (3) encourage pre-college programs in energy-related and/or technical disciplines; (4) implement a volunteer program for education at DOE; and (5) implement a program to encourage women and minority students in the Delta Region to pursue careers in technical disciplines. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 205) Directs the Secretary to conduct a research and demonstration program to determine the economic viability of integrated biomass energy systems within the Delta Region. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 206) Amends the Energy Conservation and Production Act to direct the Secretary to make grants to States and Indian tribal organizations in the Delta Region for weatherization of low-income dwelling units. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 207) Amends the Energy Policy Act of 1992 to qualify for incentive payments certain renewable energy facilities owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority.
United States · United States Congress · 16 March 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Comprehensive Program for Worker Reemployment Title II: Retraining Income Support and Flexibility in Unemployment Compensation Title III: One-Stop Career Center System Title IV: National Labor Market Information System Title V: Reinvention Labs for Job Training for the Economically Disadvantaged Reemployment Act of 1994 - Establishes: (1) a comprehensive program for worker reemployment; (2) retraining income support and flexibility in unemployment compensation; (3) a one-stop career center system; (4) a national labor market information system; and (5) reinvention labs for job training for the economically disadvantaged. (Sec. 4) Authorizes appropriations for titles I, III, and IV of this Act. Title I: Comprehensive Program for Worker Reemployment - Allots funds among States and reserves certain funds for national activities. (Sec. 103) Makes certain permanently laid-off workers and long-term unemployed individuals (as well as workers facing imminent plant shutdowns and self-employed individuals unemployed because of community economic conditions or natural disasters) eligible for services under this title. Makes dislocated homemakers eligible if a State Governor deems this appropriate and certain conditions are met. Part A: State and Substate Delivery System - Makes States responsible for administrative and management systems under this title. (Sec. 112) Requires the Governor to designate or establish a dislocated worker unit at the State level, with specified rapid response, information, and coordination functions. Directs such unit to coordinate with substate grantees and career centers, and to promote worker-management transition assistance committees. Provides for rapid response coverage of certain layoffs, State funding of preliminary assessments of worker buyouts of plants, prohibition of State transfer of rapid response functions, and Federal oversight of such functions. (Sec. 113) Requires the Governor to develop and maintain a comprehensive labor market information system in the State that meets certain requirements relating to the national system of effective labor market information. (Sec. 114) Requires the Governor to coordinate programs under this title with the worker profiling system under the Social Security Act and the retraining income support program under this Act. (Sec. 115) Authorizes the Governor to award supplementary grants to eligible entities to provide authorized services to eligible individuals in areas of the State experiencing substantial increases in numbers of such individuals due to plant closures, base closures, and mass layoffs. Allows such grant funds to be used to establish additional service centers, including on-site transition centers. (Sec. 116) Authorizes the Governor to award job retention project grants for: (1) upgrading skills of workers at risk of permanent layoff; and (2) retraining workers in new technologies and work processes to help convert or restructure businesses into high performance work organizations and avert plant closings or substantial layoffs. Requires State and employer contributions. Requires consultation with unions. (Sec. 117) Requires establishment of substate area administrative structures. (Sec. 118) Requires each designated substate grantee to establish one or more career centers in that area. Allows additional, temporary on-site transition centers. (Sec. 119) Authorizes the use of substate area funds for the following services for eligible individuals: (1) basic reemployment services; (2) intensive reemployment services; (3) education and training services; (4) retraining income support; (5) supportive services; and (6) supplemental wage allowances for older workers. (Sec. 120) Allows a career center to issue a certificate of continuing eligibility for services to eligible individuals who are accepting employment at a significantly lower wage than their previous one or in an occupation significantly different from their previous one. Part B: Federal Service Delivery System - Directs the Secretary of Labor to establish a program of national discretionary grants to address large-scale economic dislocations resulting from plant closures, base closures, or mass layoffs. Allows the use of such grants to: (1) provide comprehensive planning services to assist communities in addressing and reducing the impact of an economic dislocation; and (2) establish on-site transition centers. (Sec. 132) Directs the Secretary to make funds available for disaster relief employment assistance to States for substate allocation. (Sec. 133) Directs the Secretary to provide for: (1) evaluation of programs under this title; (2) research on addressing economic dislocation, facilitating the transition of permanently laid-off workers to reemployment, and upgrading skills of employed workers; and (3) demonstration projects to develop and improve methods of addressing economic dislocation and promoting worker adjustment. (Sec. 134) Directs the Secretary to provide staff training and technical assistance to various entities to enhance their capacity to develop and deliver adjustment assistance services to workers, and to avert plant closings or substantial layoffs. Requires integration of such activities with those of the Capacity Building and Information and Dissemination Network. (Sec. 135) Directs the Secretary to provide for delivery of programs, activities, and services under this title in any State that chooses not to participate. Part C: Performance Standards and Quality Assurance Systems - Directs the Secretary to establish a process, including an annual meeting, in each State to promote development of a customer service compact among parties administering programs under this title. (Sec. 152) Directs the Secretary to prescribe performance standards relating separately to the substate grantees and the career centers. Directs Governors to prescribe adjustments to such standards and award incentive grants to grantees and centers exceeding such standards. (Sec. 153) Requires each substate grantee to establish methods for obtaining customer feedback from eligible individuals and employers who have received services from a career center. (Sec. 154) Makes providers of education and training services eligible to receive funds under this title if they are eligible to participate under student aid provisions of the Higher Education Act of 1965 or are determined eligible under alternative procedures established by Governors, and if they provide performance-based information. Exempts on-the-job training providers from such requirements. Part D: General Requirements - Sets forth general requirements for programs under this title, including provisions for benefits, labor standards, and grievance procedures. Part E: Fiscal Administrative Provisions - Sets forth various administrative provisions, including ones for program year, prompt allocation of funds, monitoring, fiscal controls and sanctions, reports, recordkeeping, and investigations, administrative adjudication, nondiscrimination, judicial review, nondiscrimination, and criminal provisions. Part F: Miscellaneous Provisions - Provides for transition, on July 1, 1995, to programs authorized under this title from the following programs, which this Act repeals, under employment and training assistance for dislocated workers provisions of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA): (1) Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance program; (2) Defense Conversion Adjustment Program; (3) Defense Diversification Program; and (4) Clean Air Employment Transition Assistance Program. Terminates the Disaster Relief Employment Assistance program under JTPA. Title II: Retraining Income Support and Flexibility in Unemployment Compensation - Part A: Retraining Income Support Program - Establishes a retraining income support program to assist permanently laid-off individuals participating in long-term training programs. (Sec. 202) Sets forth eligibility requirements for tenured workers (who have been employed for more than three years before being permanently laid off) and for trade-impacted workers. Provides, at a later date, for additional eligibility coverage for workers who have been employed for more than one year but less than three years before being permanently laid-off. (Sec. 203) Sets forth formulae for determining weekly amounts of such assistance. (Sec. 204) Limits the maximum duration of such assistance to: (1) 52 weeks for individuals with three years or more of job tenure; and (2) 26 weeks for individuals with less than three years of job tenure. Provides for coordination with the extended unemployment compensation benefit program. (Sec. 205) Provides for agreements with States, administration absent State agreement, liabilities of certifying and disbursing officers, fraud and recovery of overpayments, and penalties. Part B: Retraining Income Support Account - Amends the Social Security Act to establish a Retraining Income Support Account in the Unemployment Trust Fund. Provides for transfers to such Account and transfers to States. (Sec. 222) Provides for funds to assist States in administering cash benefits for retraining income support. Part C: Financing Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to raise the rate of the Federal unemployment tax. (Sec. 232) Provides for voluntary withholding of Federal individual income tax on unemployment and other benefits, including retraining income support. Requires States to provide for a system for deduction and withholding of Federal individual income tax from unemployment compensation upon the recipient's voluntary request. Part D: Integration of Trade-Impacted Workers into the Comprehensive Reemployment System - Phases out the trade adjustment assistance program. (Sec. 242) Establishes within the Department of Labor a temporary, transitional certification program to integrate trade-impacted workers into the comprehensive system of worker reemployment and retraining income support. Part E: Unemployment Compensation Flexibility - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow States, under their unemployment compensation programs, to conduct: (1) short-time compensation programs; (2) reemployment bonus programs. (Sec. 253) Amends the North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act to repeal a sunset provision which would terminate the self-employment assistance program after five years. (Thus this Act extends such program indefinitely.) Title III: One-Stop Career Center System - Part A: Components of Voluntary One-Stop Career Center System - Requires a State's one-stop career center system, in order to receive a grant or waiver under this title, to include: (1) local workforce investment boards; (2) one-stop career centers established in accordance with specified procedures; (3) provision of specified services; (4) participation of specified Federal programs; (5) operating agreements for such centers; (6) quality assurance systems; and (6) a State Human Resource Investment Council. (Sec. 312) Directs the Governor to designate one-stop service areas within the State. Directs local officials to establish a workforce investment board for each such area. (Sec. 313) Directs the Governor and local officials to jointly select a consortium option or a multiple independent operator option as the method for establishing one-stop career centers for each service area. (Sec. 314) Requires each center to make available: (1) certain basic services to the public free of charge; and (2) certain intensive services to participants in the title I comprehensive program for worker reemployment who are unable to obtain employment through the basic services (and, optionally, to other individuals in accordance with the written agreement). Authorizes each center to provide specialized services to employers and additional services specified in the agreement. Authorizes charging fees under specified conditions, with all program income to be used to expand or enhance services. (Sec. 315) Requires the following programs to be made available to participants through the centers (and to participate in operation of such centers as parties to the agreement): (1) comprehensive programs for worker reemployment under title I of this Act; (2) Wagner-Peyser Act programs (employment services); (3) job counseling, training, and placement for veterans; (4) training services for the disadvantaged under title II of JTPA; (5) community service employment for older Americans programs under title V of the Older Americans Act; and (6) programs authorized under Federal and State unemployment compensation laws. Allows other human resource programs to provide services through and participate in operation of the centers, under specified conditions, including the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills program for AFDC recipients, the Food Stamp Employment and Training program, the Job Corps, veterans' employment programs under JTPA, and programs under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act, Adult Education Act, Vocational Rehabilitation Act, and School-to-Work Opportunities Act. (Sec. 316) Sets forth requirements for operating agreements and quality assurance systems. (Sec. 318) Requires each State to establish a State human resource investment council that meets specified JTPA requirements and carries out certain additional functions including advising on development and implementation of the one-stop career center system. Part B: Grants and Waivers to Promote the Development and Implementation of One-Stop Career Center System - Authorizes the Secretary to establish programs of competitive grants to States for planning and development and for implementation of comprehensive statewide networks of one-stop career centers. (Sec. 333) Allows a State, at any point during such development or implementation, to request from the Secretary a waiver of one or more statutory or regulatory provisions. Sets forth waiver criteria. Subjects to such waiver authority the mandatory participating programs of the centers. (Sec. 334) Provides for pooling of administrative resources. Part C: Additional Activities in Support of One-Stop Career Center Systems - Directs the Secretary to establish a process, with each State implementing the one-stop career center system, including an annual meeting, to promote development of a customer service compact among the parties administering the system. (Sec. 335) Makes each State implementing such a system responsible for administration, management, monitoring, and technical assistance. (Sec. 336) Makes the Secretary responsible for monitoring compliance, staff training and technical assistance (integrated with the Capacity Building and Information Dissemination Network under JTPA), a national logo and name, and evaluation of one-stop career center programs. Part D: Effective Date - Sets forth effective dates for this title and for performance standards. Title IV: National Labor Market Information System - Directs the Secretary to develop, in coordination with other Federal, State, and local entities, a strategy to establish a nationwide system of local labor market information. (Sec. 403) Directs the Secretary, in cooperation with such other entities and public-private partnerships, to develop such system to make available specified types of information. Requires certain technical standards, consumer reports, and evaluation. (Sec. 404) Directs the Secretary to provide for coordination and integration of such system and appropriate dissemination of information. Title V: Reinvention Labs for Job Training for the Economically Disadvantaged - Amends the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to establish a five-year Reinvention Labs program to: (1) encourage innovative program designs to improve provision of services to and labor market outcomes for economically disadvantaged youth and adults; (2) develop, through service delivery areas (SDAs) and States, knowledge of effective approaches to providing employment and training to the economically disadvantaged; and (3) provide SDAs with increased flexibility in operating job training programs, in exchange for greater accountability. (Sec. 501) Sets forth requirements for SDA applications for waivers of Federal requirements relating to JTPA programs for employment and training of the economically disadvantaged. Authorizes the Secretary to waive certain of such requirements under specified conditions and to provide technical assistance to SDAs, States, and service providers for Reinvention Labs programs. (Sec. 502) Modifies the definition of tuition under JTPA.
United States · United States Congress · 11 March 1994
Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend the student loan default rate exemption for historically Black colleges, tribally controlled community colleges, and Navajo community colleges.
United States · United States Congress · 11 March 1994
Tax Fairness for Displaced Workers Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to permit qualified separation payments to be included in gross income ratably over a four-year period.
United States · United States Congress · 9 March 1994
Protection from Sexual Predators Act of 1994 - Expresses the sense of the Congress that States should: (1) more seriously consider the relatively high recidivism rate of sexual offenders when deciding whether to plea bargain with first-time sexual offenders and whether to grant parole to sexual offenders; and (2) review their treatment and parole supervision programs for sexual offenders to assure that such programs are fulfilling their goals. Amends the Federal criminal code to provide that whoever violates provisions regarding aggravated sexual abuse (or engages in conduct in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce that would be a violation of such provisions if the offense had occurred in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States) after previously having been convicted of another State or Federal sexual abuse offense (or conduct which would have been such an offense if the offense had occurred in such jurisdiction) shall be imprisoned for life. Directs the Attorney General to establish guidelines for State programs requiring: (1) any person who is convicted of a sex offense to register and keep up to date a current address with a designated State law enforcement agency (LEA) for ten years after being released from prison or placed on parole, supervised release, or probation; and (2) each State to provide information obtained about the registered person to the Attorney General on a prompt and regular basis and in a uniform format. Requires the Attorney General to: (1) maintain on-line availability of information obtained under this Act for use by authorized LEAs in carrying out their functions; and (2) provide for the privacy of such information. Directs each State to implement the registration provisions within three years. Makes States not in compliance after such time subject to a reduction of funds under title I (drug control and system improvement grants) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. Requires the National Institute of Justice to carry out a study of persistent sexual predators and to report to the Congress and the President.
United States · United States Congress · 8 March 1994
Church Retirement Benefits Simplification Act of 1993 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to recodify and revise qualifications for church retirement and pension plans. Makes employee contributions to such plans nonforfeitable. Requires the plan to meet minimum vesting requirements. Recodifies the authority of a church or a convention or association of churches to be treated as an employer making contributions to retirement income accounts. Subjects church-related hospitals and universities to certain coverage and related rules in the case of a contract purchased by a church. Requires distributions from retirement income accounts provided by churches to be in accordance with distributions under cash or deferred arrangements. Provides for determining the beginning date for such distributions. Allows self-employed ministers and chaplains who work for non-church employers to participate in their church plans. Provides that certain rules aggregating employees do not apply to churches. Restores qualified voluntary employee contributions to church plans. Treats self-employed ministers as employees for purposes of certain welfare benefit plans and retirement income accounts. Allows a deduction for contributions to retirement income accounts by such ministers. Provides that a church plan maintained by more than one employer shall not be treated as a single plan. Provides that accounting methods of deferred compensation plans of State and local governments and tax-exempt organizations do not apply to a church plan. Exempts a church plan from the requirement to maintain separate accounts for medical benefits for key employees. Provides that the special rules for computing employee contributions to pension plans do not apply to certain foreign missionaries. Repeals the elective deferral catch-up limitation for church retirement income accounts. Allows church plans to annuitize benefits and increase benefit payments. Provides that rules for self-insured medical reimbursement plans are not applicable to church plans. Provides that retirement benefits of ministers are not subject to the tax on net earnings from self-employment.
United States · United States Congress · 3 March 1994
Family and Community Endeavor Schools Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to make competitive grants to local entities for programs to improve the overall academic and social development of at-risk children in eligible communities. Requires the assisted local entities to institute a collaborative structure that trains and coordinates efforts of teachers, administrators, social workers, guidance counselors, parents, and school volunteers to provide concurrent social services for at-risk students at selected public schools in eligible communities. Allows such entities to develop various programs to serve the comprehensive needs of students, including: (1) homework assistance and afterschool educational, social, and athletic activities; (2) nutrition services; (3) mentoring; (4) family counseling; and (5) parental training. Directs the Secretary to establish a peer review panel to recommend an illustrative model and an evaluation design for such programs. Authorizes appropriations for this Act out of specified amounts from the Violent Crime Reduction Trust Fund.
United States · United States Congress · 3 March 1994
Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to exclude from coverage any fire fighters or rescue squad members during the period in which they volunteer their services at a location where they are not employed. Waives overtime compensation requirements when fire fighters or rescue squad members volunteer their services to their employer and sign a legally binding waiver. Prohibits employer coercion of such volunteering.
United States · United States Congress · 3 March 1994
Honors James Norman Hall for his outstanding contributions to the United States, France, Tahiti, and the South Pacific. Requests the President to provide for the presentation of a copy of this concurrent resolution to the President of Tahiti Nui (French Polynesia) to be publicly displayed at the James Norman Hall Museum in Tahiti.
United States · United States Congress · 24 February 1994
Southern Rural Development Commission Act - Establishes the Southern Rural Development Commission and authorizes it to provide grants for rural development in specified counties and parishes in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 23 February 1994
1995 Special Olympics World Games Commemorative Coin Act - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue one-dollar silver coins emblematic of the 1995 Special Olympics World Games. Mandates that the surcharges collected from the sale of such coins be paid to the 1995 Special Olympics World Games Organizing Committee, Inc.
United States · United States Congress · 23 February 1994
Expresses the sense of the Congress that any comprehensive health care reform legislation should include annual screenings of children under age six for lead poisoning.
United States · United States Congress · 22 February 1994
Urban Watershed Restoration Act of 1994 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a National Urban Watershed Restoration Program to be administered by each State which has a demonstrated successful urban river restoration program or by the Regional EPA Administrator in States without such programs. Allocates at least 25 percent of funds made available for nonpoint source pollution management to the Program. Provides for grants and technical assistance for projects meeting this Act's requirements. Limits the Federal share of a project's cost to 60 percent of the total cost. Sets forth conditions for project selection. Gives priority to projects that assist in the: (1) meeting of municipal stormwater discharge and combined sewer overflow permit program requirements; (2) implementation of national estuary plans; and (3) development and implementation of stream protection measures and monitoring. Establishes other factors with respect to priority consideration, including that a project will be carried out in a low-income area and will correct a problem which contributes to economic, social, and environmental degradation. Lists projects eligible for funding under the Program.
United States · United States Congress · 11 February 1994
Amends the Interstate Commerce Act to direct the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to require a fair and equitable arrangement for protection of the interests of railroad employees who may be affected by an ICC order approving an application for construction or acquisition and operation of a railroad line. Requires such arrangement to be no less fair and beneficial to the interests of such employees than those established under specified provisions for employee protective arrangements in transactions involving rail carriers.
![Official portrait of Rep. Rangel, Charles B. [D-NY-15]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/r000053_200.jpg)