An amendment to add canned tuna to the list of items that are exempt from the duty-free treatment provided in the bill.
United States · United States Congress
The world's political record
Person
![Official portrait of Rep. Rostenkowski, Dan [D-IL-8]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/r000458_200.jpg)
United States · Official source
776 records where Rep. Rostenkowski, Dan [D-IL-8] is listed as a sponsor, author, or other actor. Search with topics and years
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress
United States · United States Congress · 28 September 1994
Designates October 19, 1994, as National Mammography Day.
United States · United States Congress · 20 September 1994
Designates October 29, 1994, as National Firefighters Day.
United States · United States Congress · 21 April 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Establishment of the Social Security Administration as an Independent Agency Title II: Miscellaneous Improvements to the Old-Age Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program Social Security Administrative Reform Act of 1994 - Title I: Establishment of the Social Security Administration as an Independent Agency - Amends title VII (Administration) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to establish as an independent executive agency the Social Security Administration, governed by a Social Security Board, to administer the Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program under SSA titles II and XVI. (Sec. 102) Establishes in the Administration an Office of the Beneficiary Ombudsman. (Sec. 104) Transfers to the Board all functions carried out by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) pertaining to such programs. (Sec. 107) Requires the Board to report to the Congress within 120 days after the beginning of each regular session of its administration under SSA. Requires the Secretary to study and make recommendations on the most effective methods of providing economic security and on the administrative policy for SSA programs administered by the Secretary. Title II: Improvements (sic) to the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program - Amends SSA titles II and XVI with respect to the payment of disability benefits to substance abusers. (Sec. 202) Amends SSA titles II and related provisions of Federal law with respect to: (1) OASDI trust fund administration, including the creation of a Continuing Disability Review Account in the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund; (2) telephone access to local Social Security Administration offices; (3) OASDI coverage of State election personnel, police officers, and fire fighters; (4) use of social security numbers for jury selection and in administration of Federal workers' compensation laws; (5) totalization benefits, military reservists, and application of windfall elimination and Government pension offset provisions; (6) facility-of-payment provisions; (7) maximum family benefits in guarantee cases; (8) annual earnings filing; (9) disability insurance program demonstration project authority; (10) cross-matching of social security number information and employer ID number information maintained by the Department of Agriculture; (11) retirement eligibility for Federal employees transferred to International Organizations; (12) treatment of certain visas; and (13) rounding when calculating OASDI contribution and benefit base and earnings test exempt amounts. (Sec. 208) Provides a limited exemption from certain self-employment tax liability for individuals performing religious services in Canada. (Sec. 213) Amends SSA title XI with regard to: (1) disclosure of mortality information for research purposes; (2) misuse of HHS and Treasury symbols, emblems, or names in reference to social security programs and agencies, and associated penalties; and (3) penalties for unauthorized disclosure of social security information. (Sec. 219) Amends the Railroad Retirement Solvency Act of 1983 concerning certain transfers to the Railroad Retirement Account. (Sec. 223) Directs the Secretary to appoint a Commission on the Evaluation of Disability in Children to study and report to the Congress on SSI's definition of "disability" and how it applies with respect to children.
United States · United States Congress · 19 April 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Provisions Relating to Future Entitlements Title II: Provisions Relating to Current and Future Entitlements Title III: Coverage of Newly Hired State and Local Employees Title IV: Social Security Payroll Tax Social Security Long-Range Solvency Act of 1994 - Title I: Provisions Relating to Future Entitlements - Amends title II (Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act with respect to persons who initially become eligible for benefits between the years 2001 through 2051 to adjust the earnings bracket and bend point formula used to determine the primary insurance amount for individuals. Provides for a graduated increase in the "normal" statutory retirement age from age 65 to 67 by the year 2011. Title II: Provisions Relating to Current and Future Entitlements - Reduces the 1995 cost-of-living adjustment. Amends the Internal Revenue Code relating to social security and tier 1 railroad retirement benefits to lower the income thresholds at which 85 percent of social security benefits are subject to income taxation. Title III: Coverage of Newly Hired State and Local Employees - Amends the Social Security Act and the Internal Revenue Code to mandate social security coverage of all State and local government employees hired after January 1, 1995. Title IV: Social Security Payroll Tax - Increases the social security payroll tax over a five-year phase-in period beginning in the year 2020.
United States · United States Congress · 17 March 1994
Amends the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States to grant duty-free treatment, through November 30, 1996, to the personal effects of participants, their families and associated members, and officials, and related equipment and materials involved in the 1994 FIFA World Cup Games, the 1994 World Rowing Championships, the 1995 Special Olympics World Games, the XXVI Summer Olympiad, and the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games.
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: 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 · 3 February 1994
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Community Participation and Human Health Title II: State Roles Title III: Voluntary Response Title IV: Liability and Allocation Title V: Remedy Selection and Cleanup Standards Title VI: Miscellaneous Title VII: Funding Title VIII: Environmental Insurance Resolution Fund Title IX: Taxes Superfund Reform Act of 1994 - Title I: Community Participation and Human Health - Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to direct the President to provide for community involvement in each significant phase of response activities taken under this Act. (Sec. 103) Requires the President to provide the opportunity to establish a representative public forum, known as a Community Working Group (CWG), to achieve direct and regular consultation with community members throughout all stages of a response action. Requires a CWG to serve as a facility information clearinghouse for the community and authorizes a CWG to offer recommendations to the President on anticipated future land uses. (Sec. 104) Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (Administrator) to ensure that an independent Citizen Information and Access Office is established in each State and on each tribal land affected by a National Priorities List (NPL) facility. (Sec. 106) Requires the Administrator to select at least ten demonstration projects to be implemented over a five-year period that relate to the assessment and management of, and response to, multiple sources of risk in and around designated facilities. Directs the Administrator, if a distinct pattern of adverse health effects is identified in the surrounding community, to consider additional health benefits for the community. Provides for demonstration projects in locations that coincide with areas identified as empowerment zones under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1994. (Sec. 107) Includes standards and procedures for assessing risks posed by the release or threatened release of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants in the list of required elements of the national hazardous substance response plan. (Sec. 114) Requires the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) Administrator to develop and distribute educational materials on human health effects of hazardous substances to the public. (Sec. 115) Authorizes the ATSDR Administrator to provide grant or contract assistance to individuals who may be affected by releases or threatened releases when: (1) a public health assessment or related health activity is conducted at a facility on the NPL; or (2) a release is being evaluated for inclusion on the NPL. Title II: State Roles - Authorizes States to apply to the Administrator to carry out response actions and enforcement activities at all facilities listed or proposed for listing on the NPL. Makes this authority inapplicable with respect to Federal facilities listed on the NPL if an interagency agreement for such a facility has been entered into. Grants a State such authority if it possesses the legal authority, technical capability, and resources necessary to conduct response actions in a manner consistent with this Act. Makes such States eligible for response action financing from the Hazardous Substance Superfund (Superfund). Requires States to pay 15 percent of the costs of all response actions and program support or other costs for which the State receives funds from Superfund. Makes such cost-sharing requirement inapplicable to Indian tribes. (Sec. 201) Authorizes a State to select a response action that achieves a level of cleanup that is more stringent than required if it agrees to pay for the incremental increase in response cost attributable to achieving the more stringent level. Provides for the retention of the President's authority to take response actions at facilities listed or proposed for listing on the NPL that are not being addressed by States. (Sec. 206) Provides for public notice and comment before a facility is to be listed on the NPL. Authorizes persons to request a facility to be listed on, or removed from, the NPL. Title III: Voluntary Response - Directs the Administrator to establish a program to provide assistance to the States to establish and expand voluntary response programs. Makes this title applicable to facilities at which a release or threat of release of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant has occurred. Excludes certain facilities. (Sec. 303) Requires the Administrator to establish a program to provide assistance to municipalities to conduct site characterizations for facilities at which voluntary response actions are being conducted or proposed. Title IV: Liability and Allocation - Authorizes the President to issue administrative subpoenas to require the attendance and testimony of witnesses and production of information regarding response actions. Revises confidentiality requirements with respect to such information. (Sec. 403) Absolves of liability for response actions a person who does not impede a response action or natural resource restoration to the extent liability is based solely on: (1) arrangement, transportation, or acceptance provisions relating to the disposal or treatment of hazardous substances and such activities involved fewer than 500 pounds of municipal solid waste (MSW) or sewage sludge or such amount as the Administrator may determine; (2) such provisions and such activities involved fewer than ten pounds or liters of materials containing hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants or such amount as the Administrator may determine; (3) ownership or operation of a vessel or facility and the person is a bona fide prospective purchaser of the facility; (4) ownership by a Federal agency and activities that resulted in a release occurred prior to 1976, the activities were pursuant to a statutory authority, the agency did not cause or contribute to the release, and there are other persons who are potentially liable and fully capable of performing or financing the response action; or (5) ownership by a Federal, State, or local entity of a road or other right of way over which hazardous substances are transported or on the granting of a license or a permit to conduct business. Makes persons who are solely liable under arrangement, transportation, or acceptance provisions regarding disposal or treatment of hazardous substances liable for no more than ten percent of total response costs if such activities only involved MSW or sewage sludge. Applies such limitation only if: (1) acts or omissions giving rise to liability occurred before the date 36 months after enactment of this Act or the person asserting the limitation participates in a qualified household hazardous waste collection program; and (2) the disposal did not occur on lands owned by the United States or on tribal land. Grants the United States a lien upon a facility for unrecovered response costs that inure to the benefit of a potential purchaser. Confers the right of contribution protection on a Federal agency when such agency resolves its share of liability, including liability for all penalties and fines. Applies State laws respecting liability for releases at non-Federal facilities to Federal agencies when such facilities are referred to a State pursuant to this Act or are part of a State-authorized program. Bars immunity for Federal employees from processes or sanctions of State or Federal courts with respect to enforcement of this Act. Entitles the United States to remove any action filed in State court against a Federal agency or employee to the appropriate Federal district court. Absolves Federal employees of personal liability for civil or administrative penalties for acts or omissions within the scope of official duties. (Sec. 404) Makes persons liable under CERCLA liable for other necessary costs of response incurred by any other person, other than the United States, a State, or an Indian tribe (currently, any other person). (Sec. 405) Authorizes adversely affected persons (currently, interested persons) to file petitions for the review of regulations promulgated under CERCLA. Revises contribution provisions to require an action by a potentially responsible party (PRP) against another PRP for recovery of any response costs or damages to be commenced within the later of: (1) three years after completion of a removal action or within six years after initiation of physical on-site construction of the remedial action; or (2) three years after the date of judgment in any action for recovery or the date of any administrative order or judicial settlement for recovery of costs or damages. (Sec. 406) Limits the right to seek contribution from other potentially liable parties where: (1) the person asserting the right has waived such rights in a settlement; (2) the person from whom the contribution is sought is liable solely under provisions regarding arrangement or transportation of hazardous substances for treatment or disposal and contributed fewer than ten pounds or liters of material containing hazardous substances or such amount as the Administrator may determine; or (3) the person from whom the contribution is sought has entered into a final settlement with the United States. Makes any person who commences a contribution action against a person who is not liable pursuant to limitations set forth in this Act or is protected from suits liable to the person against whom the claim is brought for reasonable costs of defending against the claim. Provides that a person who has resolved liability to a State in an administrative or judicially approved settlement shall not be liable for claims to persons other than the United States regarding response costs for damages addressed in the settlement. Provides the same protection for persons who have resolved liability to the United States. Includes protection against all claims that may be asserted against the settling party for recovery of costs or damages paid by another person if addressed in the settlement, except claims based on contractual indemnification. (Sec. 408) Removes provisions regarding guidelines for preliminary allocations of responsibility. Requires (currently, authorizes) the President to offer PRPs (currently, any person) who enter into settlement agreements a final covenant not to sue concerning liability to the United States for response actions or costs, provided that: (1) the settling party agrees to perform a final remedial action for the release that is the subject of the settlement; (2) the agreement has been reached prior to the commencement of litigation against the settling party; (3) the settling party waives all contribution rights against other PRPs at the facility; and (4) the settling party pays a premium that compensates for the risks of remedy failure, unanticipated increases in the cost of any uncompleted action (unless the party is performing the action), and the U.S. litigation risk with respect to persons who have not resolved liability to the United States unless the settlement covers 100 percent of U.S. response costs. Authorizes the President, for all other settlements, to provide any person with a covenant not to sue concerning any liability to the United States if the covenant not to sue is in the public interest. Adds the following to the list of conditions that a PRP must meet in order to be eligible for an expedited settlement: (1) liability must be based solely on provisions regarding arrangement, transportation, or acceptance of MSW or sewage sludge for treatment or disposal; and (2) the PRP must be a small business or a municipality that has demonstrated a limited ability to pay response costs. (Sec. 409) Requires the President to initiate a specified allocation of liability process for remedial actions at multi-party facilities. Establishes a moratorium on the commencement of liability actions regarding response actions for which allocations must be performed or have been initiated. Sets forth allocation procedures, including notice to PRPs and selection of an allocator. Requires the allocator, if the allocation parties do not agree to a negotiated allocation of shares, to prepare a report with a nonbinding, equitable allocation of percentage shares for the facility based on factors including: (1) the amount of hazardous substances contributed by each party; (2) the degree of toxicity and mobility of substances contributed by each party; (3) the degree of involvement of each party in the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, or disposal of the hazardous substance; (4) the degree of care exercised by each party with respect to the substance; and (5) the cooperation of each party in contributing to the response action and providing information. Authorizes the allocator to determine that a percentage share is specifically attributable to an orphan share. Limits orphan shares to specified cases, including shares attributable to identified but insolvent responsible parties who are not affiliated with another allocation party. Requires shares that cannot be attributed to any party to be allocated among the allocation parties. Provides for reimbursements from Superfund to eligible parties for costs attributable to orphan shares. Authorizes the Administrator and the Attorney General to determine not to settle on the basis of the allocator's allocation. Requires settlements based on allocated shares to include: (1) a waiver of contribution rights against all PRPs for the response action; (2) covenants not to sue and provisions regarding performance of such actions; (3) a premium that compensates for the U.S. litigation risk with respect to PRPs who have not resolved liability to the United States, except in cases where the settlement covers 100 percent of costs; (4) contribution protection; and (5) provisions for reimbursement from Superfund for any response costs incurred in excess of the allocated share. Authorizes the United States to commence a liability action against any person who has not resolved liability following allocation on or after 60 days following issuance of the allocator's report. Makes PRPs liable for the unrecovered response costs in such actions. Requires the Administrator and the Attorney General to issue guidelines to ensure that relief sought against de minimis parties under principles of joint and several liability will not be grossly disproportionate to their contribution to the facility. Restricts the admissibility in court of the allocator's report with respect to claims brought by or against the United States, except in its capacity as a nonsettling PRP or for the determination of liability. Title V: Remedy Selection and Cleanup Standards - Revises provisions regarding the degree of cleanup required under remedial actions. Directs the Administrator to promulgate national goals to be applied at all facilities and national generic cleanup levels for specific hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants that: (1) reflect reasonably anticipated future land uses; (2) reflect other variables which can be easily measured at a facility and whose effects are scientifically well-understood to vary on a site-specific basis; and (3) represent concentration levels below which a response action is not required. Authorizes the Administrator to rely on a site-specific risk assessment to determine the proper level of cleanup if a national generic cleanup level has not been developed or to account for particular characteristics of a facility. (Sec. 502) Requires remedial actions to comply with substantive requirements of Federal and State laws and standards. Authorizes the President to select a remedial action that does not attain a level of control equivalent to such standards under certain conditions. (Sec. 503) Revises general rules for remedial actions. Requires the President to establish cost-effective generic remedies for categories of facilities. (Sec. 504) Permits a State to enforce only those Federal and State requirements to which the Administrator has determined the remedial action is required to conform. (Sec. 505) Removes a condition on the President's authority to acquire property needed to conduct a response action that requires the State in which the property is located to agree to accept transfer of the property when the action is completed. (Sec. 506) Alters the criteria for the continuance of obligations for removal actions to provide that actions shall not continue after $6 million (currently, $2 million) has been obligated or three years (currently, 12 months) has elapsed from the date of initial response to a release or threatened release of hazardous substances. Title VI: Miscellaneous - Exempts a Federal agency from actions required for Federal facilities under CERCLA, with the exception of certain reporting requirements, if the agency owned or operated a facility over which it exercised no regulatory or other control over activities that resulted in a release of a hazardous substance if: (1) no Federal agency was the primary or sole source or cause of such release; (2) the activities resulting in the release were pursuant to statutory authority and occurred prior to 1976; and (3) the persons primarily responsible for the release are financially viable and capable of performing or financing the response action. (Sec. 604) Authorizes the Administrator, in order to achieve required levels of response, to reimburse up to 50 percent of response costs incurred by a potentially liable party that employs an alternative or innovative technology that fails to achieve the required level. (Sec. 605) Includes a trust or estate within the definition of "owner or operator" for purposes of determining liability under CERCLA. Excludes from such definition: (1) a person who holds title to a vessel or facility solely in the capacity as fiduciary, provided that the person does not participate in management operations that result in a release of hazardous substances and complies with other requirements; or (2) the United States, a Federal agency, or a conservator or receiver appointed by a Federal agency which acquired ownership of a facility or vessel in connection with receivership, conservatorship, forfeiture, or seizure authority or pursuant to an Act of the Congress provided such entity does not participate in operations that result in a release. Title VII: Funding - Extends the authorization of appropriations to carry out specified Superfund authorities through FY 1999. Title VIII: Environmental Insurance Resolution Fund - Environmental Insurance Resolution and Equity Act of 1994 - Establishes the Environmental Insurance Resolution Fund to provide for the resolution of disputes between certain PRPs and their insurers. Describes eligible persons, costs, and sites. (Sec. 802) Directs eligible persons that accept Fund resolutions to waive existing and future claims against an insurer for eligible costs. Requires the Fund to make pre- and post-resolution payments to eligible persons who accept a resolution. Makes any eligible person who litigates a claim and obtains a judgment that is less favorable than the resolution offered by the Fund liable to the insurer for 20 percent of reasonable legal fees incurred in the litigation. Provides for Fund reimbursements of certain costs incurred by insurers in cases where a person rejected a resolution and obtained a final judgment against an insurer. Deems payments made by the Fund pursuant to a resolution offer to be payments made by an insurer. (Sec. 804) Provides that this title acts as a stay of all pending litigation regarding claims for indemnity or arising from insurance coverage for eligible costs. Bars stays of litigation after May 31, 2000. (Sec. 805) Terminates the Fund's authority to: (1) accept requests for resolution after FY 1999; and (2) offer resolutions after March 31, 2000. Title IX: Taxes - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend the applicability of the environmental tax to tax years before January 1, 2001 (currently, 1996). Extends certain provisions regarding the Superfund financing rate. (Sec. 903) Requires all expenditures of the Resolution Fund to be paid out of fees and assessments imposed by the Internal Revenue Code. Exempts the Fund from Federal, State, and local taxation.
United States · United States Congress · 1 February 1994
Provides amounts for expenses of investigations and studies by the House Committee on Ways and Means in the second session of the 103d Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 20 November 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Health Care Security Subtitle A: Universal Coverage and Individual Responsibility Subtitle B: Benefits Subtitle C: State Responsibilities Subtitle D: Health Alliances Subtitle E: Health Plans Subtitle F: Federal Responsibilities Subtitle G: Employer Responsibilities Subtitle J (sic): General Definitions; Miscellaneous Provisions Title II: New Benefits Subtitle A: Medicare Outpatient Prescription Drug Benefit Subtitle B: Long-Term Care Title III: Public Health Initiatives Subtitle A: Workforce Priorities Under Federal Payments Subtitle B: Academic Health Centers Subtitle C: Health Research Initiatives Subtitle D: Core Functions of Public Health Programs; National Initiatives Regarding Preventive Health Subtitle E: Health Services for Medically Underserved Populations Subtitle F: Mental Health; Substance Abuse Subtitle G: Comprehensive School Health Education; School-Related Health Services Subtitle H: Public Health Service Initiative Subtitle I: Coordination With COBRA Continuation Coverage Title IV: Medicare and Medicaid Subtitle A: Medicare and the Alliance System Subtitle B: Savings in Medicare Program Subtitle C: Medicaid Subtitle D: Increase in SSI Personal Needs Allowance Title V: Quality and Consumer Protection Subtitle A: Quality Management and Improvement Subtitle B: Information Systems, Privacy, and Administrative Simplification Subtitle C: Remedies and Enforcement Subtitle D: Medical Malpractice Subtitle E: Fraud and Abuse Subtitle F: McCarran-Ferguson Reform Title VI: Premium Caps; Premium-Based Financing; and Plan Payments Subtitle A: Premium Caps Subtitle B: Premium-Related Financing Subtitle C: Payments to Regional Alliance Health Plans Title VII: Revenue Provisions Subtitle A: Financing Provisions Subtitle B: Tax Treatment of Employer-Provided Health Care Subtitle C: Employment Status Provisions Subtitle D: Tax Treatment of Funding of Retiree Health Benefits Subtitle E: Coordination with COBRA Continuing Care Provisions Subtitle F: Tax Treatment of Organizations Providing Health Care Services and Related Organizations Subtitle G: Tax Treatment of Long-term Care Insurance and Services Subtitle H: Tax Incentives for Health Services Providers Subtitle I: Miscellaneous Provisions Title VIII: Health and Health-Related Programs of the Federal Government Subtitle A: Military Health Care Reform Subtitle B: Department of Veterans Affairs Subtitle C: Federal Employees Health Benefits Program Subtitle D: Indian Health Service Subtitle E: Amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 Subtitle F: Special Fund for WIC Program Title IX: Aggregate Government Payments to Regional Alliances Subtitle A: Aggregate State Payments Subtitle B: Aggregate Federal Alliance Payments Subtitle C: Borrowing Authority to Cover Cash-Flow Shortfalls Title X: Coordination of Medical Portion of Workers Compensation and Automobile Insurance Subtitle A: Workers Compensation Insurance Subtitle B: Automobile Insurance Subtitle C: Commission on Integration of Health Benefits Subtitle D: Federal Employees' Compensation Act Subtitle E: Davis-Bacon Act and Service Contract Act Subtitle F: Effective Dates Title XI: Transitional Insurance Reform Health Security Act - Title I: Health Care Security - Subtitle A: Universal Courage and Individual Responsibility - Entitles each eligible individual to: (1) the benefit provided under subtitle B through the applicable health plan in which the individual is enrolled; and (2) a health security card to be issued by the alliance or other entity that offers the applicable health plan in which the individual is enrolled. Defines an eligible individual as an individual who resides in the United States and is: (1) a citizen or national of the United States; (2) an alien permanently residing in the U.S. under color of law; or (3) a long-term nonimmigrant. Entitles a Medicare-eligible individual to benefits under Medicare instead of the above provisions of this Act. (Sec. 1002) Requires each eligible individual to enroll in an applicable health plan and pay any required premium. Prohibits disenrollment of an eligible individual until the individual is either enrolled in another plan or in Medicare. (Sec. 1003) States that nothing in this Act shall be construed as prohibiting: (1) an individual from purchasing any health services; (2) an individual from purchasing supplemental insurance; (3) an individual who is not an eligible individual from purchasing health insurance; or (4) employers from providing additional coverage. (Sec. 1004) States that a regional alliance health plan is the applicable plan for a family, unless a family member is eligible for a corporate alliance health plan. Allows military personnel, veterans, and Indians to enroll either with an alliance or with a military, veteran, or Indian plan respectively. (Sec. 1005) Prohibits an undocumented alien from enrolling in a health plan under this Act. (Sec. 1011) Defines a family as an eligible individual's eligible spouse and children. Defines couple as meaning an individual and the individual's spouse. Defines a child as being under age 18, or under age 24 in the case of a full-time student. Subtitle B: Benefits - Includes the following terms and services in the comprehensive benefit package: (1) hospital services; (2) services of health professionals; (3) emergency and ambulatory medical and surgical services; (4) clinical preventive services; (5) mental illness and substance abuse services; (6) family planning services and services for pregnant women; (7) hospice care; (8) home health care; (9) extended care services; (10) ambulance services; (11) outpatient laboratory, radiology, and diagnostic services; (12) outpatient prescription drugs and biologicals; (13) outpatient rehabilitation services; (14) durable medical equipment and prosthetic and orthotic devices; (15) vision care; (16) dental care; (17) health education classes; and (18) investigational treatments. Describes such items and services. (Sec. 1131) Requires each health plan to offer to its enrollees only one of the following cost sharing schedules: (1) lower cost sharing; (2) higher cost sharing; or (3) combination cost sharing. Provides that the annual maximum out-of-pocket expenses for an individual in any of the plans shall be $1500 and for a family the annual maximum shall be $3000. (Sec. 1135) Sets forth a table of copayments and coinsurance. (Sec. 1141) Excludes the following items and services: (1) an item or service that is not medically necessary or appropriate; (2) an item or service that the National Health Board may determine is not medically necessary or appropriate; (3) custodial care, except hospice care; (4) surgery performed solely for cosmetic purposes, unless required to correct a congenital anomaly or performed to correct a part of the body injured by either disease or accident; (5) hearing aids; (6) eyeglasses and contact lenses for individuals at least 18 years of age; (7) in vitro fertilization; (8) sex change surgery and related services; (9) private duty nursing; (10) personal comfort items, except in the case of hospice care; and (11) any dental procedures involving orthodontic care, inlays, gold or platinum fillings, bridges, crowns, pin/post retention, dental implants, surgical periodontal procedures, or the preparation of the mouth for the fitting or continued use of dentures, except as specified. (Sec. 1151) Gives the National Health Board the authority to promulgate such regulations or establish such guidelines as necessary to assure uniformity in the application of the comprehensive benefit package across all health plans. Permits the Board to expand the benefit package. (Sec. 1162) Permits a health professional or facility to refuse to provide a benefit if the professional or facility objects on the basis of a religious belief or moral conviction. Subtitle C: State Responsibilities - Requires a State, in order to be approved as a participating State, to submit a document describing the State's health care system. (Sec. 1201) Requires a participating State to: (1) establish one or more regional alliances; (2) establish and publish the criteria used in the certification of its health plan; (3) meet minimum financial solvency requirements for health plans established by the National Health Board; (4) designate an agency or official to coordinate State responsibilities under this Act; (5) conform State laws to meet the requirements of title X of this Act with respect to workers' compensation and automobile insurance; and (6) carry out all the responsibilities of a participating State specified in this Act. (Sec. 1221) Permits a State, with the Board's approval, to operate a single-payer system if specified requirements are met. Subtitle D: Health Alliances - Provides for regional alliances and corporate alliances. (Sec. 1302) Requires a regional alliance to be governed by a Board of Directors consisting of: (1) employers, including self-employed individuals; and (2) members who represent individuals purchasing coverage. Requires each regional alliance to establish a provider advisory board consisting of health care providers and professionals. (Sec. 1311) Includes in a corporate alliance an eligible sponsor who is either a large employer (more than 5,000 full-time employees) or a multiemployer plan (a plan with more than 5000 active participants). Excludes: (1) an employer whose primary business is employee leasing; (2) the Federal Government (other than the U.S. Postal Service); and (3) a State or local government. Excludes from corporate alliance eligibility the following classes of individuals: (1) AFDC recipients; (2) SSI recipients; (3) military personnel and families, veterans, and Indians who elect to enroll in specified plans specifically designed for them; and (4) seasonal or temporary employees. (Sec. 1321) Directs each regional alliance to enter into a contract with any State-certified health plan to contract with the alliance for the enrollment under the plan of eligible individuals. (Sec. 1322) Requires each regional alliance to offer a choice of health plans, including at least one fee-for-service plan. (Sec. 1326) Requires each regional alliance to establish and maintain an office of an ombudsman to assist consumers in dealing with problems that arise with health plans and the alliance. (Sec. 1329) Permits a regional alliance to adjust payments to plans or use other financial incentives to encourage health plans to expand into areas that have inadequate health services. (Sec. 1341) Set forth provisions concerning the collection of funds by regional alliances from individuals, employers, and others. (Sec. 1351) Requires each regional alliance to compute a blended plan per capita payment amount for each regional alliance health plan for enrollment in the alliance. (Sec. 1353) Requires each regional alliance to make payments to the Federal Government for academic health centers and graduate medical education. (Sec. 1361) Requires each regional alliance to comply with specified standards relating to the management of finances, maintenance of records, accounting practices, auditing procedures, financial reporting, and employer payments. (Sec. 1371) Provides for a reduction in cost sharing for low-income families. (Sec. 1373) Provides for premium discounts and reduction in liabilities for low-income families. (Sec. 1381) Permits each corporate alliance to: (1) offer coverage under either an appropriate self-insured health plan; or (2) negotiate with a State-certified plan to enter into a contract with the plan. (Sec. 1382) Requires each corporate alliance to provide a choice of health plans, including at least one fee-for-service plan and two health plans that are not fee-for-service plans. (Sec. 1385) Requires each corporate alliance to make an additional contribution towards the enrollment in health plans of the alliance by certain low-wage families. (Sec. 1386) Sets forth provisions relating to corporate alliances concerning: (1) consumer information and marketing; (2) plan and information requirements; (3) management of funds; (4) cost control; (5) payments by corporate alliance employers to corporate alliances; (6) ERISA; (7) disclosure and reserve requirements; (8) trusteeship of insolvent corporate alliance health plans; (9) imposition and collection of periodic assessments on self-insured corporate alliance plans; and (10) payments to the Federal Government by multiemployer corporate alliances for academic health centers and gradual medical education. Subtitle E: Health Plans - Requires a health plan to: (1) be either a self-insured plan (meaning a group health plan as defined by a the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) or a State-certified plan (meaning a plan certified by a State or the National Health Board); and (2) meet the applicable regulatory requirements. (Sec. 1402) Requires each health plan offered by either a regional or corporate alliance to accept for enrollment every alliance eligible individual, unless the plan has reached its enrollment limit. Prohibits the limit from being imposed on the basis of any personal characteristics of enrollees such as health status, need for health care, age, occupation, or affiliation with any person or entity. Prohibits a plan from: (1) restricting or terminating coverage for any reason, including nonpayment of premiums; (2) cancelling coverage for any eligible individual until that individual is enrolled in another plan; (3) excluding an eligible individual because of an existing medical condition; (4) imposing a waiting period before coverage begins; or (5) imposing a rider that excludes the coverage of particular eligible individuals. Prohibits discrimination by a health plan on the basis of race, national origin, sex, language, socio-economic status, age, disability, health status, or anticipated need for health services. (Sec. 1405) Requires each plan to have a grievance procedure. (Sec. 1421) Permits an entity to offer a supplemental insurance policy if the policy and the entity meet specified requirements. (Sec. 1431) Requires each health plan, with respect to each electing essential community provider located within the plan's service area, to either: (1) enter into a written provider participation agreement; or (2) enter into a written agreement under which the plan will make payment to the provider as specified. Provides a special rule for providers of school health services. Makes the provisions of the proceeding sentence applicable only to health plans offered by a health alliance during the five year period beginning with the first year in which any health plan is offered by the alliance. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to study essential community providers and to make recommendations concerning such providers to the Congress. Provides that such recommendations shall apply unless a joint resolution of disapproval is enacted by the Congress. (Sec. 1441) Requires each health plan to meet specified requirements of title X of this Act with respect to workers' compensation and automobile medical liability services. Subtitle F: Federal Responsibilities - Establishes the National Health Board in the Executive Branch. Directs the President to appoint the Board's seven members. (Sec. 1503) Directs the Board to: (1) interpret the comprehensive benefit package; (2) adjust the delivery of preventive services; (3) take steps to assure that the comprehensive benefit package is available on a uniform national basis; (4) recommend to the President and the Congress appropriate revisions to the package; (5) oversee cost containment requirements; (6) develop and implement eligibility standards; (7) establish a performance based system of quality management; (8) develop and implement standards for a national health information system; (9) establish State requirements and monitor State compliance; (10) establish premium class factors; (11) develop a methodology for the risk-adjustment of premium payments; (12) establish financial requirements for guaranty funds; (13) establish standards for health plan grievance procedures; and (14) report annually to the President and the Congress. (Sec. 1506) Authorizes appropriations for the Board. (Sec. 1511) Requires the Board to approve a State health care system if the system meets the applicable requirements of this Act. Prohibits approval of a State health care system prior to 1996. (Sec. 1512) Provides for sanctions for States failing to meet conditions for compliance. (Sec. 1515) Provides for planning grants to States for implementation assistance. (Sec. 1521) Provides for the Federal assumption of responsibilities in the absence of a State system. Provides for increased premiums of 15 percent during Federal operation of a State system to provide reimbursement for the Federal cost of operating the system. (Sec. 1541) Directs the Board to develop a risk adjustment and reinsurance methodology. Sets forth guidelines for developing such methodology. (Sec. 1543) Directs the Board to establish an advisory committee to provide technical advice and recommendations regarding the risk adjustment and reinsurance methodology. (Sec. 1551) Directs the Board to establish minimum capital requirements for regional alliance health plans under which at least $500,000 of capital must be maintained for each plan in the area. Permits the Board to require additional capital. (Sec. 1552) Requires the Board to establish standards for guaranty funds established by the States. (Sec. 1571) Sets forth the responsibilities of the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Directs the Secretary to administer and implement all provisions of this Act, except those duties delegated to the Board, any other executive agency, or to any State. (Sec. 1572) Directs the Secretary to appoint an Advisory Council on Breakthrough Drugs that will examine the reasonableness of launch prices of new breakthrough drugs. (Sec. 1581) Provides for the certification of essential community providers. Sets forth the following categories of providers automatically certified (under provisions of the Public Health Service Act): (1) migrant health centers; (2) community health centers; (3) homeless program providers; (4) public housing providers; (5) family planning clinics; and (6) AIDS providers under the Ryan White Act. Includes as automatically certified (under other Acts) following: (1) Indian health programs under the Indian Health Act; and (2) maternal and child health providers and a federally qualified health center or rural health clinic under the Social Security Act. Includes as automatically certified (under provisions of this Act) the following: (1) providers of school health services; and (2) a qualified community practice network. Provides for the setting of standards for additional health providers. (Sec. 1591) Sets forth the responsibilities of the Secretary of Labor. Includes among those responsibilities the following: (1) enforcement requirements applicable to employers; (2) elections to become corporate alliances; (3) temporary assumption of insolvent self-insured corporate alliance health plans; (4) establishment and administration of the Corporate Alliance Health Plan Insolvency Fund; and (5) administering title I of ERISA as it relates to group health plans maintained by corporate alliances. Subtitle G: Employer Responsibilities - Requires employers to provide for the payments required under title VI of this Act. Sets forth other employer responsibilities including: (1) information reporting requirements; (2) requirements relating to new employees; (3) recordkeeping requirements; and (4) antidiscrimination requirements. (Sec. 1606) Prohibits self-funding of cost sharing benefits by regional alliance employers. (Sec. 1607) Requires an employer to make equal employer premium payments to all qualifying employees, if a voluntary premium payment is made. Places a limit on such voluntary employer premium payments. (Sec. 1608) Sets forth an employer's obligation to a qualifying retired beneficiary where the employer, as of October 1, 1993, was providing a threshold payment. (Sec. 1609) Authorizes the Secretary of Labor to impose a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for each violation of this subtitle with respect to each individual. Subtitle J (sic): General Definitions; Miscellaneous Provisions - Sets forth the definitions and rules used in this Act. Subtitle B: Miscellaneous Provisions (sic) - (Sec. 1911) Grants the National Health Board, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the Secretary of Labor authority to issue regulations as necessary to permit the timely implementation of this Act. Title II: New Benefits - Subtitle A: Medicare Outpatient Prescription Drug Benefit - (Secs. 2001 through 2005) Amends title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for: (1) Medicare coverage of covered outpatient prescription drugs and biologicals as well as home infusion drug therapy services; (2) payment rules and related requirements, such as those pertaining to deductibles, for covered outpatient prescription drugs; (3) manufacturer rebates to the Secretary under Medicare part B for covered outpatient prescription drugs; and (4) determination of the Medicare part B premium attributable to covered outpatient prescription drugs. Subtitle B: Long-Term Care - Establishes requirements for State plans for home and community-based services to individuals with disabilities. Includes among those requirements the following: (1) a prohibition of limiting eligibility of individuals with disabilities based on income, age, geography, severity of disability, residential setting, or other grounds specified by the Secretary; (2) a requirement to serve low-income individuals; (3) a requirement to specify how Federal and State funds will be managed; (4) quality assurance requirements; and (5) reporting requirements. Requires a State to consult with individuals and groups of individuals with disabilities when developing the plan in order to have the plan approved. (Sec. 2103) Defines "individuals with disabilities" to mean any individual within one or more of the following four categories: (1) individuals requiring help with the activities of daily living; (2) individuals with severe cognitive or mental impairment; (3) individuals with severe or profound mental retardation; and (4) severely disabled children. (Sec. 2104) Requires a State plan to specify the services available. Requires each individualized plan to be developed in close consultation with the individual and the individual's family. Prohibits a State plan from covering: (1) room and board; (2) services furnished in a hospital, nursing facility, intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded, or other specified institutional setting; or (3) items or services to the extent coverage is provided for an individual under a health plan or Medicare. (Sec. 2105) Sets forth provisions relating to: (1) cost sharing; (2) quality assurance and safeguards; (3) advisory groups; (4) payments to States; and (5) the total Federal budget for State plans and allotments to States. (Sec. 2301) directs the Secretary, with the advice and assistance of the National Long-Term Care Insurance Advisory Council to promulgate regulations as necessary to implement provisions concerning private long-term care insurance. Directs the Secretary to make appointments to such Council. Authorizes appropriations for such Council. (Sec. 2321) Directs the Secretary, after considering the Council's recommendations to promulgate regulations designed to: (1) standardize formats and terminology used in long-term care policies; (2) require insurers to provide information to customers on the range of public and private long-term care coverage available; and (3) establish other requirements promoting consumer understanding of benefits. (Sec. 2322) Directs the Secretary to promulgate regulations establishing requirements with respect to the terms of and benefits under long-term care policies, which shall include the following requirements that the policy may not: (1) limit coverage based on a preexisting condition, subject to an exception for a six month period; (2) condition eligibility for benefits based on the need or receipt of any other service; (3) condition eligibility for any benefit on any particular diagnosis; (4) condition eligibility for benefits by providers on compliance with requirements not required by State or Federal law; and (5) condition coverage of any service by a provider on the provision of such service at a higher level of care than required by the insured individual. Prohibits discrimination by diagnosis in the treatment of: (1) Alzheimer's disease; (2) any organic or inorganic mental illness; (3) mental retardation or any other cognitive or mental impairment; or (4) HIV infection or AIDS. Sets forth other requirements for such policies, including requirements related to: (1) premiums; (2) sales practices; (3) continuation, renewal, replacement, conversion, and cancellation of policies; and (4) payment of benefits. (Sec. 2342) Provides for grants to States to enforce the Federal standards concerning long-term care policies. Sets forth requirements for receiving such grants. Authorizes appropriations. Prohibits the sale of a long-term care policy in a State without a regulatory program. (Sec. 2361) Authorizes the Secretary to make grants for the development and implementation of long-term care information, counseling, and other programs to: (1) States; (2) regional alliances (at the option of States within which such alliances are located; and (3) national organizations representing insurance consumers, long-term care providers, and insurers. Authorizes appropriations for such grants. (Sec. 2601) Authorizes the Secretary to conduct a demonstration program to test the effectiveness of various approaches to financing and providing integrated acute and long-term care services for the chronically ill and disabled. Sets forth the services and benefits to be provided, including: (1) all benefits of the comprehensive benefit package provided under title I of this Act; (2) transitional benefits, including assessment and home care; (3) long-term care benefits, including adult day care, home-delivered meals, and nursing facility services in specialized care units; and (4) habilitation services. Permits any of the following to be eligible for such services under criteria to be established by the Secretary: (1) individuals with disabilities under a State program; (2) individuals entitled to benefits under the Medicare program; and (3) individuals entitled to Medicaid and who are also either entitled to Medicare or Supplemental Security Income benefits. Requires reports to the Congress on the demonstration program. Title III: Public Health Initiatives - Subtitle A: Workforce Priorities Under Federal Payments - Establishes within the Department of Health and Human Services the National Council on Graduate Medical Education. Directs the National Council to designate for each academic year the number of individuals nationwide who are authorized to be enrolled in each specified approval physician training program for each medical specialty. Sets forth provisions specifying: (1) Federal formula payments to approved physician training programs; (2) application for payments; and (3) amount of payments. (Sec. 3061) Directs the Secretary to carry out a program with respect to graduate nurse training programs that is equivalent to the program for approved physician training programs. Establishes a National Council on Graduate Nurse Education. (Sec. 3071) Authorizes appropriations for the following programs: (1) primary care physician and physician assistant training; (2) training of underrepresented minorities and disadvantaged persons; and (3) nurse training. (Sec. 3072) Authorizes appropriations for the following programs: (1) a program of skill upgrading and occupational retraining for health care workers; (2) a demonstration program to assist workers in health care institutions in obtaining advanced career positions; (3) a program to develop and operate health-worker job banks in local employment services agencies, subject to certain conditions; (4) a program to provide joint labor-management decision-making in the health care sector on workplace matters related to the restructuring of the health care delivery system of this Act; and (5) a program to facilitate the comprehensive workforce adjustment initiative. (Sec. 3073) Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Labor to jointly establish the National Institute for Health Care Workforce Development. States that the Director of the Institute shall make recommendations to the Secretaries regarding: (1) the supply of health care workers; (2) the impact of this Act; and (3) the development and implementation of high-performance, high-quality health care delivery systems. Directs the Secretaries to establish an advisory board to assist in the development of such recommendations. Subtitle B: Academic Health Centers - Directs the Secretary to make payments to a qualified academic health center or qualified teaching hospital in order to assist such eligible institutions with costs that are not routinely incurred by other entities in providing health services, but are incurred by such institutions by virtue of the academic nature of such institutions. States that such costs include: (1) costs resulting from reduced staff productivity due to teaching responsibilities; (2) the uncompensated costs of clinical research; and (3) exceptional costs associated with an institutions specialized expertise. Provides that the funding for such payments will come from transfers from the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, payments made by regional alliances to the Federal government for academic health centers and graduate medical education, and payments from corporate alliances. (Sec. 3131) Provides for the access of regional and corporate alliance patients to academic health centers. Subtitle C: Health Research Initiatives - Amends the Public Health Service Act to ensure that the National Institutes of Health conducts and supports biomedical and behavioral research on promoting health and preventing diseases, disorders, and other health conditions. Provides for health services research. Authorizes appropriations for such research. Subtitle D: Core Functions of Public Health Programs; National Initiatives Regarding Preventive Health - Authorizes appropriations for the core functions of public health programs and national initiatives regarding health promotion and disease prevention. (Sec. 3312) Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States to carry out one or more of the following core functions: (1) data collection; (2) activities to protect the environment and to assure the safety of housing, workplaces, and food and water; (3) investigation and control of adverse health conditions; (4) public information and education programs to reduce risks to health such as use of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, sexual activities that increase the risk of HIV transmission and other sexually transmitted diseases, poor diet, physical inactivity, and low childhood immunization levels; (5) accountability and quality assurance activities; (6) provision of public health laboratory services to complement private clinical laboratory services that screen for diseases and conditions; (7) training and education to assure provision of care by all health professionals; and (8) leadership policy development and administrative activities. (Sec. 3331) Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to agencies of State or local government, private nonprofit organizations, and coalitions that link two or more of these groups for the purpose of carrying out projects to develop and implement innovative community-based strategies to provide for health promotion and disease prevention activities for which there is a significant need. Subtitle E: Health Services for Medically Underserved Populations - Directs the Secretary to make grants to migrant health centers and community health centers, which shall be in addition to other funds available to such centers. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 3412) Authorizes appropriations for: (1) grants and contracts for the development of qualified community health plans and practice networks; and (2) loans and guaranteeing the principal and interest to Federal and non-Federal lenders on behalf of public and private entities for the capital costs of developing qualified community health plans and practice networks. (Sec. 3461) Authorizes the Secretary to make grants and enter into contracts with qualified community health groups to provide enabling services such as transportation, community and patient outreach, patient education, and translation services in order to increase the capacity of individuals to utilize the items and services under title I of this Act. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 3471) Authorizes appropriations for: (1) the National Health Service Corps; and (2) such amounts as are necessary to ensure that at least 20 percent of participants in the Scholarship Program or the Loan Repayment Program of the Corps are nurses. (Sec. 3481) Entitles a hospital with a low-income utilization rate in a base year of at least 25 percent to a payment as specified. Requires 75 percent of the total available to be allocated to hospitals for low-income assistance. Requires 25 percent of the total available to be allocated to hospitals for assistance in furnishing inpatient hospital services that are not covered services under title I of this Act. Subtitle F: Mental Health; Substance Abuse - Authorizes appropriations to carry out this part. Provides for grants to: (1) increase access to mental health and substance abuse services; (2) improve State and local capacity to coordinate and monitor such services; (3) provide incentives to integrate public and private service systems; and (4) supplement any activity under part B (Alcohol and Drug Abuse and Mental Services Block Grant) of title XIX of the Public Health Service Act. (Sec. 3503) Authorizes the Secretary to make loans for the capital costs incurred in the development of non-acute, residential treatment centers and community-based ambulatory clinics. (Sec. 3521) Requires the establishment of a pilot program demonstrating the integration of the mental illness and substance abuse services of the States with the services included under title I of this Act. Subtitle G: Comprehensive School Health Education; School-Related Health Services - Authorizes appropriations for the programs of this subtitle. States that the purposes of the programs shall be to: (1) support, in kindergarten through grade 12, the provision of comprehensive health educator programs; (2) establish a national framework within which States can create comprehensive school health education programs that target the health risk behaviors of youth, including tobacco use, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual behaviors resulting in infections, injury prevention, dietary patterns, and sedentary lifestyles; (3) pay the initial costs of planning and establishing such programs; (4) support related Federal demonstrations and training; (5) motivate youth to stay in school, avoid teen pregnancy, and strive for success; (6) improve the knowledge of health education among youth; and (7) further the National Education Goals set forth in title I of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. Defines "comprehensive school health education program." Requires such programs to be sensitive to cultural and ethnic issues, promote involvement by families, and promote personal responsibility. Sets forth requirements for applying for grants and selection of grantees. Subtitle H: Public Health Service Initiative - Establishes a Public Health Service Initiative consisting of specified amounts authorized to be appropriated for the Initiative. States that: (1) the Initiative includes the programs of subtitles C through G of this title and the programs of subtitle D of title VIII; and (2) amounts appropriated to carry out the Initiative, including subtitles A through F of this title, are available to carry out specific programs for which the amounts are appropriated. Subtitle I: Coordination with COBRA Continuation Coverage - Amends title XXII (Requirements for Certain Group Health Plans for Certain State and Local Employees) of the Public Health Service Act to provide for coordination with COBRA continuation coverage. Repeals such title XXII upon implementation of this Act. Title IV: Medicare and Medicaid - Subtitle A: Medicare and the Alliance System - Amends title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for optional State integration of Medicare beneficiaries into regional alliance plans. (Sec. 4002) Allows individuals to elect to remain in certain plans. (Sec. 4003) Provides for payments to regional alliances on behalf of certain Medicare-eligible individuals. (Sec. 4004) Extends protections for working aged and disabled individuals to group health plans of all employers. Repeals the limitation on the period of protection for individuals with end stage renal disease. Prohibits Medicare payment for items and services provided under any health plan under this Act. Simplifies Medicare benefit coordination in cases where the individual is also eligible for benefits under this Act's health plans. (Sec. 4011) Makes various changes concerning eligible organization and Medicare supplemental policy enrollment and comparative informational materials, eligible organization outlier payments, and participating provider point-of-service networks. (Sec. 4022) Provides for expanded Medicare coverage for physician assistant, nurse practitioner, and clinical nurse specialist services. (Sec. 4031) Amends title XI of the Social Security Act to: (1) provide for termination of the separate Medicare peer review program upon adoption of the National Quality Management Program above under subtitle A of title V of this Act; and (2) repeal provisions on surgical procedure review and second opinions. (Sec. 4032) Amends title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for mandatory assignment for all Medicare part B services. (Sec. 4033) Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take such steps as may be necessary to consolidate administration of Medicare parts A and B and supersedes certain conflicting requirements to the extent required to achieve such purpose. (Sec. 4035) Prohibits the Secretary from implementing any change in procedures for billing and processing Medicare claims within six months of implementing any previous change. Adds advanced notification to providers as a requirement for carriers and fiscal intermediaries under Medicare. (Sec. 4041) Amends title XI of the Social Security Act to: (1) provide for civil monetary penalties for kickback violations under Medicare and State health care programs (the programs); (2) make other penalty-related changes, including increases in criminal and civil monetary penalties, a new criminal penalty exception for certain providers, additional civil monetary penalty offenses related to alliance systems, and requirements for the deposit of penalties collected into the All-Payer Account established above under title V of this Act; (3) revise exclusion provisions, with changes establishing a minimum period of exclusion for certain individuals and entities subject to permissive exclusion from the programs, and providing for program exclusions based on actions under alliance systems; and (4) modify sanction provisions, with changes removing certain conditions for imposing sanctions and setting specified civil money penalties for use in lieu of authorized sanctions. (Sec. 4042) Amends title XVIII of the Social Security Act to revise the limitations on physician self-referrals. (Sec. 4051) Provides for the termination of payments under Medicare for medical education costs and directs the Secretary to make specified transfers from certain Medicare trust funds to the new accounts established above for funding physician training programs and academic health centers. (Sec. 4061) Amends title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for the treatment of: (1) uniformed services and VA health plans as eligible organizations under Medicare; and (2) health care facilities of the Department of Veterans Affairs as providers under Medicare. Subtitle B: Savings in Medicare Program - Amends title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for: (1) reductions in the update for inpatient hospital services and the adjustment for indirect medical education costs, in payments for capital-related costs for inpatient hospital services; (2) revisions to payment adjustments for disproportionate share hospitals in States participating under this Act; and (3) an extension of the freeze on updates to routine service costs of skilled nursing facilities. (Sec. 4111) Amends title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide for: (1) establishment of cumulative expenditure goals for physician services; (2) use of real gross domestic product for volume adjustments; (3) repeal of restrictions on the maximum reduction permitted in default update; (4) reduction in the conversion factor for the physician fee schedule for 1995; (5) place limitations on payment for physicians' services furnished by high-cost hospital medical staffs; (6) requirements for physicians to identify the hospital at which the service was furnished; (7) an increase in practice expense relative value units for certain services while assuring budget neutrality; (8) a study and report to the Congress by the Secretary on a resource-based system for determining practice expense relative value units for each physician's service; (9) an increase in work relative value units for office visits while assuring budget neutrality; (10) a reduction in relative values for office consultations; (11) adjustment of outlier intensity of relative values; (12) changes in underserved area bonus payments; (13) elimination of formula-driven payments for certain outpatient hospital services; (14) copayments for laboratory services; and (15) competitive acquisition procedures for Medicare part B items and services (including clinical diagnostic laboratory tests). (Sec. 4131) Makes changes with respect to: (1) Medicare as secondary payer; (2) payments for health maintenance organizations and competitive medical plans with risk-sharing contracts; and (3) routine cost limits and copayments for, respectively, home health services and visits. (Sec 4135) Directs the Secretary to use a competitive process to contract with centers of excellence for cataract surgery, coronary artery by-pass surgery, and such other services as the Secretary determines to be appropriate. (Sec. 4141) Amends title XVIII of the Social Security Act to revise Medicare part B premium provisions. (Sec. 4151) Requires the Secretary to submit a report to the Congress on the growth in spending under Medicare for FY 2000 through 2003. Subtitle C: Medicaid - Amends title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act to provide that if a State Medicaid plan provides for payment to regional alliances of the amounts required above it is not required to provide payment for items and services covered under the comprehensive benefit package for alliance eligible individuals and will receive no Federal financial assistance with respect to such items and services. (Sec. 4211) Provides for: (1) spenddown eligibility and increased income and resource disregard for nursing facility residents; and (2) informing such residents about the availability of assistance for home and community-based services. (Sec. 4221) Provides for: (1) treatment of items and services not covered under the comprehensive benefit package; and (2) establishment of a program under Medicare of noncovered items and services for poor children. (Sec. 4231) Discontinues certain payment policies under Medicaid. (Sec. 4241) Limits the frequency of changes in a State's billing and claims processing system, and provides for advance notification to providers of any major billing change. (Sec. 4251) Establishes the Medicaid Commission to study, report, and make recommendations with respect to options involving block grant use, integration of long-term care services, and consolidation of institutional and home- and community-based long-term care in relation to the Medicaid program. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle D: Increase in SSI Personal Needs Allowance - Amends title XVI (Supplemental Security Income) (SSI) to provide for an increase in the SSI personal needs allowance. Title V: Quality and Consumer Protection - Subtitle A: Quality Management and Improvement - Requires the National Health Board to establish and oversee a performance-based program of quality management and improvement designed to enhance the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of heath care services and access to such services which will be called the National Quality Management Program. (Sec. 5002) Establishes the National Quality Management Council which shall: (1) administer the National Quality Management Program; (2) perform any other duty specified in this subtitle; and (3) advise the National Health Board with respect to its duties under this subtitle. Requires the Council to develop a set of national measures of quality performance to be used in the assessment of and the provision of access to health care services. Requires the Council, in addition, to: (1) recommend to the Board establishing goals for performance by health plans and health care providers on a subset of national measures of quality performance; (2) direct the Administrator for Health Care Policy and Research to develop, review, and disseminate practice guidelines to determine how diseases can most effectively be prevented, diagnosed, treated, and managed; and (3) direct the Administrator for Health Care Policy and Research to support research related to a five year priority list of performance measures. (Sec. 5008) Directs the National Health Board to: (1) establish and oversee regional professional foundations to perform such duties as develop lifetime learning programs for health professionals and conduct research on health care quality; and (2) establish the National Quality Consortium to perform such duties as establishing continuing education for health professionals and provide advice on research priorities. (Sec. 5012) Requires each regional alliance and each corporate alliance to: (1) disseminate specified information to consumers; and (2) ensure that performance and quality standards are continually improved. Subtitle B: Information Systems, Privacy, and Administrative Simplification - Directs the National Health Board to develop and implement a health information system, in consultation with Federal agencies, States, employers, health plans, and others, by which the Board shall collect, report, and regulate the collection and dissemination of health care information which shall be used for: (1) health care planning by Federal, State, and local government; (2) establishing and monitoring payments for health services; (3) assessing and improving the quality of health care; (4) managing and containing costs at the alliance and plan levels; and (5) other specified purposes. Requires the establishment of an electronic data network to collect, compile, and transmit information. (Sec. 5120) Sets forth provisions providing for health information privacy standards. (Sec. 5130) Directs the National Health Board to develop the following standard health care benefit forms: (1) an enrollment and disenrollment form; (2) a clinical encounter record; and (3) a claim form. (Sec. 5140) Establishes the National Privacy and Health Data Advisory Council in order to advise the National Health Board with respect to its duties under this subtitle. (Sec. 5141) Sets forth monetary penalties for violating health information system standards. Subtitle C: Remedies and Enforcement - Sets forth provisions with respect to the review of benefit determinations for enrolled individuals, including provisions: (1) regulating the time limits for notice of disposition of a claim; (2) governing a plan's duty to review claim denials; (3) concerning urgent requests for preauthorization; and (4) concerning other time limits with respect to time limits and notice. (Sec. 5202) Requires each State to establish a complaint review office for each regional alliance established by a State. Permits aggrieved individuals to file complaints with the appropriate review office. (Sec. 5205) Provides for a Federal Health Plan Review Board to review the decisions of complaint review office hearing officers. (Sec. 5207) Sets monetary penalties for a plan which unreasonably denies or delays payment or provision of benefits. (Sec. 5211) Directs each State to establish and maintain an Early Resolution Program in each complaint review office. Requires a program to include: (1) forums for mediation disputes; and (2) other forums of alternative dispute resolution as may be prescribed. Establishes guidelines for the eligibility of cases for submission to the Early Resolution Program. States that conclusions of the mediation proceedings shall be treated as nonbinding and shall not affect any rights to review. (Sec. 5231) Sets forth additional remedies and enforcement provisions. Subtitle D: Medical Malpractice - Prohibits any medical malpractice liability action until the final resolution of the claim under alternative dispute resolution. Requires each regional alliance health plan and corporate alliance health plan to adopt at least one specified method of alternative dispute resolution. Prohibits an individual from bringing a medical malpractice liability action unless the individual submits an affidavit that includes a report by a qualified specialist that states that there is a meritorious cause for filing the action. (Sec. 5311) Directs the Secretary to establish: (1) a project to demonstrate whether substituting liability for medical malpractice on the part of the health plan in which a physician participates for the personal liability of the physician will result in improvements in the quality of care, reductions in defense medical practices, and better risk management; (2) a pilot program under which the Secretary provides funds to one or more eligible States to determine the effect of applying practice guidelines in the resolution of medical malpractice liability actions. Subtitle E: Fraud and Abuse - Directs the Secretary and the Attorney General to establish a program: (1) to coordinate the functions of the Attorney General, the Secretary, and other organizations with respect to the prevention, detection, and control of health care fraud and abuse; (2) to conduct investigations, audits, evaluations, and inspections relating to the delivery of and payment for health care; and (3) to facilitate the enforcement of this and other statutes applicable to health care fraud. (Sec. 5402) Creates, in the Treasury, the All-Payer Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Account which shall consist of: (1) gifts and bequests; (2) administrative penalties and assessments and portions of civil monetary penalties imposed under provisions of the Social Security Act; (3) all criminal fines imposed in cases involving a Federal health care offense; (4) penalties imposed under the False Claims Act involving claims related to the provision of health care items and services; and (5) amounts resulting from the forfeiture of property by reason of Federal health care offense. States that amounts in the fund may be used to cover costs incurred in operating the Program. (Sec. 5411) Excludes from participation in any health plan any individual or entity excluded from participation in a public program under provisions of the Social Security Act. (Sec. 5413) Sets forth physician self-referral limitations. (Sec. 5431) Amends the Federal criminal code to set penalties for knowingly executing a scheme or artifice to: (1) defraud any health alliance, health plan, or other person (alliance) in connection with the delivery of, or payment for, health care benefits, items, or services (benefits); and (2) obtain, by false or fraudulent means, money or property owned by, or under the custody of control of, any such alliance in connection with the delivery of, or payment for, health care benefits. (Sec. 5432) Amends: (1) the Federal criminal code to require the court, in imposing sentence on a person convicted of a Federal health care offense that poses a serious threat to the health of any person or has a significant detrimental impact on the health care system, to order such person to forfeit property used in the commission of the offense or that constitutes, or is derived from, proceeds traceable to the commission of the offense which is of a value proportionate to the seriousness of the offense; and (2) the Federal judicial code to require that all proceeds of forfeiture relating to Federal health care offenses be deposited into the Department of Justice Assets Forfeiture Fund. (Sec. 5433) Amends the Federal criminal code to set penalties for: (1) knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing, or covering up a material fact, making any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statements or representations, or making or using any false writing or document knowing it to contain any false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry, in any matter involving a health alliance or health plan; and (2) bribery of, and graft by, a health care official. (Sec. 5435) Authorizes: (1) the Attorney General to commence a civil action in Federal court to enjoin a Federal health care offense; and (2) a person privy to certain grand jury information concerning a health law violation to disclose that information to an attorney for the Government to use in any civil proceeding related to a Federal health care offense. (Sec. 5437) Sets penalties for: (1) theft or embezzlement in connection with a health alliance, health plan, or fund connected with such alliance or plan; and (2) misuse of a health security card issued, or unique identifier provided, pursuant to this Act. (Sec. 5441) Makes provisions of the Civil False Claims Act applicable to the use of false records or statements made to a health plan. Includes within the definition of "claim" for purposes of such Act any request or demand for money or property which is made or presented to a health plan. Subtitle F: McCarran-Ferguson Reform - Amends the McCarran-Ferguson Act to repeal the exemption under specified antitrust laws for the business of insurance to the extent that such business relates to the provision of health benefits. Title VI: Premium Caps; Premium-Based Financing; and Plan Payments - Subtitle A: Premium Caps - Sets forth provisions which provide for the computation of factors that limit the growth of premiums for the comprehensive benefit package in regional alliance health plans, including the computation of a: (1) regional alliance inflation factor; and (2) general health care inflation factor. (Sec. 6002) Directs the Board to determine: (1) a national per capita baseline premium target; (2) the national average per capita current coverage health expenditures; and (3) current health care expenditures. (Sec. 6003) Directs the Board to determine a regional alliance per capita premium. (Sec. 6004) Requires a regional alliance to annually obtain premium bids from each plan seeking to participate as a regional alliance health plan with respect to the alliance. (Sec. 6005) Permits any participating State to assume responsibility for containment of health care expenditures in the State consistent with this Act. (Sec. 6006) Directs the chair of the Board to establish an advisory commission on regional variations in health expenditures. Requires the commission to examine methods of eliminating variation in regional alliance per capita premium targets due to variation in practice patterns, not due to other factors. Requires the Board to submit its recommendations to the Congress. Requires such recommendations to apply unless a joint resolution of disapproval is passed. (Sec. 6011) Subjects each noncomplying regional alliance health plan for a year to a reduction in plan payment as specified, in order to assure that payments to regional alliance health plans by a regional alliance are consistent. Defines a noncomplying plan to include a plan in which the final accepted bid exceeds the maximum complying bid for the per capita target premium. Defines "maximum complying bid." (Sec. 6021) Directs the Board to develop a methodology for calculating an annual per capita expenditure equivalent for amounts paid for coverage for the comprehensive benefit package within a corporate alliance. (Sec. 6022) Terminates a corporate alliance with two excess years in a three year period. Provides that employers that were corporate alliance employers with respect to a terminated alliance shall become regional alliance employers. Defines an excess year as one in which the rate of increase for the corporate alliance exceeds the national corporate inflation factor. Defines rate of increase and national corporate inflation factor. (Sec. 6031) Sets forth special rules for a single-payer State. (Sec. 6041) Directs the Secretary to establish a program to monitor prices and expenditures in the U.S. health care system. Subtitle B: Premium-Related Financings - Makes each family enrolled in a regional health alliance plan or in a corporate alliance health plan in a class of family enrollment responsible for payment of the family share of premium payable for enrollment. Provides for income related discounts and specified credits. (Sec. 6102) Establishes the formula for determining the premiums. (Sec. 6111) Provides for the repayment of credit by certain families. (Sec. 6114) Provides for the special treatment of certain retirees and qualified spouses and children. (Sec. 6121) Requires each regional alliance employer to pay a monthly premium to the regional alliance for a qualifying employee. Sets forth provisions for determining such premium. Varies the premium depending upon such factors as the employer's size and average wages paid. (Sec. 6126) Sets forth provisions applicable to self-employed individuals. (Sec. 6131) Sets forth provisions for determining the corporate employer premium. Subtitle C: Payments to Regional Alliance Health Plans - Sets forth provisions to determine the computation of: (1) the blended plan per capita payment amount; and (2) the plan bid, AFDC, and SSI proportions. Title VII: Revenue Provisions - Subtitle A: Financing Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to increase the excise taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products. (Sec. 7113) Imposes an excise tax on the manufacture or importation of roll-your-own tobacco. (Sec. 7121) Imposes an assessment on each corporate alliance employer and a temporary assessment on employers with retiree health benefit costs. Requires such assessments to be paid in the same manner as employment taxes. (Sec. 7131) Provides for the recapture of certain health care subsidies received by high-income individuals. Transfers such amounts to the Supplemental Medical Insurance Trust Fund. (Sec. 7141) Requires certain shareholders of S corporations and limited partners who materially participate in corporate activities to include their share of income or loss from such corporation when determining net earnings from self-employment. (Sec. 7142) Provides for extending Medicare coverage and applying the hospital insurance tax to all State and local government employees. Subtitle B: Tax Treatment of Employer-Provided Health Care - Provides exceptions to the exclusion of employer-provided contributions to an accident or health plan from the gross income of an employee. (Sec. 7202) Prohibits the provision of health benefit under cafeteria plans. (Sec. 7203) Makes permanent the deduction for health insurance costs of self-employed individuals. Increases such deduction to 100 percent of the basic coverage purchased from a health alliance with limitations. Subtitle C: Employment Status Provisions - Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe regulations defining an employee for employment tax purposes. (Sec. 7302) Increases the penalty for failure to file correct returns involving payments for services. (Sec. 7303) Sets forth rules to limit retroactive employment tax reclassifications. Subtitle D: Tax Treatment of Funding of Retiree Health Benefits - Requires additional reserves for post-retirement medical and life insurance benefits to cover not less than ten years of the working lives of covered employees and to be maintained as separate accounts. (Sec. 7402) Terminates the authority of pension plans to maintain health benefits accounts. Subtitle E: Coordination with COBRA Continuing Care Provisions - Repeals provisions concerning continuation coverage requirements of group health plans upon implementation of this Act. Subtitle F: Tax Treatment of Organizations Providing Health Care Services and Related Organizations - Provides for the tax treatment of charitable organizations providing health care services, insurance provided by health maintenance organizations, and certain private foundations. (Sec. 7602) Sets forth transitional rules for taxing certain organizations providing health insurance and other prepaid health care services as insurance companies other than life insurance companies. (Sec. 7603) Exempts regional alliances from income tax. Subtitle G: Tax Treatment of Long-term Care Insurance and Services - Treats qualified long-term care services as medical care for purposes of the medical expense deduction. (Sec. 7702) Provides for the treatment of long-term care insurance as accident and health insurance. (Sec. 7703) Allows accelerated death benefits under life insurance contracts to be paid to terminally ill individuals. Subtitle H: Tax Incentives for Health Service Providers - Allows a tax credit for certain qualified individuals who provide primary health services full time in a health professional shortage area. (Sec. 7802) Increases the allowable depreciation deduction for expensing certain medical equipment. Subtitle I: Miscellaneous Provisions - Allows a tax credit for the cost of personal assistance services required by an employed individual who for medical reasons is unable to engage in substantial gainful activity. (Sec. 7902) Denies tax-exempt status for private activity bonds of regional alliances, corporate alliances, or guaranty funds established under this Act. Title VIII: Health and Health-Related Programs of the Federal Government - Subtitle A: Military Health Care Reform - Directs the Secretary of Defense to establish one or more uniformed services health plans in order to provide health care services to members of the armed forces on active duty for 30 or more days as well as their covered beneficiaries. Requires conformity of such plans with health plan requirements set forth in this Act. (Sec. 8001b) Allows any such plan to rely upon the use of military health care facilities, supplemented by civilian health care providers or health plans under agreements entered into by the Secretary. Requires at least the items and services in the comprehensive benefit package under this Act to be included in each such plan. Preempts any conflicting State health plan requirements. Provides for plan enrollment, effect of failure to enroll, and choosing between a uniformed services health plan and other available plans. Prohibits the imposition of plan charges to an active-duty member other than subsistence charges, but allows the Secretary to impose limited charges for covered beneficiaries. Establishes in the Department of Defense a financial account for payments received in connection with a uniformed services health plan, allowing such funds to be used only for purposes directly related to the delivery and financing of health care services under this Subtitle. Subtitle B: Department of Veterans Affairs - Allows each veteran who is an eligible individual under this Act and individuals currently enrolled in a health plan under the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS) to be enrolled with a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health plan. Requires conformity of such plans with health plan requirements set forth in this Act, with all the items and services of the comprehensive benefit package under this Act included. Allows such plans to offer supplemental health benefits and cost-sharing policies as consistent with this Act. Provides a limitation with regard to veterans enrolled with health plans outside the VA. Prohibits the imposition of any plan enrollment charges upon service-connected disabled veterans, veterans receiving disability compensation from the VA, former prisoners of war, and veterans unable to defray the costs of such care. Allows the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish plan charges for other veterans. Deems a VA facility to be a Medicare provider for purposes of any program administered by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Allows for the recovery of certain care and services provided under a VA plan in the case of an individual who has coverage under another plan. Establishes in the Treasury the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Plan Fund to be used for VA health plan payments and services. Preserves existing benefits for VA facilities not operating within a health plan certified under this Act. (Sec. 8102) Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to organize health plans and operate VA facilities as, or within, health plans under this Act. Preempts existing State health plan standards or requirements. Authorizes the Secretary to contract for the provision of services by a VA health plan when cost-effective, or to share resources with other health care plans, providers, or organizations. Authorizes appropriations to the VA for FY 1995 through 1997 for VA health plans under this Subtitle, subject to availability of appropriations. Requires a report from the Secretary to the Congress concerning the operation of the VA health care system within the requirements of this Act. Authorizes the Secretary to accept and use grants for health care services provided to special populations if used by the VA while operating under a VA health plan. Subtitle C: Federal Employees Health Benefits Programs - (Secs. 8202 through 8204) Provides for termination of the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHB) and treatment of Federal employees, annuitants, and other individuals (including those residing abroad) who would otherwise have been eligible for FEHBP under this Act's health plans. Subtitle D: Indian Health Service - Makes qualifying Indians eligible to enroll in a comprehensive benefits health program of the Indian Health Service. (Sec. 8303) Authorizes appropriations for supplemental Indian health care benefits. (Sec. 8305) Exempts tribal governments and organizations from making employer payments. (Sec. 8306) Sets forth provisions regarding health service to non-enrollees and non-Indians. (Sec. 8311) Requires each health program of the Indian Health Service to establish a comprehensive benefit package fund. (Sec. 8313) Authorizes appropriations for the Indian Health Service programs. Subtitle E: Amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to revise and limit the coverage of group health plans under ERISA. Makes certain ERISA provisions inapplicable with respect to State-certified health plans. Provides for an exception from ERISA civil action provisions where review is otherwise available under the Health Security Act (this Act, HSA). (Sec. 8402) Establishes ERISA requirements for expeditious reporting and disclosure applicable to group health plans, through special rules consistent with ERISA and HSA purposes. Excludes plans maintained by regional alliances from treatment as multiple employer welfare arrangements. (Sec. 8403) Revises certain ERISA provisions relating to continuation coverage under group health plans. Repeals such provisions upon implementation of HSA. (Sec. 8404) Makes ERISA standards for group health plans regarding: (1) cases of adoption applicable except to the extent otherwise provided in regulations of the National Health Board under HSA; and (2) coverage of pediatric vaccines inapplicable to a group health plan upon its becoming a corporate alliance health plan under HSA. (Sec. 8405) Requires group health plans under ERISA to comply with HSA requirements relating to health plan claims procedure. Subtitle F: Special Fund for WIC Program - Authorizes appropriations through FY 2000 for the special supplemental food program for women, infants, and children under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966. Title IX: Aggregate Government Payments - Subtitle A: Aggregate State Payments - Sets forth provisions which have formulas for determining each participating State's payment to regional alliances within the State. Provides two different formulas. Establishes one payment formula for non-cash assistance recipients. Establishes another formula relating to cash assistance recipients. Defines a non-cash assistance adult as an individual who is: (1) over 21 years; (2) a U.S. citizen or lawful alien; and (3) is not an AFDC or SSI recipient or a Medicare-eligible individual. (Sec. 9022) Directs the National Health Board to review appropriateness of such payments. Subtitle B: Aggregate Federal Alliance Payments - Sets forth the formula for determining Federal payments to regional alliances for cash assistance recipients. (Sec. 9102) States that this section constitutes budget authority in advance of appropriation Acts and obligates the Federal Government to provide for the payment to regional alliances of a capped Federal alliance payment amount. Defines "capped Federal alliance payment amount." Subtitle C: Borrowing Authority to Cover Cash-flow Shortfalls - Authorizes the Secretary to make available loans to regional alliances to cover any period of temporary cash-flow shortfall attributable to: (1) any estimation discrepancy; (2) a period of temporary cash-flow shortfall attributable to an administrative error; or (3) a period of temporary cash-flow shortfall relating to the relative timing during the year in which amounts are received and payments are required. Sets forth loan terms and conditions. Title X: Coordination of Medical Portion of Workers Compensation and Automobile Insurance - Subtitle A: Workers Compensation Insurance - Requires each health plan that provides services to enrollees through participating providers to make arrangements to provide workers compensation to such enrollees. (Sec. 10002) Requires each workers' compensation carrier that is liable for payment for workers' compensation services furnished by or through a health plan, regardless of whether or not the services are included in the comprehensive benefit package, to make payment for such services. (Sec. 10011) Sets forth requirements for participating States. (Sec. 10031) Authorizes demonstration projects in one or more States with respect to the treatment of work-related injuries and illnesses. Subtitle B: Automobile Insurance - Requires an individual entitled to automobile insurance medical benefits and enrolled in a health plan to receive automobile insurance medical services through the provision of such services by the health plan. (Sec. 10102) Requires each automobile insurance carrier that is liable for payment for automobile insurance medical services furnished by or through a health plan, regardless of whether or not the services are included in the comprehensive benefit package, to make payment for such services. (Sec. 10111) Requires each participating State to develop a fee schedule applicable to payment for automobile insurance medical services for which a fee is not included in the applicable fee schedule. Subtitle C: Commission on Integration of Health Benefits - Establishes the Commission on Integration of Health Benefits which shall study and report on the feasibility and appropriateness of transferring financial responsibility for all medical benefits, including those currently covered by workers compensation and automobile insurance, to health plans. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle D: Federal Employees' Compensation Act - Requires the Federal Employees' Compensation Act to be interpreted and administered consistent with the provisions of subtitle A. Subtitle E: Davis-Bacon Act and Service Contract Act - Amends the Davis-Bacon Act and the Service Contract Act of 1965 to require Health Security Act benefits. Subtitle F: Effective Dates - Sets forth effective date provisions. Title XI: Transitional Insurance Reform - Sets forth transitional provisions concerning: (1) enforcement; (2) preservation of current coverage; (3) restrictions on premium increases during transition; (4) portability requirements; (5) restrictions limiting benefit reductions; and (6) the establishment of the National Transitional Health Insurance Risk Pool.
United States · United States Congress · 4 November 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Approval of, and General Provisions Relating to, the North American Free Trade Agreement Title II: Customs Provisions Title III: Application of Agreement to Sectors and Services Subtitle A: Safeguards Subtitle B: Agriculture Subtitle C: Intellectual Property Subtitle D: Temporary Entry of Business Persons Subtitle E: Standards Subtitle F: Corporate Average Fuel Economy Subtitle G: Government Procurement Title IV: Dispute Settlement in Antidumping and Countervailing Cases Subtitle A: Organizational, Administrative, and Procedural Provisions Regarding the Implementation of the Agreement Subtitle B: Conforming Amendments and Provisions Title V: NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance and Other Provisions Subtitle A: NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance Program Subtitle B: Provisions Relating to Performance Under the Agreement Subtitle C: Funding Subtitle D: Implementation of NAFTA Supplemental Agreements Title VI: Customs Modernization Subtitle A: Improvements in Customs Enforcement Subtitle B: National Customs Automation Program Subtitle C: Miscellaneous Amendments to the Tariff Act of 1930 Subtitle D: Miscellaneous Provisions and Consequential and Conforming Amendments to Other Laws North American Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act - Title I: Approval of, and General Provisions Relating to, the North American Free Trade Agreement - Declares that the Congress, pursuant to the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 and the Trade Act of 1974, approves: (1) the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) entered into on December 17, 1992, with Canada and Mexico and submitted to it on November 4, 1993; and (2) the statement of administrative action proposed to implement the Agreement that was submitted to it on November 4, 1993. Sets forth conditions for entry into force of NAFTA. (Sec. 102) Declares that U.S. laws shall prevail over provisions of NAFTA that conflict. Requires the President to consult with the States in order to achieve conformity of State laws with NAFTA. Requires the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to establish within the Office of the USTR a Federal-State consultation process to address issues relating to NAFTA that directly affect the States. Prohibits any person other than the United States from having a cause of action with respect to NAFTA. (Sec. 105) Authorizes the President to establish within any U.S. agency a U.S. Section of the Secretariat to facilitate the operation of NAFTA. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 106) Requires the United States to encourage the selection of individuals with expertise in environmental issues for service on the Chapter 20 panel to hear any challenge to a U.S. or State environmental law. (Sec. 107) Sets forth provisions governing the termination or suspension of NAFTA. (Sec. 108) Declares that the congressional approval of NAFTA may not be construed as applying to any countries other than Canada and Mexico. Sets forth provisions outlining future free trade area negotiations with other foreign countries. Title II: Customs Provisions - Authorizes the President to proclaim such modifications or continuation of any duty, continuation of duty-free or excise treatment, or additional duties as are necessary to carry out specified provisions of NAFTA. (Sec. 201) Requires the President to terminate Mexico's designation as a beneficiary developing country under the Trade Act of 1974 upon entry into force of NAFTA. Prohibits the President from considering a request to accelerate the staging of duty reductions for an article for which the United States tariff phaseout period is more than ten years if such request for such article has been denied in the preceding three years. Authorizes the President to convert the base rate of certain textiles imported from Mexico to an ad valorem rate. (Sec. 202) Sets forth, for purposes of implementing tariff treatment and quantitative restrictions provided in NAFTA, rules of origin with respect to goods from NAFTA countries. (Sec. 203) Defines the term "good subject to NAFTA drawback." Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to prohibit an article manufactured in a bonded warehouse from materials that are goods subject to NAFTA drawback (refund) from being withdrawn from such warehouse for exportation to a NAFTA country without assessment of a duty on the materials in their condition and quantity, and at their weight, at the time of importation into the United States. Sets forth similar provisions with respect to articles from bonded smelting and refining warehouses. Authorizes merchandise, under specified conditions, to be cleaned, sorted, repacked, or otherwise changed in condition in bonded warehouses and be withdrawn: (1) for export to a NAFTA country if such merchandise consists of goods subject to NAFTA drawback (refund) and certain duties are assessed; and (2) without the payment of duties for export to NAFTA and, in certain cases, non-NAFTA countries. Amends the Foreign Trade Zones Act to provide that, if Canada ceases to be a NAFTA country and the U.S.-Canada Free-Trade Agreement terminates, no article manufactured or otherwise changed in condition (except a change by cleaning, testing, or repacking) shall be exported to Canada without the payment of a duty unless a certain privilege has been requested and no manipulation (change of condition) has occurred. Prohibits merchandise consisting of goods subject to NAFTA drawback that is manufactured or otherwise changed in condition from being exported to a NAFTA country without an assessment of a duty on it. Prohibits the Secretary of the Treasury (Secretary) from, on the condition of export, refunding or reducing fees imposed under the Agricultural Adjustment Act with respect to "goods subject to NAFTA drawback" that are exported to Canada after December 31, 1995, or Mexico after December 31, 2000, for so long as they are NAFTA countries. Declares that none of the amendments made under this Act shall be considered to authorize the refund, waiver, or reduction of countervailing duties or antidumping duties imposed on an imported good. (Sec. 204) Amends the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 to prohibit customs user fees with respect to goods qualifying under the rules of origin from being: (1) charged with respect to goods that qualify to be marked as Canadian goods; and (2) increased after December 31, 1993, and charged after June 29, 1999, with respect to goods that qualify to be marked as Mexican goods. (Sec. 205) Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to require persons who sign a NAFTA Certificate of Origin for a good for which preferential treatment is claimed to keep and render for inspection all records relating to the origin of the good. Sets forth penalties for violation of such recordkeeping requirements. Sets forth provisions regarding incorrect and false Certificates of Origin. (Sec. 206) Authorizes the United States Customs Service to reliquidate an entry to refund excess duties paid on a good qualifying under the rules of origin under the NAFTA for which no claim for preferential tariff treatment was made or protest filed at the time of importation if the importer, within one year after the importation, files a claim that includes specified information. (Sec. 207) Revises country of origin marking requirements with respect to certain pipe and steel products and manhole rings or frames and covers from NAFTA countries to include continuous paint stenciling, or an equally permanent method of marking, as methods for satisfying such requirements. Sets forth provisions regarding: (1) adverse marking and origin determinations by the U.S. Customs Service; and (2) the judicial review of such determinations. (Sec. 209) Declares the Secretary of Commerce may authorize the U.S. Customs Service to exchange information with any government agency of a NAFTA country provided certain safeguards are met. (Sec. 210) Prohibits duties from being refunded (drawnback) on imported color cathode-ray television picture tubes, including video monitor cathode-ray tubes, when such items are nonoriginating goods and are: (1) exported to a NAFTA country; (2) used as a material in the production of other goods that are exported to a NAFTA country; or (3) substituted for by goods of the same kind and quality used as a material in the production of other goods that are exported to a NAFTA country. (Sec. 211) Requires the U.S. Customs Service to monitor television and picture tube imports for a five-year period. Directs the U.S. Customs Service to make the results of such monitoring, including verification of the rules of origin, available to the President and the USTR. Title III: Application of Agreement to Sectors and Services - Subtitle A: Safeguards - Part 1: Relief From Imports Benefitting From the Agreement - Authorizes an entity, trade association, firm, certified or recognized union, or group of workers that is representative of an industry to file with the International Trade Commission (ITC) a petition requesting the adjustment of U.S. obligations under NAFTA. Requires the ITC to investigate, and make a determination, whether as a result of the reduction or elimination of a duty under NAFTA, a Canadian or Mexican article is being imported in such increased quantities as to constitute a substantial case of serious injury, or except in the case of a Canadian article, a threat of serious injury to a domestic industry producing an article that is like, or directly competitive with, such article. (Sec. 303) Requires the ITC, if it makes an affirmative determination, to recommend to the President the amount of import relief that is necessary to remedy or prevent such injury. (Sec. 308) Amends the United States-Canada Free-Trade Agreement Implementation Act to require the Secretary to decide whether to recommend to the President the imposition of a temporary duty on Canadian fresh fruits and vegetables. (Sec. 309) Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to determine each period of five consecutive business days in which the daily price for frozen concentrated orange juice is less than the trigger price and the first period occurring thereafter of five consecutive business days in which the daily price for frozen concentrated orange juice is greater than the trigger price. Sets forth a formula for determining the rate of duty on certain quantities of imported Mexican articles of frozen concentrated orange juice. Part 2: Relief From Imports From All Countries - Requires the ITC, if it makes an affirmative determination for import relief under the Trade Act of 1974 (or a determination which the President may treat as an affirmative determination under the Tariff Act of 1930), to also find (and report to the President) whether: (1) imports from a NAFTA country, considered individually, account for a substantial share of total imports; and (2) imports from a NAFTA country, considered individually, or, in exceptional circumstances considered collectively, contribute importantly to the serious injury, or threat of serious injury, caused by imports. (Sec. 312) Requires the President, in determining whether to take import relief action under the Trade Act of 1974 with respect to imports from a NAFTA country, to determine whether: (1) imports from such country, considered individually, account for a substantial share of total imports; or (2) imports from such a country, considered individually, or in exceptional circumstances considered collectively, contribute importantly to the serious injury, or threat of serious injury, found by the ITC. Requires the President to take specified actions with respect to such imports. Part 3: General Provisions - Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to authorize an entity representing a domestic industry that produces a citrus product that is like or directly competitive with an imported citrus product to file a request with the USTR for monitoring of such imports. Requires the ITC, upon the filing of a petition alleging import injury and a request for provisional import relief, to make a determination whether increased imports of such citrus products are a substantial cause of serious injury, or threat of serious injury, to the domestic industry producing such product. Defines "citrus product" to mean any processed oranges or grapefruit, or any orange or grapefruit juice, including concentrate. (Sec. 316) Requires the ITC, with respect to expediting an investigation concerning provisional import relief, to monitor, until January 1, 2009, imports of fresh or chilled tomatoes and peppers (other than chili peppers) as if proper requests for such monitoring have been made. (Sec. 317) Requires the ITC to adopt certain rules and procedures with respect to the release of confidential business information under the Tariff Act of 1930 and apply them in import injury investigations under NAFTA. Subtitle B: Agriculture - Amends the Meat Import Act of 1979 to redefine the term "meat articles." Authorizes the President to exclude meat articles originating in a NAFTA country, Canada, or Mexico from quantitative import limitations. (Sec. 321) Requires the President to take such action as may be necessary to ensure that imports of agricultural goods do not disrupt the orderly marketing of commodities in the United States. Declares that nothing in NAFTA reduces or eliminates: (1) any penalty required under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938; or (2) any requirement under Marketing Agreement No. 146, Regulating the Quality of Domestically Produced Peanuts, on peanuts in the domestic market, pursuant to the Agricultural Act of 1949. Amends the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 to express the sense of the Congress that the United States should request consultations in the Working Group on Emergency Action if imports of peanuts exceed the in-quota quantity under a tariff rate quota set out in NAFTA concerning whether: (1) the increased imports of peanuts constitute a substantial cause of, or contribute importantly to, serious injury, or threat of serious injury, to the domestic peanut industry; and (2) recourse under NAFTA or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to designate an office within the United States Department of Agriculture to be responsible for maintaining and disseminating data accumulated for verifying citrus, fruit, vegetable, and cut flower trade between the United States and Mexico. Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to implement a program requiring that end-use certificates be included in the documentation covering the entry into, or withdrawal from a warehouse for consumption in, the U.S. customs territory of any wheat or barley from a foreign country that requires end-use certificates of U.S. wheat or U.S. barley. Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to suspend such requirements when making a determination that the program has resulted in: (1) the reduction of income to U.S. producers of agricultural products; or (2) the reduction of the competitiveness of such U.S. producers in the world export markets. Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to suspend such requirements if a foreign country that requires end-use certificates for U.S. wheat and U.S. barley eliminates the requirement. Amends the Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to grant fellowships to individuals from NAFTA countries to study agriculture in the United States, and individuals in the United States to study agriculture in other NAFTA countries. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to make grants to public agencies or private organizations with tax-exempt status that have experience in providing emergency services to low-income migrant or seasonal farmworkers if it is determined that implementation of the NAFTA has caused such farmworkers to lose income. Authorizes appropriations. Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to prepare, and submit to specified congressional committees, a biennial report on the effects of the NAFTA on U.S. producers of agricultural commodities and on U.S. rural communities. Subtitle C: Intellectual Property - Amends Federal patent law to extend U.S. intellectual property protections to inventions that are made in other countries by persons who are domiciled in a NAFTA country and serving in any other country in connection with operations by or on behalf of the United States or a NAFTA country. (Sec. 332) Amends the Record Rental Amendment of 1984 to repeal a provision of such Act with respect to rental rights in sound recordings. (Sec. 333) Amends the Trademark Act of 1946 to provide that nothing in such Act shall prevent the registration before enactment of the NAFTA: (1) of a mark which, when used on or in connection with the goods of an applicant for a trademark, is primarily geographically deceptively misdescriptive of them, and which became distinctive of the applicant's goods in commerce; or (2) on the supplemental register of a mark, capable of distinguishing the applicant's goods or services and not registrable on the principal register under such Act, that is declared to be unregistrable, if such mark has been in lawful use in commerce by the owner, on or in connection with any goods or services. (Sec. 334) Amends Federal copyright law to grant copyright protection to motion pictures that are first fixed or published in a NAFTA country, including any work in such pictures, that enter the U.S. public domain and are first published on or after January 1, 1978, and before March 1, 1989, even though certain required notice has not been given. Subtitle D: Temporary Entry of Business Persons - Classifies as nonimmigrants, if otherwise eligible for a visa and admissible into the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, any alien trader or investor who is a citizen of Canada or Mexico, including any accompanying spouse and children of such alien. (Sec. 341) Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to authorize the admittance of aliens who are citizens of Canada or Mexico, including any spouse and children of such alien, into the United States to engage in business activities as professionals. Requires the Attorney General to establish annual numerical limits on such admissions. Prohibits such aliens from being classified as nonimmigrants if there is a strike or lockout in the course of a labor dispute in the applicable occupational classification, unless such aliens establish that their entry will not adversely affect the settlement of such strike or lockout or the employment of any person involved in the strike or lockout. Subtitle E: Standards - Part 1: Standards and Measures - Amends the Trade Agreements Act of 1979 to provide that nothing under such Act shall be construed to: (1) prohibit a Federal or State agency from engaging in activity related to sanitary or phytosanitary measures to protect human, animal, or plant life or health; (2) limit the authority of such agencies to determine the level of protection of human, animal, or plant life or health the agency considers appropriate; (3) prohibit a Federal agency from engaging in activity related to standards-related measures, including any such measure relating to safety, the protection of human, animal, or plant life or health, the environment or consumers; or (4) limit the authority of a Federal agency to determine the level it considers appropriate of safety or the protection of human, animal, or plant life or health, the environment or consumers. Requires the standards information center of the Department of Commerce, among other things, to make available to the public documents and information regarding: (1) general application of sanitary or phytosanitary measures by Federal or State agencies; and (2) participation of Federal and State governments and nongovernmental bodies in international and regional standardizing bodies and conformity assessment systems, and in bilateral and multilateral arrangements regarding standards-related measures. Part 2: Agricultural Standards - Amends the Federal Seed Act to declare that provisions of such Act requiring certain seeds to be stained shall not apply to alfalfa or clover seed from Mexico. (Sec. 361) Amends Federal law to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to permit the importation: (1) of cattle, sheep, or other ruminants, and swine, from Canada or Mexico; and (2) from the British Virgin Islands into the U.S. Virgin Islands, for slaughter only, of cattle that have been infested with or exposed to ticks on being freed from such ticks. Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to waive provisions requiring the inspection of imported animals for contagious diseases and infections with respect to shipments between the United States and Canada or Mexico. Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to permit the importation of cattle, sheep, other ruminants, or swine (including their embryos), or the fresh, chilled, or frozen meat of such animals, from a region that the Secretary of Agriculture has determined to be, and is likely to remain, free from rinderpest and foot-and-mouth disease. Amends the Honeybee Act to authorize the importation into the United States of honeybees from Canada or Mexico if the Secretary of Agriculture determines that the region from which such honeybee originated is, and is likely to remain, free of diseases or parasites harmful to honeybees, and undesirable species or subspecies of honeybees. Amends the Poultry Products Inspection Act to require all poultry, or parts or products of poultry, that are intended as human food and imported into the United States from Canada and Mexico to meet inspection, sanitary, and processing standards that are equivalent to those in the United States. Amends the Federal Meat Inspection Act to require the Secretary of Agriculture to submit to specified congressional committees a report that includes, among other things, a certification by the Secretary of Agriculture that foreign plants in Canada and Mexico that export carcasses or meat or meat products have complied with requirements that are equivalent to U.S. requirements with regard to inspection and building construction standards. Requires all domestic peanut butter and peanut paste to be processed from peanuts that meet the quality standards established for peanuts under Marketing Agreement No. 146. Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to make grants to a land grant college or university for the construction of a facility (to be known as the Southwest Regional Animal Health Biocontainment Facility) at such college or university to do research in animal health, disease-transmitting insects, and toxic chemicals that requires the use of biocontainment facilities and equipment. Authorizes appropriations. Requires the Secretary of Agriculture to prepare, and submit to specified congressional committees, annual reports on the impact of the NAFTA on the inspection of imported meat, poultry, other foods, animals, or plants. Subtitle F: Corporate Average Fuel Economy - Amends the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act to provide that, for purposes of calculating the corporate average fuel economy of certain passenger automobiles, such automobiles shall be considered domestically manufactured in a model year if at least 75 percent of the manufacturer's cost is attributable to value added in the United States, Canada, or Mexico, unless the assembly of the automobile is completed in Canada or Mexico and such automobile is not imported into the United States prior to the expiration of 30 days following the end of that model year. Subtitle G: Government Procurement - Amends the Trade Agreements Act of 1979 to revise provisions regarding the waiver of discriminating purchasing requirements with respect to Government contracting to apply to countries that are parties to the NAFTA. Declares that the President's authority to waive such requirements does not authorize the waiver of any small business or minority preference. Title IV: Dispute Settlement in Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Cases - Subtitle A: Organizational, Administrative, and Procedural Provisions Regarding the Implementation of Chapter 19 of the Agreement - Sets forth organizational and administrative provisions regarding the selection of individuals to serve on binational panels and extraordinary challenge committees. (Sec. 402) Establishes within the interagency trade organization an interagency group, which shall be chaired by the USTR and consist of appropriate officers, to annually prepare, and submit to appropriate congressional committees, lists of individuals who are qualified to serve on such panels and committees. (Sec. 407) Authorizes an entity, including a trade association, firm, certified or recognized union, or group of workers, that is representative of a U.S. industry to file with the USTR a petition requesting that the industry be appropriately identified whenever it has reason to believe that: (1) as a result of implementation of NAFTA, the industry is likely to face increased competition from subsidized imports from a NAFTA country, or such industry is likely to face increased competition from subsidized imports from any other country designated by the President as benefitting from a reduction of tariffs or other trade barriers under a trade agreement that enters into force with the United States after January 1, 1994; and (2) the industry is likely to experience a deterioration of its competitive position before more rules relating to the use of government subsidies have been developed with respect to the subject country. Requires the USTR upon receipt of a petition to decide whether to identify the industry on the basis of both the subsidization and deterioration of its competitive position. Requires the USTR, if there is an identification, to take appropriate action, including: (1) compiling and making available to the industry certain trade information; and (2) recommending to the President that the ITC commence an investigation under the Tariff Act of 1930. Subtitle B: Conforming Amendments and Provisions - Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to apply provisions of such Act regarding time limits for commencing judicial review in antidumping duty and countervailing duty actions to cases involving merchandise from a free trade area (NAFTA) country. Title V: NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance and Other Provisions - Subtitle A: NAFTA Transitional Adjustment Assistance Program - NAFTA Worker Security Act - Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to require a group of workers, including workers in any agricultural firm or subdivision of an agricultural firm, to be certified as eligible for adjustment assistance if the Secretary of Labor determines that a significant number of workers in such firm or subdivision have become totally or partially separated, or are threatened to become totally or partially separated, and either that: (1) the sales or production, or both, of such firm or subdivision have decreased, imports from Mexico or Canada of articles like or directly competitive with the firm's articles have increased, and such increase in imports contributed to such workers' separation or threat of separation and to the decline in the firm's sales or production; or (2) there has been a shift in production by such workers' firm or subdivision to Mexico or Canada of articles like or directly competitive with the firm's articles. (Sec. 502) Sets forth provisions regarding: (1) the filing of petitions for worker adjustment assistance; (2) petition findings; and (3) review of petitions by the Secretary of Labor. (Sec. 503) Prohibits a worker from receiving duplicative assistance. (Sec. 504) Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 507) Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide for a self-employment assistance program which makes certain qualified individuals eligible to receive an allowance in lieu of regular unemployment compensation under State law in order to assist such an individual in establishing a business and becoming self-employed. Subtitle B: Provisions Relating to Performance Under the Agreement - Expresses the sense of the Congress that a State, province, or other governmental entity of a NAFTA country that discriminatorily enforces sales or other taxes so as to afford protection to its domestic production or domestic service providers shall be considered in violation of the NAFTA. Requires the USTR to pursue all appropriate remedies when such discriminatory enforcement adversely affects U.S. producers of goods or U.S. service providers. (Sec. 512) Requires the President, by not later than July 1, 1997, to provide the Congress a comprehensive study on the operation and effects of NAFTA. (Sec. 513) Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to require the USTR, no later than 30 days after a specified report is submitted to specified congressional committees, to identify any act, policy, or practice of Canada which: (1) affects cultural industries; (2) is adopted or expanded after December 17, 1992; and (3) is actionable under the NAFTA. (Sec. 514) Requires the USTR to annually submit to specified congressional committees a report on how effective the NAFTA is on increasing U.S. exports of motor vehicles and motor vehicle parts to Mexico. (Sec. 515) Amends the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act to authorize and direct the Commissioner of Customs to make grants to an institution (or consortium of such institutions) to assist it in establishing in Texas a Center for the Study of Western Hemispheric Trade in order to promote and study trade between the Western Hemisphere countries. Subtitle C: Funding - Part 1: Customs User Fees - Amends the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 to increase for FY 1994 through 1997 the customs user fees for the arrival of each passenger aboard a commercial vessel or commercial aircraft from outside the U.S. customs territory. Maintains for FY 1998 and thereafter the current five dollar customs user fee for the arrival of each passenger aboard such vessel or aircraft from a place outside the United States. Part 2: Internal Revenue Code Amendments - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to authorize the Secretary to disclose to officers and employees of the Department of the Treasury (particularly the Customs Service) certain tax information. (Sec. 523) Directs the Secretary to prescribe regulations for the development of an electronic fund transfer system for the collection of depository taxes. Subtitle D: Implementation of NAFTA Supplemental Agreements - Part 1: Agreements Relating to Labor and Environment - Authorizes the United States to participate in: (1) the Commission for Labor Cooperation in accordance with the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation; (2) the Commission for Environmental Cooperation in accordance with the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation; and (3) the Border Environment Cooperation Commission in accordance with the Border Environment Cooperation Agreement. Authorizes appropriations. Part 2: North American Development Bank and Related Provisions - Authorizes the President to accept membership for the United States in the North American Development Bank. (Sec. 541) Amends Federal banking law to exempt the Bank from the securities laws with respect to the issuance of certain securities by such Bank. (Sec. 543) Authorizes the President to enter into agreements with the Bank for implementation of a community adjustment and investment program pursuant to the Border Environment Cooperation Agreement. Requires the President to establish the Community Adjustment and Investment Program Advisory Committee to provide advice to the President with respect to the implementation of such program. Authorizes appropriations. Title VI: Customs Modernization - Subtitle A: Improvements in Customs Enforcement - Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to revise customs procedures with respect to: (1) electronic transmission of forged, altered, or false data to the United States Customs Service with regard to the entry of imported merchandise; (2) penalties for failure to declare imported controlled substances; (3) examination and detention of imported merchandise; (4) certain recordkeeping requirements; (5) examination of books and witnesses; (6) review of protests by the Customs Service; (7) a repeal of a provision relating to the reliquidation on account of fraud; (8) penalties relating to manifests, false drawback or refund claims, and for fraud, gross negligence, and negligence; (9) unlawful unloading or transshipment; (10) public access to Customs Service interpretive rulings and decisions; and (11) seizure of imported merchandise. Subtitle B: National Customs Automation Program - Directs the Secretary to establish the National Customs Automation Program which shall be an automated and electronic system for the processing of commercial imports. (Sec. 631) Provides for electronic data transmission relating to: (1) remote location filing; (2) effective date of rates of duty on imported merchandise; (3) merchandise manifests; (4) imported merchandise invoices; (5) entry and release of imported merchandise; (6) admissibility in administrative and judicial proceedings of electronically transmitted information; (7) appraisement and liquidations of imported merchandise; (8) the payment of duties; (9) abandonment and damage to imported merchandise; (10) protests of Customs Service decisions; (11) refunds and errors; (12) bonds and other security; and (13) customhouse brokers. (Sec. 632) Requires a refund (drawback) of duties (less one per cent of such duties) on articles produced in the United States with imported merchandise that have been destroyed under Customs Service supervision, provided such articles have not been used prior to such destruction. (Sec. 644) Sets forth provisions with respect to customs officers' immunity in regard to the appraisement of or collection of duties on imported merchandise. Subtitle C: Miscellaneous Amendments to the Tariff Act of 1930 - Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to authorize the Secretary to disregard the difference, but not less than $20 (currently ten dollars), between the total estimated duties deposited with respect to imported merchandise and the total amount actually due on such merchandise. Increases specified ceiling amounts of duty-free gifts and articles. (Sec. 652) Requires masters of vessels that have visited a hovering vessel or received merchandise while outside the U.S. territorial sea to report their arrival to the nearest customs facility. Provides for the electronic transmission of vessel documentation to the Customs Service. (Sec. 653) Requires specified kinds of vessels to report to the nearest Customs Service facility within 24 hours (or other period of time as provided) after arrival at a U.S. port. (Sec. 655) Exempts from entry and clearance requirements certain passenger vessels on excursion from the U.S. Virgin Islands to the British Virgin Islands and returning, U.S. documented vessels with recreational endorsement, or (as under current law) undocumented U.S. pleasure vessels not engaged in trade, except such vessels must comply upon arrival with specified customs reporting requirements and navigation laws and must not have visited any hovering vessel. (Sec. 656) Prohibits merchandise, passengers, or baggage from being unladen from any vessel required to make entry or vehicle required to report its arrival until such entry or report of arrival is made and a permit for unlading has been issued by the Customs Service. Authorizes the issuance of such permits through electronic data transmission. (Sec. 659) Reduces from one year to six months the length of time merchandise may remain in customs custody with fees unpaid before it may be treated as unclaimed. (Sec. 662) Authorizes the Secretary to prescribe regulations for the declaration and entry of merchandise whose value does not exceed a designated amount, but not more than $2,500 (currently not greater than $1,250), or when different commercial facilitation and risk considerations that may vary for different classes or kinds of merchandise or different classes of transactions may dictate. (Sec. 663) Reduces from one year to 90 days the minimum length of time after forfeiture the Secretary must wait before selling at public auction any seized imported merchandise with a counterfeit mark. (Sec. 664) Sets forth certain recordkeeping requirements for merchandise transported by pipeline. (Sec. 665) Authorizes the withdrawal from warehouse of turbine fuel without the payment of duties provided certain requirements are met. (Sec. 667) Authorizes the Customs Service to order the destruction or other appropriate disposition of vessels, vehicles, aircraft, merchandise, or baggage that has been seized under the customs laws if it determines that the expense of keeping such items is disproportionate to their value (currently applies only to items of less than $1,000 in value). (Sec. 668) Requires actions for fraud, gross negligence, and negligence, false drawback, or refund claims with respect to imported merchandise to be instituted within five years after the alleged violation or discovery of such fraud. (Sec. 669) Requires the Customs Service to be reimbursed for costs incurred in collecting fees on behalf of Government agencies. (Sec. 670) Authorizes the Secretary to settle, for no more than $50,000 in each case, claims for damage to, or loss of, privately owned property caused by an investigative or law enforcement officer of the Customs Service. (Sec. 671) Provides for the use of private collection agencies to recover money owed the United States under customs laws. Subtitle D: Miscellaneous Provisions and Consequential and Conforming Amendments to Other Laws - Amends the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States to exempt from such Schedule articles which are returned within 45 days after being exported from the United States as undeliverable and which have not left the custody of the carrier or foreign customs service. (Sec. 681) Declares that certain railway locomotives and railway freight cars on which no duty is owed are not subject to the entry or release requirements for imported merchandise under the Tariff Act of 1930. States that instruments of international trade, such as containers, lift vans, rail cars and locomotives, truck cabs and trailers, etc., are exempt from formal entry procedures, but must be accounted for when imported to and exported from the United States through the manifesting procedures required for international carriers. (Sec. 683) Amends the Internal Revenue Code to authorize the payment from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund of administrative expenses incurred by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Commerce, not to exceed $5 million for any fiscal year. (Sec. 684) Amends Federal law to grant the Court of International Trade exclusive jurisdiction of any civil action for review of decisions of the Customs Service that deny, suspend, or revoke accreditation of private customs laboratories. Bars the commencement of such actions unless brought within 60 days of such decisions. (Sec. 685) Authorizes the payment of certain claims against Customs Service employees out of the Department of the Treasury Forfeiture Fund. Authorizes (currently mandates) unobligated amounts in such Fund to be kept on deposit or invested in U.S. bonds. (Sec. 686) Requires U.S. and foreign vessels to obtain clearance from the Customs Service before proceeding from a U.S. port for: (1) a foreign port; (2) another U.S. port (for foreign vessels only), or (for U.S. vessels only) another U.S. port if the vessel has bonded or foreign merchandise for which entry has not been made; or (3) outside the U.S. territorial sea to visit a hovering vessel or to receive merchandise. (Sec. 687) Repeals specified provisions of Federal law. (Sec. 691) Requires the Commissioner of Customs to report to the Congress each fiscal year after FY 1994 on the collection of duties imposed under the antidumping and countervailing duty laws. Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 to authorize the Commissioner of Customs to obtain from the operators of centralized cargo examination stations information regarding fees paid to them for the provision of services at such stations. Amends the Customs and Trade Act of 1990 to require the Commissioner of Customs to: (1) devise a methodology for estimating the level of compliance with the U.S. customs laws; and (2) evaluate the extent to which such compliance was obtained during the 12-month period preceding the 60th day before each fiscal year 1994 through 1996.
United States · United States Congress · 1 November 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Provisions Relating to Individuals Subtitle A: Provisions Relating to Rollover of Gain on Sale of Principal Residence Subtitle B: Other Provisions Title II: Pension Simplification Subtitle A: Simplified Distribution Rules Subtitle B: Increased Access to Pension Plans Subtitle C: Nondiscrimination Provisions Subtitle D: Miscellaneous Simplification Title III: Treatment of Large Partnerships Subtitle A: General Provisions Subtitle B: Provisions Related to TEFRA Partnership Proceedings Title IV: Foreign Provisions Subtitle A: Simplification of Treatment of Passive Foreign Corporations Subtitle B: Treatment of Controlled Foreign Corporations Subtitle C: Other Provisions Title V: Other Income Tax Provisions Subtitle A: Provisions Relating to Subchapter S Corporations Subtitle B: Accounting Provision Subtitle C: Provisions Relating to Regulated Investment Companies Subtitle D: Tax-Exempt Bond Provisions Subtitle E: Insurance Provisions Subtitle F: Other Provisions Title VI: Estate And Gift Tax Provisions Title VII: Excise Tax Simplification Subtitle A: Provisions Related to Distilled Spirits, Wines, and Beer Subtitle B: Other Excise Tax Provisions Title VIII: Administrative Provisions Subtitle A: General Provisions Subtitle B: Tax Court Procedures Subtitle C: Authority for Certain Cooperative Agreements Subtitle D: Administrative Practice and Procedural Simplification Title IX: Financing Provisions Title X: Technical Corrections Subtitle A: Revenue Provisions Subtitle B: Income Security and Human Resource Amendments Subtitle C: Tariff and Customs Tax Simplification and Technical Corrections Act of 1993 - Title I: Provisions Relating to Individuals - Subtitle A: Provisions Relating to Rollover of Gain on Sale of Principal Residence - Allows gain to be rolled over from one residence to another in the order the residences are purchased and used, regardless of reasons for the sale of the old residence. (Sec. 102) Sets forth a two-year residence rule for taxpayers who sell a residence pursuant to a divorce or marital separation for purposes of determining the rollover of gain on the sale of a principal residence. Subtitle B: Other Provisions - Provides an exception to the passive loss rules if the loss does not exceed $200. (Sec. 112) Permits the payment of taxes by credit cards to the extent provided by regulations. (Sec. 113) Modifies the election to claim a child's unearned income on the parent's return. (Sec. 114) Establishes a foreign tax credit limitation for individuals whose gross income is from sources outside the United States, consists entirely of qualified passive income, and the amount of creditable foreign taxes does not exceed $200. (Sec. 115) Excludes certain personal transactions from foreign currency rules. (Sec. 116) Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to report to specified congressional committees on expanded access to simplified individual income tax returns and other actions taken to simplify them. (Sec. 117) Provides that the amount allowed as a deduction to rural mail carriers for the business expense of a vehicle shall be equal to qualified reimbursements. Amends the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988 to repeal the rule on the business use of automobiles by rural mail carriers. (Sec. 118) Limits the exclusion of combat pay from withholding to the amount excludable from gross income. Title II: Pension Simplification - Subtitle A: Simplified Distribution Rules - Repeals: (1) the $5,000 limitation on the exclusion of employees' death benefits; and (2) the five-year forward income averaging for lump-sum distributions. (Sec. 203) Establishes a method of taxing annuity payments by taking into account the investment in the contract and the number of anticipated payments. (Sec. 204) Requires qualified plans to allow participants to elect to have distributions transferred directly to another qualified plan. Subtitle B: Increased Access to Pension Plans - Modifies certain simplified employee pensions with respect to allowable participants and participation requirements. (Sec. 212) Allows local governments and tax-exempt organizations to participate in cash or deferred arrangements. (Sec. 213) Authorizes the Secretary, as a condition of sponsorship, to prescribe rules defining the duties and responsibilities of certain master and prototype retirement plans. Subtitle C: Nondiscrimination Provisions - Redefines the term "highly compensated employee" for pension, profitsharing, stock bonus plan, etc. purposes. Makes such an employee one who is a five-percent owner or who has compensation from the employer in excess of $50,000. Provides a special rule where no employees are treated as highly compensated. (Sec. 222) Provides alternative methods of satisfying the special nondiscrimination requirements applicable to elective deferrals and employer matching contributions. (Sec. 223) Modifies the two-part nondiscrimination test for elective contributions under cash or deferred arrangements by permitting the use of the average deferral percentage for nonhighly compensated employees for the preceding year to be used in determining the permitted average deferral percentage for highly compensated employees for the current year. Subtitle D: Miscellaneous Simplification - Revises the definition of a leased employee to mean one whose services are performed under the control of a service recipient, instead of one whose services are historically performed by employees. (Sec. 232) Provides that the cost-of-living adjustment with respect to any calendar year is based on the increase in the applicable index as of the close of the calendar quarter ending September of the preceding calendar year. Requires the rounding of such amounts. (Sec. 233) Establishes a contribution limit for owner-employees of retirement plans. (Sec. 234) Eliminates the special vesting rule for multiemployer plans. (Sec. 236) Permits certain employers to elect an alternative full funding limitation with respect to any defined benefit plan based solely on the accrued liability under such plan. Requires the Secretary to adjust the 150-percent current liability full funding limit for other plans if there is a revenue shortfall. (Sec. 237) Allows rural cooperative plans which include cash or deferred arrangements to make distributions to participants after attainment of age 59 1/2. (Sec. 238) Modifies the treatment of governmental plans with respect to limits on contributions and benefits. (Sec. 239) Makes the social security retirement age the uniform retirement age for purposes of discrimination testing. (Sec. 240) Makes uniform the penalty provisions applicable to certain pension reporting requirements. (Sec. 242) Treats certain nonunion air pilots as a separate class of employees for nondiscrimination testing purposes. (Sec. 243) Provides special rules for distributions of deferred compensation plans of State and local governments and tax-exempt organizations. (Sec. 244) Provides that, for purposes of the excise tax, an employer reversion does not include certain amounts paid to the Federal Government by reason of certain government contracting regulations. (Sec. 245) Requires continuation of health coverage for employees, including retired employees, of failed financial institutions. Title III: Treatment of Large Partnerships - Subtitle A: General Provisions - Establishes special rules for large partnerships (250 or more partners) with respect to: (1) determining the income tax of a partner; and (2) computing the taxable income of a large partnership. Provides that a large partnership does not include one where: (1) substantially all of the activities involve the performance of personal services by individuals owning interests in such partnerships; or (2) 25 percent or more of partnership assets consist of oil or gas properties. (Sec. 302) Establishes simplified audit procedures for large partnerships. Requires a partner's return to be consistent with the partnership return. Allows partnerships to take adjustments into account through an imputed underpayment procedure or a flow-through-to-partners procedure. Authorizes and directs the Secretary to make adjustments at the partnership level in any partnership item to the extent necessary to have such item treated in the manner required, after notifying the partnership of such adjustment through certified or registered mail. Specifies certain restrictions on such adjustments. Provides for judicial review of such adjustment with the Tax Court, the appropriate district court, or the Claims Court. Prohibits any adjustments from being made three years after the later of the date on which the return was filed, or the last day for filing such return, except in specified cases. Allows a partnership to file a request for an administrative adjustment of partnership items during such time periods and provides for judicial review where such request is not allowed in full. (Sec. 303) Requires large partnerships to furnish information returns to partners by the first March 15 following the close of the partnership's tax year. (Sec. 304) Authorizes the Secretary to require large partnerships, or any other partnership with 250 or more partners, to file their returns on magnetic media. Subtitle B: Provisions Related to TEFRA Partnership Proceedings - Revises and sets forth new provisions relating to TEFRA (Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982) partnership proceedings. (Sec. 311) Provides for a declaratory judgment procedure in the Tax Court for treatment of non-partnership items with respect to an oversheltered return. Describes an oversheltered return as one which above no taxable income and a net loss from partnership items. (Sec. 312) Provides for the partnership return to be determinative of the audit procedure to be followed. (Sec. 313) Suspends the period of limitation for making assessments for a partner who is named in a bankruptcy petition. Provides a special rule for a tax matters partner in bankruptcy. (Sec. 314) Permits a small partnership to have a C corporation as a partner. (Sec. 315) Excludes a partial settlement agreement from the one-year limitation on assessment. (Sec. 316) Provides that if a TEFRA statute extension agreement is entered into, that agreement also extends the statute of limitations for filing refund claims until six months after the expiration of the limitations period for assessments. (Sec. 317) Provides a prepayment forum and a refund forum for raising the innocent spouse defense in TEFRA cases. (Sec. 318) Provides that partnership level proceedings include a determination of the applicability of penalties at the partnership level. Allows partners to raise any partner-level defenses in a refund forum. (Sec. 319) Specifies that an action to enjoin premature assessments of deficiencies attributable to partnership items may be brought in the Tax Court. Permits a party to appear before a court for the sole purpose of assessing that the period of limitations for assessing any tax attributable to partnership items has expired for that person. (Sec. 320) Provides for the treatment of premature petitions filed by notice partners or five-percent groups. (Sec. 321) Provides that the amount of the bond to stay assessment and collection should be based on the Tax Court's estimate of the aggregate liability of the parties to the action (and not all of the partners in the partners in the partnership). (Sec. 322) Suspends interest where there is a delay in computational adjustment resulting from TEFRA settlements. (Sec. 323) Grants a partner seven years (in lieu of three years) to request an administrative adjustment with respect to bad debts or worthless securities. Title IV: Foreign Provisions - Subtitle A: Simplification of Treatment of Passive Foreign Corporations - Repeals foreign personal holding company rules and foreign investment company rules. Exempts foreign corporations from the accumulated earnings tax and personal holding company rules. Provides for the treatment of personal service contracts under controlled foreign corporation rules. (Sec. 402) Replaces repealed provisions with revised rules for passive foreign corporations. Provides for taxing U.S. income on stock in passive foreign corporations through three alternative methods: (1) mark-to-market: (2) current inclusion; and (3) interest charge on excess distributions. Subjects less-than-25-percent shareholders of passive foreign corporations that are not U.S.-controlled, and who do not elect current inclusion, to the mark-to-market method or the interest-charge method for taxing income. Provides that if a passive foreign corporation is U.S.-controlled then every U.S. person owning stock in such corporation is subject to income inclusions under a modified version of controlled foreign corporation rules. Declares with regard to the mark-to-market method that: (1) if the fair market value of stock exceeds its adjusted basis, then the U.S. person shall include in gross income an amount equal to the amount of the excess; and (2) if the adjusted basis of stock exceeds the fair market value then the person shall be allowed a deduction equal to the lesser of the amount of such excess, or the unreversed inclusions. Describes a passive foreign corporation as any foreign corporation if: (1) 60 percent or more of its gross income is passive income; (2) the average percentage of assets which produce passive income or which are held for the production of passive income is at least 50 percent; or (3) such corporation is registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, either as a management company or as a unit investment trust. Provides for the treatment of mark-to-market gain for purposes of the excise tax on undistributed income of regulated investment companies. Subtitle B: Treatment of Controlled Foreign Corporations - Provides that if a controlled foreign corporation sells or exchanges stocks in other foreign corporations, then gain recognized on such sale or exchange shall be included in the gross income of such corporation as a dividend to the same extent that it would have been included if such corporation were a U.S. person. (Sec. 412) Revises provisions concerning: (1) determining pro rata share of gain from certain sales or exchanges of stock in certain foreign corporations; (2) basis adjustments in stock held by lower-tier foreign corporations; (3) determination of previously taxed income in redemptions through use of related corporations; and (4) treatment of branch profits tax exemptions or reductions. (Sec. 413) Extends the application of the indirect foreign tax credit to certain controlled corporations below the third tier. Subtitle C: Other Provisions - Establishes new rules for the translation of certain accrued foreign taxes. Modifies present rules for translating all other foreign taxes. (Sec. 422) Permits the use of the simplified limitation on the foreign tax credit in determining the alternative minimum tax foreign tax credit. (Sec. 423) Modifies the excise tax on outbound transfers to avoid income tax. Title V: Other Income Tax Provisions - Subtitle A: Provisions Relating to Subchapter S Corporations - Allows the Secretary to validate an invalid S corporation election by a small business corporation where the failure to properly elect S status was inadvertent or untimely. (Sec. 502) Requires that adjustments for distributions by an S corporation during a taxable year be taken into account before applying the loss for a year in determining the amount in the accumulated adjustment account. (Sec. 503) Allows a small business trust to be an S corporation shareholder. (Sec. 504) Repeals the rule that treats an S corporation in its capacity as a shareholder of another corporation as an individual. Repeals the rule that an S corporation may not be a member of an affiliated group of corporations. Eliminates the need to keep records of certain generally small amounts of earnings arising before 1983. Provides for the treatment of inherited stock. Subtitle B: Accounting Provision - Revises the look-back method for long-term contracts and provides that for purposes of such method, only one rate of interest is to apply for each accrual period. Subtitle C: Provisions Relating to Regulated Investment Companies - Repeals the requirement that less than 30 percent of the gross income of a regulated investment company be derived from the sale or disposition of any of the following which were held for less than three months: (1) stock or securities; (2) options, futures, or forward contracts (other than those on foreign currencies); or (3) certain foreign currencies. (Sec. 522) Requires a broker to include on an information return with respect to gross proceeds from any disposition of stock in an open-end regulated investment company: (1) the basis of the stock disposed of; and (2) the portion of gross proceeds attributable to stock held for more than one year and the portion not so attributable (using a first-in, first-out basis). Defines an open-end regulated investment company as one which offers for sale or has outstanding any redeemable security of which it is the issuer. Sets forth special rules for determining the basis of stock in such companies. Modifies the load basis deferral rule for certain acquisitions. (Sec. 523) Permits a common trust fund to transfer substantially all of its assets to a regulated investment company without gain or loss being recognized by the fund or its participants under specified circumstances. Subtitle D: Tax-Exempt Bond Provisions - Repeals the $100,000 limitation on unspent proceeds under the one-year exception from arbitrage rebate requirements. (Sec. 532) Exempts earnings on bond proceeds invested in bona fide debt service funds from the arbitrage rebate requirements and the penalty requirement of the 24-month exception if the spending requirements of that exception are otherwise satisfied. (Sec. 533) Repeals the debt service-based limitation on investment in certain nonpurpose investments. Subtitle E: Insurance Provisions - Provides for the treatment of life insurance variable contracts on retired lives and sets forth special rules for modified guaranteed contracts. Subtitle F: Other Provisions - Provides that the taxable year of a partnership closes with respect to a partner whose entire interest in the partnership terminates, whether by death, liquidation, or otherwise. (Sec. 552) Modifies the credit for producing fuel from a nonconventional source. Title VI: Estate and Gift Tax Provisions - Allows the right of recovery with respect to qualified terminable interest property (for which a marital deduction is allowed) to be waived in a will only by specific reference. (Sec. 602) Provides that a transfer from a revocable trust within three years of death does not result in the inclusion of the transfer in the gross estate. (Sec. 603) Revises the qualified terminable interest rules with respect to a trust and the marital deduction. (Sec. 604) Provides that a trust created before the enactment of the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1990 is treated as satisfying the withholding requirement if its trust instrument require that all trustees be U.S. citizens or domestic corporations. (Sec. 605) Directs the Secretary to prescribe procedures which provide that executors will have the opportunity to submit subsequent information on a recapture agreement in the filing of an estate tax return. Title VII: Excise Tax Simplification - Subtitle A: Provisions Related to Distilled Spirits, Wines, and Beer - Makes refunds available for imported bottled distilled spirits returned to distilled spirits plants. (Sec. 702) Permits records of exportation to be maintained by the exporter for purposes of canceling or crediting bonds furnished when distilled spirits are removed from bonded premises. (Sec. 703) Permits distilled spirits plants to maintain records of their activities at locations other than the premises where the operations covered by the records are performed. (Sec. 704) Allows beer to be transferred without payment of tax from a brewery to a distilled spirits plant to be used in the production of distilled spirits regardless of whether the brewery is contiguous to the distilled spirits plant. (Sec. 705) Repeals the requirement that wholesale liquor dealers post a sign outside their place of business indicating that they are wholesale liquor dealers. (Sec. 706) Repeals the requirement that wine returned to bonded premises be unmerchantable in order for tax to be refunded to the proprietor of the bonded wine cellar to which the wine is delivered. (Sec. 707) Allows the use of ameliorating material in certain wines made exclusively from a fruit or berry. (Sec. 708) Allows domestically-produced beer to be withdrawn from the place of production without payment of tax for the official or family use of representatives of foreign governments or public international organizations. (Sec. 709) Allows beer to be removed from a brewery without payment of tax for purposes of destruction. (Sec. 711) Provides for imported beer to be withdrawn from customs custody for transfer to a brewery without payment of tax. Subtitle B: Other Excise Tax Provisions - Authorizes the exemption from registration requirements of certain tax-free sales. Title VIII: Administrative Provisions - Subtitle A: General Provisions - Allows reproductions of returns in digital image format by the Internal Revenue Service. Requires the Comptroller General of the United States to conduct a study of available digital image technology and report to a specified congressional committees. (Sec. 802) Repeals: (1) the authority to disclose whether a prospective juror has been audited; and (2) special audit provisions regarding the tax treatment of subchapter S corporations. (Sec. 804) Provides an explanation of the statute of limitations with respect to the return of a taxpayer. (Sec. 805) Allows corporations to disregard any letter or notice of assessment or proposed assessment of tax if the deficiency or proposed deficiency is less than $100,000. Subtitle B: Tax Court Procedures - Provides that an order to refund an overpayment is appealable in the same manner as a decision of the Tax Court. Declares that the Tax Court shall not have jurisdiction over the validity or merits of the credits or offsets that reduce or eliminate the refund to which the taxpayer was otherwise entitled. (Sec. 812) Provides that a taxpayer who seeks an award of administrative costs must apply for such costs within 90 days of the date on which the taxpayer was determined to be a prevailing party. Provides that a taxpayer who appeals a denial of administrative costs must petition the Tax Court within 90 days after the date that the IRS mails the denial notice. (Sec. 813) Provides that a taxpayer must file a motion (rather than a petition) to seek a redetermination of interest in the Tax Court. (Sec. 814) Provides that the net worth limitations applicable to individuals also apply to estates and trusts. Provides that individuals who file a joint tax return shall be treated as one individual for purposes of computing the net worth limitations. Subtitle C: Authority for Certain Cooperative Agreements - Authorizes the Secretary to enter into cooperative agreements with State tax authorities for purposes of enhancing joint tax administration. Subtitle D: Administrative Practice and Procedural Simplification - Requires prior notification to taxpayers under an installment agreement to pay tax liability before altering, modifying, or terminating such an agreement. Provides for administrative review of denials of requests for, or termination of, installment agreements. (Sec. 832) Removes limitations on filing a joint return after filing separate returns. (Sec. 833) Authorizes the Secretary to offer compromises in civil or criminal cases. (Sec. 834) Establishes preliminary notice requirements for failure to pay tax. (Sec. 835) Exempts unpaid, volunteer board members of tax-exempt organizations from collection penalties if they do not have actual knowledge of the failure on which penalties are imposed. (Sec. 836) Revises provisions on the required content of tax due, deficiency, and other notices. (Sec. 837) Requires notice to a taxpayer of payments that the Secretary cannot associate with any outstanding tax liability of such taxpayer. (Sec. 838) Directs the Secretary to: (1) provide improved procedures for taxpayers to notify the Secretary of changes in names and addresses; and (2) include in the IRS publication entitled "Your Rights As a Taxpayer" a section on the rights and responsibilities of divorced individuals. Title IX: Financing Provisions - Treats as unrelated business taxable income: (1) certain dividends paid by foreign corporations to tax-exempt entities; and (2) certain income derived from controlled foreign corporations that would be included in the income of such tax-exempt entities. (Sec. 902) Applies the special rule for the rental use of a dwelling for less than 15 days per year to certain rental use where the community holding the event cannot provide sufficient commercial accommodations. (Sec. 904) Repeals the exemption from the withholding tax for bingo and keno for winnings of more than $10,000. Title X: Technical Corrections - Subtitle A: Revenue Provisions - Makes technical corrections to amendments related to: (1) the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1990 (Title XI of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990); and (2) the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993 (Title XIV of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993). Subtitle B: Income Security and Human Resource Amendments - Makes technical corrections to the Social Security Act and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 relating to the Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance program (OASDI). (Sec. 1012) Eliminates certain dollar rounding requirements with respect to OASDI benefits, the earnings test exemption, and adjustments to the health insurance tax contribution base. (Sec. 1016) Makes technical corrections to the Social Security Act, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act), and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 to make technical corrections related to income security and human resources provisions. Subtitle C: Tariff and Customs - Makes technical amendments to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, the Customs and Trade Act of 1990, the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, the Andean Preference Act, and the Tariff Act of 1930.
United States · United States Congress · 28 October 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Pension Plan Funding Subtitle A: Amendments to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 Subtitle B: Amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 Title II: Amendments Related to Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 Title III: Participant Services Title IV: Miscellaneous Amendments Title V: Effective Dates Retirement Protection Act of 1993 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to revise provisions for pension plan funding, compliance, premiums, and participant protection and services. Title I: Pension Plan Funding - Subtitle A: Amendments to the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 - Amends IRC requirements for pension plan funding, including: (1) minimum funding, revising additional funding requirements for single-employer plans; (2) limitation on changes in current liability assumptions; (3) recognition of already bargained changes in liability; (4) modification of the quarterly contribution requirement; and (5) exceptions to the excise tax on nondeductible contributions. Subtitle B: Amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 - Amends ERISA requirements for pension plan funding, including: (1) minimum funding, revising additional funding requirements for single-employer plans; (2) limitation on changes in current liability assumptions; (3) recognition of already bargained changes in liability; and (4) modification of the quarterly contribution requirement. Title II: Amends Relating to Title IV of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 - Amends title IV (Plan Termination Insurance) of ERISA to revise requirements relating to reportable events. Authorizes the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to apply for judicial review other than involuntary termination. Requires that specified additional information be furnished to the PBGC. Adds provisions relating to liability upon liquidation of a contributing sponsor or controlled group member where a single-employer plan remains ongoing. Revises provisions for: (1) enforcement of minimum funding requirements; and (2) remedies for noncompliance with requirements for standard termination. Prohibits benefit increases or other changes which increase plan liabilities where a plan sponsor is in bankruptcy. Revises provisions relating to substantial owner benefits to modify the phase-in of guarantee and the allocation of assets. Phases out the variable rate premium cap. Title III: Participant Services - Amends ERISA to require the plan administrator of a plan subject to a specified additional premium to notify plan participants and beneficiaries of the plan's funding status and the limits on the PBGC's guaranty should the plan terminate while underfunded. Adds provisions relating to missing participants. Revises provisions relating to modification of the maximum guarantee for disability benefits. Title IV: Miscellaneous Amendments - Amends IRC and ERISA with respect to: (1) citation of this Act; (2) definition of contributing sponsor; (3) recovery ratio; (4) distress termination criteria for banking institutions; (5) single sum distributions; (6) adjustments to the lien for missed minimum funding contributions; (7) rounding rules for cost of living adjustments; (8) limitation on cross-testing in defined contribution plans; and (9) funding of restored plans. Title V: Effective Dates - Sets forth effective dates for this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 29 September 1993
Unemployment Compensation Amendments of 1993 - Amends the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 1991 to extend the authorization for new claims for benefits under the emergency unemployment compensation (EUC) program to February 5, 1994. Reduces the number of benefit weeks available during such extended period after October 2, 1993, to seven or 13, as applicable. Modifies the final phase-out period for continuation of claims. Repeals provisions which allow certain claimants who have exhausted benefits to choose EUC benefits in lieu of regular State benefits at the beginning of a new benefit year. Amends the Social Security Act to require the State agency administering the State unemployment law to establish and use a system of worker profiling of all new claimants for regular compensation to: (1) identify which claimants will be likely to exhaust regular compensation and will need job search assistance services; (2) refer identified claimants to reemployment services available under State or Federal law; and (3) collect follow-up information on such services and employment outcomes. Directs the Secretary of Labor to report to the congress on such profiling system. Makes a technical amendment to Unemployment Trust Fund provisions. Extends a reporting date for an advisory council on unemployment compensation. Provides for a temporary increase in the sponsorship period for aliens under the supplemental security income program.
United States · United States Congress · 26 July 1993
Authorizes the President to issue a proclamation designating September 1993 as Classical Music Month.
United States · United States Congress · 26 May 1993
Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 to exclude the administrative expenses of the old-age, survivors and disability insurance programs from Federal budget calculations. Exempts such expenses from sequestration under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act). Makes technical and related corrections to the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, Social Security Act and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990.
United States · United States Congress · 26 May 1993
Amends rule I of the Rules of the House of Representatives to require the Speaker of the House to: (1) allow, at a location in the Capitol other than the Hall of the House, the unedited audio and visual broadcasting and recording of special order speeches by Members which shall not be part of the House proceedings; and (2) provide for the scheduling of such speeches by the majority and minority leaders. Gives broadcast media representatives who are accredited to the House radio and television correspondents' galleries access to live coverage of such special order speeches subject to restrictions on use for political purposes and commercial sponsorship. Eliminates special order speeches by Members from the closed circuit viewing and complete and unedited audio and visual broadcasting and recording of House proceedings.
United States · United States Congress · 18 May 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Short Title; References to Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 Titles II-XII: (Reserved) Title XIII: Committee on Ways and Means-Savings Subtitle A: Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program Subtitle D (sic): Customs and Trade Provisions Subtitle E: Customs Officer Pay Reform Subtitle B (sic): Human Resources Amendments Subtitle C: Medicare Program Title XIV: Revenue Provisions Subtitle A: Training and Investment Incentives Subtitle B: Revenue Increases Subtitle C: Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, Etc. Subtitle D: Other Provisions Title I: Short Title; References to Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 - Ways and Means Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 - Deems any reference in this Act to the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 to be a reference to the Ways and Means Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993. Titles II-XII: (Reserved) Title XIII: Committee on Ways and Means: Savings - Subtitle A: Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance Program - Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 (OMBRA '90) to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Secretary) to reestablish and maintain in service the same number of telephone lines to each local social security office that were in place on September 30, 1989. (Sec. 13002) Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to raise the threshold at which election services become subject to social security employment taxes. (Sec. 13003) Amends SSA title II to: (1) permit States which already collect social security numbers under current law to use them to eliminate duplicate names and names of convicted felons from jury source lists; (2) extend to all States the option to provide police officers and firefighters participating in a public retirement system with social security coverage under voluntary agreements with the Secretary; (3) disregard the windfall elimination provision in computing any U.S. totalization benefit and the amount of a regular U.S. benefit of an individual who receives a foreign totalization benefit based in part on U.S. employment, and who does not receive any other pension which is based on noncovered employment; (4) provide that military pensions based wholly on service in the military reserves before 1988 shall not trigger application of the Government pension offset or windfall elimination provision to the individual's social security benefits; (5) repeal the facility-of-payment provision; (6) make the guaranteed primary insurance amount the basis for calculating the guaranteed maximum family benefit; (7) make unauthorized disclosure of information and fraudulent attempts to obtain personal information under SSA a felony, and increase penalties for such offenses; (8) increase the time for which an extension may be granted for filing an annual earnings report; (9) permit the Department of Agriculture to share its list of names, social security numbers, and employer identification numbers of the owners and officers of retail grocery stores which redeem food stamps with other Federal agencies for the purpose of investigating food stamp fraud and violations of other Federal laws; (10) prohibit the misuse of Department of the Treasury names, symbols, etc.; (11) prohibit a State from using an individual's social security number in the administration of any driver's license or motor vehicle registration law where the State has not entered into a contract to provide death certificate and related information to the Secretary, or where such a contract restricts the Secretary's use of death information; and (12) require the Secretary to study improvements in gathering and reporting of death information. (Sec. 13005) Exempts from payment liability and penalties any ministers who were American citizens and residents of Canada prior to the 1984 totalization agreement between the United States and Canada and failed to file a tax return or pay self-employment taxes. (Sec. 13010) Amends IRC to: (1) authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to disclose information from tax returns on individuals' mortality status to the Secretary for epidemiological research purposes; (2) provide for the coordination of the collection of domestic service employment taxes with the collection of income taxes; and (3) change threshold requirements with respect to social security employment taxes on domestic services. (Sec. 13015) Requires the Secretary to study the rising costs of disability benefits for a report to the Congress with recommendations for legislative changes. (Sec. 13016) Amends the Social Security Disability Amendments of 1980 to extend the Secretary's authority to conduct disability work incentive demonstration projects. Subtitle D (sic): Customs and Trade Provisions - Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to authorize appropriations for the United States International Trade Commission (ITC). Prohibits use of such funds for any special study, investigation, or report requested by an agency of the executive branch unless such agency reimburses the ITC for its costs. (Sec. 13601) Amends the Customs Procedural Reform and Simplification Act of 1978 to authorize appropriations for the United States Customs Service for: (1) noncommercial and commercial operations; and (2) the air and marine interdiction programs. Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to authorize appropriations for the Office of the United States Trade Representative. (Sec. 13602) Amends the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) to extend the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury to collect customs user fees. (Sec. 13603) Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to remove the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the list of countries ineligible for designation as a beneficiary developing country under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP). Extends duty-free treatment provided under the GSP. (Sec. 13604) Extends the worker trade adjustment assistance program (trade adjustment assistance benefits for workers adversely affected by import competition or the relocation of U.S. production facilities abroad) as well as authorization of appropriations for it. (Sec. 13605) Amends the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 to extend the authority of the President, for a specified period of time, to enter into trade agreements with foreign countries for the reduction or elimination of tariff or nontariff barriers if the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has not resulted in such trade agreements by May 31, 1993. Provides that implementing bills involving tariff and nontariff trade agreements shall be effective only if, among other things, the President, at least 120 calendar days (currently, 90 days) before he enters into such agreement, notifies the Congress of his intention to enter into it, and publishes such intention in the Federal Register. Extends congressional "fast track procedures" to such implementing bills through April 16, 1994. (Sec. 13606) Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to eliminate the East-West Trade Statistics Monitoring System. Subtitle E: Customs Officer Pay Reform - Amends Federal law to revise the pay system for United States Customs Service Inspectors (customs inspectors). (Sec. 13702) Authorizes cash awards to customs officers for foreign language proficiency. (Sec. 13703) Amends the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) to provide for reimbursement of appropriations from the Customs User Fee Account (Account) for agency retirement contributions. (Sec. 13704) Amends Federal law with regard to the treatment of certain pay of customs officers for retirement purposes. (Sec. 13705) Revises COBRA congressional reporting requirements respecting Account reimbursements. Requires additional General Accounting Office reports to the Congress concerning the financing of overtime inspectional services through user fees. Subtitle B: (sic) Human Resources Amendments - Chapter 1: Child Welfare Services, Foster Care, and Adoption Assistance - Amends SSA title IV part B (Child-Welfare Services) to: (1) create a capped entitlement program to provide child welfare services designed to strengthen and preserve families; (2) repeal provisions linking the payment of certain SSA title IV part B funds to the implementation of certain protections for children in foster care; (3) require that the State part B plan provide for the foster care protections currently outlined in such provisions as well as for State review of its procedures in effect for children abandoned at or shortly after birth, as well as enactment of any procedures necessary to enable permanent child placement decisions to be made expeditiously; (4) provide that the funds withheld or recovered from a State owing to its failure to comply with such protections may not be reallotted among other States; (5) require State part B plans to contain a description of the specific measures taken by the State to comply with the Indian Child Welfare Act; and (6) provide for child welfare traineeships. (Sec. 13212) Directs the Secretary to provide grants for State courts to assess and improve proceedings relating to foster care placement and adoption. (Sec. 13216) Amends SSA title IV part E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance) (FCAA) to: (1) change the reimbursement policy with respect to foster care maintenance payments made on behalf of certain children whose adoption has been set aside by a court or whose voluntary placement in foster care has been judicially determined to be in the best interests of the child; (2) provide for 90 (and later 50) percent matching of State expenditures for planning, design, development, or installation of statewide mechanized data collection and information retrieval systems, and 50 percent matching of State expenditures for operation of the systems; (3) require States to review periodically their foster care maintenance payment and adoption assistance levels to ensure their continuing appropriateness; (4) revise the case review system to provide that hearings after the initial dispositional hearing take place at least every 12 months, rather than periodically; (5) require the health and education records in each child's case plan to include a record that the foster care provider was advised (where appropriate) of the child's eligibility for early and periodic Medicaid screening, diagnostic, and treatment services; (6) provide for the treatment of assets of youths participating in the independent living program; (7) make permanent the authorization for the independent living program; (8) repeal authority to transfer unused foster care funds to the child welfare services program; (9) require the Secretary to promulgate regulations for on-site reviews and audits of State expenditures for foster care maintenance and adoption assistance payments; (10) set forth case plan requirements for children placed in foster care a substantial distance from their homes or in a different State; (11) require the dispositional hearing for a child placed in foster care in a different State to determine whether the out-of-State placement continues to be appropriate and in the child's best interests; (12) require the adoption and foster care data collection system to provide information on the number and characteristics of children placed in foster care outside the State; and (13) codify Federal regulations providing a timetable for the treatment of State claims for foster care and adoption assistance. (Sec. 13218) Directs the Secretary to study and report to the Congress on the ways in which States implement the reasonable efforts requirements for State SSA title IV part E plans. (Sec. 13225) Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 (OMBRA '89) to extend permanently (and retroactively to October 1, 1992) the level of Federal reimbursement under SSA title IV part E for the training of personnel employed or preparing for employment by the State or local child welfare agency, and for the training of foster and adoptive parents. (Sec. 13227) Amends SSA title XI part A to: (1) bar the Secretary from imposing financial penalties on States for the failure of State programs under SSA title IV parts B and E to comply with State plan requirements, except pursuant to final regulations meeting specified requirements; (2) provide for certain demonstration projects to promote the objectives of such parts; and (3) overturn certain limitations in Suter v. Artist M. on private enforceability of State plan requirements. (Sec. 13232) Prohibits the Secretary: (1) until October 1, 1994, from reducing any payment to, withholding any payments from, or seeking any repayments from any State under SSA title IV parts B or E by reason of a determination in connection with a review of State compliance with SSA title IV part B foster care protections; and (2) from reducing any payments to, withholding any payments from, or seeking any repayments from any State under SSA title IV part E by reason of a determination in connection with any on-site Federal financial review, or any audit conducted by the Inspector General using similar methodologies. (Sec. 13233) Requires the Secretary to make grants to eligible institutions to train individuals to deliver culturally sensitive and bilingual child welfare services in border areas with Mexico. Authorizes appropriations. Chapter 2: Child Support Enforcement - Amends SSA title IV part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) to: (1) set up new paternity establishment performance standards and procedures for State child support enforcement programs; (2) outline State SSA title IV part D plan requirements applicable to health insurers, employers, and State Medicaid agencies with regard to health insurance coverage for children of parents subject to a support order; and (3) require State child support enforcement agencies to periodically report, at no charge, the names of obligors at least two months delinquent in child support payments to bona fide consumer reporting agencies capable of making accurate use of such information. Chapter 3: Supplemental Security Income - Amends SSA title XVI (Supplemental Security Income) (SSI) and other Federal law to: (1) require the Social Security Administration to charge States fees for the Federal cost of administering State supplemental SSI payments; and (2) require the Secretary to charge fees for additional services requested by the State that are beyond the level customarily provided in administering such payments. (Sec. 13252) Amends OMBRA '90 to make permanent the exclusion of State and local relocation assistance from countable income under SSI. (Sec. 13253) Amends SSA title XVI to: (1) deem to be living in a household a spouse or parent of family members on SSI who is absent from the household solely because of active duty military assignment; (2) exclude hazardous duty pay received while on active military duty from countable income; (3) continue SSI benefits to children who are U.S. citizens if they received SSI in the United States and then accompany their parents on military assignment to any U.S. territory or possession; and (4) extend the SSI definition of disability for children under 18 to any person under 18. (Sec. 13257) Amends Federal law to exempt income of up to $2,000 per year received by individual Indians that is derived from leases on individually-owned trust or restricted Indian lands in determining eligibility and benefit levels under AFDC (SSA title IV part A) and SSI. Chapter 4: Aid to Families with Dependent Children - (Sec. 13261) Amends SSA title IV part A to: (1) reduce to 50 percent the enhanced Federal matching available for certain categories of State administrative expenses; (2) make optional a State's verification of an individual's immigration status with the Immigration and Naturalization Service through an immigration status verification system; (3) delay Federal requirements regarding AFDC-UP participation rates; and (4) increase the amount of stepparent earnings disregarded in determining the eligibility and benefit amounts of AFDC recipients and applicants. (Sec. 13263) Amends SSA title IV part F (Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program) (JOBS) to require the Secretary to develop criteria for performance standards in the JOBS program, rather than performance standards themselves, by a certain date. (Sec. 13264) States that the Congress hereby declares that: (1) it is the policy and responsibility of the Federal Government to reduce the rate and degree to which families depend on income from welfare programs, to assist them toward self-sufficiency, and to increase the living standards of low-income families; and (2) the Federal Government should help welfare recipients as well as individuals at risk of welfare participation to improve their education and job skills, to obtain access to high quality child care and other necessary support services, and to take such other steps as may assist them to meet their responsibilities to become financially independent. Directs the Secretary to develop welfare participation measures and predictors, and report annually on welfare participation to specified congressional committees. Establishes the Advisory Board on Welfare Participation to assist the Secretary in the development of such measures and predictors. (Sec. 13265) Directs the Secretary to provide for a demonstration project offering low-income residents of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, employment, wage supplements, health and child care, and counseling and training for job retention or advancement. (Sec. 13266) Amends the Family Support Act of 1988 to: (1) delay the requirement for implementation of the Unemployed Parent program in Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, and American Soma until the limitations on Federal matching payments to these jurisdictions with respect to AFDC and FCAA maintenance payments are repealed; and (2) extend the authorization for early childhood development projects. (Sec. 13269) Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 (OMBRA '87) to extend New York State's Child Assistance Program demonstration. (Sec. 13267) Amends SSA title XI to provide that, with respect to AFDC, one adult member of a family or household may sign, under penalty of perjury, a declaration attesting to the citizenship or satisfactory immigration status of other family or household members. Permits an adult to sign a declaration on behalf of a newly born child no later than the next eligibility redetermination date. Chapter 5: Unemployment Insurance - Amends IRC and SSA title III (Unemployment Compensation) to provide for the treatment of short-time compensation programs under which individuals whose workweeks have been reduced by at least ten percent (especially as an alternative to a temporary layoff) are eligible for unemployment compensation, under certain conditions. (Sec. 13275) Amends the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970 to increase the reimbursement rate and repeal special eligibility requirements under the extended unemployment program. (Sec. 13276) Amends IRC to: (1) extend the current Federal unemployment tax rate; and (2) require disclosure of information about certain taxes to the Railroad Retirement Board for purposes of its administration of the Railroad Retirement and Railroad Unemployment Insurance Acts. Chapter 6: Technical Provisions - Makes technical corrections related to the income security and human resources provisions of OMBRAs '89 and '90. (Sec. 13283) Amends SSA title XVI to repeal certain obsolete provisions relating to treatment of the earned income tax credit. Subtitle C: Medicare Program - Chapter 1: Provisions Relating to Part A - Subchapter A: Elimination of Inflation Update for Services Provided under Part A: - Amends SSA title XVIII (Medicare) to eliminate updates for inpatient hospital services and hospice care under Medicare part A in FY 1994 and 1995. (Sec. 13402) Prohibits the Secretary from applying an update factor to the cost limits for skilled nursing facility cost reporting periods beginning in FY 1994 and 1995. Subchapter B: Other Provisions Relating to Part A - Amends SSA title XVIII to: (1) provide that a change in classification of hospitals from one area to another cannot result in a reduction in the wage index for an urban area if the area has a wage index below the rural wage index for the State or if the area is the only urban area in a State with no rural areas; (2) change certain requirements with respect to the standards for designating metropolitan statistical areas that are used in determining treatment of certain hospitals in rural counties adjacent to one or more urban areas; (3) require the Secretary to phase out payments for day outlier cases starting in FY 1995; (4) revise and authorize appropriations for the Essential Access Community Hospital (EACH) demonstration program; (5) provide for a prospective payment system for determining payments for outpatient rural primary care hospital services; (6) continue special payments for Medicare-dependent, small rural hospitals for discharges occurring through FY 1994, with reduced payments for certain discharges; (7) extend the regional floor provision with respect to certain hospital discharges the payment for which is set at 85 percent of the national amount and 15 percent of the regional amount; (8) allow to participate in Medicare hospitals where the care of patients receiving qualified psychologist services is under a clinical psychologist; (9) provide for additional medical education payments for interns and residents providing services at a community heath center under a hospital's ownership or control; (10) require skilled nursing facilities to inform beneficiaries of the hospice benefit under Medicare, except under certain conditions; (11) reduce the part A premium, on a phase-in basis, for individuals with 30 or more quarters of social security coverage (and their spouses); (12) require the Secretary to update periodically the salary equivalency guidelines for physical therapy and respiratory therapy services using the most recent available data; and (13) provide that diagnosis-related group (DRG) window provisions will not apply to hospitals that are not paid on a DRG basis. (Sec. 13414) Amends OMBRA '87 to: (1) reauthorize and extend the rural health transition grant program; and (2) provide that all hospitals classified as regional referral centers on September 30, 1992, shall retain such status through FY 1994. (Sec. 13415) Requires the Secretary to: (1) make a lump sum retroactive payment to any such hospital for payments lost as a result of the loss of its regional referral center status; and (2) provide any hospital which fails to qualify as a rural referral center as a result of its urban reclassification with the opportunity to decline such reclassification and retain rural referral center status. (Sec. 13418) Amends OMBRA '90 to require the Secretary to continue limited-service rural hospital demonstration projects through calendar 1995. (Sec. 13419) Amends OMBRA' 89 to extend the hemophilia pass-through program. (Sec. 13420) Declares that, in the case of a State with a Medicare-approved payment system, no other provision of law shall be construed as preventing the system from providing that payment for covered services be made on the basis of rates provided for under such system. (Sec. 13423) Prohibits the Secretary from taking action to recover certain amounts paid by Medicare to uniformed services treatment facilities in Boston, Baltimore, and Seattle for services that were provided between October 1, 1986, and December 31, 1989, except to the extent that funds are made available for that purpose under the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 1993. Requires a study and report to the Congress by the Secretary on establishment of joint medical facilities among the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and other public and private entities. (Sec. 13424) Requires the Secretary to: (1) review ]the DRGs assigned to discharges of patients with intractable epilepsy; (2) revise, for discharges occurring on or after October 1, 1994, the assignment of discharges to such groups as the Secretary considers appropriate to account for the resource requirements of such patients; and (3) begin collecting the data necessary to compute a skilled nursing facility wage index adjustment to the routine service cost limits required under Medicare. Requires the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission to study and report to the Congress on the impact of applying routine per diem cost limits for skilled nursing facilities on a regional basis. (Sec. 13429) Allows hospitals that have been reclassified from urban to rural as a result of revisions to metropolitan statistical area definitions issued by the Office of Management and Budget on December 28, 1992, to apply to the Medicare Geographic Classification Review Board for reclassification in FY 1994. Chapter 2: Provisions Relating to Part B: Subchapter A: Elimination of Inflation Update - Amends SSA title XVIII part B to eliminate the inflation update for physician and related professional services and other specified items and services. (Sec. 13432) Freezes payments for enteral and parenteral nutrients, supplies and equipment, rural health clinic, federally-qualified health center, and comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facility services, dialysis services, and other part B items and services. Subchapter B: Physicians' Services - Amends SSA title XVIII part B to: (1) repeal the OMBRA '90 prohibition on separate payments for EKG interpretations; (2) repeal the reductions in payments to new physicians and practitioners; (3) prohibit the Secretary from changing the methodology in effect as of January 1, 1992, for calculating anesthesia time in the fee schedules for anesthesia services; (4) revise requirements with respect to geographic adjustment factors and beneficiary liability for amounts billed above the limiting charge; (5) require pre-payment screening by carriers of unassigned claims submitted by nonparticipating physicians; (6) require the Explanation of Benefits form to contain information on amounts billed in excess of the applicable limiting charge; (7) specify the practitioners who may only bill for services on an assignment-related basis; (8) include antigens prepared by a physician on the physician fee schedule; (9) prohibit the imposition of user fees in specified circumstances in the administration of claims relating to physicians' services; and (10) specify the conditions under which the Secretary can recognize substitute billing arrangements between two physicians. (Sec. 13444) Requires the Secretary to: (1) study and report to specified congressional committees on the data necessary to review and revise geographic indices; and (2) review and revise such indices and the geographic index values applied for all fee schedule areas by a certain date. Requires the Physician Payment Review Commission to conduct a study to develop criteria for use in redefining the localities used within States for adjusting physicians' fees. (Sec. 13446) Requires the Secretary to: (1) fully develop, by not later than July 1, 1994, relative values for the full range of pediatric physicians' services; and (2) study and report to the Congress on the relative values for pediatric and other services. Subchapter C: Ambulatory Surgical Center Services - Amends SSA title XVIII to extend special payment rates for certain eye or eye and ear hospitals to any hospital that otherwise meets current law criteria but, on October 1, 1987, operated as a physically separate or distinct eye or ear unit of a general acute care hospital which has since disposed of a substantial portion of its other acute care operations. (Sec. 13452) Amends OMBRA '90 to extend the cap on payments for intraocular lenses through 1994. Requires the Secretary to study and report to the Congress on the costs to providers of intraocular lenses provided to individuals enrolled under Medicare part B. Subchapter D: Durable Medical Equipment - Amends SSA title XVIII to: (1) remove aspirators and nebulizers from the category of durable medical equipment (DME) items requiring frequent and substantial servicing; (2) specifically provide for payment of accessories relating to aspirators and nebulizers; (3) set forth requirements which suppliers of medical equipment and supplies must satisfy in order to qualify for Medicare reimbursement; (4) require the Secretary to develop standardized certificates of medical necessity forms for use in documenting the medical necessity of DME items and supplies; (5) require DME suppliers to submit claims to the carrier having jurisdiction over the geographic area that includes the permanent residence of the patient to whom the item is furnished; (6) place restrictions on certain marketing and sales practices by DME suppliers; (7) specify the circumstances under which Medicare beneficiaries are not financially liable for covered items and services furnished by a supplier on an unassigned basis; (8) address adjustments made to final DME payment amounts for inherent reasonableness generally and require adjustments for certain items where the final payment amounts are found reasonable; and (9) subject ostomy supplies, tracheostomy supplies, and urologicals to national payment limits. Subchapter E: Other Provisions - Amends SSA title XVIII to: (1) freeze at the 1992 level the conversion factor used to determine payments to medically directed certified registered nurse anesthetists; (2) provide that in subsequent years such factor shall be the previous year's conversion factor increased by the update for physician anesthesia services for that year; (3) provide for Medicare coverage of oral cancer drugs, under certain conditions; (4) provide for uniform coverage of "off-label" anti-cancer drugs; (5) cap the part B premium penalty for late enrollment for Federal employees who meet certain conditions; (6) authorize the Secretary to enter into agreements with States to allow them to pay the late enrollment premium increases of eligible individuals; (7) establish statutory definitions for speech-language pathologists and audiologists consistent with current coverage guidelines; and (8) provide for the treatment of certain Indian health programs and facilities as federally-qualified health centers. (Sec. 13473) Requires a study and report to specified congressional committees by the Secretary on Medicare coverage of patient care costs associated with clinical trials of new cancer therapies. (Sec. 13476) Amends the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 to extend municipal health service demonstration projects. Subchapter F: Part B Premium - Amends SSA title XVIII to extend current law provisions for establishing the monthly Medicare part B premium for beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare. Chapter 3: Provisions Relating to Parts A and B - Subchapter A: Elimination of Updates - Amends SSA title XVIII to eliminate updates in payments to hospitals for the direct costs of graduate medical education for cost reporting periods beginning during FY 1994 and 1995. (Sec. 13502) Prohibits the Secretary from providing any update in the cost limits for home health services for cost reporting periods beginning during FY 1994 and 1995. Subchapter B: Medicare Secondary Payer Provisions - Specifies numerous changes with regard to Medicare as secondary payor. Subchapter C: Physician Ownership and Referral - Amends SSA title XVIII to: (1) apply the ban on certain referrals by physicians to all payers, extending it to cover additional specified health services as well as new exceptions; (2) expand current standards used to define a group practice; and (3) provide that Federal law shall not preempt State laws that relate to referrals not covered under the ban, or that relate to referrals covered under the ban but are even more restrictive. Subchapter D: Other Provisions - Requires the Secretary to: (1) redetermine the full-time-equivalent (FTE) resident amount to reflect the amount that would be allowed if the hospital had been liable to pay FICA taxes or make other specified retirement contributions for residents during the base year, but did not make such payments, yet now must do so as a result of OMBRA '90; and (2) establish outreach to Medicare beneficiaries who may qualify for Medicaid payment of their out-of-pocket Medicare expenses. (Sec. 13551) Amends SSA title XVIII to: (1) reduce payments for erythropoientin; (2) require home health agencies to inform Medicare beneficiaries of their entitlement to hospice care under Medicare; (3) provide for interest payments to be made on clean claims if payment is not made within 30 days of receipt; (4) provide for adjustment in Medicare capitation payments to account for regional variations in application of Medicare secondary payer provisions; (5) provide for adjustments for certain publicly- funded family practice residency programs; (6) extend on a graduated basis to three years (after 1997) the current one-year period following a transplant procedure during which Medicare covers immunosuppressive drug therapy for beneficiaries who have received organ transplants; and (7) provide that user fees imposed under the Clinical Laboratories Improvement Act of 1967 are not subject to the general ban on user fees for determining compliance with any requirement of Medicare. (Sec. 13555) Amends OMBRA '87 and the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 to: (1) extend social health maintenance organization demonstration projects for an additional two years; and (2) permit one of the projects to enroll Medicare end-stage renal disease beneficiaries. Increases the limit on the number of individuals who pay participate in such projects. (Sec. 13558) Amends SSA title XI to repeal the requirement that peer review organizations precertify selected surgical procedures. (Sec. 13560) Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) to provide that to the extent that appropriations are enacted providing budget authority for Medicare administrative costs above a base level of spending in FY 1992 of $1.526 billion, the appropriate discretionary spending limits shall be adjusted to accommodate additional budget authority in FY 1994 and 1995. Chapter 4: Medicare Supplemental Insurance Policies - Amends OMBRA '90 and Medicare to make specified changes to Federal standards respecting the sale and regulation of Medicare supplemental insurance policies. Chapter 5: Treatment of Certain State Health Care Programs - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to provide that: (1) the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act will not be preempted by ERISA unless the Secretary of Labor notifies the Governor of Hawaii that, as a result of any amendment to such Act, the proportion of the population covered would be less than the current proportion or the level of coverage would be less than the actuarial equivalent of the current level of coverage; and (2) State tax laws relating to employee benefit plans will continue to be preempted. Title XIV: Revenue Provisions - Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993 - Subtitle A: Training and Investment Incentives - Part I: Provisions Relating to Education and Training - Makes permanent after June 30, 1992: (1) the tax exclusion of employer-provided educational assistance; and (2) the targeted jobs credit. Allows the use of the targeted jobs credit, with limitations, for the hiring of a qualified participant in an approved school-to-work program. Part II: Investment Incentives - Subpart A: Research Credit - Makes permanent the credit for increasing research activities. Modifies the fixed base percentage of such credit for startup companies for taxable years after 1993. Subpart B: Capital Gain Provisions - Allows a taxpayer other than a corporation to exclude from gross income 50 percent of gain from the sale or exchange of qualified small business stock held for more than five years. Set forth rules and limitations for such exclusion. Treats one-half of such exclusion as an item of tax preference for minimum tax purposes. (Sec. 14114) Allows the rollover of gain from the sale of publicly traded securities into specialized small business investment companies. Subpart C: Modifications to Minimum Tax Depreciation Rules - Modifies the method of determining the depreciation deduction for certain personal property placed in service after 1993. Eliminates the depreciation adjustment for computing adjusted current earnings for such property. Subpart D: Increase in Expense Treatment for Small Business - Increases the dollar limitation on the election to expense certain depreciable small business assets. Part III: Tax-Exempt Bond Provisions - Provides a complete tax exemption (currently a 75 percent tax exemption) for bonds used to finance high-speed intercity rail facilities. (Sec. 14122) Permanently extends the authority to issue qualified small issue bonds to finance manufacturing facilities and farm property. Part IV: Expansion and Simplification of Earned Income Tax Credit - Repeals certain interaction rules with respect to the medical expense deduction, the deduction for health insurance, and the dependent care credit. Revises credit and phaseout percentages for 1994. Part V: Incentives for Investment in Real Estate - Subpart A: Extension of Qualified Mortgage Bonds and Low-Income Housing Credit - Makes permanent: (1) the authority to issue qualified mortgage bonds and qualified mortgage credit certificates; and (2) the low-income housing credit. (Sec. 14142) Provides that assistance under the HOME Investment Partnerships Act should not result in certain buildings being federally subsidized. Subpart B: Modification of Passive Loss Rules - Provides for the treatment of rental real estate activities under the limitations on losses from passive activities. Subpart C: Provisions Relating to Real Estate Investments by Pension Funds - Modifies exceptions to the exclusion of real property acquired by a qualified organization from the meaning of acquisition indebtedness. Makes certain exceptions inapplicable to sales out of foreclosure by a financial institution. (Sec. 14145) Repeals the special rule for publicly traded partnerships with respect to the treatment of unrelated business taxable income. (Sec. 14146) Permits a tax-exempt title-holding company to receive unrelated business taxable income if the unrelated income is incidentally derived from the holding of real property. (Sec. 14147) Excludes from unrelated business taxable income: (1) gains from the sale, exchange or other disposition of real property acquired from financial institutions that are in conservatorship or receivership; and (2) loan commitment fees and certain option premiums. Provides for the tax treatment of pension fund investments in real estate investment trusts. Subpart D: Discharge of Indebtedness - Excludes from gross income the income from the discharge of qualified real property business indebtedness. Subpart E: Increase in Recovery Period for Nonresidential Real Property - Increases the depreciation recovery period for nonresidential real property. Part VI: Luxury Tax - Repeals the luxury excise tax on boats, aircraft, jewelry, and furs. (Sec. 14162) Modifies the luxury excise tax on automobiles to index the threshold for inflation occurring after 1990 and make such tax applicable to the first retail sale. Exempts from the luxury excise tax parts for accessories installed for use of passenger vehicles by disabled individuals. (Sec. 14163) Extends the current diesel fuel excise tax to diesel fuel used by noncommercial motorboats. Retains such taxes in the General Fund of the Treasury. Part VII: Other Changes - Repeals the tax preference for the appreciated property charitable deduction. Disallows an adjustment related to the earnings and profits effects of any charitable contribution from being made in computing adjusted current earnings. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to report to specified congressional committees on the development of a procedure for taxpayers to seek an agreement with the Secretary on the value of tangible personal property prior to the donation of such property to a qualifying charitable organization. (Sec. 14172) Amends the Railroad Retirement Solvency Act of 1983 to make permanent the treatment of certain railroad retirement benefits as received under employer plans. (Sec. 14173) Provides for the temporary extension of the deduction of health insurance costs of self-employed individuals. Subtitle B: Revenue Increases - Part I: Provisions Affecting Individuals- Subpart A: Rate Increases - Lowers the tax rates for certain taxpayers and increases the tax rate for certain higher incomes. Imposes a surtax on certain higher incomes. (Sec. 14203) Increases the tentative minimum tax for taxpayers other than corporations. (Sec. 14204) Makes permanent the overall limitation on itemized deductions and the phaseout of personal exemptions for high-income taxpayers. (Sec. 14206) Sets forth provisions to prevent the conversion of ordinary income to capital gain in certain financial transactions. Repeals certain exceptions to market discount rules. Provides for the treatment of purchases of stripped preferred stock after April 30, 1993. Revises the methods of: (1) computing the limitation on the deductibility of investment interest; and (2) determining substantial appreciation of partnership inventory items. Subpart B: Other Provisions - Repeals the limitation on the amount of wages subject to the health insurance employment tax. (Sec. 14208) Increases and makes permanent the highest estate and gift tax rate. (Sec. 14209) Reduces the deduction for business meals and entertainment expenses. (Sec. 14210) Disallows a tax deduction for social club membership dues, except for employee recreational expenses. (Sec. 14211) Disallows a deduction as a trade or business expense remuneration to certain employees in excess of $1 million. (Sec. 14212) Reduces the compensation taken into account in determining contributions and benefits under qualified retirement plans. (Sec. 14213) Removes qualified residence sales, purchases, or leases and meals from the deduction for moving expenses. (Sec. 14214) Revises the limitation on using the preceding year's tax to calculate an individual's estimated tax payments. (Sec. 14215) Increases the amount of social security and tier 1 railroad retirement benefits to be included in the gross income of certain taxpayers. Part II: Provisions Affecting Business - Increases the tax rate for corporate income in excess of $10 million and the tax rate on personal service corporations. (Sec. 14222) Denies a tax deduction for lobbying expenses. Subjects lobbying organizations to special reporting requirements. (Sec. 14223) Requires any security which is inventory in the hands of the dealer to be included in inventory at its fair market value. Requires any dealer in securities that holds any security which is not in inventory at the close of any taxable year to: (1) recognize gain or loss as if the security were sold on the last business day of the taxable year; and (2) take into account any such gain or loss for such year (the mark-to-market requirement). (Sec. 14224) Requires taking into account: (1) certain Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) assistance as compensation for loss; and (2) any FSLIC assistance for any debt for determining whether such debt is worthless and in determining the amount of any addition to a reserve for bad debts arising from such worthlessness or partial worthlessness. (Sec. 14225) Increases the required annual payment for corporations that fail to pay estimated income tax. Modifies the periods for applying such annualization. (Sec. 14226) Limits the Puerto Rico and possession tax credit to 60 percent of the possession corporation's qualified possession wages. (Sec. 14227) Modifies the limitation on corporate deductions for interest paid to related persons to take into account disqualified guarantees of indebtedness and the imposition of a gross basis tax. Part III: Foreign Tax Provisions - Subpart A: Current Taxation of Certain Earnings of Controlled Foreign Corporations - Requires U.S. shareholders of controlled foreign corporations to include in gross income a pro rata share of the corporations excess passive assets. Sets forth rules for determining such amounts. Modifies the rule on taxation of investment in United States property and takes into account excessive passive assets. Requires a report to specified congressional committees on a study of investments by controlled foreign corporations in U.S property. (Sec. 14233) Excepts from foreign personal holding income any dividends attributable to earnings and profits of the distributing corporation accumulated during any period during which the person receiving such dividend did not hold such stock. Requires the establishment of an excess limitation account by taxpayers who receive foreign tax credits in a year they receive previously taxed earnings and profits. Subpart B: Allocation of Research and Experimental Expenditures - Reduces the amount allowed as allocation and apportionment of research and experimental expenditures from sources within the United States. Subpart C: Other Provisions - Excludes passive dividends or interest income from foreign oil and gas income. (Sec. 14236) Modifies accuracy-related penalties for tax underpayments. (Sec. 14237) Denies the inclusion of certain contingent interest in the exemption for portfolio interest for nonresident aliens. (Sec. 14238) Authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe regulations recharacterizing any multiple-party financing transaction as a transaction directly among any two or more of such parties where appropriate to prevent any tax avoidance. Part IV: Energy Tax Provisions - Subpart A: Energy Tax Based on Btu Content - Imposes an excise tax on the following energy products: (1) taxable refined petroleum products removed from a U.S. refinery or terminal entered into the United States for consumption, use, or warehousing, and sold to a nonregistered person; (2) natural gas removed from any pipeline in the United States, entered into the United States for consumption, use, or warehousing, and entered into any nonregistered pipeline; (3) coal received at any facility for use as a fuel at such facility; and (4) the sale of electricity to ultimate users in the United States and the use of electricity which was not subject to such tax. Bases the rate of tax on such products on the applicable Btu factor and content. Provides for refunding certain amounts to ultimate vendors of petroleum used for heating oil and international commercial transportation. Repays certain sums to persons who use petroleum to produce calcined coke. Provides exemptions from such excise tax for certain uses. Refunds the tax paid by certain users of methane recovered from biomass or coal mining. Imposes a tax on the use of any fossil fuel: (1) in the manufacture or production of a fuel other than at a U.S. refinery; or (2) as a fuel. Specifies the application of such tax and exceptions. Imposes a tax on floor stock of taxable fuels held on the date of the tax increase. Allows a credit against such tax. Provides for such tax increases to begin July 1, 1994. Imposes an imported Btu tax on certain imported products that contain significant levels of direct energy inputs that would be taxable if the products were manufactured in the United States. Imposes a penalty on persons who sell dyed fuel for taxable uses. Subpart B: Modifications to Tax on Diesel Fuel - Imposes an excise tax on diesel fuel (separate from the gasoline tax and the tax on aviation). Exempts from such tax diesel fuel: (1) used by trains and intercity, local, or school buses; and (2) which is dyed or marked in accordance in regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. Provides that the Airport and Airway Trust Fund financing rate does not apply to aviation fuel sold by a producer or importer for use by the purchaser in a nontaxable use. Imposes a civil penalty on persons who use reduced-rate fuel for a taxable use. (Sec. 14243) Imposes a floor stocks tax on any person holding diesel fuel April 1, 1994. Subpart C: Extension of Motor Fuel Tax Rates; Increased Deposits Into Highway Trust Fund - Increases the tax on gasoline and diesel fuels for purposes of the Highway Trust Fund financing rate. Increases the amount to be transferred to the Mass Transit Account from such Fund. Part V: Compliance Provisions - Requires information reporting on payments to corporations for services. (Sec. 14252) Modifies provisions concerning substantial understatement and return-preparer penalties to allow reasonable cause exceptions. (Sec. 14253) Requires certain financial entities (including the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Resolution Trust Corporation, and the National Credit Union Administration, and their successors or subunits) to file information returns regarding discharges of indebtedness of $600 or more. Part VI: Treatment of Intangibles - Allows an amortization deduction with respect to certain intangible property, including goodwill, that is acquired and held by a taxpayer in connection with the conduct of a trade or business or an activity engaged in for the production of income. Part VII: Miscellaneous Provisions - Establishes substantiation requirements for charitable contributions of $750 or more. (Sec. 14272) Sets forth disclosure requirements for an organization that receives a quid pro quo contribution (payment made partly as a contribution and partly in consideration for goods or services provided to the payor by the donee organization). Imposes a penalty for failure to make such disclosure. (Sec. 14273) Expands the 45-day interest-free period for refunding tax overpayments to all returns, as well as to amended returns and claims for refunds. Provides that if interest is not refunded within 45 days after the taxpayer files an amended return or claim for refund, interest will be paid only for periods after the date on which the return or claim is filed. (Sec. 14274) Denies the business travel expense deduction for spouses, dependents, or others. (Sec. 14275) Increases the withholding rate for supplemental wage payments. Subtitle C: Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities- Part I: Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, Etc. - Provides for the designation of 100 tax enterprise communities and ten empowerment zones during calendar years after 1993 and before 1996: (1) by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in the case of an urban area; (2) by the Secretary of Agriculture in the case of a rural area; and (3) the Secretary of the Interior for an Indian reservation. Sets forth eligibility criteria for such designations. Makes certain buildings in such communities or zones eligible for the low-income housing credit applicable to buildings in high-cost areas. Provides for the issuance of enterprise zone facility bonds in enterprise communities and empowerment zones in a manner similar to exempt facility bonds. Excludes enterprise zone facility bonds from the interest deduction limitations on financial institutions. Provides States an additional housing credit ceiling for each zone and community through 1996. Allows an empowerment zone employment credit to employers for a percentage of qualified zone wages paid during calendar years 1994 through 2004. Limits the amount of such credit. Allows businesses a zone resident empowerment savings credit of 50 percent of the qualified savings contributions made by an employer to a defined contribution plan on behalf of a zone employee. Limits the amount of such credit based on the employee's compensation. Increases the limitation on expensing certain depreciable business assets. Increases the volume cap applicable to enterprise zone facility bonds if the business owners meet specified ownership requirements with regard to abiding in such zones. (Sec. 14302) Allows the use of the targeted jobs credit for hiring empowerment zone residents. Part II: Credit for Contributions to Certain Community Development Corporations - Allows a general business tax credit for contributions to selected community development corporations to provide employment of, and business opportunities for low-income individuals who are residents of the operational area of the community. Subtitle D: Other Provisions - Part I: Disclosure Provisions - Extends the authority to disclose tax return information to the Department of Veterans Affairs through September 30, 1998. (Sec. 14402) Authorizes the disclosure of certain tax return information to: (1) the Department of Education to implement the direct student loan program; and (2) to the Department of Housing for income verification under certain housing programs. Part II: User Fee Provisions - Requires the establishment of a program requiring the payment of user fees for the processing of applications for certificates of alcohol label approval and exemption, formula reviews, and statements of process (including laboratory tests and analyses). (Sec. 14412) Removes authority to use the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for administrative expenses of certain customs fee collections. (Sec. 14413) Increases the tax on fuel used on commercial transportation on inland waterways. Part III: Public Debt Limit - Increases the public debt limit and repeals the temporary limit on such increase. Part IV: Vaccine Provisions - Makes permanent: (1) the excise tax on certain vaccines; and (2) the authority to pay compensation from the Vaccine Trust Fund under the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program for certain damages resulting from vaccines administered after September 30, 1988. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to report to specified congressional committees on various uses of such Fund. Imposes a floor stocks tax on taxable vaccines. (Sec. 14432) Requires continuation coverage under group health plans of the costs of pediatric vaccines. (Sec. 14433) Establishes the Childhood Immunization Trust Fund for the childhood immunization entitlement program under the Public Health Service Act.
United States · United States Congress · 6 May 1993
Authorizes the President to present to Red Skelton, on behalf of the Congress, a gold medal in recognition of his performance as an entertainer and humanitarian. Authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to strike a gold medal with suitable emblems and to strike and sell bronze duplicates of it. Declares such medals national medals. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 4 May 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Training and Investment Incentives Subtitle A: Provisions Relating to Education and Training Subtitle B: Investment Incentives Subtitle C: Tax-Exempt Bond Provisions Subtitle D: Expansion and Simplification of Earned Income Tax Credit Subtitle E: Incentives for Investment in Real Estate Subtitle F: Other Changes Title II: Revenue Increases Subtitle A: Provisions Affecting Individuals Subtitle B: Provisions Affecting Businesses Subtitle C: Foreign Tax Provisions Subtitle D: Energy Tax Provisions Subtitle E: Compliance Provisions Subtitle F: Miscellaneous Provisions Title III: Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993 - Title I: Training and Investment Incentives - Subtitle A: Provisions Relating to Education and Training - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to make permanent after June 30, 1992: (1) the tax exclusion of employer-provided educational assistance; and (2) the targeted jobs credit. Allows the use of the targeted jobs credit, with limitations, for the hiring of a qualified participant in an approved school-to-work program. Subtitle B: Investment Incentives - Part I: Investment Tax Credit - Allows a small business regular tax credit for eligible small businesses of five percent of their qualified investment in depreciable property. Allows such credit to offset a percentage of the minimum tax. Increases the investment tax credit for 1993 and 1994 for qualified investments. Provides for ratably including the current year business credit in gross income. Part II: Research Credit - Makes permanent the credit for increasing research activities. Modifies the fixed base percentage of such credit for startup companies for taxable years after 1993. Part III: Incentive For Investment in Small Business Stock - Allows a taxpayer other than a corporation to exclude from gross income 50 percent of gain from the sale or exchange of qualified small business stock held for more than five years. Sets forth rules and limitations for such exclusion. Treats one-half of such exclusion as an item of tax preference for minimum tax purposes. Part IV: Modifications to Minimum Tax Depreciation Rules - Modifies the method of determining the depreciation deduction for certain personal property placed in service after 1993. Eliminates the depreciation adjustment for computing adjusted current earnings for such property. Subtitle C: Tax-Exempt Bond Provisions - Provides a complete tax exemption (currently a 75 percent tax exemption) for bonds used to finance high-speed intercity rail facilities. Permanently extends the authority to issue qualified small issue bonds to finance manufacturing facilities and farm property. Subtitle D: Expansion and Simplification of Earned Income Tax Credit - Repeals certain interaction rules with respect to the medical expense deduction, the deduction for health insurance, and the dependent care credit. Revises credit and phaseout percentages for 1994. Subtitle E: Incentives for Investment in Real Estate - Part I: Extension of Qualified Mortgage Bonds and Low-Income Housing Credits - Makes permanent: (1) the authority to issue qualified mortgage bonds and qualified mortgage credit certificates; and (2) the low-income housing credit. Part II: Modification of Passive Loss Rules - Provides for the treatment of rental real estate activities under the limitations on losses from passive activities. Part III: Provisions Relating to Real Estate Investments by Pension Funds - Modifies exceptions to the exclusion of real property acquired by a qualified organization from the meaning of acquisition indebtedness. Makes certain exceptions inapplicable to sales out of foreclosure by a financial institution. Repeals the special rule for publicly traded partnerships with respect to the treatment of unrelated business taxable income. Permits a tax-exempt title-holding company to receive unrelated business taxable income if the unrelated income is incidentally derived from the holding of real property. Excludes from unrelated business taxable income: (1) gains from the sale, exchange or other disposition of real property acquired from financial institutions that are in conservatorship or receivership; and (2) loan commitment fees and certain option premiums. Part IV: Increase in Recovery Period for Nonresidential Real Property - Increases the depreciation recovery period for nonresidential real property. Subtitle F: Other Changes - Repeals the tax preference for the appreciated property charitable deduction. Disallows an adjustment related to the earnings and profits effects of any charitable contribution from being made in computing adjusted current earnings. Amends the Railroad Retirement Solvency Act of 1983 to make permanent the treatment of certain railroad retirement benefits as received under employer plans. Provides for the temporary extension of the deduction of health insurance costs of self-employed individuals. Title II: Revenue Increases - Subtitle A: Provisions Affecting Individuals - Part I: Rate Increases - Lowers the tax rates for certain taxpayers and increases the tax rate for certain higher incomes. Imposes a surtax on certain higher incomes. Increases the tentative minimum tax for taxpayers other than corporations. Makes permanent the overall limitation on itemized deductions and the phaseout of personal exemptions for high-income taxpayers. Sets forth provisions to prevent the conversion of ordinary income to capital gain in certain financial transactions. Repeals certain exceptions to market discount rules. Provides for the treatment of purchases of stripped preferred stock after April 30, 1993. Revises the methods of: (1) computing the limitation on the deductibility of investment interest; and (2) determining substantial appreciation of partnership inventory items. Part II: Other Provisions - Repeals the limitation on the amount of wages and subject to the health insurance employment tax. Increases and makes permanent the highest estate and gift tax rate. Reduces the deduction for business meals and entertainment expenses. Disallows a tax deduction for social club membership dues, except for employee recreational expenses. Disallows a deduction as a trade or business expense remuneration to certain employees in excess of $1 million. Reduces the compensation taken into account in determining contributions and benefits under qualified retirement plans. Removes qualified residence sales, purchases, or leases and meals from the deduction for moving expenses. Subtitle B: Provisions Affecting Businesses - Increases the tax rate for corporate income in excess of $10 million and the tax rate on personal service corporations. Denies a tax deduction for lobbying expenses. Subjects lobbying organizations to special reporting requirements. Requires any security which is inventory in the hands of the dealer to be included in inventory at its fair market value. Requires any dealer in securities that holds any security which is not in inventory at the close of any taxable year to: (1) recognize gain or loss as if the security were sold on the last business day of the taxable year; and (2) take into account any such gain or loss for such year (the mark-to-market requirement). Requires taking into account, for certain tax purposes: (1) certain Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC) assistance as compensation for loss; and (2) any FSLIC assistance for any debt for determining whether such debt is worthless and in determining the amount of any addition to a reserve for bad debts arising from such worthlessness or partial worthlessness. Increases the required annual payment for corporations that fail to pay estimated income tax. Limits the Puerto Rico and possession tax credit to 60 percent of the possession corporation's qualified possession wages. Modifies the limitation on corporate deductions for interest paid to related persons to take into account disqualified guarantees of indebtedness and the imposition of a gross basis tax. Subtitle C: Foreign Tax Provisions - Part I: Current Taxation of Certain Earnings of Controlled Foreign Corporations - Requires U.S. shareholders of controlled foreign corporations to include in gross income a pro rata share of the corporations' excess passive assets. Sets forth rules for determining such amounts. Modifies the rule on taxation of investment in United States property and takes into account excessive passive assets. Excepts from foreign personal holding income dividends attributable to earnings and profits of the distributing corporation accumulated during any period during which the person receiving such dividend did not hold such stock. Requires the establishment of an excess limitation account by taxpayers who receive foreign tax credits in a year they receive previously taxed earnings and profits. Part II: Allocation of Research and Experimental Expenditures; Treatment of Certain Royalties - Requires a complete allocation and apportionment of research and experimental expenditures from sources within the United States and bases such expenditures attributable to activities conducted outside the United States on gross sales. Treats royalties as passive income for purposes of the foreign tax credit. Part III: Other Provisions - Excludes passive dividends or interest income from foreign oil and gas income. Modifies accuracy-related penalties for tax underpayments. Denies the inclusion of certain contingent interest in the exemption for portfolio interest for nonresident aliens. Authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe regulations recharacterizing any multiple-party financing transaction as a transaction directly among any two or more of such parties where appropriate to prevent any tax avoidance. Subtitle D: Energy Tax Provision - Imposes an excise tax on the following energy products: (1) taxable refined petroleum products removed from a U.S. refinery or entered into the United States for consumption, use, or warehousing; (2) natural gas removed in the United States from any pipeline (not part of a local distribution system) for transmission to ultimate users through a local distribution system or for use prior to entry into a local distribution system; (3) coal received at any facility for use as a fuel at such facility; and (4) certain electricity generated in or outside the U.S. Bases the rate of tax on such products on the applicable Btu factor. Declares that no tax is imposed on any taxable energy source which is exported by the person otherwise liable for such tax. Provides for refunds to: (1) ultimate vendors of home heating oil and international commercial transportation; (2) ultimate users in cases of exempt petroleum products; and (3) certain users of methane recovered from biomass or coal mining. Imposes a tax on the use of any fossil fuel (other than coal): (1) in the manufacture or production of a fuel other than at a U.S. refinery; or (2) as a fuel. Specifies the application of such tax and exceptions. Imposes a tax on floor stock of taxable fuels held on the date of the tax increase. Allows a credit against such tax. Provides for such tax increases to begin July 1, 1994. Increases the tax on gasoline and diesel fuels for purposes of the Highway Trust Fund financing rate. Increases the amount to be transferred to the Mass Transit Account from such Fund. Subtitle E: Compliance Provisions - Requires information reporting on payments to corporations for services. Modifies provisions concerning substantial understatement and return-preparer penalties to allow reasonable cause exceptions. Subtitle F: Miscellaneous Provisions - Establishes substantiation requirements for charitable contributions of $750 or more. Sets forth disclosure requirements for an organization that receives a quid pro quo contribution (payment made partly as a contribution and partly in consideration for goods or services provided to the payor by the donee organization). Imposes a penalty for failure to make such disclosure. Expands the 45-day interest-free period for refunding tax overpayments to all returns, as well as to amended returns and claims for refunds. Provides that if interest is not refunded within 45 days after the taxpayer files an amended return or claim for refund, interest will be paid only for periods after the date on which the return or claim is filed. Denies the business travel expense deduction for spouses, dependents, or others. Increases the withholding rate for supplemental wage payments. Title III: Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities - Provides for the designation of 100 tax enterprise communities and ten empowerment zones during calendar years after 1993 and before 1996: (1) by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, in the case of an urban area; (2) by the Secretary of Agriculture in the case of a rural area; and (3) the Secretary of the Interior for an Indian reservation. Sets forth the eligibility criteria for such designations. Allows a zone resident empowerment savings credit to employers as a general business credit of 50 percent of the qualified savings contributions made to a defined contribution plan on behalf of an employee. Limits the amounts of such contributions. Makes buildings in such communities or zones eligible for the low-income housing credit applicable to buildings in high-cost areas. Provides for the issuance of enterprise zone facility bonds in enterprise communities and empowerment zones in a manner similar to exempt facility bonds. Excludes enterprise zone facility bonds from the interest deduction limitations on financial institutions. Allows an empowerment zone employment credit to employers for a percentage of qualified zone wages paid during calendar years 1994 through 2004. Limits the amount of such credit. Increases the limitation on expensing certain depreciable business assets. Increases the volume cap applicable to enterprise zone facility bonds if the business owners meet specified ownership requirements with regard to abiding in such zones. Allows the use of the targeted jobs credit for hiring empowerment zone residents.
United States · United States Congress · 28 April 1993
Amends the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 to extend the authority of the President, for a specified period of time, to enter into trade agreements with foreign countries for the reduction or elimination of tariff or nontariff barriers if the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has not resulted in such trade agreements by May 31, 1993. Provides that implementing bills involving tariff and nontariff trade agreements shall be effective only if, among other things, the President, at least 120 calendar days (currently, 90 days) before he enters into such agreement, notifies the Congress of his intention to enter into it, and publishes such intention in the Federal Register. Extends congressional "fast track procedures" to such implementing bills through April 16, 1994. Requires specified advisory committee reports regarding such agreements to be provided to the President, the Congress, and the United States Trade Representative no later than 30 days after the President notifies the Congress of his intention to enter into the agreement, but before January 15, 1994.
United States · United States Congress · 23 March 1993
Provides for a temporary increase in the public debt limit.
United States · United States Congress · 3 March 1993
Declares that the sacrifice and dedication of the agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is a cornerstone of our system of justice and cause for both sorrow and pride.
United States · United States Congress · 17 February 1993
Emergency Unemployment Compensation Amendments of 1993 - Amends the Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-164, as amended) to extend the authorization for new claims for benefits under the emergency unemployment compensation (EUC program) to October 2, 1993 (currently March 6, 1993). Modifies the final phase-out period for continuation of claims to end on January 15, 1994 (currently June 19, 1993). Directs the Secretary of Labor to establish a program to encourage all States to adopt and implement a system (including automated data processing) for profiling all new claimants for regular unemployment compensation to determine which claimants may be likely to exhaust such compensation and need reemployment assistance services. Requires provision of such technical assistance, advice, and funding to States for model profiling systems as the Secretary deems appropriate and necessary. Requires the Secretary to report, with recommendations, to the Congress on such systems within 30 months after enactment of this Act. Authorizes appropriations to carry out this Act's extension of the EUC program. Designates all direct spending amounts provided and all appropriations authorized by this Act as emergency requirements for purposes of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act).
United States · United States Congress · 26 January 1993
Provides amounts for expenses of investigations and studies by the House Committee on Ways and Means in the first session of the 103d Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Revenue Provisions Title II: Income Security and Human Resource Amendments Subtitle A: Amendments Relating to Old-Age, Survivors, and Disabilty Insurance Program Subtitle B: Human Resources Provisions Title III: Tariff and Customs Technical Corrections Act of 1993 - Title I: Revenue Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to make technical corrections to amendments made by the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1990 (title XI of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990) with respect to: (1) individual income tax provisions; (2) excise taxes; (3) certain revenue increases; (4) the extension of certain expiring tax provisions; (5) energy incentives; (6) small business incentives; and (7) the repeal of expired or obsolete provisions. Makes technical corrections to amendments made by title XII (Pensions) of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 concerning: (1) treatment of hedge bond rules; (2) treatment of dispositions of U.S. real property interests; (3) treatment of passive activity credits; (4) certain foreign provisions; (5) certain bond-financed facilities; (6) Medicare entitlements; (7) real estate mortgage investment conduits; (8) veterans' reemployment rights; (9) harbor maintenance tax; and (10) regulated investment companies. Title II: Income Security and Human Resource Amendments - Subtitle A: Amendments Relating to Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Program - Makes technical corrections to the Social Security Act and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990 relating to the Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance program (OASDI). Eliminates certain dollar rounding requirements with respect to OASDI benefits, the earnings test exemption, and adjustments to the health insurance tax contribution base. Subtitle B: Human Resources Provisions - Makes technical corrections to the Social Security Act, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990, the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act), and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 to make technical corrections related to income security and human resources provisions. Title III: Tariff and Customs - Makes technical amendments to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985, the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, the Customs and Trade Act of 1990, the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act, the Andean Preference Act, and the Tariff Act of 1930.