United States · United States Congress · 13 October 1978
Title I: Public Employee Retirement Income Security - Public Employee Retirement Income Security Act - Requires administrators of pension plans which are (A) not excepted by this Act or otherwise covered under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), and (B) established and maintained for the benefit of the employees of any State government or political subdivision, to provide the following information to plan participants and beneficiaries: (1) a summary plan description which provides an accurate, comprehensive, and understandable summary of their rights and obligations; (2) a summary description of any material modification in the terms of the plan; and (3) upon written request, a statement which indicates the total accumulated contributions, pension benefits, and vesting status of the participant. Specifies the content of such summary plan description. Directs such administrators to provide to any participant or beneficiary who requests withdrawal of contributions, payment of benefits, or a benefit election, a written explanation of the effects of such action on remaining plan benefits. Requires such administrators to file with the Employee Benefit Administration (EBA) established by title II of this Act: (1) a copy of the summary plan description; and (2) an annual report. Specifies the content of such report, including a financial statement and schedule, an actuarial statement, information on terminated vested participants who are entitled to future benefits, and other information which the EBA may require. Directs the EBA to prescribe simplified annual reports for any plan which covers less than 100 participants. Allows the EBA, in certain circumstances, to prescribe alternative methods and to exempt any plan or person from the requirements of this Act. Requires pension plans covered by this Act to provide for one or more fiduciaries and to include: (1) any funding policy which has been established; (2) procedures for amendment and for the allocation of responsibility for the plan's operation and administration; and (3) benefit provisions. States that all assets shall be held in trust by one or more trustees. Prohibits persons who have been convicted of specified offenses from serving in certain capacities, including fiduciary and trustee, for specified periods. Provides that a fiduciary shall discharge his duties for the exclusive purpose of providing benefits to participants and their beneficiaries and defraying reasonable expenses of administering the plan, with the care, skill, prudence, and diligence that a prudent man would exercise in like circumstances. Requires a fiduciary to diversify the investments of the plan, except a plan which provides for individual accounts, so as to minimize the risk of large losses, unless under the circumstance it is clearly prudent not to do so. Prohibits a fiduciary from: (1) dealing with the assets of a plan for his own interest or account; (2) acting in any transaction involving the plan on behalf of a party adverse to the interest of the plan or participants; and (3) receiving personal consideration from any party dealing with the plan in connection with a plan transaction. Provides that a fiduciary shall not permit specified transactions with a party in interest for less than, or more than, adequate consideration, security, or a reasonable rate of interest. Limits acquisition by the plan of qualifying employer securities, loans, or real property to ten percent of the fair market value of the assets of the plan. Establishes personal liability for a fiduciary who breaches any of the responsibilities, obligations, or duties imposed by this Act. Sets forth circumstances in which a fiduciary shall be liable for a breach of fiduciary responsibility of another fiduciary with respect to the same plan. Requires trustees holding assets of a plan to use reasonable care to prevent a co-trustee from committing a breach and to jointly manage and control the assets, unless allocation of responsibility is authorized by the trust agreement. Makes a government employer liable in the event of a breach by a fiduciary who is one of its employees or officials, but allows subsequent recovery by such employer from such employee. Sets forth bonding requirements, with specified exceptions, for every fiduciary of a plan. States that no government official shall be a fiduciary or co-fiduciary with respect to actions taken in an official capacity. Establishes penalties for willful violation of the reporting, disclosure, and bonding requirements. Includes violations of this Act within existing criminal statutes involving theft, embezzlement, false statements, and racketeering with respect to ERISA. Provides for a good faith defense for criminal violations of certain provisions of this Act. Requires plans covered by this Act to establish a claims procedure which provides participants with a written explanation of benefit denials and a reasonable opportunity for a full and fair review. Allows a participant or beneficiary to bring a civil action in State or Federal court to recover benefits, enforce rights, or clarify rights to future benefits, or in Federal court for failure of an administrator to comply with a request for information as required by this Act. Authorizes a participant, beneficiary, fiduciary or the EBA to bring a civil action in Federal court for breach of fiduciary duty and to obtain equitable relief for violations of this Act. Sets forth provisions relating to jurisdiction, service of process, allowance of fees and costs, and civil penalties. Authorizes the EBA to make appropriate investigations to determine whether any person has, or is about to, violate any provision of this Act. Prohibits persons from taking retaliatory action against any plan participant or beneficiary for exercising any right to which he is entitled under this Act, or from interfering with or preventing the exercise of such rights. Amends the Social Security Act to require the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to transmit to an individual, upon request, information which the Employee Benefit Administration holds relating to his terminated vested benefits. Establishes an Advisory Council on Governmental Plans to advise and make recommendations to the EBA with respect to its functions under this Act. Provides that any pension plan or trust forming part of a plan, which is subject to this Act, shall be deemed to have met the requirements for a tax qualified plan or trust in the Internal Revenue Code of 1954. Title II: Employee Benefit Administration - Employee Benefit Administration Act - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to establish, within one year of enactment, an independent Employee Benefit Administration (EBA) which may, in the discretion of the President, be within any department or agency of the United States. Transfers the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation from the Department of Labor to the EBA. Establishes within the offices of the Secretary of Labor and Secretary of the Treasury the positions of special liaison officers to the Administration. Authorizes the EBA to administer all provisions of the Public Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Directs the President to transfer to and vest in the Board of Directors of the EBA: (1) the functions and duties of the Secretary of Labor under titles I and II of ERISA; (2) such functions and duties of the Secretary of the Treasury under titles I and II of ERISA and under the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, relating to employee benefit and governmental plans, as the President shall designate, including all functions relating to the qualification and disqualification of employee benefit and governmental plans; and (3) such other functions and duties of departments and agencies, relating to employee benefit and governmental plans, as the President may designate.
United States · United States Congress · 27 September 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow certain individuals to compute the amount of the deduction for retirement savings on the basis of the earned income of their spouses.
United States · United States Congress · 21 September 1978
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that Reverend Sun Myung Moon return to the United States prior to October 31, 1978, appear before the Subcommittee on International Organizations investigating Korean-American relations, and fully respond to all questions of the subcommittee.
United States · United States Congress · 20 September 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from the coverage of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act full-time students who perform services for seasonal camps during fewer than 13 weeks in the calendar year.
United States · United States Congress · 11 September 1978
Expresses the support of Congress of a comprehensive review of retirement income, survivor benefit, and disability benefit programs, as set forth in the objectives of the President's Commission on Pension Policy.
United States · United States Congress · 9 August 1978
Expresses the sense of Congress that the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Federal courts should expedite all remaining administrative and judicial proceedings with respect to the Seabrook Nuclear Station project (New Hampshire), and that all licensing and permitting procedures for the construction and operation of nuclear generating stations should be reviewed and modified to improve the efficiency of such procedures.
United States · United States Congress · 2 August 1978
Declares the sense of the Congress that the President and the Secretary of State should take all necessary steps to bring the Baltic States question before the United Nations and to urge the United Nations to request the Soviet Union to withdraw all non-native troops, agents, colonists, and controls from the Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and to return all Baltic exiles from Siberia and from prisons and labor camps in the Soviet Union. Requires the Secretary of State to do his utmost to bring the matter of the Baltic States to the attention of all nations by means of special radio programs and publications. Declares that the United States should not agree to the recognition of the Soviet Union's annexation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Directs the President to take steps to provide that all maps of Europe show the Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as independent states. Calls for a return of self-determination to the peoples of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia through free elections conducted under the auspices of the United Nations.
United States · United States Congress · 11 July 1978
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Soviet Government should terminate its unjust trials and incarceration of members and affiliates of the Soviet Helsinki Groups and allow these persons to pursue their lawful activities on behalf of basic human rights. Urges the President to express to the Soviet Government the adverse effects such trials will have on issues of economic, strategic, and other importance between the United States and the Soviet Union.
United States · United States Congress · 28 June 1978
Animal Welfare Act Amendments - Amends the Animal Welfare Act to prohibit coursing (an event which involves the pursuit by one or more dogs of another live animal).
United States · United States Congress · 22 June 1978
Product Liability Self-Insurance Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a deduction to any business enterprise engaged in the manufacture, importation, distribution, lease, or sale of any product for contributions to its product liability loss reserve account and for amounts paid to a captive insurer (wholly or partially-owned by the taxpayer) for product liability insurance. Specifies the amount a taxpayer may deduct, based upon the ability of such taxpayer to obtain insurance through conventional channels. Disallows any deductions for product liability losses which do not exceed the sum of the total reserve funds in the taxpayer's account at the beginning of the taxable year plus the amount of deductible payments made by the taxpayer to the account during such year. Imposes penalties for the improper use of product liability reserve funds. Treats amounts accumulated in the taxpayer's product liability loss reserve account as amounts accumulated for reasonably anticipated business needs, for purposes of avoiding the accumulated earnings tax.
United States · United States Congress · 9 June 1978
Investment Incentive Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to restore part of the pre-1969 tax treatment of capital gains by repealing the capital gains item of tax preference for the minimum tax; lowering the corporate alternative tax to 25 percent of net capital gain; and lowering the alternative individual tax to 25 percent of net capital gain.
United States · United States Congress · 31 May 1978
Authorizes the President of the United States to designate the week beginning on the Sunday preceding the fourth Thursday in November of each year as "National Family Week".
United States · United States Congress · 1 May 1978
Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services Amendments - Title I: Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 - Extends through 1983 the authorization of appropriations for grants for basic vocational rehabilitation services under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Provides that State plans for providing rehabilitation services need be submitted only once every three years instead of annually. Changes the requirements with regard to the contents of State plans, including adding the requirements that the plans provide for vocational rehabilitation services to handicapped American Indians and provide for the establishment and maintenance of information and referral programs so that the handicapped will be aware of the various Federal and State programs which could benefit them. Changes procedures for the withholding of State grants for failure of the State plan to comply with Federal requirements or for failure of the administration of the plan to comply with the plan's own requirements. Allows State vocational rehabilitation services to include (1) the use of existing telecommunications systems which have the potential for improving service delivery methods and (2) the use of services providing recorded material for the blind and captioned material for the deaf. Changes the formula for the computation of State allotments for basic vocational services. Extends through fiscal year 1983 the set aside of funds at the Federal level for regional pilot projects for advising individuals of the benefits available to them under the Act. Establishes a new program of grants to the governing bodies of Indian tribes on reservations for demonstration projects under which the tribes shall develop and provide vocational rehabilitation services for handicapped American Indians residing on or near such reservations. Establishes a National Institute of Rehabilitation Research to be responsible for administering existing programs of rehabilitation research and for coordinating Federal programs and policies relating to research and rehabilitation. Directs the Institute to undertake a study of the way in which Federal programs providing benefits to handicapped individuals might be restructured so as to eliminate any disincentives for persons receiving benefits under such programs to obtain employment. Authorizes the Institute to make grants for the conduct of a research program concerning the use of existing telecommunications systems which have the potential for substantially improving delivery methods. Authorizes the Commissioner of Rehabilitation Services to make training grants for medical, social and psychological rehabilitation in addition to vocational rehabilitation. Extends through 1981 the Commissioner's authority to make grants for construction of rehabilitation facilities, for projects to provide vocational training services to handicapped individuals, and for special projects and demonstrations. Revises the program of guarantees of loans for construction of rehabilitation facilities. Renames the National Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults the Helen Keller Center for Deaf-Blind Youths and Adults. Authorizes the Commissioner to make grants to the States to establish and operate comprehensive rehabilitation centers which shall provide a broad range of specified services to handicapped individuals. Adds to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 a new Title IV "National Council on the Handicapped," which establishes within Health, Education, and Welfare a National Council on the Handicapped. Sets forth the duties of the Council, including developing general policies for the Rehabilitation Services Administration and the National Institute of Rehabilitation Research. Renames the Architectural Transportation Compliance Board the Architectural Transportation and Communication Barriers Compliance Board, and adds nine handicapped individuals to the membership of the Board. Adds to the duties of the Board the duty to investigate and examine alternative approaches to the communication barriers confronting handicapped individuals. Authorizes United States district courts to award a reasonable attorney's fee to a prevailing plantiff in certain actions brought to enforce rights under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to provide technical assistance to (1) rehabilitation facilities and (2) nonprofits groups for the removal of architectural, transportation and communication barriers. Title II: Employment Opportunities for Projects with Industry - Employment Opportunities for Handicapped Individuals Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Labor to establish a community service employment program for handicapped individuals with both public and private employers. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to handicapped individuals to enable them to establish and operate their own businesses. Title III: Comprehensive Services for Independent Living - Adds a new title VII to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 "Comprehensive Services for Independent Living." Authorizes, under such Title, the Commissioner to make grants (supplementary to grants under Title I of the Act) to assist States in providing independent living services designed to meet the needs of individuals whose disabilities are so severe that they do not presently have the potential for gainful employment but may benefit from vocational rehabilitation services which will enable them to live and function independently. Title IV: Interagency Programs - Authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to make grants and contracts for the purpose of research and demonstration projects specifically designed to address the multiple and interrelated service needs of handicapped individuals, the elderly, and children, youths, adults, and families in need of protective services. Requires the submission of a report to Congress on such projects within four months of completion of the project.
United States · United States Congress · 1 May 1978
Comprehensive Employment and Training Amendments - Revises generally the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973 (CETA). Consolidates the administrative provisions of such Act in a new title. Requires State prime sponsors to allow subareas to assist in the planning and delivery of services within their respective jurisdictions. Authorizes the Secretary of Labor to act as a prime sponsor for an area under any of the employment and training programs when there is no other prime sponsor for an area or when services are not being provided to an area due to a complaint about the prime sponsor or disapproved plan. Revises the procedures for a prime sponsor to become eligible for grants. Requires each prime sponsor to submit a comprehensive employment and training plan consisting of a master plan and a single assurance that the prime sponsor will comply with the Act, the regulations, and the comprehensive employment and training plan. Sets forth the information to be included in the plans. Amends provisions regarding review of comprehensive plans and complaints about and sanctions against prime sponsors. Changes the composition and meeting requirements of prime sponsor planning councils and State employment and training councils. Consolidates various assurances presently required to be submitted by prime sponsors and redesignates them as program conditions. Sets out those conditions which are applicable to all programs. Includes among such conditions a requirement that small and minority businesses be given maximum reasonable opportunity to compete for contracts. Establishes in the Office of the Secretary of Labor an Office of Audits, Investigations, and Compliance to conduct and supervise audits and investigations relating to CETA programs and activities. Establishes an Office of Management Assistance in the Secretary's Office to provide management assistance to prime expenses. Redefines "unemployed" and "underemployed" for purposes of the Act. Permits institutionalized persons to be designated as "underemployed." Defines "economically disadvantaged" for purposes of the Act. Directs that "areas of substantial unemployment" be determined on the basis of yearly rather than quarterly data. Extends the general authorization for appropriations for activities under CETA. Makes specified changes in the comprehensive employment and training services programs. Restricts eligibility for participation, with certain exceptions, to individuals who are both (1) economically disadvantaged and (2) unemployed, underemployed, or in school. Authorizes prime sponsors to conduct occupational upgrading programs through agreements with public and private employers. Makes eligible for the ungrading program employees of participating employers who are operating at less than their full skill potential, particularly persons in entry level or dead end positions. Requires the Secretary of Labor to provide services to groups of persons with particular labor market disadvantages under the Special Federal Responsibilities Title of CETA. Adds as new groups which are specifically designated as targets of activities under such title handicapped workers, single parents, and displaced homemakers. Authorizes the Secretary to carry out job search and relocation activities as an ongoing national program. Authorizes the Secretary to promote the development of partnership arrangements between prime sponsors and employment security agencies. Consolidates the youth employment demonstration programs, the youth summer employment program, and the Job Corps in a separate title. Makes uniform the basic eligibility requirements for all programs except the demonstration projects as follows: (1) age 16 through 21 or, if authorized by the Secretary, 14 through 21; (2) economically disadvantaged; and (3) underemployed, unemployed, or in school. Deletes Job Corps provisions relative to background investigations of applicants, oaths of allegiance for members, sex-segregated centers, cost per enrollee limitations, and political activity and discrimination. Places Job Corps property under concurrent Federal-State criminal jurisdiction. Changes the name of the National Commission for Manpower policy to National Commission for Employment and Training Policy. Expands the Commission's membership. Combines the present public service employment programs and emergency unemployment programs into a single new program. Allocates public service employment funds among prime sponsors serving areas with high unemployment. Limits participation in the program to economically disadvantaged persons who have been unemployed for at least eight weeks. Creates a new title designed to place individuals in private sector jobs by providing financial assistance to prime sponsors for private sector initiatives, including on-the-job training and related activities. Directs participating prime sponsors to establish private industry councils to assist in the development of initiative programs.
United States · United States Congress · 24 April 1978
Amends the Trade Act of 1974, with respect to the authority of the President to negotiate trade agreements, to direct the President to reserve any article for which an agreement limiting agricultural imports has been entered into, from negotiations to reduce or eliminate customs duties or import restrictions.
United States · United States Congress · 20 April 1978
Comprehensive Older Americans Act Amendments - Title I: Amendments to the Older Americans Act of 1965 - Amends the Older Americans Act of 1965 to require each Federal agency proposing to establish programs and services substantially related to the purposes of such Act to consult with the Administration on Aging prior to the establishment of such programs and services. Authorizes a recipient of a grant under the Older Americans Act of 1965 to enter into an agreement with a profitmaking organization to carry out the provisions of such Act. Declares it to be the purpose of Title III of such Act (Grants for State and Community Programs on Aging) to encourage and assist State and local agencies to concentrate resources to serve older persons by entering into cooperative arrangements with the providers of social services or nutrition services or multipurpose senior centers, for the planning and provision of social services, nutrition services, or multipurpose senior centers. Defines terms used in such Title. Authorizes appropriations for fiscal years 1979, 1980, and 1981 for grants approved under such Title. Requires each State, to be eligible to receive a grant under such Title, to designate a State agency as the sole State agency: (1) to develop and administer a State plan formulated pursuant to this Act; and (2) to designate planning and service areas. Requires each such area agency on aging to prepare and develop an area plan. Sets forth specified material to be included in such plan. Requires each State, in order to be eligible for grants under such Title, to submit to the Commissioner on Aging a State plan. Sets forth specified material to be included in such plan. Authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to insure any mortgage for a multipurpose senior center in accordance with the provisions set forth in this Act. Creates a Multipurpose Senior Center Insurance Fund to be used by the Secretary as a revolving fund for carrying out all insurance provisions with respect to such mortgages. Authorizes the Commissioner, under the Act, to make grants to eligible tribal organizations, as defined in this Act, to pay all of the costs for the delivery of social and nutritional services for Indians who are age 60 and over. Sets forth criteria for applications for such grants. Requires the Commissioner to make grants to States for: (1) the establishment and operation of nutrition projects for older persons which five or more days a week, provide, in a congregate setting, at least one hot or cold meal per day, each of which assures a minimum of one-third of the daily recommended dietary allowances; and (2) the establishment and operation of multipurpose senior centers which shall be community facilities for the organization and provision of a broad spectrum of social services or nutrition services, or both, for older persons; (3) the provision of legal services for the elderly; and (4) the conduct of projects under which a State ombudsman receives and investigates complaints made by or on behalf of older persons who are residents of long-term care facilities relating to administrative action which may adversely affect the health, safety, welfare, or rights of such residents. Declares that, under the Act, a national manpower policy shall be developed for the field of aging which will reflect the present and future needs for training personnel in all programs serving the elderly. Authorizes the Commissioner to make grants for the purpose of conducting studies on: (1) the problems experienced by State and area agencies on aging and other service providers in operating transportation services; (2) the impact of this Act and other service and benefit programs in meeting the long-range needs of the elderly population; and (3) the differences in unit costs, service delivery and access between rural areas and urban areas for services assisted under this Act and the special needs of the elderly residing in rural areas. Authorizes the Commissioner to make grants to develop and operate statewide, regional, metropolitan area, county, city, or community model projects which will demonstrate methods to expand or improve social services and promote the well-being of older persons. Requires the Commissioner in making such grants to give special consideration to projects designed: (1) to assist in meeting the housing needs of older persons; (2) to provide continuing education to older persons; (3) to provide preretirement education information; (4) to provide services to assist in meeting the particular needs of physically and mentally impaired older persons; (5) to meet the special needs of, and improve the delivery of services to older persons who are not receiving adequate services under other provisions of this Act; (6) to assist older persons to remain within their communities and out of institutions; (7) to establish comprehensive service systems for older persons residing in rural areas; and (8) to develop or improve methods of coordinating all available home social services for the homebound elderly, blind, and disabled by establishing demonstration projects. Authorizes the Commissioner to make grants to and enter into contracts with appropriate bodies to support programs of legal services and ombudsman programs established under provisions of this Act. Authorizes the Commissioner to make grants to support the development of comprehensive, coordinated systems of community long-term care for older persons. Requires such grants to be used for the development of programs which provide a full continuum of services designed to support alternatives to institutional living, including (1) adult day health; (2) individual assessment of need, service plan development, monitoring, and evaluation of service effectiveness; (3) supported living in public and private, nonprofit housing; (4) family respite services; (5) preventative health services; (6) home health, homemaker, and other rehabilitative and maintenance in-home services; (7) geriatric health maintenance organizations; and (8) other services which the Commissioner determines are appropriate. Redesignates Title IV (Training and Research) of the Act "Training, Research, and Discretionary Projects and Programs. Authorizes appropriations through fiscal year 1981 for: (1) multidisciplinary centers of gerontology; and (2) the Older American Community Service Employment Program. Title II: White House Conference on Aging - 1981 White House Conference on Aging Act - Declares it the policy of the Congress that the Federal Government should work with the States and citizens to develop recommendations and plans to meet the needs of older persons. Requires that programs developed under this Act place emphasis upon the right of older persons to free choice and self-help in planning their futures. Authorizes the President of the United States to call a White House Conference on Aging in 1981 to develop recommendations for research and action in the field of aging. Requires the Conference to include representatives of Federal, State, and local governments, and professional and lay people working in the field of aging including older persons. Directs that a final report of the White House Conference, containing a comprehensive statement of a coherent national policy on aging and the recommendations of such Conference, be submitted to the President and Congress within a specified time. Sets forth the responsibilities and duties of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare in administering this Act. Directs the Secretary to establish an advisory committee to the Conference and such other technical committees as may be necessary to carry out such Conference. Title III: Study of Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in Programs for Older Americans - Directs the Commission on Civil Rights: (1) to undertake a comprehensive study of discrimination based on race or ethnic background in any federally assisted programs and activities which affect older persons; and (2) to identify any federally assisted activity in which evidence is found of persons or organizations who are otherwise qualified being, on the basis of race or ethnic background, excluded from participation in, denied the benefits of, refused employment or contracts with, or subject to discrimination under, such activity.
United States · United States Congress · 19 April 1978
Unified Education and Training Act - Establishes an executive department to be known as the Department of Education to be administered by a Secretary of Education. Declares the purpose of such Department to be to coordinate and administer Federal educational and training programs in such a manner as to eliminate duplication of effort and conflicting policies without interference with State and local school systems or private institutions. Transfers to the Secretary specified functions of the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Commissioner of Education various educational responsibilities of other Federal agencies and instrumentalities. Redesignates the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and the Secretary of such Department as the Department of Health and Welfare, and the Secretary of Health and Welfare. Directs the Secretary of Education to prepare an annual report to the President for submission to the Congress. Establishes a Commission on School Finance to: (1) study and assess the financial needs of public elementary and secondary education and the tax resources available; (2) assess individual Federal education programs; (3) assess the level of Federal aid and its impact on State and local educational systems; and (4) conduct appropriate research and studies.
United States · United States Congress · 12 April 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide identical income tax rates for single persons and married couples filing joint returns. Limits the earned income that must be reported by a married individual filing a separate return to the amount actually earned by that individual.
United States · United States Congress · 12 April 1978
International Emergency Wheat Reserve Act - Declares it to be United States policy to develop a wheat reserve in compliance with the Wheat Trade Convention. Directs the President to establish a wheat reserve. Sets forth acquisition, storage, and release procedures with respect to such reserves. Exempts such reserves from the "total domestic supply" of the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 and the quantitative export limitations of the Export Administration Act of 1969. Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to utilize the funds and authorities of the Commodity Credit Corporation to carry out this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 11 April 1978
Older Americans Civil Rights Act - Amends the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to require the Commission on Civil Rights to study and collect information concerning policies and practices constituting discrimination on account of age. Amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to extend its coverage to discrimination based on age in public accommodations, public facilities, and public education. Requires the Community Services Administration to provide assistance in resolving difficulties relating to discriminatory practices based on age. Prohibits discrimination based on age in: (1) the sale or rental of housing; (2) the financing of housing; and (3) the provision of brokerage services. Prohibits intimidation of any person because of age because such person is or has been selling, purchasing, or renting any dwelling. Defines "age" for the purposes of the amendments made by the Act, as being considered too old, but only if the individual has attained the age of 40 years.
United States · United States Congress · 11 April 1978
Amends the Age Discrimination Act of 1975: (1) to change the prohibition declared in the statement of purpose from unreasonable discrimination to any discrimination on the basis of age in programs receiving Federal financial assistance; (2) to provide that when a State or local government is out of conformity with the requirements of such Act, and such government is the only entity eligible under a given program or activity for Federal financial assistance, then Federal funds may be disbursed to any nonprofit organization which can carry out the Federal program; (3) to authorize any person aggrieved pursuant to this Act, upon exhausting Federal administrative remedies, to bring a civil action; and (4) to require the head of each Federal agency to annually issue a report detailing the steps taken in the preceding year to carry out specified provisions of the Act.
United States · United States Congress · 16 March 1978
Legislative Oversight Act - Title I: Requirements for Authorization Bills - Requires all legislation considered by either House of Congress which authorizes new budget authority or increased tax expenditures to include a statement of objectives of the program to be authorized or established and a requirement that the agencies administering the program report annually to Congress to assist it in determining whether such program should be amended. Requires such agency reports to list the costs and accomplishments of each program. Title II: Requirements for Reports Accompanying Authorization Bills - Requires committee reports accompanying such legislation to identify expected economic and social costs and benefits of new programs authorized or established by such legislation, potentially duplicative programs, and previous efforts to accomplish the objectives of the program being considered. Requires reports to contain, if the legislation continues an existing program, authorization, or tax expenditure, an assessment of the degree to which such program or tax expenditure has met previously stated objectives. Requires the Comptroller General to publish and periodically update a descriptive catalog of interrelated Federal activities which compares program costs and accomplishments and describes program interrelationships, including the extent to which programs are duplicative. Title III: Presidential Budget Recommendations - Requires the President's budget to describe the relationship between the President's recommended program budgets and the program accomplishments reported by Federal agencies under this Act. Title IV: Authorization Time Limit; Certain Obligations not Impaired - Prohibits congressional consideration of any legislation which authorizes new budget authority or provides new or increased tax expenditures, or new spending authority for a period exceeding five years. Exempts from this prohibition national debt service and payments to individuals from Federal trust funds to which such individuals have contributed. Title V: Miscellaneous Provisions; Effective Date - Recognizes the authority of either House to amend this Act. Sets the effective date of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 16 March 1978
Amends Title XX (Grants to States for Services) of the Social Security Act to increase the ceiling imposed upon payments for services under such Title for the fiscal years 1979, 1980, 1981 and maintains the 1981 level for succeeding years.
United States · United States Congress · 15 March 1978
Expresses the condemnation by the Congress of the March 11, 1978, attack on Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the expressed intention of the PLO to continue such attacks and to disrupt the peace efforts between Israel and Egypt. Requests the President to make the disapproval of the Congress known to governments approving the PLO attack. Expresses Congressional approval of the peace efforts between Israel and Egypt. Urges other Middle East countries to join such efforts. Declares negotiation to be the best way to bring peace to the Middle East.
United States · United States Congress · 7 March 1978
Elephant Protection Act - Prohibits the import, export, possession, transport, or sale of any elephant product. Directs the Secretary of the Interior to administer this Act. Authorizes the Secretary to issue permits for acts herein prohibited for scientific purposes. Establishes civil and criminal penalties for violation of this Act. Establishes rewards for persons providing information regarding violations of this Act. Requires the Secretaries of the Interior, Treasury, and the department in which the Coast Guard is operating to enforce this Act, and to promulgate regulations for such enforcement. Permits citizens suits to enforce this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 3 March 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to apply the same tax rates to married persons filing separate returns as are presently applicable to unmarried individuals.
United States · United States Congress · 1 March 1978
Standards Repeal Act - Amends the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act to repeal the provisions of such Act and the standards promulgated thereunder relating to fuel economy standards for trucks and other nonpassenger vehicles.
United States · United States Congress · 23 February 1978
Veterans' and Survivors' Pension Improvement Act - Title I: Amendments to Pension Program for Non-service-connected Disability or Death - Revises the list of specified catagories of payments excluded from the determination of annual income for benefit payment purposes. Requires persons applying for a non-service-connected disability pension to report the income and estate of each spouse and child on account of whom added pension is applied for or received. Sets increased flat pension and aid-and-attendance allowance rates, reduced by the amount of a veteran's annual income, and in specified instances, by the amount of a spouse's or child's income which is reasonably available to or for such veteran. Sets increased flat benefit rates, with similar reductions, for the surviving spouses and children of such veterans. Requires annual adjustments in such pension and benefit rates in conjunction with cost-of-living increases in Social Security benefits. Title II: Miscellaneous Provisions and Effective Dates - Sets the effective dates for provisions of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 22 February 1978
Comprehensive Employment and Training Amendments - Revises generally the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973 (CETA). Consolidates the administrative provisions of such Act in a new title. Amends the definition of "prime sponsor" to include Native American entities. Requires State prime sponsors to allow subareas to assist in the planning and delivery of services within their respective jurisdictions. Authorizes the Secretary of Labor to act as a prime sponsor for an area under any of the employment and training programs when there is no other prime sponsor for an area or when services are not being provided to an area due to a complaint about the prime sponsor or disapproved plan. Revises the procedures for a prime sponsor to become eligible for grants. Requires each prime sponsor to submit a comprehensive employment and training plan consisting of a prime sponsor agreement, annual comprehensive employment and training services program supplements, individual annual program supplements for any additional programs the prime sponsor wishes to conduct, and a single assurance that the prime sponsor will comply with the Act, the regulations, and the comprehensive employment and training plan. Sets forth the information to be included in the agreement and program supplements. Amends provisions regarding review of comprehensive plans and complaints about and sanctions against prime sponsors. Changes the composition and meeting requirements of prime sponsor planning councils and State employment and training councils. Consolidates various assurances presently required to be submitted by prime sponsors and redesignates them as program conditions. Sets out those conditions which are applicable to all programs and those which are applicable to the public service employment programs. Includes among the former a requirement that small and minority businesses be given maximum reasonable opportunity to compete for contracts. Includes among the latter a limitation that no public service employment last more than 78 weeks in a five-year period. Redefines "unemployed" and "underemployed" for purposes of the Act. Permits institutionalized persons to be designated as "underemployed." Defines "economically disadvantaged" for purposes of the Act. Directs that "areas of substantial unemployment" be determined on the basis of yearly rather than quarterly data. Extends the general authorization for appropriations for activities under CETA. Makes specified changes in the comprehensive employment and training services programs. Restricts eligibility for participation, with certain exceptions, to individuals who are both (1) economically disadvantaged and (2) unemployed, underemployed, or in school. Adds provisions relative to job search assistance. Authorizes prime sponsors to conduct occupational upgrading programs through agreements with public and private employers. Makes eligible for the upgrading program employees of participating employers who are operating at less than their full skill potential, particularly persons in entry level or dead end positions. Authorizes, rather than requires, the Secretary of Labor to provide services to groups of persons with particular labor market disadvantages under the Special Federal Responsibilities title of CETA. Adds as new groups specifically designated as targets of activities under such title handicapped workers, single parents, displaced homemakers, and persons who became unemployed in a large-scale loss of jobs in a specific area. Increases the allotment of funds for programs for Native Americans. Directs that programs for migrant and seasonal workers be focused primarily on assistance in preparing for and obtaining more stable employment. Authorizes the Secretary to carry out job search and relocation activities as an ongoing national program. Consolidates the youth employment demonstration programs, the youth summer employment program, and the Job Corps in a separate title. Makes uniform the basic eligibility requirements for all programs except the entitlement projects as follows: (1) age 16 through 21 or, if authorized by the Secretary, 14 through 21; (2) economically disadvantaged; and (3) unemployed or in school. Deletes Job Corps provisions relative to background investigations of applicants, oaths of allegiance for members, sex-segregated centers, cost per enrollee limitations, and political activity and discrimination. Places Job Corps property under concurrent Federal-State criminal jurisdiction. Specifies that transactions of private-for-profit operators of Job Corps Centers are not to be considered as generating gross receipts. Changes the name of the National Commission for Manpower Policy to National Commission for Employment and Training Policy. Expands the Commission's membership. Combines the present public service employment programs and emergency unemployment programs into a single new program. Restricts, beginning in fiscal year 1980, public service employment funds to those prime sponsors serving areas with high unemployment unless the national unemployment rate exceeds 4.75 percent. Limits participation in the program to economically disadvantaged persons who have been unemployed for at least five weeks. States that, in determining whether an individual is economically disadvantaged for purposes of the public service employment program, family income for the three, rather than the six, preceding months shall be taken into account. Requires that all public service employment jobs be in entry level positions. Creates a new title designed to place individuals in private sector jobs by providing financial assistance to prime sponsors for private sector initiatives, including on-the-job training and related activities. Directs participating prime sponsors to establish private industry councils to assist in the development of initiative programs.
United States · United States Congress · 22 February 1978
Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to exclude from admission into, and provides for the deportation from, the United States of any alien who engaged or assisted in, or incited or directed others to engage in, the persecution of others on the basis of religion, race, or national origin under the direction of the Nazi government of Germany between March 23, 1933, and May 8, 1945.
United States · United States Congress · 21 February 1978
Authorizes the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution to acquire the Museum of African Art. Establishes a Commission for the Museum of African Art to assist the Board in the operation and development of the Museum. Authorizes appropriations to carry out the purposes of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 16 February 1978
Amends the Older Americans Act of 1965 to direct the Commissioner on Aging to establish a special grant program to enable States to establish community long-term care initiatives designed to assess the needs of chronically ill or disabled older persons for services and to assist in the efficient operation of a comprehensive and coordinated system for the delivery of services to older persons. Authorizes the Commissioner to permit certain agencies to apply for, and if qualified, reserve grants to develop such community long-term care initiatives. Authorizes grants made under this Act to cover up to 90 percent of the cost of a program established pursuant to this Act. Permits adversely affected grant applicants to obtain judicial review. Establishes guidelines for each agency to follow in establishing programs. Requires each administering agency to submit an annual report to the Commissioner.
![Official portrait of Rep. Sarasin, Ronald A. [R-CT-5]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/s000062_200.jpg)