United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to repeal the carryover basis provisions enacted by the Tax Reform Act of 1976 which provide that beneficiaries receiving property from a decedent's estate will retain the decedent's basis in the property. Restores prior law which "stepped up" or "stepped down" the property's basis to its market value at the time of death without imposing tax consequences on the appreciation or depreciation the property underwent while held by the decedent.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Constitutional Amendment - States that Congress shall make no appropriations for any fiscal year which exceed the total revenues of the United States for such year. Prohibits spending by, or on behalf of, the United States which exceeds the total revenue for that year. Suspends such requirements when Congress declares war or national emergency.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Constitutional Amendment - Provides that total appropriations shall not exceed estimated revenues. Authorizes the suspension of such prohibition in time of war or national emergency. Prohibits any increase in the national debt as it exists on the date this article is ratified. Sets forth a schedule for repayment of the national debt.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Constitutional Amendment - Prohibits total Federal expenditures from exceeding total receipts. Authorizes suspension of such prohibition for a congressional term in time of war or national emergency upon the concurrence of three-fourths of the Members of both Houses of Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Constitutional Amendment - Provides that total appropriations shall not exceed estimated revenues. Authorizes the suspension of such prohibition in time of war or national emergency. Prohibits any increase in the national debt as it exists on the date this article is ratified. Sets forth a schedule for repayment of the national debt.
United States · United States Congress · 15 January 1979
Establishes the Claude Pepper Senior Citizen Congressional Intern program which authorizes each Member of Congress to hire each year one senior citizen intern to serve within the District of Columbia for one of two two-week periods. Specifies that such intern shall be compensated at a rate not to exceed $300 per week.
United States · United States Congress · 13 October 1978
Constitutional Amendment - Provides that total expenditures shall not exceed total revenues for any fiscal year. Authorizes the suspension of such prohibition in time of war or by a vote of two-thirds of the members of the Senate and the House. Directs the amount of any annual deficit be considered an expenditure of the United States in the following fiscal year. Permits the Congress to apportion any annual deficit over the four following fiscal years, or to include such deficit in the gross Federal debt. Directs the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to reduce the public debt of the United States through open-market operations.
United States · United States Congress · 5 October 1978
Declares it the sense of Congress that, in selecting a site to be used as a launching base for the MX intercontinental missile, the Secretary of Defense should exempt from consideration areas where the siting of such a missile would result in the destruction or idling of productive farmland and the displacing of farmers and ranchers from their homes and land.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 1978
Prohibits the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, from taking any action under the Wholesome Meat Act, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, or any other law to prohibit the sale, distribution, or use of nitrites as a food preservative solely on the basis of any carcinogenic effect in humans that nitrites may be represented to have, unless validated evidence is made available to the Secretaries which proves beyond a reasonable doubt that nitrites as a food preservative have a significant carcinogenic effect on humans. States that such prohibition shall not apply if the Secretaries determine, and publish in the Federal Register, that a food preservative is commercially available: (1) which may be used in the place of nitrites; (2) which is effective in the protection of public health from botulism and other forms of food poisoning; and (3) the use of which is economically feasible for meat processors and the consumer. Requires the Secretaries to conduct or support (by grant or contract) research and development activities for a food preservative alternative to nitrites.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 1978
Prohibits the Secretary of Agriculture from taking any action under the Wholesome Meat Act or any other law to prohibit the sale, distribution, or use of nitrites as a food preservative solely on the basis of any carcinogenic effect in humans that nitrites may be represented to have, unless validated evidence is made available to the Secretary which proves beyond a reasonable doubt that nitrites as a food preservative have a significant carcinogenic effect on humans. States that such prohibition shall not apply if the Secretary determines, and publishes in the Federal Register, that a food preservative is commercially available: (1) which may be used in the place of nitrites; (2) which is effective in the protection of public health from botulism and other forms of food poisoning; and (3) the use of which is economically feasible for meat processors and the consumer. Requires the Secretary to conduct or support (by grant or contract) research and development activities for a food preservative alternative to nitrites.
United States · United States Congress · 17 August 1978
Anti-Inflation Tax Reduction and Reform Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide cost-of-living adjustments for the individual income tax rates and withholding tables.
United States · United States Congress · 16 August 1978
Amends the Agricultural Act of 1949 to raise the price support levels for milk, wheat, corn, soybeans, and cotton to 90 percent of their respective parity prices. Reduces the price levels at which producers participating in the wheat and feed grains storage program: (1) may redeem and market commodities securing price support loans (from between 140 to 160 percent of their respective parity prices to 100 percent); and (2) must repay such loans (from 175 to 110 percent of their respective parity prices).
United States · United States Congress · 15 August 1978
Bread Labeling Act - Requires the label on each loaf of bread packaged and distributed in interstate commerce to specify (in cents per pound) the cost to the manufacturer (based upon its average cost for the previous marketing year) of the farm products which comprise the ingredients of the bread. Prohibits any person from selling, transporting, offering for sale or transportation, or receiving for transportation, in interstate commerce, any loaf of bread not so labelled. Establishes a civil penalty of not more than $1,000 for each violation of this Act. Authorizes the Attorney General of the United States, at the Secretary's request, to seek injunctive relief in the appropriate United States court to prevent or discontinue violations of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 10 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 · 4 August 1978
Sugar Stabilization Act - Title I: International Sugar Agreement - Authorizes the President to limit the entry, or withdrawal from warehouse, for consumption in the United States, of sugar from any country not a member of the International Sugar Organization, and otherwise to regulate foreign trade in sugar to implement the International Sugar Agreement. Establishes civil penalties for the violation of such regulations. Requires the President to submit to Congress an annual report on the Agreement. Title II: Domestic Sugar Program - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to determine, during the July preceding the commencement of each (October 1 to September 30) sugar supply year, the amount of sugar needed to meet the requirements of consumers in the United States. Sets the price of 16 cents per pound of sugar, raw value, delivered to New York (including freight and the applicable tariff and fees) as the price objective for the sugar supply year 1978. Establishes formulae for determining the price objectives for succeeding sugar supply years. Authorizes the Secretary: (1) to establish, and to adjust, a quota for the entry of sugar from foreign countries; and (2) to impose an import fee in order to attain the established price objective. Prohibits filling of the established quota by direct-consumption sugar, except in specified circumstances. Permits the Secretary to suspend such quota and fees under specified circumstances. Authorizes the Secretary to impose a quota on the entry of sugar-containing products. Prohibits: (1) the entry of sugar, liquid sugar, or sugar-containing products after the import quotas have been filled; (2) the importation of certain sugar or liquid sugar into the Virgin Islands in excess of 100 pounds annually; and (3) the exportation of certain sugar from the United States. Regulates the exportation of sugar. Sets forth items to which the sugar quota shall not apply. Title III: General Provisions - Requires every producer of sugar beets and sugarcane for sugar to pay a specified minimum wage to each person employed on the farm in the production, cultivation, and harvesting of such crops. Establishes a civil cause of action against any producer who fails to pay minimum wages, allowing the employees affected to collect the amount of unpaid wages, plus an equal amount as liquidated damages. Prohibits a producer from discharging or discriminating against any employee who has participated in any way in an investigation or proceeding against the producer under this title. Prohibits a producer from charging farm employees any amount in excess of the reasonable cost of furnishing goods or services customarily furnished to employees engaged in the production. Directs the Secretary to issue regulations to assure that producers furnish workmen's compensation insurance to such employees. Requires persons engaged in the manufacture, marketing, transport, or industrial use of sugar to furnish the Secretary with specified information. Prohibits investment in sugar by officials engaged in the administration of this Act, and establishes penalties for the violation of such prohibition. Authorizes the President to suspend the operation of Title II of this Act in a national emergency. Authorizes the Secretary: (1) to conduct surveys and investigations to carry out this Act; and (2) to announce a daily spot price for raw sugar in specified circumstances. Terminates the authority of the Secretary under this Act on September 30, 1983.
United States · United States Congress · 2 August 1978
States that the Territory of American Samoa shall be represented in the United States Congress by a nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives. Sets forth the procedure for the election of such delegate.
United States · United States Congress · 31 July 1978
Multiple Award Act - Prohibits the General Services Administration (GSA) from awarding a single-source contract for the next two years to procure any commercially available product that may be procured from a multiple award schedule. Directs the Office of Federal Procurement Policy to study and report to Congress on GSA's procurement practices during this period.
United States · United States Congress · 28 July 1978
Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to pay an indemnity, calculated according to a specified formula, to eligible producers or owners of cattle, goats, or sheep (except lambs), whenever the President acts to increase or suspend quotas or to otherwise increase imports for any reasons other than as part of an international agreement to expand agricultural exports from the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 27 July 1978
Economic Recovery Act - Title I: Production and Sale of Agricultural Commodities - Directs the National Board of Agricultural Governors (created by Title II of this Act) to establish, on a monthly basis for each agricultural commodity, a parity price and a comprehensive cost of production price, taking into account for the latter: (1) machinery ownership costs; (2) farm overhead costs; (3) a value for the management services contributed by the producer; (4) labor costs; and (5) a value for the land utilized. Directs the Board to establish for each commodity a national production goal based on estimated domestic and export requirements, and levels of production consistent with established agricultural conservation or soil management programs. Directs the Board to allocate acreage allotments or marketing quotas based upon the production history of each farm during three out of the five preceding calendar years. Limits such allocations to individual farmers and farmer-owned or controlled cooperatives and corporations. Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to make loans available to producers of Board-selected commodities. Requires the Board to establish a program to acquire reserve stocks of agricultural commodities. Directs the Board to establish quotas for each agricultural commodity imported into the United States. Establishes in the United States Treasury the Agricultural Export Fund for the deposit of any tariff revenues received from a foreign country in which an agricultural commodity was produced, for use in the purchase of any United States products. Prohibits the sale of any United States agricultural commodity for export at less than 100 percent of the established price. Requires the Board to conduct, upon petition, producer referendums on proposed regulations. Amends the Federal Trade Commission Act to make it an unfair or deceptive trade practice for any person engaged in the retail sale of food to sell any food product without a sign at the point of sale stating the amount received by farmers for the agricultural commodities which were used to produce the food product involved. Authorizes the Secretary to make payments to any producer who reduces, during 1978, by more than 50 percent either his normal crop acreage or the number of acres planted to any agricultural commodity (compared to 1977). Prescribes civil penalties for anyone who buys, sells, or trades any agricultural commodity at a price less than a specified percent (increasing from 85 percent in 1979 to 100 percent after 1981), or more than 110 percent, of the established price. Title II: National Board of Agricultural Governors - Establishes a National Board of Agricultural Governors composed of 57 members appointed by the President. Title III: General Provisions - Defines terms used in this Act and sets the effective date.
United States · United States Congress · 25 July 1978
Amends the charter of the Boy Scouts of America to stipulate that the annual report of the Boy Scouts shall be printed each year as a separate House document.
United States · United States Congress · 20 July 1978
Directs the Secretary of Defense to rescind that portion of the Department of Defense directive which permits deserters from military service to receive in absentia discharges.
United States · United States Congress · 19 July 1978
Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to request the National Academy of Science to conduct a study regarding the desirability of developing a Federal policy for the determination of the potential carcinogenicity in man of chemicals tested primarily in nonhuman test systems through the standardization of certain tests.
United States · United States Congress · 18 July 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code by providing graduated corporate income tax rates ranging, over seven brackets, from a 16 percent rate on a corporation's first $25,000 income to a 45 percent rate on income over $150,000.
United States · United States Congress · 12 July 1978
Urges the prompt appointment of the National Commission on Social Security established by the Social Security Amendments of 1977. Resolves that the Congress request such Commission to study the feasibility of converting the present old-age, survivors, and disability insurance programs of the Social Security Act into self-renewing investment funds which will fulfill the purpose of the present program with a substantial reduction in taxes.
United States · United States Congress · 29 June 1978
Amends the Tariff Schedules of the United States to prohibit the importation into the United States of certain vegetable products from Cuba until after December 31, 1989.
United States · United States Congress · 29 June 1978
Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act - Requires a report to the Secretary of Agriculture, containing legal name, address, citizenship, type of interest, and legal description of the land involved, and other specified information, from any foreign person (including individuals, organizations, governments, or any combination thereof) who holds, acquires, or transfers any interest, other than a security interest, in agricultural land. Establishes a civil penalty for violation of any provision of this Act in an amount not to exceed 25 percent of the fair market value of the land interest involved on the date of the penalty assessment. Requires the Secretary to report to the President and to Congress an analysis of the information obtained by him pursuant to this Act, and a determination of the effects of foreign holdings, acquisitions, and transfers on family farms and rural communities.
United States · United States Congress · 29 June 1978
Amends the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to state that no Federal public works project begun after January 1, 1967, and before the date on which a species is listed pursuant to such Act as endangered shall be deemed to jeopardize the continued existence of the species or to result in the destruction of its critical habitat so long as such project is on or directly affects the navigable waters of the United States. Provides that if this Act applies to a public works project, the Secretary of the Interior shall take action to minimize the adverse effects on the species caused by the project.
United States · United States Congress · 29 June 1978
Directs the Secretary of Transportation to select a route and provide for the construction of a highway between Witchita, Kansas, and Tucumcari, New Mexico, to be known as the "Wild West Highway". Stipulates that the Federal share of the construction of such highway shall be 80 percent of its cost. Authorizes appropriations in such amounts as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 28 June 1978
Federal Spending Discipline Act - Amends the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act to limit total budget authority and budget outlays for fiscal year 1980 to the levels for fiscal year 1979. States that such authority and outlays for fiscal years 1981, 1982, and 1983 shall not exceed the authority and outlay of the previous fiscal year by more than five percent. Authorizes the President to reduce any budget authority or outlay during fiscal years 1980 through 1983 by up to ten percent in order to comply with the requirements of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 22 June 1978
Alcohol Fuel Act Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code: (1) to allow the election of a deduction with respect to the amortization, based on a 60-month period, of any qualified facility producing alcohol from coal, wood, waste, or agricultural products for primary use as a motor fuel; (2) to exempt from specified excise taxes the sale of any gasoline or fuel at least ten percent of which is alcohol; and (3) to allow the tax-free withdrawal from bonded premises of distilled spirits to the extent such spirits are alcohol produced by a qualified alcohol-producing facility for primary use as motor fuel.
United States · United States Congress · 21 June 1978
Amends Title II (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act to require States having agreements for coverage of their employees under the system of insurance established by such Title to make payments and reports on a calendar-quarter basis.
United States · United States Congress · 21 June 1978
Constitutional Amendment - Prohibits the levels of total budget outlay and new budget authority for any fiscal year from exceeding the corresponding level for the previous year by a percentage greater than the average annual percentage increase of the gross national product during the three calendar years immediately preceeding the beginning of the applicable fiscal year. Provides an exception to the restriction established by this Act in time of war or national emergency.
United States · United States Congress · 19 June 1978
Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act - Requires a report to the Secretary of Agriculture, containing legal name, address, citizenship, type of interest, and legal description of the land involved, and other specified information, from any foreign person (including individuals, organizations, governments, or any combination thereof) who holds, acquires, or transfers any interest, other than a security interest, in agricultural land. Establishes a civil penalty for violation of any provision of this Act in an amount not to exceed 25 percent of the fair market value of the land interest involved on the date of the penalty assessment. Requires the Secretary to report to the President and to Congress an analysis of the information obtained by him pursuant to this Act, and a determination of the effects of foreign holdings, acquisitions, and transfers on family farms and rural communities.
United States · United States Congress · 15 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 · 13 June 1978
Constitutional Amendment - Provides that total appropriations shall not exceed estimated revenues. Authorizes the suspension of such prohibition in time of war or national emergency. Prohibits any increase in the national debt as it exists on the date this article is ratified. Sets forth a schedule for repayment of the national debt.
United States · United States Congress · 25 May 1978
Federal Biological Control Organisms Act - Prohibits the movement of any biological control organism into, through, or within the United States without the authorization of the Secretary of Agriculture. Grants detention and search authority to inspectors. Establishes criminal penalties for the knowing violation of any regulations promulgated under this Act. Authorizes the Secretary, independently or in cooperation with Federal, State, and local government agencies, and with the governments of all countries of the western hemisphere, to eradicate, suppress, control, or prevent or retard the spread of any biological control organism which has been found to be harmful to agriculture or the production of food and fiber.
United States · United States Congress · 18 May 1978
Amends Title II (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act to require States having agreements for coverage of their employees under the system of insurance established by such Title to make payments and reports on a calendar-quarter basis.
United States · United States Congress · 17 May 1978
Small Business Regulatory Relief Act - Amends the Small Business Act to direct each Federal department, agency, and instrumentality engaged in rulemaking to prepare a written analysis of whether it is legal, feasible, and desirable to exempt small businesses (or classes thereof) from a rule or whether the agency should promulgate a rule with lesser compliance standards for businesses. Sets forth information which must be present in such analysis.
United States · United States Congress · 17 May 1978
Requests the President to (1) instruct the Department of State to report to Congress on the violations of human rights in Cambodia, (2) instruct the International Communications Agency to disseminate such information, and (3) instruct the Ambassador to the United Nations to introduce a resolution in the General Assembly condemning these atrocities.
United States · United States Congress · 16 May 1978
Provides that where two or more Members of the House of Representatives pay the basic pay of an individual from the clerk-hire allowance of each such Member, such individual shall be considered to be on the payroll of only one such Member for purposes of determining the number of individuals employed by such Members under the clerk-hire allowance. Requires such Members to designate who shall be considered the employer for the month involved and to report such designation to the Office of Finance.
United States · United States Congress · 12 May 1978
Declares (1) that the Department of the Treasury does not possess authority to implement certain proposed firearms transaction reporting regulations, (2) that such proposed additional recordkeeping requirements serve no useful purpose and are wasteful, and (3) that the Department must seek explicit congressional authorization before proposing any rules or regulations for centralizing records required under existing firearms law.
United States · United States Congress · 9 May 1978
Amends the Agricultural Act of 1949 to change the farm allotment factor in the payment formula for the 1977 crops of grain sorghum and barley to the acreage of grain sorghums and barley actually planted to such crops within the feed grain allotment established for the farm.
![Official portrait of Rep. Sebelius, Keith G. [R-KS-1]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/s000217_200.jpg)