United States · United States Congress · 17 April 1986
Amends the Agricultural Adjustment Act to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to: (1) issue a proposed nationwide milk marketing order; and (2) conduct a producer referendum to determine whether such order is approved or disapproved.
United States · United States Congress · 17 April 1986
Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act to eliminate the requirement that there be at least a three-percent rise in the Consumer Price Index before a cost-of-living adjustment of benefits is made.
United States · United States Congress · 17 April 1986
Amends the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 to allow an extension of time for the filing of claims for credit or refund of Federal income taxes for insolvent farmers who were exempted by such Act from the alternative minimum tax on capital gains realized on the transfer or sale of farmland under threat of foreclosure or in cancellation of indebtedness.
United States · United States Congress · 17 April 1986
Declares that the House of Representatives, on behalf of the U.S. people, expresses its gratitude to the Government and people of the United Kingdom who assisted the United States in its exercise of self-defense against Libya and in the fight against state-sponsored international terrorism.
United States · United States Congress · 16 April 1986
Agricultural Credit Act of 1986 - Title I: Interest Subsidy Incentives for Restructuring Loans - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture, and a State at its option, to provide interest rate subsidies to lenders who defer principal or interest payments on agricultural loans. Limits eligible aggregate loan amounts. Sets forth rate reductions. Establishes a three-year deferral period. States that at the end of such period lenders may not charge interest rates in excess of existing comparable rates. Permits lenders to enforce pre-deferral loan terms in the event of a nonmonetary borrower default. Requires lenders to make a good faith effort to reduce principal or interest due before foreclosing, except in the case of a bankruptcy. Requires lenders to develop debt restructuring guidelines. Terminates Federal and State subsidy payments upon foreclosure. Directs the Secretary to use the Agricultural Credit Insurance Fund to carry out such subsidy program. Authorizes the use of additional specified funds under the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act. Title II: Conservation Provisions - Amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to prohibit such loan deferral assistance to producers who cultivate crops on erodible land or wetlands. Title III: Accounting Provisions - Amends the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to require the appropriate Federal banking agency to: (1) permit an insured agricultural bank to account for debt restructuring according to generally accepted accounting principles by not requiring a change in the recorded investment unless the investment exceeds total, reasonably anticipated, future receipts given the new terms of the loan; (2) establish a program of capital standard forbearance for such an insured bank for which capital reduction is attributable to problems in the agricultural sectors of the economy; and (3) implement call report requirements for renegotiated loans which authorize such loans to be disclosed as "restructured and in compliance with modified terms." Requires States to conform their appropriate regulations to such amendments. Prohibits a national banking association from holding real estate under mortgage or purchased to secure debts for longer than ten years with no extension (currently, five years with a five-year extension if approved by the Comptroller of the Currency). Directs the Comptroller of the Currency to establish new lending limits for banks covered by the capital standard forbearance program. Prohibits such lending limitation from exceeding 20 percent of the unimpaired capital and unimpaired surplus of the lending institution. Title IV: Miscellaneous - Directs the Secretary to prescribe implementing regulations within 30 days. States that any State law prohibiting fixed rate loans shall not apply to credit extensions under this Act. Sets forth penalties for misuse of funds under this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 15 April 1986
Farm Tax Relief Act of 1986 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from the gross income of a qualified farmer any income which would be includible in gross income by reason of a discharge of an indebtedness of the farmer, regardless of whether the farmer is insolvent immediately before the discharge. Defines a "qualified farmer" as one who, immediately before the discharge of the indebtedness: (1) had a debt to asset ratio exceeding 70 percent; and (2) earned at least 50 percent of gross income in the preceding taxable year in the trade or business of farming.
United States · United States Congress · 10 April 1986
Acid Deposition Control Act of 1986 - Title I: Stationary Sources - Amends the Clean Air Act to require States to develop and submit to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) an emissions limitation compliance schedule for sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen from fossil-fuel-fired electric utility steam generating units. Requires a two-phase reduction in such emissions, the first to be achieved by 1993, the second by 1997. Requires each State to develop and submit to the Administrator a plan to achieve emissions reductions from other fossil-fuel-fired steam generating units by 1977. Directs the Administrator to conduct and update a comprehensive annual inventory of emissions of sulfur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen from stationary sources, identifying achievable reductions which could be made by 1997. Requires States to submit to the Administrator for approval a plan for achieving such reductions. Grants States discretion in their choice of compliance measures. Requires the Administrator to report to the Congress by July 1, 1993, on phase I reductions and the feasibility of meeting phase II reductions. States that phase II reductions will not take effect if the Congress enacts legislation to that effect. Sets forth emissions rates a State without an approved reductions plan must follow. Authorizes the Administrator to impose a fee on the generation and importation of electric energy between December 31, 1988, and December 31, 1996, to subsidize the interest on qualified pollution control debt incurred by the utility. Establishes civil penalties for fee violations. Establishes in the Treasury the Acid Deposition Control Fund to receive such fees and provide interest subsidy payments for pollution control systems meeting specified standards. Revises the standards for nitrogen oxides emissions for new electric utility steam generating units which burn bituminous or subbituminous coal and for certain fossil-fuel-fired steam generating units. Requires certain smelters to be in compliance with the applicable emissions reduction standard by January 2, 1988, without extension or delay. Title II: Control of Emission from Mobile Sources - Sets oxides of nitrogen emission standards for motor vehicles for model years 1988, 1989, and beyond. Modifies hydrocarbon standards for trucks after model year 1989. Directs the Administrator to regulate sulfur in diesel fuel for 1989 and beyond. Requires either the use of onboard hydrocarbon control technology or the use of gasoline vapor recovery of hydrocarbon emissions emanating from fueling motor vehicles. Title III: International Cooperation - Expresses the concern of the Congress over transboundary pollution between the United States and Mexico and directs the Secretary of State and the Administrator to conclude an agreement within three months of enactment. Requires such an agreement to cover specified copper smelters. Requires the Secretary and the Administrator to report to the Congress within six months on negotiating such agreement. Requires EPA to perform atmospheric field experiments to determine the effects of sulfur dioxide emissions, before and after pollution controls, of the Nacozaria smelter, Mexico, on specified western States. Directs the Secretary to establish an international agency, or utilize an existing agency, to report on the effects of transboundary air pollution from copper smelters on public health and welfare in the United States and in Mexico.
United States · United States Congress · 10 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that Federal funds for the Department of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service should be maintained at a level sufficient to prevent the reduction of benefits provided by such Service.
United States · United States Congress · 10 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the present three-year basis recovery rule on the taxation of retirement annuities for government employees should be maintained and provisions requiring the repeal of such treatment in certain tax reform legislation (H.R. 3838) should be deleted.
United States · United States Congress · 9 April 1986
Bilingual Education Act Amendments of 1986 - Amends the Bilingual Education Act (the Act) to add to the statement of policy the declaration that, regardless of the method of instruction, programs which serve children of limited English proficiency have the equally important goals of developing both academic achievement and English proficiency. Removes a requirement that the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) reserve limited portions of funds under the Act for special alternative instructional programs and related activities. Removes a requirement that the Secretary reserve at least 75 percent of funds under part A (Financial Assistance for Bilingual Education Programs) of the Act for transitional bilingual education programs.
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1986
Head Start Amendments of 1986 - Amends the Head Start Act to extend through FY 1989 the authorization of appropriations for Head Start programs. Revises the formula for the minimum funding guarantees for Indian and migrant Head Start programs. Eliminates cost-of-living indexing for Indian and migrant Head Start programs. Eliminates a minimum reservation of funds for training and technical assistance activities. Makes Head Start program employees ineligible for between-term unemployment compensation under the Internal Revenue Code.
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1986
Makes individuals who are not U.S. citizens or nationals and specified foreign-controlled interests ineligible for agricultural price supports, loans, crop insurance, and disaster payments. Exempts a foreign interest operating a single small- or medium-sized family farm from such prohibition.
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1986
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to deny the tax exclusion for interest on industrial development bonds used to finance the acquisition of farm property by foreign persons. Defines a "foreign person" as: (1) any individual who is not a citizen or national of the United States; (2) any foreign corporation, foreign partnership, foreign trust, or foreign estate; (3) any domestic corporation more than ten percent of the value of the stock of which is held by one or more foreign persons; (4) any domestic partnership more than ten percent of the capital or profits interest in which is held by one or more foreign persons; or (5) any domestic trust more than ten percent of the beneficial interests in which is held by one or more foreign persons.
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the Secretary of Agriculture should take immediate steps to investigate alternative animal identification procedures in lieu of hot-iron cheek branding.
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Farm Credit Administration and its associated agencies and institutions should take additional actions to alleviate the agricultural financial situation, including restructuring, rather than foreclosing, loans.
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that Federal telecommunications policy should maintain universal telephone service, retain nationwide toll rate averaging for interstate long distance calls, and reduce regulatory and administrative burdens on small telephone systems. Provides that any Federal access charge plan should: (1) support rural telephone systems through a universal service fund designed to ensure affordable rural telephone rates; (2) allocate to interstate long distance service no less than the proportion of the local telephone system access costs currently allocated to such service; (3) retain the current arrangement for the pooling of such costs; and (4) avoid collecting all of such costs by means of flat rate access charges.
United States · United States Congress · 20 March 1986
Effective Schools and Even Start Act - Requires each State receiving an allotment under a certain provision of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 after enactment of this Act to use a specified portion of such allotment to: (1) plan for, and review proposed changes in, effective schools programs; (2) implement and support effective schools programs; (3) obtain technical assistance and consultant services with respect to effective schools programs from qualified nonprofit educational organizations; (4) design, develop, and publish educational materials on effective schools programs; (5) develop and implement data collection and analysis systems concerning effective schools programs; (6) promote State and local educational agency awareness of effective schools information; (7) conduct evaluations of effective schools programs; and/or (8) otherwise identify and disseminate information concerning exemplary effective schools programs. Requires the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) to provide assistance in order to inform State educational agencies of the requirements of this Act and to help such agencies comply with such requirements. Requires the Secretary to make grants from specified funds appropriated pursuant to the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 and the Adult Education Act to provide a program of adult literacy training which includes involving parents and children together in an effort to enhance the likelihood of educational achievement. Sets forth the elements to be included in such program. Defines an eligible program participant as a parent or child (aged three to seven) from a family: (1) that includes a parent who is eligible for participation in an adult basic education program under the Adult Education Act; and (2) that resides with a child (aged three to seven) in a certain type of school attendance area. Declares that any agency that operates an adult basic education program and serves an area which has an especially high concentration of children from low-income families is eligible to apply for a grant under the Even Start program. Sets forth the requirements for a grant application. Requires that two-thirds of the applications selected for final review shall be from urban areas and one-third shall be from rural areas. Provides for the creation of a review panel to make the final selection of grant recipients. Requires any State educational agency required to use funds for an effective school program to amend its application under a specified section of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 to reflect the activities to be conducted with such funds. Requires such a State educational agency and an Even Start program applicant who has been selected to receive funding to enter into a program agreement with the Secretary. Sets forth the information to be included in such agreements. Requires the Secretary to analyze the effective schools programs conducted pursuant to this Act and report to the Congress on such programs by September 30, 1989. Requires the Secretary to provide for annual evaluations of the effectiveness of Even Start programs in providing specified services. Requires the results of the evaluations to be submitted to the national diffusion network for possible dissemination.
United States · United States Congress · 20 March 1986
Amends title XIX (Block Grants) of the Public Health Service Act to revise the formula (setting the minimum State allotments at 1985 rather than 1984 levels) for block grants for alcohol and drug abuse and mental health services.
United States · United States Congress · 19 March 1986
Employment Opportunities for Disabled Americans Act - Makes permanent provisions which provide benefits under title XVI (Supplemental Security Income) of the Social Security Act for individuals who perform substantial gainful activity despite a severe medical impairment. Removes SSI limitations for the first two months of an individual's stay in a health facility if such individual was eligible for the benefits made permanent by this Act during the month preceding admission to the facility. Requires the district offices of the Social Security Administration to each designate a staff member to implement the program providing benefits to individuals who perform substantial gainful activity despite severe medical impairment. Revises the eligibility requirements for such benefits. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish and implement procedures which provide that whenever an individual is formally notified of his or her SSI eligibility, such individual will also be notified of the availability of assistance under title XIX (Medicaid) of such Act. Directs the Secretary, when any individual receives SSI benefits on the basis of a disability, to notify such individual of his or her potential eligibility for the SSI benefits available for those performing substantial gainful activity despite a severe medical impairment. Directs the Comptroller General to conduct a study of the operation of the SSI section which provides benefits for individuals who perform substantial gainful activity despite a severe medical impairment, with the particular objective of evaluating the work incentive provisions of such section. Requires the Comptroller General to report to the Congress the findings of such study. Provides that when an individual becomes ineligible for SSI benefits upon entitlement to child's insurance benefits under title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Act, such individual shall be treated for Medicaid purposes as continuing to receive SSI benefits so long as he or she would otherwise be eligible for such benefits. Authorizes the Secretary to conduct demonstration projects designed to assess the advantages and disadvantages of various work incentive programs under the OASDI and SSI programs. Sets forth reporting requirements.
United States · United States Congress · 18 March 1986
Telephone Decency Act of 1986 - Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit any obscene or indecent telephone communication for commercial purposes to any person in the District of Columbia or in interstate or foreign communication. (Current law prohibits such communication to any person without his or her consent or to any person under 18 years of age.)
United States · United States Congress · 17 March 1986
Community Services Programs Amendments of 1986 - Amends the Head Start Act to authorize appropriations for FY 1987 through 1990 to carry out the Head Start program. Amends the Follow Through Act to authorize appropriations for FY 1987 through 1990 to carry out the Follow Through program. Amends the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1981 to: (1) rename specified provisions as the "Dependent Care Programs Act"; and (2) authorize appropriations for FY 1987 through 1990 to make allotments to States for such dependent care programs. Amends the Community Services Block Grant Act (the Act) to authorize appropriations for FY 1987 through 1990 for grants to States to ameliorate poverty. Requires compliance evaluations to include identification of the impact the use of such funds has on children, homeless families, and the elderly poor. Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide for use of community services block grants under the Act for specified programs of the Community Economic Development Act of 1981. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1987 through 1990 for community food and nutrition programs under the Act.
United States · United States Congress · 17 March 1986
Amends the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981 to authorize home energy grants for FY 1987 through 1989. Deems the full amount of home energy assistance payments, regardless of whether made directly to a household or indirectly for its benefit, to be heating or cooling expenses for purposes of the excess shelter expense deduction under the Food Stamp Act of 1977.
United States · United States Congress · 12 March 1986
Terrorist Prosecution Act of 1985 - Amends the Federal criminal code to make it an offense to commit or attempt to commit murder or manslaughter against any U.S. national abroad, or conspire to do so. (Murder is punishable by capital punishment, a life sentence, or for any term of years and voluntary manslaughter is punishable by imprisonment up to ten years and involuntary manslaughter by imprisonment up to three years and/or a fine up to $1,000.) Makes it an offense to (or to attempt to) assault, wound, strike, imprison, endanger, or make any other violent attack upon the person or liberty of any U.S. national in any foreign country (or make violent attack on his or her business premises, private accommodation or means of transport). Provides for a fine of not more than $5,000 and/or imprisonment for not more than three years. Increases the fine to $10,000 and/or imprisonment to ten years if a deadly or dangerous weapon is used. Makes it an offense to conspire, outside the United States, to murder any U.S. national within the United States. Prohibits an indictment under this Act without the written approval of the Attorney General or his designee.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1986
Establishes a presumption of service-connection for disability purposes for former prisoners of war suffering from the following conditions after active service: (1) organic residuals of hypothermia; (2) spastic colon; and (3) arthritis due to trauma. Decreases from six months to 90 days the amount of time a former prisoner of war must have been incarcerated to be eligible for outpatient dental services.
United States · United States Congress · 4 March 1986
Dwight David Eisenhower Centennial Commission Act - Establishes the Dwight David Eisenhower Centennial Commission to encourage, plan, and coordinate the centennial of the birth of former President Dwight David Eisenhower. Requires annual Commission reports to the Congress and the President. Requires the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate to designate the date for a joint meeting of the Congress commemorating the centennial. Directs the U.S. Postal Service to issue a commemorative stamp on October 14, 1990, in honor of the 100th birthday of Dwight David Eisenhower. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 4 March 1986
Provides that any requirement to substantiate a deduction under the Internal Revenue Code with respect to the business use of a vehicle must be based on regulations in effect before the Tax Reform Act of 1984.
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 1986
Amends Federal law relating to competition requirements in defense contracts to direct the head of a defense agency to require any firm that submits a bid or proposal in response to a solicitation to disclose in such bid or proposal any significant interest in that firm that is owned or controlled by a foreign government or a foreign national. Requires the head of an agency to exclude from consideration for a contract exceeding $100,000 a firm in which a hostile foreign government or covered foreign national owns or controls a significant interest. Directs the Secretary of Defense to prescribe regulations listing hostile foreign governments. Makes this Act inapplicable to the Coast Guard or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 1986
Disapproves a proposed deferral (number D86-48) of $500,000,000 of budget authority for the community development block grant program, as set forth in the President's message to the Congress on February 5, 1986.
United States · United States Congress · 20 February 1986
Amends Federal law to authorize the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to inspect Class B explosives (fireworks) storage facilities. (Currently OSHA has manufacturing facility inspection authority.)