United States · United States Congress · 16 February 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Joint Budget Resolution Title II: Zero Based Budgeting and Decennial Sunsetting Title III: Spending Caps on the Growth of Entitlements for Fiscal Years 1994 through 2000 Title IV: Balanced Budget by Fiscal Year 2000 Balanced Budget Implementation Act - Title I: Joint Budget Resolution - Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to reform the budget process by requiring a joint resolution on the budget instead of the concurrent resolution on the budget. Title II: Zero Based Budgeting and Decennial Sunsetting - Terminates spending authority for unearned entitlements and high-cost discretionary spending programs for FY 1994, and discretionary spending programs (not including high-cost programs) for FY 1995, unless such spending is reauthorized after the date of enactment of this Act. Establishes a point of order against legislation that appropriates funds, which may be waived by a three-fifths vote of each House of Congress. Requires the reauthorization of discretionary spending authority and unearned entitlements every ten years beginning in the first decennial census year after 2000. Title III: Spending Caps on the Growth of Entitlements for Fiscal Years 1994 through 2000 - Declares that for FY 1994 through 2000 the total level of entitlement and mandatory spending, excluding social security, shall not exceed the total level for the previous fiscal year increased by the consumer price index and growth in elgible population. Requires sequestration as necessary to reduce spending. Provides for making uniform reductions with limitations. Lists programs and activities exempt from sequestration and provides exceptions, limitations, and special rules. Establishes a point of order against entitlement programs which may be waived by a three-fifths vote of each House. Title IV: Balanced Budget by Fiscal Year 2000 - Requires reduction of the maximum deficit amount to zero by FY 2000. Allows a waiver or suspension on the prohibition on exceeding such amount by a three-fifths vote of both Houses. Allows a waiver or suspension on exceeding the public debt limit by a three-fifths vote of both Houses. Excludes social security from the budget process. Establishes a point of order against any joint resolution on the budget that would decrease the excess of social security revenues over social security outlays, which may be waived by a three-fifths vote of each House. Authorizes the Congress to adopt budget procedures to eliminate the non-social deficit. Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) to require look-back sequestration in the last quarter of each fiscal year.
United States · United States Congress · 16 February 1993
Amends rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives to make it out of order to consider any measure appropriating amounts for salaries and expenses of the House unless such measure prohibits availability of any such amount for obligation after the end of the fiscal year for which such amount is appropriated. Adds rule LII to require amounts made available to a Member of the House under the Clerk Hire, Official Expenses, and Official Mail Allowances to be used only with respect to the calendar year or session of Congress for which the amounts are made available. Requires any amount remaining after all payments are made under such allowances for the year or session to be submitted to the Treasury to be used for deficit reduction.
United States · United States Congress · 16 February 1993
Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the United States considers the acts of the Castro government, including its violations of human rights, a threat to international peace; and (2) the President should instruct U.S. representatives to the United Nations Security council to seek an international embargo against the totalitarian government of Cuba.
United States · United States Congress · 4 February 1993
Regulatory Flexibility Amendments Act of 1993 - Amends Federal law to eliminate provisions respecting judicial review of Federal agency compliance with regulatory flexibility analysis requirements. Requires an agency to consider the direct and indirect effects of a rule in determining whether or not it is likely to have a significant impact on a substantial number of small entities. Sets forth guidelines governing agency transmittal of proposed rules to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration. Authorizes such official to transmit to the agency a statement of opposition to the proposed rule. Requires publication of such statement and the agency's response in the Federal Register. Expresses the sense of the Congress that such official should be permitted to appear as amicus curiae in any action or case brought in a U.S. court for the purpose of reviewing a rule.
United States · United States Congress · 4 February 1993
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to remove charitable contributions of appreciated capital gain property as an item of tax preference for purposes of the alternative minimum tax.
United States · United States Congress · 4 February 1993
Amends the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 to prohibit a cost-of-living adjustment from being implemented for Members of Congress in a calendar year if there was a Federal budget deficit for the last fiscal year ending before the first day of such calendar year. Requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget to determine and submit a written report to the Congress on whether there was a Federal budget deficit for such fiscal year and, if so, the amount of such deficit.
United States · United States Congress · 4 February 1993
Constitutional Amendment - Prohibits outlays for a fiscal year (except those for repayment of debt principal) from exceeding total receipts (except those derived from borrowing) for that fiscal year unless the Congress, by a three-fifths roll call vote of each House, authorizes a specific excess of outlays over receipts. Requires a three-fifths roll call vote of each House to increase the public debt. Directs the President to submit a balanced budget to the Congress. Requires the approval of a majority of each House by roll call vote before any bill to increase revenue may become law. Waives these provisions when a declaration of war is in effect. Waives these provisions when the United States is engaged in a military conflict which poses a threat to national security as declared by a joint resolution adopted by a majority of each House.
United States · United States Congress · 3 February 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Biotechnological Process Patents Title II: Biotechnological Material Patents Title I: Biotechnological Process Patents - Amends Federal patent law to cite conditions under which a claimed process of making or using a machine, manufacture, or composition of matter is not obvious (thereby enhancing the patentability prospects of certain biotechnology processes). Establishes a presumption of validity with respect to a process claim even through a related product claim is invalidated (thus allowing a patentee to prove that the process claim is independently patentable from the product claim). Title II: Biotechnological Material Patents - Makes any unauthorized person who imports or sells a product made by using a biotechnological material that is patented in the United States liable for patent infringement. Includes within the terms of such patents the right to exclude others from using, selling, or importing such products throughout or into the United States. Establishes exceptions to such requirements to the extent suitable to protect commercial investment made or business commenced before the effective date of such amendments.
United States · United States Congress · 3 February 1993
Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act of 1993 - Amends the Federal criminal code to impose civil or criminal penalties upon persons who intentionally prevent other individuals from entering or exiting a medical facility. Permits aggrieved individuals to obtain appropriate relief through civil actions.
United States · United States Congress · 3 February 1993
Jefferson Commemorative Coin Act of 1993 - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue one-dollar silver coins emblematic of Thomas Jefferson and his home, Monticello. Mandates that all surcharges received from the sale of such coins be paid to the Jefferson Endowment Fund, and to the Corporation for Jefferson's Poplar Forest. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the coin program shall be self-sustaining and that its administration should result in no net cost to the Numismatic Public Enterprise Fund.
United States · United States Congress · 3 February 1993
Americans with Disabilities Business Development Act of 1993 - Amends the Small Business Act to: (1) substitute the definition of "disability" (a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of an individual) for "handicapped individual"; and (2) include Americans with disabilities among those considered to be socially disadvantaged for purposes of such Act.
United States · United States Congress · 3 February 1993
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a first-time homebuyer who purchases a principal residence a tax credit of ten percent of the purchase price of such residence. Limits the credit to $2,500. Requires married individuals filing jointly to both be first-time buyers. Allows the use of 50 percent of the credit in the first taxable year in which the residence is purchased and the remaining 50 percent in the succeeding taxable year. Makes this credit applicable to residences acquired during 1993 and before July 1, 1994.
United States · United States Congress · 3 February 1993
Amends the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 to prohibit the annual cost-of-living adjustment for Members of Congress from exceeding that of Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance recipients.
United States · United States Congress · 3 February 1993
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to reduce the individual and corporate capital gains rate from 28 percent and 34 percent to 15 percent. Reduces the minimum tax rate accordingly. Reduces such tax to 7.5 percent for low- and middle-income taxpayers. Requires indexing, based on the gross national product deflator, of the adjusted basis of certain assets (corporate stock and tangible property that is a capital asset of property used in a trade or business) that have been held for more than one year at the time of sale or other transfer, solely for the purpose of determining gain or loss.
United States · United States Congress · 2 February 1993
Amends the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 1990 to direct the Secretary of Defense, in making recommendations in 1993 and 1995 for the closure or realignment of U.S. military installations, to give the following considerations equal weight with other established criteria in the selection process: (1) equal allocation of the economic burden of such closures and realignments across the United States; (2) the effect on the economic conditions of communities located nearby; and (3) the extent to which additional closures or realignments would exacerbate adverse economic conditions of States and local communities already affected by a closure or realignment.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 1993
United States Mint Bicentennial Coin Act - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the United States Mint. Prescribes the designs for the ensuing five-dollar gold coins, one-dollar silver coins, and half-dollar silver coins. Restricts issuance of such coins to 1993. Mandates that all surcharges received from the sale of such coins be paid to the Smithsonian Institution for the National Numismatic Collection. Requires the Executive Director of the National Numismatic Collection to establish specified funds with the surcharge proceeds. Prescribes financial assurances.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 1993
Northern Ireland Fair Employment Practices Act - Prohibits an article from being imported into the United States from Northern Ireland unless documentation is presented at the time of entry indicating that the enterprise which manufactured or assembled such article complied at the time of manufacture with certain fair employment principles (such as freedom from religious discrimination). Bases such principles on the MacBride Principles, a nine point set of guidelines for fair employment in Northern Ireland. Requires any U.S. person who has a branch or office in Northern Ireland or who controls an enterprise in Northern Ireland in which more than 20 people are employed to insure implementation of such employment principles and compliance with this Act. Authorizes the President to waive the requirements of this Act in the interest of national security.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 1993
Amends Federal law to prohibit any State from imposing an income tax on the pension income of any individual who is not a resident or domiciliary of that State.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 1993
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Sexual Violence Subtitle A: Penalties and Remedies Subtitle B: Rules of Evidence, Practice, and Procedure Subtitle C: Safe Campuses Subtitle D: Assistance to States and Localities Title II: Domestic Violence, Stalking, and Offenses Against the Family Title III: National Task Force on Violence Against Women Sexual Assault Prevention Act of 1993 - Title I: Sexual Violence - Subtitle A: Penalties and Remedies - Amends the Federal criminal code to provide for: (1) pretrial detention in sex offense cases; and (2) the death penalty for murders committed by sex offenders. Increases penalties for: (1) recidivist sex offenders; and (2) sex offenses against victims under age 16. Amends: (1) the Victims' Rights and Restitution Act of 1990 to require a governmental department or agency to pay for up to two tests for a sexual assault victim in the 12 months following the assault and a counseling session; (2) the Controlled Substances Act to provide for increased penalties for distribution of a controlled substance to a woman while she is pregnant; and (3) the Federal criminal code to authorize the restitution of victims of sex offenses. Establishes a civil remedy for victims of sexual violence. Subtitle B: Rules of Evidence, Practice, and Procedure - Amends the Federal Rules of Evidence to allow evidence of similar offenses in criminal or civil sexual assault and child molestation cases. Revises Federal Rule of Evidence 412 (rape victim shield law). Adds a Federal Rule of Evidence that, in a criminal case in which a person is accused of a sex offense, evidence is not admissible to show that the alleged victim invited or provoked the commission of the offense. Enacts rules to be known as the Rules of Professional Conduct for Lawyers in Federal Practice. Subtitle C: Safe Campuses - Requires the Attorney General to provide for a national baseline study on campus sexual assault. Subtitle D: Assistance to States and Localities - Authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to support projects and programs relating to sexual violence. Title II: Domestic Violence, Stalking, and Offenses Against the Family - Amends the Federal criminal code to establish penalties for interstate travel to commit spouse abuse or to violate a protective order. Establishes penalties (including restitution) for noncompliance with child support obligations in interstate cases. Provides for full faith and credit of protective orders among the States. Directs the Attorney General to: (1) prepare a report on the status of battered women's syndrome as a medical and psychological condition and on its effect in criminal trials; (2) conduct a study of the means by which abusive spouses may obtain information concerning the addresses or locations of estranged or former spouses; and (3) complete a study of problems of recordkeeping of criminal complaints involving domestic violence. Authorizes the Attorney General to make grants to support projects and programs relating to domestic violence and other criminal and unlawful acts that particularly affect women. Title III: National Task Force on Violence Against Women - Establishes the National Task Force on Violence Against Women to develop a uniform Federal, State, and local law enforcement strategy aimed at protecting women against violent crimes, punishing persons who commit such crimes, and enhancing the rights of the victims.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 1993
Dislocated Defense Workers' Job Assistance Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to include dislocated defense workers as eligible for the targeted jobs credit.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 1993
Amends rule XV of the Rules of the House of Representatives to provide for an automatic roll call vote when the Speaker puts the question upon final passage of any bill, joint resolution, or conference report making appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 26 January 1993
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to permit tax-exempt private foundations and community foundations to establish tax-exempt cooperative service organizations to operate exclusively for charitable purposes. Declares that the excise tax based on investment income applies to such organizations.
United States · United States Congress · 26 January 1993
Amends rule XV of the Rules of the House of Representatives to prohibit the House from passing or adopting any bill or joint resolution, or conference report thereon, making appropriations or providing revenue except by a roll call vote, and deems that and the yeas and nays shall be considered as ordered.
United States · United States Congress · 26 January 1993
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that in light of the current economic conditions the Federal taxes on gasoline, diesel fuel, and home heating fuel shall not be increased.
United States · United States Congress · 25 January 1993
Restricts the use of any travel award that accrues by reason of official travel of a Member, officer, or employee of the House of Representatives to official travel only.
United States · United States Congress · 21 January 1993
Investment Tax Incentive Act of 1993 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow the depreciation deduction to be computed based on a neutral recovery basis for property placed in service after December 31, 1992. Repeals the special depreciation rules applicable under the adjusted current earnings provisions of the minimum tax.
United States · United States Congress · 21 January 1993
Prohibits the expenditure of Federal funds to construct, erect, or modify highway signs using metric system measurements unless the Congress specifically authorizes such expenditure. Makes such prohibition inapplicable with respect to Puerto Rico.
United States · United States Congress · 21 January 1993
National Domestic Violence Hotline Act of 1993 - Amends the Family Violence Prevention and Services Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide a grant to a nonprofit private organization for a national, toll-free telephone hotline to provide information and assistance to victims of domestic violence. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 21 January 1993
Makes eligible for the award of the Purple Heart those persons wounded in action on or after December 7, 1941, by weapon fire while engaged in armed conflict, regardless of the origin of the weapon fire.
United States · United States Congress · 21 January 1993
Limits the period for which expenses of a former Speaker of the House of Representatives may be paid to three years after the expiration of the term of office as Representative. (Provides that in the case of a former Speaker who is receiving such expenses on the date of the enactment of this Act, the period shall end three years after such date.)
United States · United States Congress · 21 January 1993
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Federal laws which apply to the private sector and to other Federal branches should also apply to the Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 6 January 1993
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to permanently extend the period during which qualified mortgage bonds and mortgage credit certificates may be issued.
United States · United States Congress · 6 January 1993
Constitutional Amendment - Prohibits in any fiscal year total Federal outlays from exceeding total receipts and Federal outlays from exceeding 19 percent of the Nation's gross national product. Allows such prohibitions to be suspended by a three-fifths roll call vote of each House of Congress. Grants the President the authority to separately approve, reduce, or disapprove any spending provision of a bill.
United States · United States Congress · 6 January 1993
States that rape is an unacceptable means of warfare and condemns the systematic and widespread rape of women and girls in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Bosnia). Applauds: (1) Secretary of State Eagleburger for denouncing crimes against humanity in the conflict in Bosnia and for calling for an international crimes tribunal to prosecute such crimes; and (2) the adoption of United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 798 and the declaration of the Council of Ministers of the European Community which denounced the systematic rape of Moslem women in such conflict. Urges the President to: (1) publicly condemn systematic rape in such conflict; (2) state that rape and forced pregnancy as tactics of war are crimes against humanity and war crimes; and (3) support the establishment by the UN of an international tribunal to prosecute such crimes. Urges that: (1) all countries participating in humanitarian relief efforts in the former Yugoslavia should allocate resources for the treatment of rape victims; and (2) all parties to the conflict should take steps to protect rights of women and girls.
United States · United States Congress · 6 January 1993
Supports the efforts of the United Nations Secretary-General and the Security Council to create an international tribunal to investigate allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed within the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Urges the President to work to convene an international tribunal to try any individual responsible for such crimes.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1993
Intergovernmental Mandate Relief Act of 1993 - Prohibits a Federal agency or court from requiring compliance in any fiscal year by State or local governments with any intergovernmental regulation unless provisions of law have been enacted which compensate such governments for additional direct costs incurred by such compliance. Declares that the compensation requirement may be waived by the enactment of a joint resolution of the Congress. Requires the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to estimate such additional direct costs and include such estimates in annual reports to the President and the Congress. Requires congressional committees to propose amendments to significant laws for which regulations will be promulgated containing provisions to compensate State and local governments for additional direct costs of complying with any intergovernmental regulation which takes effect on or after enactment of this Act. Establishes procedures for Federal agencies to reimburse State governments for additional direct costs and for State governments to reimburse local governments for such costs. Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to require CBO to prepare cost estimates for bills or resolutions which are likely to cost State and local governments $100 million (currently, $200 million) or more annually.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1993
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to increase the personal exemption for a dependent child who has not attained age 18 from $2,000 to $3,500. Provides for rounding inflation adjustments to tax tables to the nearest multiple of $10 (currently rounded to the next lowest multiple of $50).
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1993
Taxpayer Debt Buy-Down Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow every individual with adjusted income tax liability to designate on their tax returns that a portion of such liability (not to exceed ten percent) be used to reduce the public debt. Establishes a Public Debt Reduction Trust Fund for the deposit of designated amounts. Makes amounts in such Trust Fund available only to pay at maturity, or to redeem or buy before maturity, any obligation of the Federal Government included in the public debt. Prohibits the reissuance of any obligation which is paid, redeemed, or bought with amounts from the Trust Fund. Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) to provide for the sequestration of amounts designated to the Trust Fund. Specifies accounts exempt from such sequestration. Includes aggregated amounts designated to the Trust Fund and amounts sequestered to reduce the public debt in sequestration preview and final reports.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1993
Congressional Accountability Act - Makes applicable to the Congress the following Federal laws to the extent they relate to the terms and conditions of employment, the health and safety of employees, and the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees: (1) Social Security Act; (2) National Labor Relations Act; (3) Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938; (4) Civil Rights Act of 1964; (5) Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967; (6) Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970; (7) title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972; (8) Rehabilitation Act of 1973; (9) Privacy Act of 1974; (10) Age Discrimination Act of 1975; (11) Ethics in Government Act of 1978; and (12) Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Makes applicable to the Congress the Freedom of Information Act and specified provisions of Federal law relating to the independent counsel.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1993
Authorizes and requests the President to issue proclamations: (1) directing Government officials to display the U.S. flag at half-staff on all Government buildings on Peace Officers Memorial Day; and (2) inviting State and local governments and the people of the United States to display the flag in the same manner on such day.
United States · United States Congress · 5 January 1993
Missing Service Personnel Act of 1993 - Requires the responsible armed forces commander, after receiving notice that a person under his command is missing, to conduct an informal investigation to determine such person's whereabouts and, if appropriate, to place such person in a missing status. Provides for the convening of boards of inquiry to: (1) investigate evidence relating to the disappearance of a person; (2) recommend whether to continue such person in a missing status or make a finding that such person has deserted, is absent without leave, or is dead; and (3) report its recommendations and findings. Provides for the convening of a board of further inquiry, if a board of initial inquiry recommends that such person be continued in a missing status. Directs the Secretary concerned, upon the written request of a member of the immediate family of a missing person who, before the date of the enactment of this Act, was determined by the Secretary to be dead, to: (1) convene a board of further inquiry to determine whether such finding of death should be upheld or such person should be placed in a missing status; and (2) report its findings. Requires the Secretary, within three years after a board of further inquiry recommends a missing status for any person, to reconvene such board to review such status. Directs the Secretary to invite each member of the immediate family of the missing person to board meetings unless attendance would place such member in danger. Prohibits any such board from declaring a missing person dead unless: (1) evidence other than the passage of a period of fewer than 50 years suggests that such person is dead; (2) no evidence which reasonably suggests that such person is alive is in the possession of the Government; (3) Government representatives have made a complete search of the area where such person was last seen (unless the United States is not granted access to such area); and (4) Government representatives have checked the records of the government or entity having control over the area where such person was last seen (unless the Government is not granted access to such records). Provides for judicial review of determinations of death. Sets forth penalties for knowingly withholding information pertaining to a missing person from that person's personnel file. Requires the Secretary concerned to make the contents of such file available to a member of the immediate family of such person upon written request.
![Official portrait of Rep. Torkildsen, Peter G. [R-MA-6]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/t000314_200.jpg)