United States · United States Congress · 11 December 1985
Military Whistle Blowers Protection Act - Amends Federal law concerning the armed forces to prohibit any civilian officer or employee or any member of the armed forces from taking action against a member as a reprisal for such member's complaint or disclosure of information to a Member of Congress concerning possible violations of law, mismanagement of funds, abuse of authority, or substantial and specific danger to public health or safety. Amends Federal law concerning the correction of military records to grant an immediate hearing to members of the armed forces who believe they are victims of reprisals by their superiors. Requires a final decision regarding such a claim within six months of the date on which the claim is presented. Allows the member to bring a civil suit if such claim is not decided within such period. Directs the board considering such a claim to refer the matter to the Secretary concerned and the Inspector General of the Department of Defense if the board finds reason to believe that such a reprisal has occurred. Directs the Inspector General to investigate any matter so referred and submit a report, including recommendations for proposed action, to the Secretary concerned. Directs the Secretary concerned to then take appropriate action. Directs the Inspector General, at the same time a report is submitted to the Secretary concerned, to submit copies of such report to specified congressional committees. Permits the claimant to seek judicial review of any final decision made.
United States · United States Congress · 11 December 1985
Requests the President to return the enrolled bill H.R. 3003 (relating to the conveyance of land in Maryland) for its reenrollment with technical corrections.
United States · United States Congress · 10 December 1985
Calls upon the President to direct the Agency for International Development to work in a global effort to provide universal access to childhood immunization by 1990 by: (1) assisting in the delivery, distribution, and use of vaccines; and (2) performing and supporting research and development activities that will be targeted at developing new vaccines and at modifying existing vaccines to make them more appropriate for use in developing countries. Declares that the President should appeal to the public to provide the necessary resources to achieve universal access to childhood immunization by 1990. Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to increase the authorization of appropriations for FY 1987 for the Child Survival Fund.
United States · United States Congress · 10 December 1985
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the President should take measures to encourage the Government of Indonesia to: (1) allow and maintain access into East Timor for humanitarian organizations, journalists, church delegations, and human rights groups; (2) guarantee freedom of expression for the Roman Catholic Church in East Timor; (3) allow an impartial international examination of population limitation measures and the conditions that exist in areas where East Timorese have been resettled by Indonesian authorities; (4) allow qualified international observers to be present at the trials of East Timorese political prisoners; and (5) work with the U.S. and Portuguese governments to develop peace initiatives for East Timor.
United States · United States Congress · 5 December 1985
Amends the Small Business Act to make permanent the authority of the Small Business Administration to award Federal contracts to not-for-profit organizations that are operated in the interest of handicapped individuals.
United States · United States Congress · 4 December 1985
Social Security Hearing Equity Act of 1985 - Amends titles II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) and XVI (Supplemental Security Income) of the Social Security Act to exclude any representative of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Social Security Administration, any other agency of such department, or an involved State agency from appearing as a agency of such department, or an involved State agency from appearing as a part at a benefit hearing or participating in the development of the record of such hearing, unless, in the latter case, the presiding officer requests such participation.
United States · United States Congress · 3 December 1985
Requires each State to: (1) establish parking privileges for handicapped persons (whether drivers or passengers); (2) grant handicapped non-residents the same parking privileges as handicapped residents; (3) establish the international access symbol as the exclusive identifier for handicapped parking and vehicles; and (4) certify to the Secretary of Transportation by a specified date that parking privileges for the handicapped are being enforced. Prohibits the Secretary from approving the State highway department project plans of any State which has failed to establish handicapped parking privileges under this Act. Requires the Secretary to withhold certain Federal-aid highway funds from a non-compliant State.
United States · United States Congress · 2 December 1985
Amends the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 to prohibit the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing a permit for ocean incineration of hazardous wastes off the coast of Maryland until a hazardous waste reduction and management feasibility report has been completed and a plan based on such report has been submitted to the Congress. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 21 November 1985
House of Representatives Election Campaign Act - Amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to provide for public financing of House of Representatives general election campaigns. Sets forth conditions of eligibility for, and entitlement to, payment. Establishes the formula for determining such payments, based upon State voting-age populations and whether a candidate is of a minor or major political party. Declares that eligible candidates are entitled to such payments only to defray qualified campaign expenses. Authorizes additional entitlements to opponents of nonpublicly financed candidates to match those contributions or expenditures raised, incurred, or expended which are in excess of the opponent's entitlement. Requires the Federal Election Commission to certify to the Secretary of the Treasury the full amount to which an eligible candidate is entitled. Directs the Secretary to establish the House of Representatives General Election Campaign Fund for the deposit of funds for payments to eligible candidates. Directs the Commission, after each election, to audit the campaign expenses of publicly financed candidates. Requires such candidates to repay any excess amounts received. Establishes criminal penalties for violations of this Act. Directs the Commission to report to the House after each election on actions taken under such Act. Provides for judicial review of such Commission actions.
United States · United States Congress · 21 November 1985
Declares that the Congress supports expanded cultural exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union and pledges to work with the President to strengthen such exchange.
United States · United States Congress · 20 November 1985
Campaign Finance Reform Act of 1985 - Amends the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to: (1) increase dollar limits on personal contributions to candidates and their authorized political committees; and (2) decrease the amount one multicandidate political committee may contribute to any other political committee. Limits to $100,000 ($125,000 where two or more candidates qualify for the ballot) the aggregate amount which all multicandidate political committees may contribute to a candidate for the House of Representatives in a general or special election, including any primary election, convention, or caucus relating to such general or special election. Limits to $25,000 the aggregate amount allowed for multicandidate political committee contributions in a runoff election for the office of Representative. Establishes a formula for multicandidate political committee contributions to candidates for the Senate based upon State populations and limited to an aggregate total of $750,000. Requires multicandidate political committees which make independent expenditures for advertisements connected with a candidate's campaign to disclose such information within the advertisement. Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to require any station licensee which allows a person to broadcast material endorsing or opposing a candidate to provide the candidate opposing the endorsed candidate, or to the candidate opposed by the material, the opportunity to use the same amount of broadcasting time, without charge, during the same period of the day.
United States · United States Congress · 20 November 1985
Designates May 25, 1986, as Hands Across America Day. Authorizes and requests the President to commend: (1) United Support of Artists for Africa for their Hands Across America project; and (2) the American people for their commitment to helping people help themselves.
United States · United States Congress · 19 November 1985
Small Contribution Tax Credit Reform Act of 1985 - Amends the the Internal Revenue Code to repeal the income tax credit for contributions to presidential, state, and local candidates, political action committees, and newsletter fund contributions. Allows an income tax credit for congressional candidate contributions. Limits the amount of such credit to $100 for a taxable year ($200 in the case of a joint return).
United States · United States Congress · 13 November 1985
Amends Federal law to provide for the administration of a museum, to be known as the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, through a Board of Regents (Board). Establishes the size and composition of the Board. Sets the terms of office and means of appointment of Board members. Directs the Board to elect a chairperson and adopt bylaws.
United States · United States Congress · 13 November 1985
Establishes a field sanitation occupational health and safety standard with respect to agricultural employees engaged in hand-labor operations in the field. Provides that such standard shall be deemed to be an occupational health and safety standard promulgated, enforceable, and subject to penalties for violations under specified provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). Prohibits modification, revocation, or challenge of such standard under specified provisions of OSHA. Provides that this Act shall not preempt any State occupational health and safety standard, or any provision thereof, which is more effective in providing sanitized potable drinking water and toilet and handwashing facilities for agricultural employees than the standard established under this Act. Specifies that such more effective State standards need not encompass other standards. Provides that, should there be any statutory restrictions on OSHA's ability to regulate certain agricultural employers, the States are not preempted from developing and enforcing field sanitation standards to apply to such employers.
United States · United States Congress · 12 November 1985
Prohibits the Secretary of the Treasury, in efforts to meet the public debt limit, from reducing the assets or earnings of, or delaying payments to, the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund, Railroad Retirement Account, Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, and Department of Defense Military Retirement Fund below levels otherwise maintained by law or by established standard procedures.
United States · United States Congress · 12 November 1985
Foreign Agents Compulsory Ethics in Trade Act of 1985 - Prohibits former high-level Federal civilian officers or employees or high-ranking officers of the uniformed services from representing or advising foreign principals during the ten-year period beginning on the last day of such a person's Federal employment or service. Authorizes the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Commerce to jointly determine a longer prohibitive period in the interest of national security. Establishes criminal penalties for violations of this Act. Defines and lists employee positions to which this Act applies.
United States · United States Congress · 6 November 1985
Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue public debt obligations to the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund, Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund, Railroad Retirement Account, Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, and Department of Defense Military Retirement Fund identical to the terms of public debt obligations which: (1) were redeemed on or after September 1, 1985, and on or before the date of the enactment of this Act; and (2) would not have been redeemed had the public debt limit been raised pursuant to a specified resolution of the House of Representatives. Directs the Secretary to pay to the funds the interest which would have accrued to the funds but for such non-investments, redemptions, and disinvestments. Authorizes the Secretary to disinvest such funds when necessary to prevent a shortfall in amounts available for benefit payments or to avoid violating the public debt limit, but, in the latter case, only if the Congress approves the Secretary's request for disinvestment within a specified period. Characterizes the required joint resolution of approval as an exercise of the constitutional rulemaking power of the House of Representatives and the Senate. Details the Congressional procedure to be followed upon the Secretary's submittal of a disinvestment request. Requires the Secretary, upon the extension of the public debt limit, to: (1) issue public debt obligations with terms identical to those redeemed in connection with such disinvestment; and (2) pay the interest which would otherwise have accrued to such funds.
United States · United States Congress · 5 November 1985
Declares that: (1) the people around the world desire a world free from the threat of war; (2) it is the hope of all citizens that the President and General Secretary Gorbachev will reach an arms control agreement which significantly cuts nuclear stockpiles and halts the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union; and (3) in order to express this hope, all citizens are invited to light candles from dusk to dawn on November 19 and 20, 1985, while the President and Gorbachev meet in summit.
United States · United States Congress · 31 October 1985
Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to strike bronze medals commemorating the 100th Congress. Specifies the size of the medals, leaving their quantity and design to the Secretary's determination. Authorizes appropriations which are to be reimbursed out of proceeds from sales of the medals.
United States · United States Congress · 31 October 1985
Civil Service Supplemental Retirement System Act of 1985 - Title I: Civil Service Supplemental Retirement System - Establishes a Civil Service Supplemental Retirement Plan for Federal employees, postal employees, and Members of Congress who began service after December 31, 1983. Sets forth provisions for the benefit plan including: (1) eligibility for an annuity after five years of creditable service; (2) entitlements to retirement based on age and years of service; (3) the formulas for computing an annuity; (4) survivor election reductions; and (5) funding. Sets forth provisions for mandatory retirement for air traffic controllers, law enforcement officers, and firefighters. Establishes a Thrift Savings Plan under which participants may contribute up to 10 percent of their annual basic pay. Requires employing agencies to contribute the lesser of: (1) 50 percent of amounts contributed by the employee; or (2) three percent of such employee's basic pay. Provides for the payment of benefits, lump sum or annuity, at the employee's separation from service. Establishes in the Treasury the Thrift Savings Fund for the deposit and accounting of amounts under the Plan. Prescribes how money in such Fund shall be invested. Describes survivor annuities under the supplemental retirement plan. Describes disability benefits for employees who have completed five years of creditable service. Sets forth general and administrative provisions. Directs the Office of Personnel Management to pay all benefits payable under the benefit plan and administer provisions not specifically assigned to another entity. Directs the Office to adjudicate all claims under provisions it administers. Provides for annual cost-of-living adjustments in basic pensions based upon an increase in the Consumer Price Index. Provides for withholding of State income taxes from retirement annuities. Declares that basic annuities, survivor annuities, and disability benefits are exempt from legal process (i.e. levy, attachment, garnishment) unless otherwise provided by Federal law. Establishes in the executive branch the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board to be responsible for policies and regulations for, and review of, the investment and management of the Thrift Savings Fund. Directs the Board to establish an Employee Thrift Advisory Council to advise the Board on matters relating to investment policies for the Fund. Directs the Board to appoint an Executive Director to carry out its policies, invest and manage the fund, and administer provisions of the Thrift Savings Plan. Title II: Amendments to Chapter 83 of Title 5, United States Code - Provides for civil service retirement for certain employees excluded from the supplemental retirement plan. Title III: Miscellaneous Provisions - Amends the Federal Employees' Retirement Contribution Temporary Adjustment Act of 1983 to extend its provisions until January 1, 1987. Allows employees covered under such Act to elect participation in the supplemental retirement plan. Title IV: Effective Dates - Declares this Act in effect on January 1, 1987, with specified exceptions.
United States · United States Congress · 31 October 1985
Title I: Prevention of Currency Misalignments - Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to direct the President to proclaim for the appropriate period import restrictions whenever large and serious imbalances in external accounts require special import measures to restrict imports to: (1) deal with U.S. deficits; (2) prevent depreciation of the dollar in foreign exchange markets; or (2) cooperate with other countries in correcting a persistent misalignment of exchange rates. Authorizes the President to proclaim for the appropriate period special measures to increase imports whenever large and serious imbalances in external accounts require such measures to: (1) deal with large and persistent current account surpluses; (2) prevent significant appreciation of the dollar in foreign exchange markets; or (3) cooperate with other countries in correcting a persistent misalignment of exchange rates. (Current law requires the President to proclaim such import restrictions or measures to increase imports whenever required by basic international payments problems.) Directs the President to decide when a large and serious U.S. deficit or surplus exists except that such a deficit or surplus shall be considered to exist if a sustained deficit period or sustained surplus period occurs. Defines a sustained deficit period to mean five consecutive quarters in which U.S. deficits exceeded two and one-half percent of the gross national product. Defines a sustained surplus period to mean five consecutive quarters in which the U.S. surplus exceeded two and one-half percent of the gross national product. Authorizes the President to refrain from proclaiming any import restriction or any import-increasing measure if: (1) the deficit during the last six months is less than two and one-half percent of the gross national product or the surplus during the last six months is less than two and one-half percent of the gross national product and the International Trade Commission (ITC) makes specified findings; and (2) the President determines that the restriction is contrary to the national interest and the President informs the Congress of such determination and consults with a specified group of congressional advisers. Declares that the President should, in each year occurring after the close of a sustained deficit period or occurring after the close of a sustained surplus period, reduce large and persistent account imbalances by taking action to implement one or more of specified options. Directs the President, at the end of four consecutive quarters in which the deficit in each quarter exceeded two and one-half percent of the gross national product or in which the surplus exceeded two-and one-half percent of the gross national product, to request the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to report on: (1) the compliance of each member of the IMF with its objection under section 1 of Article IV of the IMF Articles of Agreement; and (2) its judgment regarding the impact which the degree of compliance is having, and will have on the current account imbalances. Directs the President within 120 days of each such period of four consecutive quarters to take action to convene joint consultations with the IMF Executive Director and the appropriate members of the IMF to improve the coordination among the national macroeconomic policies and taking such other action as may be necessary to restore equilibrium among national current accounts. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the President seek changes in international agreements to allow: (1) surcharges in place of quotas as balance-of-payments adjustment measures; and (2) quotas and surcharges to deal with large and persistent current account imbalances and currency misalignments. Title II: Relief from Unfair Trade Practices - Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to establish in the ITC the Office of Unfair Trade Investigations. Sets forth the functions of such Office, including: (1) carrying out the functions assigned on October 1, 1985, to the ITC's Office of Unfair Import Investigations; and (2) monitoring the operation of U.S. and foreign trade laws, policies, and practices. Requires the Office to take certain actions if a foreign country or instrumentality is suspected of: (1) subsidizing or dumping exports to the United States; (2) engaging in unfair trading practices; or (3) violating U.S. trade rights under trade agreements. Sets forth factors to be considered by the Office. Prohibits the Office from taking action in certain cases. Requires the ITC to ensure that the Office has sufficient manpower and resources to carry out its functions. Transfers from the President to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) certain functions relating to enforcement of U.S. trade rights under trade agreements and response to certain foreign trade practices. Requires the USTR, if notified that a foreign act, policy, or practice is a cause of injury or threat of injury to a domestic industry or is injurious industrial targeting, to decide within 160 days which of the following actions to take: (1) suspension, withdrawal, or prevention of application of trade benefits; (2) imposition of import duties or restrictions on the production and services of such foreign entity; (3) negotiation of orderly marketing agreements; or (4) development of actions to restore or improve the international competitiveness of the injured or threatened industry. Requires the USTR, upon receiving such notification, to begin negotiations on an agreement to eliminate the injurious act, practice, or policy. Authorizes the USTR, subject to Presidential disapproval, to: (1) restrict the terms and conditions of certain service sector access authorizations; or (2) deny the issuance of such authorizations. Defines injurious industrial targeting to mean any combination of coordinated government actions that are bestowed on a specific enterprise the effect of which is to: (1) injure a U.S. industry or to retard the growth or establishment of a U.S. industry; and (2) help make it more competitive in the export of any class or kind of merchandise. Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to include in the definition of "subsidy" (for antidumping and countervailing duty purposes) any resource input subsidy. States that a "resource input subsidy" is found to exist if: (1) (a) a product is provided or sold by a government-regulated or controlled entity within a country for input use within such country at a domestic price that is lower than the fair market value of the input product and is not freely available to U.S. producers; and (b) a product would, if sold at the fair market value, constitute a significant portion of the total cost of the manufacture or production of the merchandise in or for which the input product is used; or (2) under specified circumstances, the right to remove or extract such product is provided or sold by a government or a government-regulated or controlled entity within a country. Sets forth the method of calculation for the amount of a resource input subsidy. Defines "fair market value" and "input use". Requires injury determinations by the ITC to be made in all countervailing duty investigations relating to the existence of resource input subsidies. Makes it unlawful for any person to: (1) alter a country of origin; or (2) sell or transport any article that does not have its country of origin marking or that has had its country of origin marking altered. Sets forth penalties. Makes it unlawful to sell or distribute counterfeit goods in countries outside the United States. Authorizes the ITC to prohibit imports by any person with respect to whom there is reason to believe that such person is violating the prohibition against selling or distributing counterfeit goods in foreign countries. Requires such counterfeit goods to be seized and forfeited if they are imported into the United States. Makes it unlawful to sell or transport such goods in the United States. Sets forth penalties. Title III: Relief from Injury Caused by Import Competition - Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to transfer from the President to the USTR certain duties relating to import relief. Requires an import relief petition to include a proposal for restructuring the industry to ensure that the industry will be able to operate viably when import relief is terminated. Requires the ITC to determine in an import relief investigation whether, in addition to the matters it is currently required to determine, it is likely that adjustment assistance and other Federal assistance will, in conjunction with other import relief, effectively remedy the labor and community dislocation caused by the import injury. Provides that a decline in demand because of general recessionary conditions in the U.S. economy may not be considered a cause of injury more important than imports. Directs the ITC to complete its investigation on an import relief petition and report its findings to the USTR within six months of the filing of the petition. Directs the ITC, if it determines that serious injury or the threat of serious injury exists and that it is likely that adjustment assistance or other Federal aid will remedy the dislocation associated with that injury or threat, to: (1) find the amount of increase in, or imposition of, duty or import restriction necessary to prevent or remedy such injury or threat; (2) specify such Federal aid (other than adjustment assistance) necessary to remedy the dislocation; and (3) specify those elements of the industry restructuring proposal that is necessary to enable the industry to adjust to import competition. Directs the USTR, after receiving such a report from the ITC, to: (1) provide import relief for the industry unless the USTR determines that such relief is not in the national economic interest; (2) require expeditious consideration of petitions adjustment assistance for affected workers and firms; (3) request expeditious consideration for petitions for other Federal aid; and (4) specify which of the elements of the restructuring proposal that the industry must implement to operate viably when import relief is ended. Requires the USTR within 60 days of receiving such report to determine whether import relief will be provided and what method and amount of relief will be provided. Directs the ITC, if it determines that serious injury or the threat of serious injury exists and that it is unlikely that adjustment assistance or other Federal aid will remedy the dislocation associated with that injury or threat, to convene a Multipartite Adjustment Council to determine import relief for the industry and adjustment programs for the labor and community dislocation. Prohibits certain types of import relief (tariff increases, quotas, orderly marketing agreements) for the industry in such circumstances. Requires the ITC to report to the USTR if the ITC decides that the industry is not substantially implementing the elements of its industry restructuring plan. Authorizes the USTR to suspend, reduce, or terminate the import relief to the industry under such circumstances. Sets forth administrative provisions relating to the Multipartite Adjustment Council. Requires the Council to develop and submit to the USTR an import protection and domestic recovery plan for the industry. Sets forth information to be included in such plan. Requires the USTR to take specified actions upon approving such plan. Establishes in the Treasury an Industry Assistance and Restructuring Fund. Title IV: Adjustment Assistance for Workers and Firms - Expresses the sense of the Congress that whenever there occurs a net increase in value of imports in a year in relation to the previous year there should occur a proportionate increase in the rate at which trade adjustment assistance petitions for businesses and for workers are approved. Subtitle A: Worker Adjustment Assistance - Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to require certifying workers as eligible for trade adjustment assistance if increases in imports like or directly competitive with articles to which a worker's firm or subdivision provides essential parts or services contributed importantly to: (1) the total or partial separation of such worker or threat of such total or partial separation and to a decline in sales and production of the firm or subdivision; or (2) such separation or threat of such separation because of the relocation of the production functions of that firm or subdivision to a foreign country or instrumentality. Treats as a qualifying week for adjustment assistance purposes any week a worker receives back pay because of being laid off. Limits to seven the number of weeks that may be treated as qualifying weeks of employment in cases in which an employee is on employer authorized leave or is serving as a labor organization representative. Extends the duration of trade adjustment allowances from 52 to 104 weeks. Requires additional payments to be made as trade readjustment allowances to help an adversely affected worker to undertake training if the worker submits, before the worker exhausts all rights to that part of unemployment insurance that is regular compensation, either: (1) a bona fide application for an approved training program; or (2) an application for a training voucher. Authorizes making additional payments: (1) for up to 26 additional weeks if the training program or voucher is approved before the close of the last week for which the worker is eligible for a trade readjustment allowance; or (2) for up to 52 additional weeks if the training program or voucher is approved after the close of the last week for which the worker is eligible for a trade readjustment allowance. Requires (current law authorizes) the Secretary of Labor to approve job training if the worker meets specified requirements. Requires the costs of the training to be paid from the next appropriation of funds if the funds have not been appropriated at the time the training is entered into. Defines "reasonable expectation of employment" for purposes of determining if training should be approved. Sets forth the method of determining the amount that employers should be reimbursed for providing training. Authorizes workers eligible for training to elect to obtain training through the use of training vouchers. Directs the Secretary of Labor to issue a voucher if the Secretary: (1) approves the training course for which the worker applies; and (2) finds that suitable employment for the worker is not available, the worker is not already qualified for the job for which training is sought, and there is a reasonable expectation of employment after completion of the training. Sets forth specified conditions which the provider of the training must meet in order to redeem the voucher. Requires each State agency that is providing adversely affected workers with testing, counseling, training, and placement services to: (1) advise each adversely affected worker to apply for training under the trade adjustment assistance program or to begin a search for appropriate training under the voucher system at the time the worker applies for trade readjustment allowances; and (2) interview the adversely affected worker within 60 days on suitable training opportunities available under the trade adjustment assistance program. Subtitle B: Firm Adjustment Assistance - Requires certifying a firm as eligible for trade adjustment assistance if: (1) certain conditions are met and if sales or production, or both, of an article that accounted for at least 25 percent of the firm's total production or sales during the 12-month period preceding the most recent 12-month period for which data are available have decreased absolutely; or (2) increases in imports of articles like or directly competitive with a critical product line of the firm resulting from targeting by one or more foreign countries, the firm is threatened with the idling of its facilities, with unprofitability, and with underemployment or unemployment of a significant number or proportion of its workers, and increases in imports contributed importantly to those threats. Defines "targeting" to mean the policy of a country that selectively supports the development of an industry to enhance its competitiveness in domestic or export markets. Deletes the requirement that in order to qualify for adjustment assistance a firm not have access to financing through the private capital market. Deletes the provision authorizing assistance to firms in preparing the firms' adjustment proposals. Authorizes the Secretary of Commerce (the Secretary) to make grants: (1) to certain industry organizations to assist them in designing and managing trade adjustment strategies; and (2) to private individuals, firms, or institutions to assist firms that have been certified as eligible for adjustment assistance. Limits the amount that may be allotted for such grants. Prohibits providing a loan in excess of $500,000 to a firm under the adjustment assistance provisions if the firm can obtain loan funds from private sources using the adjustment assistance guarantee loan assistance loan authority. Deletes the provision that prohibited financial assistance to a firm through the adjustment assistance authority unless the funds are not available from the firm's own resources. Sets forth a method of determining the interest rate on each loan made through the adjustment assistance provisions. Prohibits the Secretary from guaranteeing any loan if the interest rate is determined to be excessive (currently, if it is determined to be excessive when compared with other loans bearing Federal guarantees). Prohibits the Secretary from making a loan or guaranteeing a loan having a maturity in excess of 25 years or the weighted average useful life of its collateral, except that the Secretary may make or guarantee a loan having a maturity of up to five years. Requires the Secretary, in making guarantees or loans in excess of $150,000, to give priority to firms that are small within the meaning of the Small Business Act. Prohibits any adjustment assistance loan guarantee from being made for an amount that exceeds 90 percent of the outstanding balance on the portion. Declares that the validity of the guarantee shall be incontestable except for fraud or misrepresentation of any party who purchases, as an authorized secondary market investor, all or part of the guaranteed portion of such loan. Increases the total maximum amount of adjustment assistance loan guarantees that may be outstanding at any time. Deletes the provision that prohibits granting financial assistance to a firm unless the owners, partners, or officers of the firm bind themselves to avoid certain conflicts-of-interest. Requires all repayments of loans, interest payments, and other receipts from financial aid to firms to be paid into a separate account administered by the International Trade Administration. Subtitle C: Uniform Additional Duty - Directs the President to undertake negotiations to change the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to allow any country to impose a small uniform duty on all imports to fund adjustment assistance programs for workers and firms of that country. Imposes on all imports into the United States a duty at a uniform rate determined by the President: (1) to be in accordance with the GATT; and (2) to be sufficient to fund adjustment assistance programs. Subtitle D: Effective Dates - Sets forth the effective dates for the changes made by this title. Title V: CIF Basis of Appraisement - Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to require that in addition to the bases currently required by law imports shall be appraised on the basis of the CIF costs (the costs and charges incurred by the buyer for the transportation, insurance, loading, and handling incident to shipment of the merchandise from the exporting country to the place of importation in the United States). Provides for adjusting the transaction value of merchandise based on significant differences between the CIF costs for the imported goods and for the identical or similar goods in question. Includes the CIF costs in determining the value of imports. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the revenues that accrue from the amendments made by this title be applied to ensure that the annual staffing levels of the Customs Service are not less than a specified level for FY 1986.
United States · United States Congress · 31 October 1985
Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the Postmaster General should issue a stamp, before October 1, 1986, commemorating the 100th Congress; and (2) the U.S. Postal Service should conduct a public competition for the design of the stamp.
United States · United States Congress · 30 October 1985
Equitable Automobile Transportation Act of 1985 - Requires a person exporting Japanese motor vehicles to be imported into the United States to: (1) transport an equal number of such vehicles on U.S. - documented vessels as are transported on Japanese vessels; and (2) file an annual certification with the Department of the Treasury which contains specified assurances and information. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe regulations to enforce this Act. Provides penalties for the violation of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 28 October 1985
Amends part A (Hospital Insurance) of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to revise the method of determining the inpatient hospital deductible to make such deductible equal to the preceding year's deductible increased by the lesser of the applicable increase percentage determined under title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Act or the increase in the Consumer Price Index. Reduces the rate of increase of the coinsurance amount payable for extended care services.
United States · United States Congress · 22 October 1985
Suspends most-favored-nation treatment for Romania for six months. Directs the President, before the end of such six months, to: (1) assess the status of civil liberties and human rights in Romania; and (2) recommend to the Congress whether to extend the suspension of nondiscriminatory treatment to Romania.
United States · United States Congress · 16 October 1985
Trade Equity and Growth Act of 1985 - Declares that achievement of an orderly movement to lower and stable exchange rates for the dollar is a primary objective of U.S. economic policy. Directs the President to convene an international conference on the international monetary system to review the present system of floating exchange rates and to develop a consensus on reform of that system to provide for the long term exchange rate stability necessary for a strengthened world trade and financial system. Sets forth proposed reforms for study at such conference. Requires the President to report annually to the Congress on the progress made toward: (1) reducing the value of the dollar and stabilizing it on international markets through short term actions; and (2) adopting long-term reform of the system that will prevent future instability in international exchange rates. Prohibits the President from: (1) commencing multilateral negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade on reducing or eliminating tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade until the conference is convened; or (2) concluding any trade agreement resulting from such nogotiations until the Congress receives its first annual report on progress in reforming the international monetary system. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to: (1) report to the Congress, within 30 days of enactment of this Act, on the range of dollar exchange values that must be obtained if equilibrium in the current account deficits of the United States is to be restored by 1990; and (2) develop and implement mechanisms to achieve such equilibrium. Requires the Secretary to report on a quarterly basis to the Congress on developing and implementing such mechanisms.
United States · United States Congress · 10 October 1985
Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the President should initiate, in cooperation with our Western allies, the negotiation of a multinational agreement to establish an allied strategy to respond to international terrorism, procedures to provide and to disseminate intelligence information relating to such terrorism, and a multinational unit to resolve terrorist incidents; and (2) the United States should adopt as a national policy the termination of U.S. foreign assistance to nations that assist or fail to prosecute international terrorists.
United States · United States Congress · 9 October 1985
Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1985 - Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to allow State, local, or interstate governmental agencies to provide compensatory time in lieu of overtime compensation. Requires that such compensatory time be one and one-half hours for each hour of employment for which overtime compensation is required. Allows such compensatory time only if it is a collective bargaining agreement, memorandum of understanding or other agreement or understanding entered into by the public agency and its employees or their recognized representatives before the work for which the compensatory time is to be provided. Limits the amount of such compensatory time which public employees may accrue to 180 hours, or 480 hours in the case of work which included a public safety activity, an emergency response activity, or a seasonal activity. Requires that public employees who have accrued such compensatory time and requested its use be permitted to use it within a reasonable period after making such request if its use does not unduly disrupt the operations of the public agency. Requires that, upon termination of employment, a public employee who has accrued such compensatory time be paid for unused compensatory time at a rate not less than the average rate received by such employee during the last three years of the employees' employment. Provides that, if a public agency had in effect on April 15, 1986, a pattern or practice of providing its employees compensatory time off in lieu of overtime compensation, that pattern or practice shall constitute an agreement or understanding which meets specified requirements. Provides that a collective bargaining agreement in effect on April 15, 1986, which permits overtime compensation in the form of compensatory time off at a rate of less than one and one-half hours for each hour of employment for which overtime compensation is required shall remain in effect until its expiration date unless otherwise modified, except that compensatory time shall be provided after April 14, 1986, at the one and one-half hour rate. Provides that States, local governments, and interstate governmental agencies shall not be liable for specified overtime and related paperwork violations which occur before April 15, 1986, with respect to employees who would not have been covered under the Secretary of Labor's special enforcement policy in effect on January 1, 1985. Permits States, local governments, or interstate governmental agencies to defer until August 1, 1986, the payment of overtime compensation for hours of employment after April 14, 1986. Adds provisions relating to special detail work for fire protection and law enforcement (including prison security) employees of State, local, or intergovernmental agencies. Provides that those hours on special detail work for a separate or independent employer shall be excluded by the public agency in the calculation of overtime compensation, if the employee agrees, solely at the employee's option, to perform such special detail work. Provides that an employee's hours of part-time employment with a public agency in a substantially different capacity from the employee's regular full-time employment with such agency shall be excluded from the calculation of overtime compensation, if such part-time employment is undertaken on an occasional and sporadic basis and solely at the employee's option. Directs the Secretary of Labor to issue, by March 15, 1986, regulations: (1) defining when employment is done on an occasional or sporadic basis; and (2) prescribing a standard for determining if employment is in a substantially different capacity than other employment. Permits employees of States, local governments, and interstate governmental agencies to volunteer to perform services for any other such agency, including one with which the employing agency has a mutual aid agreement. Adds provisions relating to substitution work by and for fire protection and law enforcement (including prison security) employees of State, local, and intergovernmental agencies. Provides that those hours of substitution during scheduled work hours for a fellow employee shall be excluded by the public agency in the calculation of the substituting employee's overtime compensation, if such employee agrees to perform such substitute work with the public agency's approval and solely at the employee's option. Provides that the employer may not be required to keep a record of the hours of such substitute work under certain overtime recordkeeping requirements. Revises the definition of "employee" to exclude any volunteer for a State, local, or interstate governmental agency who volunteers to perform such services without compensation or for a nominal fee, expenses, or reasonable benefits or for any combination of such fee, expenses, or benefits. Provides that employees of such agencies shall still be considered employees if they volunteer to perform the same type of service for those agencies for which they are employed. Directs the Secretary of Labor to issue, by March 15, 1986, regulations to define nominal fees and reasonable benefits. Provides that, if before April 15, 1986, a public agency's practice was to treat certain persons as volunteers then such persons shall be considered volunteers and not employees until April 15, 1986. Provides that no State, local government, or interstate governmental agency shall be liable for a violation of minimum wage requirements occurring before April 15, 1986, with respect to services performed for the public agency by any individual who performed such services as a volunteer. Revises the definition of "employee" to exclude from coverage under the Act State and local legislative employees who are not legislative library employees. Makes the amendments made by this Act effective on April 15, 1986, but authorizes the Secretary of Labor to promulgate before such date regulations to implement such amendments. Prohibits construing such amendments as affecting whether a State, local government, or interstate governmental agency is liable under penalty provisions of the Act for violations of minimum wage, overtime, or paperwork requirements occurring before April 15, 1986, with respect to any employee who would have been covered by by the Act under the Secretary of Labor's special enforcement policy in effect on January 1, 1985. Requires that a State, local government, or interstate governmental agency be held to have violated specified provisions if it discriminates or has discriminated against an employee with respect to wages or other terms or conditions of employment because on or after February 19, 1985, the employee asserted coverage under overtime provisions.
United States · United States Congress · 8 October 1985
Establishes the United States Commission on Improving the Effectiveness of the United Nations to examine and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the United Nations and to submit to the President recommendations on ways to improve its effectiveness and the role of the United States in such organization. Sets forth specified items which the Commission should focus on in carrying out its duties. Requires the Commission to transmit to the President and to the Congress a report containing a detailed statement of its findings, conclusions, and recommendations. Authorizes appropriations and private contributions for the Commission. Terminates the Commission 60 days after the submission of its report.
United States · United States Congress · 7 October 1985
Fair Export Financing Act of 1985 - Amends the Trade and Development Enhancement Act of 1983 to declare that one of the purposes of such Act is to establish a temporary tied aid credit program to combat the predatory concessional credit programs of foreign governments. Directs the President to negotiate limits on partially untied aid credit. Changes the U.S. negotiating objectives to include references to partially untied aid credits. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to establish within the Department of the Treasury a program of tied aid credits for U.S. exports. Requires the program to be carried out in cooperation with the Export-Import Bank or with private financial institutions or entities. (Currently the program is established within the Export-Import Bank and carried out in cooperation with the Agency for International Development (AID).) Sets forth financing methods that may be included in such program. Authorizes appropriations. Repeals the provision that established a tied aid credit program in AID. Requires the Secretary to seek the advice of the National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Policies before approving financing under the tied aid credit program. Terminates the tied aid credit program on September 30, 1987. Limits judicial review of actions by the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank and by the Secretary. Changes the definition of "tied aid credit." Defines "partially untied aid credit." Deletes references to government-mixed credits and public-private cofinancing.
United States · United States Congress · 7 October 1985
Declares that the Congress deplores the President's notification to the U.N. Secretary General that the United States is withdrawing from the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, and reaffirms its support for the international rule of law and the role of the Court.
![Official portrait of Rep. Vento, Bruce F. [D-MN-4]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/v000087_200.jpg)