United States · United States Congress · 3 May 1978
Naval Petroleum Reserves Authorization Act - Title I: Authorization of Appropriations - Authorizes to be appropriated to the Department of Energy $199,005,000 for fiscal year 1979 for conservation, development, and use of naval petroleum reserves and naval oil shale reserves. Title II: Amendments to Chapter 641 of Title 10, United States Code - Amends the provisions of Federal law to direct the Secretary of the Energy in administering Naval Petroleum Reserves Numbered 1, 2, and 3 to further develop such reserves to a capacity to produce at a maximum efficient rate for purposes of national defense. Directs the Secretary, during the period ending April 5, 1982, to produce naval reserves 1 and 3 at the lowest rate sufficient to support the cost of exploration, development, operation, and acquisitions of the naval petroleum reserves. Removes the time limitation for pipelines and facilities for Petroleum Reserve Number 1 to accommodate not less than 350,000 barrels of oil per day. Changes the date when the Secretary is authorized to exercise the authority for condemnation over certain privately owned lands within Naval Petroleum Reserve Numbered 1. Makes certain technical amendments relating to the Naval Petroleum Reserves, including making the Secretary of Energy (presently Secretary of the Navy) responsible for the administration of the reserves.
United States · United States Congress · 3 May 1978
Amends the Trade Act of 1974, with respect to the authority of the President to negotiate trade agreements, to direct the President to reserve any article for which an agreement limiting agricultural imports has been entered into, from negotiations to reduce or eliminate customs duties or import restrictions.
United States · United States Congress · 26 April 1978
Individual Housing Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow individuals an income tax deduction of up to $2,500 annually and $10,000 in a lifetime for contributions to an individual housing account. Makes such accounts tax exempt and allows distributions from such an account to be tax free if such distributions are used exclusively for the purchase of a principal residence for the distributee.
United States · United States Congress · 25 April 1978
Authorizes a certain nonprofit corporation to have medals struck in commemoration of the XIII Olympic Winter Games to be held in Lake Placid, New York in 1980.
United States · United States Congress · 25 April 1978
Declares that certain proposed regulations of the Department of the Treasury regarding centralized firearms sales recordkeeping and other firearms control measures exceed the Departments' authority, and directs that the regulations be withdrawn.
United States · United States Congress · 24 April 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to issue regulations corresponding to the principles set forth in a certain private letter ruling relating to the exclusion from gross income of amounts deferred by participants in public deferred compensation plans.
United States · United States Congress · 19 April 1978
Solar Photovoltaic Energy Research, Development, and Demonstration Act - Requires the Secretary of Energy to develop research, development, and demonstration programs concerning the use of solar photovoltaic energy systems. Authorizes the Secretary to provide up to 75 percent of the purchase and installation costs of selected systems used for research purposes. Requires the Secretary to formulate definitive performance criteria concerning solar photovoltaic systems and to develop a system certification for conforming systems. Directs the Secretary to consult with relevant Federal agencies concerning the use of solar photovoltaic systems in Federal facilities. Requires the Secretary to set up a development and demonstration program of prototype photovoltaic systems at the Solar Energy Research Institute in Golden, Colorado. Directs the Secretary to establish a solar energy data bank at the Golden facility. Requires relevant Federal officials to ensure that small business concerns are granted realistic and adequate opportunities to participate, to the maximum extent possible, in the programs under this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 12 April 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide identical income tax rates for single persons and married couples filing joint returns. Limits the earned income that must be reported by a married individual filing a separate return to the amount actually earned by that individual.
United States · United States Congress · 10 April 1978
National Infant Screening Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to make grants and contracts to public and private entities to acquire the automated equipment, supplies, and personnel required to conduct multiple screening of blood specimens routinely collected from newborn infants for metabolic disorders. Requires the States to develop plans for the screening, diagnosis, and management of newborn infants for metabolic disorders. States that no entity shall be eligible for a grant under this Act unless it is in compliance with the applicable State plan.
United States · United States Congress · 6 April 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend to all residents of the United States the same general exclusion of income earned abroad that is presently limited to citizens. Repeals the disallowance of an income tax credit for foreign taxes paid on income items that are excluded as foreign earned income. Increases the limitations on this exclusion, with provisions for annual adjustments by the Secretary of the Treasury to correspond to rate increases paid to GS-12, step one government employees. Allows a new income tax deduction for the sum of foreign source income related expenses falling in the following categories: the cost-of-living differential (i.e., the excess cost) of maintaining a family in a foreign country rather than the United States (to be governed by tables published by the Secretary of the Treasury, guided by the State Department's index of foreign living costs); a portion of the excess housing costs experienced abroad the elementary and secondary education expenses of the taxpayer's dependents, including room, board and travel if no adequate "United States-type" schools are available; travel expenses of one annual trip home; and reasonable transportation expenses for the taxpayer and his family for travel between remote or adverse posts and any other location approved by the employer. Allows taxpayers to use deduction for determining adjusted gross income, thereby extending it to individuals not itemizing their deductions. Limits deducting any expense item to one of the specified categories of this deduction, thereby avoiding multiple deductions of single expenses. Includes in gross income any reimbursement by an employer for expenses qualifying for this deduction. Increases the time and amount limitations for moving expense deductions in the cases of all international moves resulting from death of the taxpayer, retirement, or a new principal place of work. Includes the storage fees incurred for the duration of a foreign assignment within the expenses qualifying for this deduction. Excludes from gross income all meals and lodging furnished the taxpayer and his dependents by his employer outside the United States in a "camp-style" or communal setting. Provides taxpayers working abroad the same extended repurchase time limitations as are presently provided servicemen stationed overseas for the nonrecognition of gain on the sale or exchange of a principal residence.
United States · United States Congress · 5 April 1978
Amends the Local Public Works Capital Development and Investment Act of 1976 to increase the amount authorized to be appropriated to carry out such Act to $10,000,000,000.
United States · United States Congress · 5 April 1978
Declares it the sense of the House of Representatives that the President should suspend the ban on importation of Rhodesian chrome and ferrochrome and that the length of such suspension should depend upon effective execution of the agreement for transition to majority rule and one man, one vote elections.
United States · United States Congress · 22 March 1978
National Infant Screening Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to make grants and contracts to public and private entities to acquire the automated equipment, supplies, and personnel required to conduct multiple screening of blood specimens routinely collected from newborn infants for metabolic disorders. Requires the States to develop plans for the screening, diagnosis, and management of newborn infants for metabolic disorders. States that no entity shall be eligible for a grant under this Act unless it is in compliance with the applicable State plan.
United States · United States Congress · 14 March 1978
Expresses the condemnation by the Congress of the March 11, 1978, attack on Israel by the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the expressed intention of the PLO to continue such attacks and to disrupt the peace efforts between Israel and Egypt. Requests the President to make the disapproval of the Congress known to governments approving the PLO attack. Expresses Congressional approval of the peace efforts between Israel and Egypt. Urges other Middle East countries to join such efforts. Declares negotiation to be the best way to bring peace to the Middle East.
United States · United States Congress · 8 March 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow individuals an income tax credit for a portion of the expenses incurred for the residential installations of insulation, solar and other renewable energy equipment, heating improvements and energy-conserving components between April 20, 1977, and January 1, 1986.
United States · United States Congress · 3 March 1978
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to apply the same tax rates to married persons filing separate returns as are presently applicable to unmarried individuals.
United States · United States Congress · 24 February 1978
Urges the Secretary of Defense not to include within the competitive rate program (under which services are procured for the movement of the household goods of Department of Defense employees) the movement of household goods of Department personnel who are being transferred between the continental United States and Alaska or Hawaii.
United States · United States Congress · 23 February 1978
Directs the Postal Service to issue a commemorative postage stamp in observance of the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the modern State of Israel.
United States · United States Congress · 22 February 1978
Requires the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to provide two sizes of flags for burial purposes and to permit the next of kin of deceased veterans to select the size desired.
United States · United States Congress · 21 February 1978
SS Life Act - Directs the Secretary of the Navy to transfer to LIFE International for 15 years the hospital ship U.S.S. Sanctuary (AH-17) to furnish health care to developing nations. Renames such ship the "SS LIFE". Authorizes the appropriation of $6,000,000 for fiscal year 1979 for modification of such ship and for maintenance and operation $494,000 for fiscal year 1979, $5,000,000 for fiscal year 1980, $4,000,000 for fiscal year 1981, $3,000,000 for fiscal year 1982, $2,000,000 for fiscal year 1983, and $1,000,000 for fiscal year 1984.
United States · United States Congress · 15 February 1978
Amends the Board for International Broadcasting Act of 1973 to prohibit assistance to Radio Free Europe or Radio Liberty if any Communist country is permitted to use such broadcast facilities.
United States · United States Congress · 19 January 1978
Calls upon the President to direct the Attorney General to retain David W. Marston as United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania until all investigations of corruption involving public officials presently being conducted in such district are concluded.
United States · United States Congress · 30 November 1977
States that during the period following the enactment of this Act until December 31, 1978, neither the Secretary of the Interior nor the Attorney General shall withhold water delivery from any beneficiary of a Federal reclamation project for purposes of achieving conformity with acreage limitations or residency requirements of reclamation law.
United States · United States Congress · 29 November 1977
Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen Protection Act - Requires that the Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen and other relics of Hungarian royalty to be kept in the United States, unless Congress specifically provides otherwise.
United States · United States Congress · 28 October 1977
Civil Rights Act - Prohibits any person engaged in commerce, any person conducting a program which receives Federal assistance, a Federal contractor or subcontractor, or holder of an interest in Federal property from discriminating with respect to employment, housing, credit, or participation in benefits which make such prohibitions applicable, on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religious affiliation or belief, age, handicap, political affiliation or belief, marital status, parental status, or lack of citizenship. Exempts from such prohibitions denial of medical treatment where such denial does not occur because of characteristics of individuals of the above listed status groups. Exempts from such prohibitions (1) employment near Indian reservations in which preference is given to Indians; (2) employment classification or referral by an employer or labor union when the above listed characteristics constitute a bona fide occupational qualification (3) employment by educational institutions with respect to religion under specified circumstances; (4) employment discrimination based on religion when an employer would suffer undue hardship in accommodating religious practices of the individual; (5) age discrimination required by law in order to benefit children or to achieve statutory objectives, or the comply with a bona fide seniority system or employee benefit plan; (6) handicapped discrimination when the handicapped individual could not perform essential job functions without undue hardship to the employer or when the individual does not meet essential eligibility requirements for services, programs, or activities; (7) political discrimination in employment when such individual is elected or appointed to policy making levels of political offices; (8) age discrimination in housing resulting from designation of a certain area for adults; and (9) certain employers with fewer than 15 employees. Authorizes the Attorney General to investigate and enforce complaints of such discrimination. Limits the ability of an individual to institute civil suit based upon such discrimination. Imposes a civil fine for knowing violation of this Act. Imposes a civil fine or imprisonment for willful, repetitions violations of this Act. Repeals nondiscrimination provisions of specified Federal statutes. Supersedes Executive Order 11063 and specified portions of Executive Order 11246. Declares that nondiscrimination and equal opportunity requirements shall not be required under specified statutes and Federal programs. Directs the Attorney General to prescribe regulations for enforcement of this Act. Transfers to the Attorney General the assets of any agency of which all powers, functions, and duties are terminated by this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 26 October 1977
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to authorize any taxpayer to elect to have any portion of any overpayment of tax or any contribution in money which the taxpayer forwards with the return for such taxable year be available, as the taxpayer may designate on such return, for the National Endowment for the Arts or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
United States · United States Congress · 20 October 1977
Removes the present restrictions which prohibit enlisted members of the armed forces on active duty from engaging in a civilian pursuit or business or prohibit members of the Army, Navy, Air Force, or Marine bands from receiving remuneration for furnishing music outside of a military base where such activities are in competition with local civilians.
United States · United States Congress · 20 October 1977
Declares that there be no reduction of customs duties on textile or apparel products and that such products be excluded from the current Tokyo Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations in Geneva.
United States · United States Congress · 14 October 1977
Declares it the sense of the Congress that no Federal agency should consider the value of military exchange and commissary privileges in determining the entitlement of any retired or former member of the armed forces to any other Federal benefits or the amount of such benefits.
United States · United States Congress · 6 October 1977
Declares it the sense of the Congress that the Secretary of State should seek the good offices of the Secretary General of the United Nations for the purpose of establishing a special investigatory commission charged with the responsibility of securing a full accounting of Americans listed as missing in Southeast Asia.
United States · United States Congress · 23 September 1977
Comprehensive Health Care Insurance Act - Requires every employer to offer each of his employees and their families qualified health care insurance. States that such coverage shall be optional with the employee. Requires an employer to contribute to the cost of such coverage for the benefit of an electing employee and his family at least 65 percent of the premium, with the employee contributing the balance. Establishes, for low-income employees, a program of certificates of entitlement or income tax credit in the amount by which the portion of the premium payable by such an employee exceeds the premium for which he would be liable under the program of health insurance for the unemployed or self-employed as established by this Act. Authorizes the Attorney General to bring suit to compel an employer to comply with the provisions of this Act. Stipulates that employers experiencing substantial increases in payroll cost due to the provisions of this Act will be entitled to a cash payment by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare or a credit against income tax. States that premiums for employee groups of one to 100 persons and self-employed persons shall not exceed 125 percent of the estimated average in the State of the annual premium for employee groups of more than 100 persons. Sets forth a plan of health insurance providing hospital, medical, dental, and other health care services for non-employed and self-employed individuals and their families. Establishes, as a means of implementing such plan, a program of certificates of entitlement issued by the Secretary and credits against income tax for the premium for qualified health care insurance. States that the amount of Federal participation shall be related to the income of the individual or family, the Government to pay the full premium for those whose annual incomes are insufficient to create income tax liability, and to pay a gradually smaller proportion of the premium for others in relation to increasing amounts of income tax liability. Provides qualified health care insurance for an individual or family with no tax liability for the base year. Stipulates that the premium rate to be charged for a qualified health care insurance policy offered under such plan for any year shall in no case exceed 125 percent of the estimated average of premiums paid in the State for qualified health care insurance for groups of employees with more than 100 members. Excludes from qualified health care insurance coverage payment for stipulated items, including: (1) personal comfort items; (2) eyeglasses, hearing aids, or orthopedic shoes; and (3) private room inpatient hospital accommodations. Limits the aggregate amount of expenditures for catastrophic illness expenses. Sets forth requirements which must be met by qualified health care insurance plans. Establishes the Federal Health Insurance Redemption Fund. Authorizes appropriations to the fund of amounts equal to the aggregate amount of premiums paid under this Act. Requires carriers offering qualified health care insurance policies to participate in an assigned-risk pool which may be established in such State by the State insurance department or by such agency as may be authorized by the State. Establishes a Health Insurance Advisory Board to: (1) prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the purposes and provisions of this Act; (2) establish minimum Federal standards for the use of State insurance departments in determining whether an insurance company and plan are qualified under this Act; (3) in consultation with carriers, providers of services, and consumers, plan, review, and develop, where necessary, programs whose purposes are to provide for maintaining the quality of medical care; and (4) review the effectiveness of the program established by this Act. Stipulates that individuals collecting unemployment compensation are eligible for coverage under this Act, unless covered through an employed member of his family. Permits an income tax credit for premiums paid for qualified insurance plans under this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 22 September 1977
Expresses the sense of the Congress that any right to, title to, or interest in the property of the United States Government agencies in the Panama Canal Zone or any real property and improvements thereon located in the zone should not be conveyed, relinquished, or otherwise disposed of to any foreign government without specific authorization of such conveyance, relinquishment, or other disposition by any Act of Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 20 September 1977
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to treat as a scholarship and to exclude from gross income any amounts received by an individual under the Armed Forces health professions scholarship program or the National Health Service Corps scholarship program, without regard to whether such individual is receiving training while on active duty or in an off-duty or inactive status, and without regard to whether a period of active duty or other service is required of such individual as a condition of receiving such payments.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 1977
Amends the Panama Canal Zone Code to prescribe procedures preventing Presidential disposition of land within the zone without approval of both Houses of Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 1977
Amends the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to require all hospitals skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies, intermediate care facilities, and shared health facilities which participate in programs under titles XVIII (Medicare) and XIX (Medicaid) of such Act to adopt and make public a statement of the rights and responsibilities of patients in their care. Directs the Secretary to require that such statement establish specified guarantees including guarantees: (1) that the patient's civil and religious liberties will not be infringed; (2) that the patient has the right to private communications with his physician, attorney, or any other person; (3) that the patient has the right to have privacy in treatment and in caring for personal needs and confidentiality in the treatment of personal and medical records; and (4) that the patient has the right to notice and a hearing before being transferred or discharged from a facility. Directs the Secretary to provide each facility, patient and staff member with a copy of the statement of rights and the enforcement procedures and remedies available to patients, and requires further that each facility adopt a written plan for implementing such rights. Establishes a procedure for the enforcement of patients' rights. Directs the Secretary to prescribe a schedule of statutory money damages for violations of such rights. Requires State agencies responsible for inspection and enforcement of Medicare and Medicaid programs to investigate patients' complaints and to file a written report within ten days disposing of such complaints. Imposes fines upon facilities found in violation of patients' rights payable to the patient or his heirs. Allows a patient or facility to bring an original action in U.S. district court to enforce rights. Awards costs and reasonable attorney's fees to the prevailing party. Provides that damages awarded to patients shall not constitute income or resources for purposes of determining eligibility under Medicaid or any Federal or federally-assisted State program which conditions eligibility upon income or resources.
United States · United States Congress · 16 September 1977
Designates service as a Member of the Women's Air Forces Service Pilots as active duty for the purposes of all laws administered by the Veterans' Administration.
United States · United States Congress · 14 September 1977
Amends the Indochina Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1975 to extend through 1980 assistance: (1) to refugees from Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos; (2) to State and local public agencies providing assistance for such aliens; (3) for transportation to, and resettlement in, other areas of the United States; and (4) for employment assistance rendered to such aliens. Directs that funds appropriated under this Act be made available to State or local public agencies to reimburse them for the non-Federal share of costs under Titles IV (Grants to States for Aid and Services to Needy Families with Children and for Child Welfare Services) and XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act. Limits the amount of assistance to be provided to a State or local public agency in fiscal years 1979 and 1980 for providing cash or medical assistance to aliens who entered the United States prior to August 11, 1977. Requires the President to submit a report to specified committees of Congress on the status of such refugees at regular intervals until December 31, 1980.
United States · United States Congress · 14 September 1977
Consumer Communications Reform Act - Expresses the sense of Congress that the authorization of lines, facilities, or services of specialized carriers which duplicate the lines, facilities, or services of other telecommunications common carriers fosters inefficiencies in the utilization of national telecommunications resources and has an adverse impact on the national objectives of maintaining stability of consumer price levels. Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to provide that no compensatory charges for or in connection with such communication service may be found to be unjust or unreasonable on the ground that it is too low. Prohibits the Federal Communications Commission from holding the charge of a carrier up to a particular level to protect the traffic or revenues from a communication service offered or provided by another carrier if such charge proposed by the carrier is compensatory. Provides that the Commission shall not grant or authorize any construction permit, license, or certificate for the construction, acquisition, or operation of any communication or transmission line or facility, or extension thereof, or any modification or renewal thereof, unless the Commission shall find, after full opportunity for evidentiary hearing on the record, that such permit, license, or certificate, will not result in increased charges or unnecessary duplication or communication lines.
United States · United States Congress · 13 September 1977
Declares the sense of the Congress that the President and the Secretary of State should take all necessary steps to bring the Baltic States question before the United Nations and to urge the United Nations to request the Soviet Union to withdraw all non-native troops, agents, colonists, and controls from the Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, and to return all Baltic exiles from Siberia and from prisons and labor camps in the Soviet Union. Requires the Secretary of State to do his utmost to bring the matter of the Baltic States to the attention of all nations by means of special radio programs and publications. Declares that the United States should not agree to the recognition of the Soviet Union's annexation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Directs the President to take steps to provide that all maps of Europe show the Republics of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as independent states. Calls for a return of self-determination to the peoples of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia through free elections conducted under the auspices of the United Nations.
![Official portrait of Rep. Wilson, Robert C. [R-CA-41]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/w000610_200.jpg)