United States · United States Congress · 3 June 1988
Directs the President to issue a proclamation each year calling on all churches, synagogues, schools, community centers, and other public buildings in the United States to toll their bells for one minute beginning at 11:00 a.m. on Memorial Day in remembrance of the men and women who died defending our Nation and freedom.
United States · United States Congress · 2 June 1988
Urges the Government of Iran to uphold the human rights of all its nationals, including members of the Baha'i faith, and to restore fully the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Calls upon the President to: (1) monitor and report on developments affecting the Baha'i minority in Iran and in other countries; (2) cooperate with other governments in continuing to make appeals to Iran concerning the situation of the Baha'is; (3) initiate and support efforts in the United Nations and its agencies on behalf of the Baha'is; and (4) provide, and urge others to provide, for refugee and humanitarian assistance for those Baha'is fleeing their homelands to escape religious repression.
United States · United States Congress · 26 May 1988
Panama Democracy and Economic Recovery Act- Makes certain policy declarations regarding Panama, including: (1) expressing support for a civilian democratic government in Panama; (2) expressing support for a transition to democracy in Panama using multilateral initiatives and other means; (3) pledging increased U.S. drug enforcement cooperation with a Panamanian Government committed to ending drug trafficking; (4) calling for economic assistance to Panama following the departure of General Noriega; and (5) expressing support for the development and strengthening of democratic institutions in Panama following his departure. Provides for specified U.S. assistance to Panama if the President certifies to the Congress that: (1) General Noriega is no longer in power in Panama; (2) Panama has demonstrated substantial progress in instituting a civilian government; (3) the Panama Defense Forces will be subjected to civilian control; (4) major political organizations have reached agreement on conditions for free elections; (5) constitutional guarantees have been restored in Panama; (6) major political organizations have reached agreement on plans for the reorganization of the Panamanian judicial system; (7) Panama has agreed to cooperate fully with the United States in drug enforcement efforts; (8) Panama has pledged to enter into negotiations for a mutual legal assistance treaty; and (9) Panama has pledged to reform its bank secrecy laws and to prevent drug-related money laundering. Includes among such assistance: (1) assistance to Panama for use in reducing its arrearages to international financial institutions; (2) emergency food assistance; (3) assistance for development and for electoral activities; (4) assistance to the Panamanian housing finance system; and (5) assistance for the domestic banking community in Panama through a short-term credit facility if the President determines that illiquidity problems exist within the Panamanian banking community as a result of the political situation. Provides that certain restrictions and prohibitions on U.S. assistance to Panama contained in the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1988 shall not apply in FY 1988 if the President makes such certification. Provides that the cooperation with narcotic laws certification required by the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 shall be deemed to have been approved by the Congress if the President submits to the Congress: (1) the certification described by this Act; and (2) a national interest certification with respect to Panama. Provides that the limitations on assistance to countries in default of loans made by the United States shall not apply to Panama if: (1) the President submits the certification described in this Act; and (2) Panama agrees that all such loans payable during FY 1988 will be repaid within an agreed upon time period. States that if the President makes the certification described in this Act: (1) the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank should assist in the reconstruction of the economy of Panama; (2) the President should direct the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the U.S. executive directors of various multilateral development institutions to seek to provide assistance to Panama; and (3) the President should urge Japan to help provide economic resources to assist Panama in the transition to democracy.
United States · United States Congress · 26 May 1988
Agricultural Commodity Embargo Limitation Act - Provides that the President may not prohibit or restrict the export of U.S. agricultural products to any country unless: (1) a state of war exists between such country and the United States; or (2) the President certifies to the Congress that such country is engaged in military hostilities against the United States, and such certification is in effect.
United States · United States Congress · 26 May 1988
Homeownership Assistance Act of 1988 - Amends the National Housing Act to create a special mortgage insurance program for first-time homebuyers. Authorizes insurance for up to 97 percent of the home's value. Authorizes the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to insure a mortgage loan of up to 97 percent of appraised value for the first $50,000 (currently $25,000) of a home's value. Repeals the current dollar cap on FHA insured mortgages in high cost areas. Authorizes FHA to insure adjustable rate mortgages with annual interest rate increases of up to two percent (currently one percent). Repeals the aggregate annual limit on such insured loans. Defines "first-time homebuyer" as an individual who or whose spouse has not owned a principal residence during the 18 months prior to an FHA insured home purchase. Authorizes an FHA demonstration program to insure mortgages for first-time homebuyer downpayments where the purchase is primarily financed or assisted by tax-exempt or other government assistance. Limits the downpayment loan to $7,500. Requires participants to receive financial counseling. Sets a maximum ten year loan maturity period. Amends the Federal National Mortgage Association Charter Act to authorize the Government National Mortgage Association to create a secondary market for first-time homebuyer downpayment loans. Authorizes an FHA demonstration program to insure 100 percent of a home's value for a first-time homebuyer provided that the donwnpayment will be paid within three years by an additional monthly payment. Requires participants to receive financial counseling. Amends the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 to empower the Internal Revenue Service to confiscate defaulting taxpayers' tax refunds. Requires the Secretary to submit program reports to the Congress within one year of enactment of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 24 May 1988
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend the low-income housing credit through 1990. (Under current law the credit is due to expire on December 31, 1989.)
United States · United States Congress · 19 May 1988
Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (the Act) to remove the exemption for Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS loans) from certain eligibility requirements under title IV (Student Assistance) of the Act. Revises such requirements to provide that SLS and Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL loan) recipients must have: (1) received a determination of eligibility or ineligibility for a Pell Grant for the relevant period of enrollment; and (2) filed an application for such a grant, if determined to be eligible. Requires, for eligibility for an SLS loan for any period of enrollment, that a student who is not a graduate or professional student must have: (1) received a determination of need for a GSL loan; and (2) applied for such a loan, if determined to have need for it. Reduces the amount of an individual's SLS loan eligibility by the amount of such individual's GSL loan eligibility (added to other financial aid). Revises the conditions of SLS eligibility of undergraduate dependent students. Requires "exceptional" (rather than "extenuating") circumstances to preclude such a student's parents from borrowing under the parent loan (PLUS loan) program. Requires appropriate documentation that such circumstances exist to be maintained in the institution's records to support such determination. Requires that SLS loans be disbursed in a specified manner to reduce student interest costs. Makes special rules for multiple disbursement also applicable to SLS loans. Makes students in teacher training programs eligible for GSL loans regardless of specified restrictions on such eligibility. Provides that, for purposes of Pell Grant need analysis and general student aid need analysis provisions, income tax payments to specified U.S. territories and possessions or to foreign governments shall be treated as Federal income taxes. Revises title III (Institutional Aid) of the Act to prohibit any historically black college or university which receives funds under part B (Strengthening Historically Black Colleges and Universities) from receiving funds under part A (Strengthening Institutions) of such title. Adds to authorized uses of funds from grants to institutions under part B: (1) faculty development; (2) funds and administrative management, and funds for acquisition of equipment for use in strengthening funds management; and (3) joint use of facilities, such as laboratories and libraries.
United States · United States Congress · 19 May 1988
Condemns the disruption of food production and relief efforts by parties involved in armed conflicts in Ethiopia, Sudan, Mozambique, and Angola. Urges the President and the Secretary of State to: (1) support proposals made by international relief organizations to negotiate agreements to ensure safe transportation and distribution of emergency food assistance; (2) pursue negotiations leading to the cessation of hostilities in such countries, including efforts to include countries providing military assistance to parties involved in the conflicts in the negotiations; and (3) seek the involvement of other countries of Africa and the United Nations as mediators to facilitate peace negotiations. Urges that: (1) all U.S. humanitarian assistance be made available to noncombatants on the basis of need and without regard to political considerations or affiliation; and (2) all countries providing military assistance shift their emphasis from military assistance to diplomatic efforts.
United States · United States Congress · 17 May 1988
Commends: (1) the Government of Thailand for its history of humanitarian treatment of refugees; (2) the relevant senior interagency group for its recommendation that the President increase the number of Jewish and Armenian refugees admitted from the Soviet Union without decreasing the number admitted from Southeast Asia; and (3) the President for following such recommendation. Urges the Government of Thailand to reinstitute its former policy of first asylum and officially end its policy of interdiction of arriving refugee boats. Urges the Department of State to continue working with the Government of Thailand and with other governments to meet Thailand's security concerns while responding to the humanitarian needs of Southeast Asian refugees. Urges the President and the State Department to admit the full number of Southeast Asian refugees that is fixed for admission to the United States in FY 1988 and maintain the number that may be admitted in FY 1989. Urges the Government of Vietnam to expand its Orderly Departure Program and cease its occupation of Cambodia in order to stem the flow of refugees out of Vietnam and Cambodia.
United States · United States Congress · 12 May 1988
Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Amendments Act of 1988 - Amends the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to transfer permanently to the Secretary of Energy public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management in the vicinity of certain processing sites. Prohibits such transfer until the Secretary of Energy complies with certain National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 requirements regarding site selection for the permanent disposition and stabilization of residual radioactive materials. Requires the Secretary of Energy to obtain the appropriate State's consent before acquiring lands upon which there is no: (1) designated processing site; or (2) active uranium mill operation. Terminates the Secretary of Energy's authority to perform remedial action on September 30, 1994. Provides that the Secretary's authority to perform groundwater restoration activities shall not expire.
United States · United States Congress · 12 May 1988
Designates the period of July 25 through July 31, 1988, as National Week of Recognition and Remembrance for Those Who Served in the Korean War. Authorizes and requests the President to urge that the American flag be flown at half staff on July 27, 1988, in honor of those Americans who died as a result of their service in Korea.
United States · United States Congress · 11 May 1988
Debt for Development Act of 1988 - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to authorize the use of up to $75,000,000 in loan repayments from developing countries in FY 1989 for development activities in those countries.
United States · United States Congress · 3 May 1988
Expresses the sense of the Congress that certain officers and the crew of the U.S.S. Bonefish should be recognized and commended for their efforts to save their fellow shipmates when an explosion and fire threatened their submarine.
United States · United States Congress · 29 April 1988
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1988 - Provides that no person shall be subjected to discrimination on the basis of handicap in: (1) employment practices and training covered by title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; (2) the sale or rental of housing covered by title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968; (3) any public accommodation covered by title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; (4) transportation services; (5) the actions, practices, and operations of State and local governments; and (6) broadcasts, communications, or telecommunications services. Lists the forms of discrimination which are prohibited by this Act, including: (1) denying any person the opportunity to participate in or benefit from a service, program, job, or other opportunity on the basis of his or her handicap; (2) establishing (or failing to remove) any architectural, transportation, or communication barriers that prevent the access or limit the participation of persons because of their handicap; (3) failing or refusing to make a reasonable accommodation to permit a handicapped individual to have access to a program, activity, job, or opportunity; (4) imposing any unnecessary standard or criteria that screens out or places the handicapped at a disadvantage; and (5) denying services, programs, jobs, or other opportunities to any person because of that person's relationship to, or association with, a handicapped person. Permits the exclusion or denial of equal access to services, programs, jobs, or other opportunities to persons: (1) for reasons unrelated to the existence of their handicap; or (2) based upon the application of standards or criteria that are necessary and substantially related to the ability to perform essential components of the job, program, activity, or opportunity, and such performance can not be accomplished by a reasonable accommodation. States that it shall be an act of discrimination, in regard to housing, to discriminate in the sale or rental of a dwelling (or in the terms, conditions, or privileges of such sale or rental) to any buyer or renter because of the physical or mental impairment of: (1) the buyer or renter; (2) a person residing in, or intending to reside in, such dwelling; or (3) any person associated with the buyer or renter. States that it shall be an act of discrimination to: (1) refuse to permit reasonable modifications, at the expense of the handicapped person, to afford such person enjoyment of the premises; (2) refuse to make reasonable accommodation in rules, policies, practices, or services to afford handicapped individuals equal opportunity to use and enjoy the dwelling; or (3) fail to design and construct multifamily dwellings (after a specified date) which are not accessible to the handicapped. Provides certain limitations on the duties of accommodation and barrier removal. Sets forth guidelines for the establishment of requirements and promulgation of regulations by specified Federal entities with respect to: (1) the accessibility of buildings and transportation systems; (2) the implementation and enforcement of the requirements of this Act; (3) employment practices; (4) the sale and rental of housing; and (5) the removal of communication barriers. Establishes procedures for the administrative enforcement of the provisions of this Act. Establishes a civil right of action for individuals who are subjected to discrimination in violation of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 28 April 1988
Amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to require that one-eighth of the land placed in the conservation reserve for 1988 through 1990 be devoted to trees. Provides cost-sharing payments for the difference between the original vegetative cover planting payment and the cost of tree planting.
United States · United States Congress · 28 April 1988
Prohibits the Administrator of Veterans Affairs from taking into consideration any payment to any person pursuant to the settlement in the case of In re: "Agent Orange" Product Liability Litigation in determining: (1) eligibility to receive a veterans' pension; (2) the amount of any such pension; or (3) the amount of such person's attributable income for purposes of eligibility for certain medical benefits.
United States · United States Congress · 21 April 1988
Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday Commission Extension Act - Makes permanent the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission. (Current law terminates the Commission on April 20, 1989.) Makes the term of Commission members one year, except for Coretta Scott King (life term) and members of the family surviving Martin Luther King, Jr. (at the discretion of the family). Replaces provisions requiring all expenditures of the Commission to be from donated funds with provisions authorizing appropriations for each fiscal year. Makes payment of expenses for Commission members and staff salary subject to the availability of funds.
United States · United States Congress · 20 April 1988
Requires the Secretary of Commerce to ensure that each questionnaire used in a decennial census contain at least one question relating to race or ethnic origin. Requires the question to include: (1) each group identified in the 1980 decennial census; (2) at least two additional groups within the category of Asian American or Pacific Islander; and (3) a means to write in any group not specified. Requires the Secretary, in carrying out any decennial census, to tabulate and make public the general population of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders both by total and by groups.
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 1988
Amends the Toxic Substances Control Act to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to set priorities for asbestos cleanup in schools, giving first priority to situations which pose the most dangers to human health and the environment. Requires local educational agencies to submit asbestos in schools management plans to State Governors within six months after the Administrator establishes guidelines pertaining to such plans and to implement such plans within 15 months of such guidelines. Amends the Asbestos School Hazard Abatement Act of 1984 to authorize appropriations through FY 1993 for loans to local educational agencies for school asbestos inspections and the preparation of management plans.
United States · United States Congress · 12 April 1988
Salvadoran Foreign Assistance Reform Resolution - Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the U.S. foreign assistance program for El Salvador should be revised to promote a negotiated settlement and a reduction of human suffering; (2) the ratio of assistance should be reversed in FY 1989 so that the amount spent on the war effort is only one-third of the amount spent for reform and development activities; (3) such assistance should not be distributed in a manner which would promote the interests of any particular political party; (4) such assistance should be distributed through church-related and other nongovernmental organizations and international organizations selected by the Agency for International Development; and (5) the President should report quarterly to the Congress on the restructuring of such assistance, the economic results of such restructuring, and any reports of corruption in its distribution.
United States · United States Congress · 31 March 1988
National Biological Diversity Conservation and Environmental Research Act - States that the conservation of biological diversity is a national priority. Requires Federal actions to be consistent with such goal. Amends the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to require that environmental impact statements on proposed Federal actions include any impacts on biological diversity. Directs the President's Council on Environmental Quality to: (1) establish guidelines for consideration of biological diversity in the preparation of environmental impact statements; and (2) identify those biotic communities, species, and populations that appear to be in decline, in imminent danger of loss of viability, or otherwise of special concern. Establishes a National Center for Biological Diversity and Environmental Research (Center) responsible for: (1) coordinating the collection of data pertaining to the national biota and supplementing and disseminating such information; (2) arranging and conducting surveys and supplementary research of the national biota; and (3) enhancing the application of biological data to the conservation of biological diversity. Requires the Center to report annually to the President and the Congress regarding its activities. Establishes an Interagency Working Committee on Biological Diversity responsible for preparing and implementing a coordinated Federal strategy for conservation of biological diversity. Sets forth the required contents of such strategy which must be completed within two years of this Act's enactment. Sets forth reporting requirements. Authorizes each agency represented on the Interagency Committee to provide grants to public agencies, private individuals, and organizations for projects to maintain or restore biological diversity. Requires that such grants be matched on at least an equal basis by the grantee, except when the grantee is a State. Directs each agency, other than the Council on Environmental Quality, represented on the Interagency Committee to: (1) give high priority to research and personnel training directed towards implementation of the Strategy; and (2) assess the adequacy of its environmental research and training programs. Establishes, on a permanent basis, a National Scientific Advisory Committee on Biological Diversity which shall: (1) advise the Interagency Committee in the preparation of the Strategy; (2) assist in the coordination of interaction between the Interagency Committee and the Center; (3) assist in the evaluation of the impacts of proposed Federal activities on biological diversity; (4) review Federal progress toward implementing the Strategy; and (5) serve as a general reference and advisory resource for the Nation in matters relating to conservation of biological diversity. Authorizes appropriations for the activities of the Center and the grant program for FY 1989 through 1991.
United States · United States Congress · 31 March 1988
Provides for a counsel-assisted hearing before an administrative judge for certain "Mariel" Cuban detainees (as defined by this Act). Directs the Attorney General to provide such persons with notice of hearing rights and counsel in cases of financial need. Requires the release of a detainee unless the Attorney General establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that such person: (1) is a threat to the community or to other people; or (2) would violate certain conditions of release. States that a release may only be made into suitable community sponsorship or placement. Authorizes the use of Department of Justice funds for half-way housing for such purposes. Provides for stay and revocation of release. Requires annual review of an incarcerated detainee's files. Prohibits judicial review of release determinations under this Act.
![Official portrait of Rescom. Fuster, Jamie B. [D-PR-At Large]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/f000435_200.jpg)