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United States · Official source
6,541 records where Sen. Dodd, Christopher J. [D-CT] is listed as a sponsor, author, or other actor. Search with topics and years
United States · United States Congress · 14 November 2002
Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center for Community Building Act - Directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to award a grant to Neighborhood House of St. Paul, Minnesota, to finance the construction of a new community center in St. Paul, to be known as the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center for Community Building.
United States · United States Congress · 28 October 2002
Expresses condolences for the deaths of Senator Paul Wellstone, members of his family, and others aboard the plane that crashed in Minnesota.
United States · United States Congress · 17 October 2002
Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act - Family Income to Respond to Significant Transitions Insurance Act - Directs the Secretary of Labor to make five-year grants to a State or local government to pay for the Federal share of the cost of carrying out projects that assist families by providing wage replacement for eligible individuals responding to caregiving needs resulting from the birth or adoption of a son or daughter or other family caregiving needs. Family and Medical Leave Fairness Act of 2002 - Amends the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) to extend coverage to employees at worksites where the employer employs at least 25 (currently 50) employees at the worksite and within 75 miles of that worksite. Amends FMLA and Federal civil service law to entitle to leave those employees who must address the effects of domestic violence. Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2002 - Permits the Office of Personnel Management to contract with one or more employing agencies to conduct a demonstration project that provides paid leave for eligible individuals who are responding to caregiving needs resulting from the birth or adoption of a son or daughter or other family caregiving needs. Requires the leave to last for at least six weeks during a 12-month period.
United States · United States Congress · 17 October 2002
Prevention and Recovery of Missing Children Act of 2002 - Amends the Crime Control Act of 1990 to require each State reporting on missing children to: (1) ensure that no law enforcement agency within the State establishes or maintains any policy that requires the removal of an entry from its State law enforcement system or the National Crime Information Center computer network based solely on the person's age; and (2) provide that any relevant information shall be entered within two hours of receipt (currently, immediately). Revises the Jacob Wetterling Crimes Against Children and Sexually Violent Offender Registration Act to require the responsible official to obtain from a sex offender who is required to register: (1) information regarding the offender's anticipated future residence, employer's name and address, license plate number and vehicle, and student enrollment; and (2) fingerprints and a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sample, unless they were obtained within the previous three months. Sets forth requirements regarding State: (1) procedures involving offenders intending to move to another State; (2) timetables for the verification of registry information and the taking of photographs; and (3) procedures requiring offenders to obtain a driver's license or identification card from the State department of motor vehicles at the time of registration. Requires States to: (1) designate a failure to comply with the registration and verification requirements as a felony and permit such failure to be grounds for the immediate issuance of an arrest warrant; and (2) consider a failure to comply as an ongoing offense and a failure to register each item of changed registry information as a separate offense.
United States · United States Congress · 17 October 2002
Youth Service Scholarship Act of 2002 - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish a Public Service Incentives college scholarship program to reward low-income students who have, during high school, and who continue, during college, to make significant public service contributions to their communities. Requires 300 hours of public service by the student: (1) during each of two academic years of secondary school, to be eligible for a scholarship for the first year of college; and (2) during the preceding postsecondary academic year, to be eligible for a second, third, or fourth year. Requires such students to: (1) have been eligible for a free or reduced price lunch under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act; and (2) be eligible to receive Federal Pell Grants in the year in which the scholarships are awarded. Sets the scholarship amount at $5,000 for any academic year during a student's first four years of undergraduate education, and provides for adjustments of such amount in the event of insufficient appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 17 October 2002
Provides for the printing as a Senate document of a revised edition of the Senate Rules and Manual for use in the 108th Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 10 October 2002
Local Control of Cellular Towers Act - Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to repeal the prohibition against a State or local government regulating the placement, construction, and modification of personal wireless service facilities on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the extent that such facilities comply with emission regulations of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Requires, in any action in which a person is seeking to place, construct, or modify such a facility, that person to bear the burden of proof, regardless of who commences the action. Prohibits the FCC from adopting a final rule or otherwise implementing any portion of a proposed FCC rule regarding relief from State and local regulation of such facilities. Allows a State or local government to deny an application to place, construct, or modify such facilities on the basis that alternative technologies, systems, or structures are capable of delivering such services in a manner less intrusive to the local community. Requires the burden of proving the appropriateness of proposed facilities to be the applicant's. Allows a State or local government to regulate the location, height, or modification of such facilities in order to address the effects of radio frequency interference on local communities and the public. Prohibits the Act from being interpreted to prohibit a State or local government from requiring environmental or other studies, reports, or documentation concerning the placement, construction, or modification of such facilities.
United States · United States Congress · 10 October 2002
Local Control of Broadcast Towers Act - Prohibits the Federal Communications Commission from adopting a final rule or otherwise implementing any portion of a proposed rule regarding the preemption of State and local zoning and land use restrictions concerning the siting, placement, and construction of broadcast station transmission facilities. Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to allow a State or local government to deny an application to place, construct, or modify such facilities on the basis that alternative technologies, systems, or structures are capable of delivering such services in a manner less intrusive to the local community. Requires the burden of proving the appropriateness of proposed facilities to be the applicant's. Allows a State or local government to regulate the location, height, or modification of such facilities in order to address the effects of radio frequency interference on local communities and the public. Prohibits the Act from being interpreted to prohibit a State or local government from requiring environmental or other studies, reports, or documentation concerning the placement, construction, or modification of such facilities.
United States · United States Congress · 10 October 2002
West Nile Virus and Arboviral Disease Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish a temporary program for West Nile Virus and related arboviral diseases, which may include grants by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to States for the prevention and control of such diseases. Directs grant funds to be used for: (1) the development, implementation, and evaluation by States and localities of community-based, comprehensive mosquito control plans; and (2) the development and implementation of programs on medical entomology, arbovirology, and other vector-borne diseases. Includes a 50 percent matching requirement for such grants. Requires 85 percent of grant funds to any State to be expended locally. Directs the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and with appropriate consultation, to develop a plan, together with standard operating procedures, to serve as a guideline for State and local mosquito control programs. Sets forth elements that such plan should include, including programs to: (1) identify new human cases of disease; and (2) provide laboratory support for testing. Sets a termination date of September 30, 2004, for the temporary program. Directs the President to expand, intensify, and enhance research for various activities, including to: (1) identify and develop methods of controlling the population of insects that transmit to humans diseases that have significant adverse health consequences (including the West Nile Virus); and (2) develop rapid screening tools for West Nile Virus in blood or organs.
United States · United States Congress · 10 October 2002
Designates October 2002 as Children's Internet Safety Month.
United States · United States Congress · 10 October 2002
Designates November 2002 as National Runaway Prevention Month.
United States · United States Congress · 8 October 2002
Renames title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (prohibiting discrimination in education based on sex) the "Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act".
United States · United States Congress · 4 October 2002
Energy Workers Compensation Act of 2002 - Amends the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 (EEOICPA) to provide for worker compensation benefit payments to contractor employees of the Department of Energy (DOE) who were exposed to toxic substances at DOE facilities. (This new subtitle D replaces the current provisions for DOE assistance to such employees in State workers compensation proceedings.) Requires DOE to review claims and determine causation within specified time limits (with the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) continuing to appoint members of physician review panels for diagnosing such occupational illnesses). Directs the Secretary of Labor to pay such benefits from the EEOICPA fund for claimants approved by DOE. Requires the Secretaries of Energy and of Labor to ensure that such claims are resolved in a nonadversarial manner. Revises EEOIPA subtitle B program administration provisions to add as covered illnesses: (1) chronic renal disease, for uranium workers; (2) mercury disease, for workers employed at facilities utilizing more than 100 kilograms of mercury; and (3) lung cancer, among beryllium-related diseases. Revises provisions relating to: (1) a special exposure cohort expansion procedure; (2) the radioepidemiologic model for determining compensation; and (3) additional specified cancers. Provides for EEOIPA coordination with other Federal laws, including the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Provides administrative assistance for claimants under either subtitle B or D, including administrative relief and proof where medical records are not available, resource centers, and outreach programs. Establishes within the Office of the Secretary of Labor the Office of the Ombudsman for Occupational Illness Compensation, which is to coordinate activities of the Secretaries of Labor, Energy, and HHS under EEOICPA.
United States · United States Congress · 2 October 2002
Amends the Microenterprise for Self-Reliance Act of 2000 to make as one of its purposes that in implementation of this Act at least 50 percent of all microenterprise assistance be targeted to the very poor, that is, those persons living either in the bottom 50 percent below the poverty line or on less than the equivalent of one dollar per day. Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1964 to authorize the President to provide assistance to increase the availability of financial services (not just credit) to microenterprise households lacking full access to credit, including through: (1) loans and guarantees to microfinance institutions to expand the availability of savings and credit to poor and low-income households; (2) training programs to enable such institutions to better meet the financial services needs of their clients; and (3) training programs to enable clients to make better use of credit, increase their financial literacy, and to better manage their enterprises to improve their quality of life. Declares that, in order to maximize the sustainable development impact of microenterprise development grant assistance authorized under the Act, the Administrator of the agency primarily responsible for administering such assistance shall establish a monitoring system that, among other things, adopts the widespread use of proven and effective poverty assessment tools to identify the poorest of the poor and ensure that they receive needed microenterprise credits, loans, and assistance. Requires the Administrator of the Agency for International Development to develop and certify no fewer than two low-cost methods for measuring the poverty levels of the current or prospective clients of microenterprise organizations for purposes of the provision of microenterprise development grant assistance.
United States · United States Congress · 26 September 2002
Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 2002 - Amends the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 2002 (TEUCA, which is title II of the Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002, PL107-147) to extend the TEUCA program through weeks of unemployment ending before July 1, 2003 (currently January 1, 2003). Entitles eligible individuals in all States to a total of 26 weeks of TEUCA compensation (13 weeks beyond the current 13 weeks). Provides an additional seven weeks of TEUCA benefits for workers in high unemployment States (entitling them to a total of 33, which is 20 weeks beyond the current 13). Applies a revised adjusted insured unemployment rate State trigger. Sets an additional TEUCA benefit period State trigger based on total unemployment rate.
United States · United States Congress · 26 September 2002
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from income and employment taxes and wage withholding a rebate of real or personal property taxes, or any other benefit, provided by a State or political subdivision on account of services performed as a member of a qualified volunteer emergency response organization.
United States · United States Congress · 25 September 2002
Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act - Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require food that is not a raw agricultural commodity, and that is, or intentionally bears or contains, a major food allergen, to state that information on its label by January 1, 2006. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to give priority to increasing the number of inspections under the Act to ensure that foods comply with practices to reduce or eliminate cross-contact with major food allergen residues and to ensure that major food allergens are properly labeled on foods. Requires the Secretary, through the National Institutes of Health, to convene a panel of nationally recognized experts to review basic and clinical research efforts related to food allergies and to develop a plan for expanding, intensifying, and coordinating such research. Directs the Secretary, in the Conference for Food Protection, as part of its cooperative activities between the States under the Public Health Service Act, to pursue certain revisions of the Food Code to provide guidelines for preparing allergen-free foods in food establishments. Requires the Secretary to include assistance relating to the use of different modes of treatment for and prevention of allergic responses to foods when providing technical assistance relating to trauma care and emergency medical services under the Public Health Service Act.
United States · United States Congress · 24 September 2002
Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2002 - Amends the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct research on the national incidence of child abuse and neglect. Permits the Secretary to award grants to States and public and private agencies and organizations for various programs to improve training for child protection services (CPS) and other child and family service workers. Directs the Secretary to make grants to States for child abuse and neglect prevention and treatment programs. Reauthorizes various grant programs. Permits the Secretary to extend national domestic violence hotline grants for grantees that submit a report evaluating the effectiveness of the program. Requires the Secretary to award a grant to a nonprofit organization to establish and operate a confidential Internet website to link domestic violence shelters and service providers and the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Establishes the Children Exposed to Domestic Violence Program, which shall provide grants to shelters and other domestic violence service providers to run programs that address the needs of children with mothers who are abused. Permits the Secretary to award grants to, or enter into contracts with, States, local government, and adoption and child welfare programs to help eliminate barriers to placing children for adoption across jurisdictional boundaries. Amends the Abandoned Infants Assistance Act of 1988 to prohibit the Secretary from making grants to public and nonprofit entities regarding abandonment of infants and young children in hospitals unless priority is given by the grantee to children who: (1) have been perinatally exposed to HIV or who have a life-threatening illness; (2) have another special medical need; or (3) have been exposed perinatally to a dangerous drug.
United States · United States Congress · 24 September 2002
Designates the Department of Veterans Affairs outpatient clinic in New London, Connecticut, as the John J. McGuirk Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic.
United States · United States Congress · 23 September 2002
Recognizes and commends Mary Baker Eddy for her outstanding achievements and contributions, particularly her contributions to the advancement of women's rights as a public figure and role model in the early stages of the women's rights movement, and the Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity, which will open to the public on September 29, 2002.
United States · United States Congress · 20 September 2002
Designates the month of October 2002 as Family History Month.
United States · United States Congress · 20 September 2002
Authorizes the Sergeant at Arms and Doorkeeper of the Senate: (1) to prescribe, consider, and ascertain any claim filed by December 31, 2002, incident to service by a Member, officer, or employee of the Senate for any damage to, or loss of, personal property, for which such individual has not been reimbursed, resulting from the anthrax incident of October 15, 2001, or the related remediation efforts undertaken through March 15, 2002; and (2) with the approval of the Committee on Rules and Administration and in accordance with Federal law with respect to claims against the Federal Government, determine, compromise, adjust, and settle such claim in an amount not exceeding $4,000 per claimant.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 2002
Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities Prevention Act of 2002 - Amends Public Health Service Act provisions concerning the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities to add disabilities and health to categories of data with regard to which the Secretary of Heath and Human Services is directed to collect, analyze, and make available. Requires the Secretary to conduct research on and promote the prevention of birth defects and disabilities and to support a National Spina Bifida Program to prevent and reduce suffering from the nation's most common permanently disabling birth defect. Removes certain provisions regarding data collection, including one requiring the Secretary to collect and analyze data by gender and ethnic and racial group. Modifies reporting requirements. Declares that certain data and information collected under the Act shall be subject to a specified provision of the General Education Provisions Act pertaining to privacy. Requires that the members of the advisory committee appointed by the Director of the National Center for Environmental Health that have expertise in birth defects, developmental disabilities, and disabilities and health shall be transferred to the National Center on Birth Defects on the date of the enactment of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 2002
Aeronautics Research and Development Revitalization Act of 2002 - Directs the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Administrator to develop technologies that would: (1) significantly reduce aircraft noise, harmful emissions, and fuel consumption; (2) make certain performance improvements to existing rotorcraft; and (3) enable overland flight of supersonic civil transport aircraft with certain performance characteristics. Directs the NASA Administrator to provide specified congressional committees a plan for the implementation of such initiatives. Directs the NASA Administrator to establish NASA aeronautics scholarships for U.S. citizens enrolled in accredited Masters degree programs in aeronautical engineering at institutions of higher education. Directs the Administrators of NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to participate in a national initiative to define and develop an air traffic management system that meets national long-term aviation security, safety, and capacity needs. Sets forth certain things that the system shall do, including that it ensure seamless global operations for system users. Provides for grants from the FAA Administrator for university-based Centers for Research on Aviation Training. Authorizes appropriations for certain FAA research and development projects and activities. Requires certain aviation-related studies and assessments.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 2002
Recognizes the 100th anniversary of the 4-H Youth Development Program, and commends such program for service to the youth of the world. Designates October 6, 2002, through October 12, 2002, as National 4-H Youth Development Program Week.
United States · United States Congress · 18 September 2002
Quality of Care for Individuals With Cancer Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to grant a contract to a national voluntary consensus organization, whereby the organization shall agree to identify core sets of quality of cancer care measures in consultation with a panel or an advisory group of interested parties. Expands the national program of State cancer registries funded under the Act. Directs the Secretary to establish a Cancer Surveillance System to monitor such registries, and reauthorizes the national program through 2008. Modifies provision dealing with matching funds to require States pay at least one dollar for every five (currently, three) Federal dollars spent on a cancer registry. Requires the Secretary to develop partnerships to speed the pace of improvements in the quality of cancer care. Directs the Secretary to establish a National Comprehensive Cancer Control Program to improve the quality of cancer care. Requires the Secretary to award grants to entities to develop, implement, and evaluate: (1) cancer case management programs; (2) model programs for the delivery of palliative care for cancer sufferers; and (3) end-of-life care programs. Directs the Secretary to conduct and support research regarding cancer survivorship. Requires the Secretary to make grants to support cancer curriculum development for health care provider training. Requires National Cancer Institute cancer control programs to include a plan to assist health professionals in professions facing the most severe shortages. Requires the Director of the National Cancer Institute to cooperate with, and make grants to, public or nonprofit entities to conduct multidisciplinary translational cancer research.
United States · United States Congress · 12 September 2002
Designates the month of September 2002 as National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Declares that the Federal Government has a responsibility to: (1) raise awareness about the importance of screening methods and treatment of prostate cancer; (2) increase research funding that is commensurate with the burden of the disease so that the causes of, and improved methods for screening, treating, and curing prostate cancer may be discovered; and (3) continue to consider ways for improving access to, and the quality of, health care services for detecting and treating prostate cancer.
United States · United States Congress · 12 September 2002
Designates October 18, 2002, as National Mammography Day.
United States · United States Congress · 10 September 2002
Emergency Communications and Competition Act of 2002 - Directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to assign licenses in the 12.2 -12.7 gigahertz band for the provision of fixed terrestrial communications services. Prohibits: (1) granting such a license if operations would interfere with direct broadcast satellite service; or (2) such licenses from being used for the provision of personal communications or terrestrial telephony service. Requires licensees to begin providing services within five years after the license is granted. Requires each licensee to: (1) disseminate Federal, State, and local Emergency Alert System warnings to all subscribers; (2) provide immediate access of its services for national security and emergency preparedness personnel; and (3) adhere to all FCC-established access requirements, including the carriage of local television station signals, access for political candidates, and public interest programming and services. Directs the FCC to: (1) establish boundaries for license recipients that conform to existing television markets; and (2) redesignate the Multichannel Video Distribution and Data Service as the Terrestrial Direct Broadcast Service.
United States · United States Congress · 9 September 2002
Expresses the sense of Congress that the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Director of the National Institutes of Health, should conduct or support research on the effectiveness of medical screening techniques for ovarian cancer, including the use of proteomic patterns in blood serum in combination with other techniques. Requires a report to Congress and the inclusion of such technique in Federal health care programs and group and individual health plans if it proves effective.
United States · United States Congress · 5 September 2002
Student Bill of Rights - Directs the Secretary of Education to make annual determinations as to whether each State's public school system (system) provides all its students with educational resources to succeed academically and in life. Requires such education to enable students to: (1) acquire knowledge and skills necessary for responsible citizenship; (2) meet challenging academic achievement standards; and (3) compete and succeed in a global economy. Requires each system to do so through: (1) providing specified fundamentals of educational opportunity to students at each public elementary and secondary school; (2) providing educational services in school districts that receive funds for disadvantaged students that are, taken as a whole, at least comparable to educational services provided in school districts not receiving such funds; and (3) complying with any final Federal or State court order in any matter concerning the adequacy or equitableness of the system. Requires withholding of specified portions of its Federal funding for administrative expenses if a system: (1) fails to meet a yearly interim goal; (2) does not remedy, after two school years, a failure to provide comparable educational services to schools that receive funds for disadvantaged children; or (3) does not comply with a court order. Allows students or parents aggrieved by violations of this Act to bring civil actions for enforcement in Federal district courts.
United States · United States Congress · 5 September 2002
Designates November 2002, as National Epilepsy Awareness Month.
United States · United States Congress · 3 September 2002
National AMBER Alert Network Act of 2002 - Requires the Attorney General to assign an AMBER Alert Coordinator of the Department of Justice to act as the national coordinator of the AMBER Alert communications network regarding abducted children. Requires the coordinator to: (1) seek to eliminate gaps in the network; (2) work with States to encourage the development of additional network elements and to ensure regional coordination; and (3) act as the nationwide point of contact for network development and for regional coordination of alerts on abducted children through the network. Directs the Coordinator to: (1) notify and consult with the Federal Bureau of Investigation concerning each child abduction for which an AMBER Alert is issued; and (2) establish minimum standards for the issuance of alerts and for the extent of their dissemination (limited to the geographic areas most likely to facilitate the recovery of the abducted child). Requires the Secretary of Transportation to provide grants to States for the development or enhancement of notification or communications systems along highways for alerts and other information for the recovery of abducted children. Includes among permissible activities the development or enhancement of electronic message boards, and the placement of additional signage, along highways. Directs the Attorney General to provide grants to States for the development or enhancement of programs and activities for the support of AMBER Alert communications plans.
United States · United States Congress · 1 August 2002
Economic Security Act 2002 - Amends the Temporary Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 2002 (Public Law 107-147) (TEUCA) to: (1) establish a program of temporary enhanced unemployment compensation benefits; (2) require States to modify their compensation laws to include recently earned wages in base periods, allow compensation for those seeking part-time work, and increase benefits levels by the greater of 15 percent or $25 a week; (3) reimburse States for administrative expenses; (4) extend the TEUCA program; (5) entitle individuals to 26 weeks of TEUCA compensation; (6) apply a revised rate of insured unemployment; (7) set an additional TEUCA benefit period trigger; (8) provide an additional seven weeks of benefits for workers in high unemployment States; (9) repeal a requirement for 20 weeks of work; (10) provide that individual is not ineligible for emergency compensation because of a subsequent entitlement to regular benefits for which the individual does not file; and (11) provide an additional extension of TEUCA assistance. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide for no reduction in unemployment compensation as a result of pension rollovers. Amends the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970 (FSEUCA) to: (1) repeal certain State law extended benefit requirements; (2) revise the definition of rate of insured unemployment; (3) entitle individuals to 13 weeks of unemployment compensation; (4) lower the extended benefit on-indicator; and (5) require a study and report on unemployment insurance benefits provided to individuals who have received assistance under the temporary assistance for needy families program.
United States · United States Congress · 1 August 2002
Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2002 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through the Associate Administrator of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration, to award grants for newborn screening education and training, including followup.
United States · United States Congress · 1 August 2002
Building Secure and Healthy Families Act of 2002 - Amends part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act to revise the TANF program, with changes: (1) replacing grants for States to reward a decrease in illegitimacy with grants to States to promote and support secure families; (2) adding nondiscrimination requirements pertaining to marital status and family structure and participation in activities or services funded under the new grant; (3) authorizing a State to assist a teenage parent who does not attend high school or another equivalent training program to come into compliance with TANF work and education requirements, and deeming teenage heads of household who maintain satisfactory school attendance to meet work participation requirements; (5) requiring certain certifications regarding domestic or sexual violence in State TANF plans, and prohibiting a State from penalizing an individual for TANF requirement noncompliance where domestic or sexual violence is a significant contributing factor in the noncompliance; (6) deeming a TANF recipient who provides appropriate care to a child or other relative who has a serious health condition or a disability as engaged in work for work participation rate purposes; and (7) eliminating the termination of TANF assistance for an entire family where an individual in the family has refused to engage in required work.
United States · United States Congress · 30 July 2002
Improved Nutrition and Physical Activity Act (IMPACT Act) - Amends the Public Health Service Act to address issues of overweight and obesity. Expands certain existing grant programs for health professional training to include the treatment of overweight and obesity. Creates grant programs at the local level to promote increased physical activity and improved nutrition. Targets partnerships with businesses, schools, senior centers, day care facilities and other institutions. Includes tax and other incentives among covered activities. Expands an existing coordinated school health program to include grants for the development of programs which focus on healthy lifestyle, including balanced diet and physical activity. Authorizes the collection and analysis of data concerning the fitness levels of children and youth. Requires a study of the food and nutrition assistance programs run by the Department of Agriculture to determine how they can be improved or altered to help prevent obesity and overweight. Requires an evidence report (study) on the effectiveness of weight reduction programs. Permits the use of preventive health and health services block grants for community education programs which promote healthy eating and exercise habits. Creates a Medicare demonstration project to reduce obesity and other chronic disease risks in older Americans. Makes grants available to local healthcare delivery systems for overweight and obesity treatment and prevention demonstration programs. Requires a report on research into the causes and health implications of obesity and being overweight. Makes grants available for a national campaign to change children's health behaviors. Establishes the private, nonprofit National Nutrition Foundation for the Department of Agriculture to carry out research and dissemination pertaining to the nutrition and food assistance programs in the Department.
United States · United States Congress · 22 July 2002
Amends the Federal Law Enforcement Pay Reform Act of 1990 to revise the special pay adjustments for (percentage differentials payable to) Federal law enforcement officers in specified consolidated metropolitan statistical areas.
United States · United States Congress · 18 July 2002
Access to High Quality Child Care Act - 2002 ACCESS Act - Amends the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act (CCDBGA) to extend the authorization of appropriations, and to revise or set forth provisions relating to: (1) lead agencies; (2) State plan requirements; (3) activities to improve the quality of child care; (4) increased reimbursement rates; (5) administration and enforcement; (6) data about families receiving subsidies; (7) child care research and data; (8) activities for infants, toddlers, and children in other special populations; (9) resource and referral services; and (10) funds for Indian tribes. Federal Employees Child Care Act - Directs the Administrator of General Services to: (1) establish health, safety, and facility standards and compliance requirements for child care in executive branch facilities; (2) issue regulations requiring a child care facility to comply with standards of a child care accreditation entity; and (3) establish an interagency council to facilitate cooperation and sharing of best practices. Prescribes accreditation requirements for child care services in the House of Representatives, the Library of Congress, the Senate, and the U.S. Courts. Revises the criteria for children permitted child care and related services in Federal buildings, extending eligibility to children of Federal employees or on-site Federal contractors, or dependent children who live with such employees or contractors. Authorizes agreements, where necessary, with non-Federal, licensed, and accredited child care facilities, or planned facilities that will become licensed and accredited. Permits a Federal agency to conduct a pilot project to test innovative approaches to providing more cost-effective alternative forms of child care assistance for Federal employees. Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to award competitive grants to assist eligible intermediaries to provide technical and financial assistance to eligible recipients to pay the Federal matching share of costs of acquisition, construction, or improvement of center-based or home-based child care facilities or equipment, or for the improvement of related management and business practices. Book Stamp Act - Directs the Secretary of HHS to establish a grant program (based on certain State allocations under CCDBGA) to promote child literacy and improve children's access to books at home and in early learning and other child care programs, by making books available through such programs. Early Care and Education Act - Directs the Secretaries of Education and of HHS to: (1) allot incentive grants to States to develop or enhance high-quality systems of early child care and early education; (2) award bonus grants to States for demonstrated improvement in such care and education; and (3) establish an information clearinghouse.
United States · United States Congress · 17 July 2002
Highlands Stewardship Act of 2002 - Directs the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to establish the Highlands Stewardship Area in the Highlands region (an area encompassing nearly 2,000,000 acres extending from eastern Pennsylvania through New Jersey and New York to northwestern Connecticut). Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to establish: (1) within the Department of Agriculture the Office of Highlands Stewardship to implement the strategies of the Highlands Regional Study conducted by the Forest Service in 1990 (study) and the New York-New Jersey Highlands Regional Assessment Update conducted by the Service in 2001 (update); and (2) the Highlands Stewardship Area Work Group to assist with such implementation and to advise the Office and the Secretaries on priorities for projects carried out with assistance under this Act, on land conservation partnership projects, on Highlands region research, and on policy and educational initiatives necessary to implement study and update findings. Authorizes the Office to provide financial and technical assistance to an eligible entity to carry out a project to protect, restore, preserve, promote, or interpret Area resources. Directs the Secretary of the Interior to annually designate land conservation partnership projects that are eligible to receive financial assistance under this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 17 July 2002
Honors the invention of modern air conditioning by Dr. Willis H. Carrier on the occasion of its 100th anniversary.
United States · United States Congress · 11 July 2002
Housing Voucher Improvement Act of 2002 - Amends the United States Housing Act of 1937 to establish a thrifty voucher component within the section 8 public housing program to assist public housing authorities (PHAs) increase housing availability for extremely low-income families. Permits PHAs to use unutilized section 8 funds, or reserve funds in cases of no such unutilized funds, to help families find housing. Establishes the Voucher Success Fund to assist certain PHAs with no unutilized funds. Authorizes PHAs to make limited increases in maximum rents. Directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to provide PHAs with lists of rental units in their metropolitan areas that were given low-income housing tax credits or were built under the HOME Investments Partnership Act. Authorizes the Secretary to reallocate chronically unutilized section 8 vouchers through designated metropolitan administrators. Permits families in project-based section 8 units to participate in specified self-sufficiency programs. Sets forth grant and income exclusion work incentives. Authorizes a welfare-to-work housing voucher program. Authorizes PHAs to: (1) begin rental payments before inspection under specified circumstances; and (2) use technical assistance funds and other means to establish electronic transfer systems for rental payments. .
United States · United States Congress · 27 June 2002
Amends rule XLII (employment practices) of the Standing Rules of the Senate to prohibit employment discrimination in the Senate based on sexual orientation.
United States · United States Congress · 27 June 2002
Designates the week of November 10-16, 2002, as National Veterans Awareness Week to emphasize educational programs for elementary and secondary school students regarding the contributions and sacrifices of veterans.
United States · United States Congress · 26 June 2002
Christen O'Donnell Equestrian Helmet Safety Act of 2002 - Mandates that equestrian helmets manufactured nine months or more after the date of the enactment of this Act shall conform to certain interim standards of safety, and, ultimately, to final standards promulgated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Instructs the CPSC to establish final standards for equestrian helmet safety that are based upon specified interim standards devised by the American Society for Testing and Materials, and that include: (1) protection against the risk of helmets coming off the heads of equestrian riders; and (2) provisions that address the risk of injury to children. States that failure to meet the interim equestrian helmet standard until the final standard takes effect shall be considered in violation of a consumer product safety standard promulgated under the Consumer Product Safety Act.
United States · United States Congress · 26 June 2002
Declares that the Senate strongly disapproves of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in Newdow v. U.S. Congress. Authorizes and instructs the Senate Legal Counsel to seek to intervene in the case to defend the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance.
United States · United States Congress · 26 June 2002
Declares that Congress: (1) condemns the use of torture and other forms of cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment in the United States and other countries; (2) recognizes the United Nations International Day in Support of the Victims of Torture and expresses support for all victims of torture who are struggling to overcome the physical scars and psychological effects of such practices; and (3) encourages training law enforcement personnel and others in the prevention of torture and other forms of cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment. Encourages the Secretary of State to seek the adoption of a commitment to: (1) treat confessions and other evidence obtained through torture or other forms of cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment, as inadmissible in any legal proceeding; and (2) prohibit, in law and in practice, incommunicado detention.
United States · United States Congress · 24 June 2002
Nurturing Special Kids Act of 2002 - Amends the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990 (CCDBGA) to require States to reserve certain funds for activities to improve the quality of child care for children with disabilities or other special needs (special children). Requires States that receive CCDBGA allotments in excess of a covered amount to reserve and use the excess to: (1) support child care programs that accept special children, provide higher reimbursements to providers who serve special children, and support training for providers in the care of special children; (2) fund consultations by professionals to improve providers' abilities to identify and care for special children; (3) provide a comprehensive system of ongoing training and technical assistance with respect to providers and others involved in care of special children; and (4) provide grants for recruitment and retention of qualified staff for care of special children.
United States · United States Congress · 21 June 2002
Peace Corps Charter for the 21st Century Act - Amends the Peace Corps Act to require all recruiting of volunteers to be undertaken solely by the Peace Corps. Conditions the President's authority to detail or assign Peace Corps volunteers to certain Federal and State agencies and other entities upon a determination that such a detail or assignment does not contradict the standing of such volunteers as being independent from foreign policy-making and intelligence collection. Requires the Director of the Peace Corps, before implementing any new initiative, to consult with the Peace Corps National Advisory Council and to report to Congress on: (1) the initiative's objectives and costs, and any impact it may have on existing programs and the safety of volunteers; (2) the status of security procedures in any country in which the Peace Corps operates programs or is considering doing so; (3) student loan forgiveness programs currently available to Peace Corps volunteers; and (4) initiatives the Peace Corps intends to pursue in order to solicit requests from eligible countries where the presence of volunteers would facilitate a greater understanding of the world and of diverse cultures and systems of government, including peoples from countries with substantial Muslim populations. Requires the Director to develop a training program for all Peace Corps volunteers in the education, prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases. Increases Peace Corps volunteer readjustment allowances to $275 a month. Establishes a program to award grants to private nonprofit corporations in the District of Columbia to serve as incubators for returned Peace Corps volunteers seeking to use their knowledge and expertise to undertake community-based projects.
United States · United States Congress · 20 June 2002
Opportunity Passport Act of 2002 - Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make grants to assist partnerships of public agencies or private nonprofit organizations in developing and implementing methods of providing financial security for youth in foster care and for youth aging out of foster care, including: (1) electronic opportunity passports, such as electronic cards or secure Internet databases containing vital information about medical records, legal identification, and school transcripts; (2) individual development accounts for educational, housing, medical, business, or automobile expenses; (3) debit accounts for short-term use to build credit histories and purchase essential items; and (4) youth leadership boards providing assistance to enable such youth to negotiate agreements, obtain expedited access to education and training programs, obtain pre-approval for student loans or other student financial assistance, and become entrepreneurs.