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United States · Official source
2,803 records where Sen. Heflin, Howell [D-AL] is listed as a sponsor, author, or other actor. Search with topics and years
United States · United States Congress · 3 February 1992
Designates June 11, 1992, as National Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors Day.
United States · United States Congress · 31 January 1992
Designates April 15, 1992, as National Recycling Day.
United States · United States Congress · 30 January 1992
Recognizes and commemorates the centennial of the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. Requests the President to issue a proclamation observing the centennial from January 1 through December 31, 1992.
United States · United States Congress · 28 January 1992
Designates March 8 through 14, 1992, as Deaf Awareness Week.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 1992
Designates September 13 through 19, 1992, as National Rehabilitation Week.
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 1992
Designates October 1992 as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
United States · United States Congress · 23 January 1992
Designates March 25, 1992, as Greek Independence Day: A National Day of Celebration of Greek and American Democracy.
United States · United States Congress · 21 January 1992
Designates February 6, 1992, as National Women and Girls in Sports Day.
United States · United States Congress · 27 November 1991
1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games Commemorative Coin Act - Provides for the minting and sale of commemorative gold and silver coins to support the 1996 Atlanta Centennial Olympic Games and the programs of the United States Olympic Committee.
United States · United States Congress · 26 November 1991
Repeals the Assault Weapon Manufacturing Strict Liability Act of 1990, signed by the Mayor of the District of Columbia. Restores or revives any provisions of law amended or repealed by it.
United States · United States Congress · 26 November 1991
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow certain business entities to elect to use a fiscal year for tax purposes other than the required taxable year. Modifies provisions concerning required payments for such entitites.
United States · United States Congress · 26 November 1991
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a limited deduction for personal interest of: (1) $6,000, for a taxpayer filing a joint return; (2) $3,000, for a married individual filing a separate return; and (3) $4,000, for any other taxpayer.
United States · United States Congress · 26 November 1991
Youth Apprenticeship Act of 1991 - Establishes an Institute for Youth Apprenticeship (the Institute) as an independent establishment to administer youth apprenticeship demonstration programs set up under this Act. Directs the Board Chairperson to establish guidelines, criteria, and procedures for youth apprenticeship demonstration programs, based on such report, including curriculum guidelines, criteria for demonstration program sites and for apprenticeship occupations, and competency criteria and certification procedures for apprentices and trainers. Directs the Institute Executive Director to enter into contracts with public and nonprofit private organizations to develop and evaluate youth apprenticeship demonstration programs. Requires each eligible entity entering into such a contract with the Board to establish partnerships among secondary and postsecondary schools and employers, labor organizations, and community and civic leaders to provide apprenticeship training to students. Requires at least one: (1) secondary school wage incentive demonstration program under which the Institute shall pay 50 percent of the apprenticeship wage; and (2) one secondary school disadvantaged youth demonstration program. Authorizes two postsecondary school demonstration programs (i.e. two contracts with partnerships for programs solely for postsecondary students). Makes such partnerships responsible for program and curriculum development, coordination and quality assurances, and assessment and evaluation of apprentices and training programs. Sets forth requirements for partnership training for various levels of secondary school students and for postsecondary students. Sets forth requirements for employers to pay: (1) 100 percent of the apprentice wage rate in secondary school programs (but 50 percent in the wage incentive program); (2) 100 percent of the apprentice wage rate and costs of continuing basic skills courses in postsecondary programs; and (3) costs of on-the-job training. States that employers shall not be required to hire apprentices upon completion of the apprenticeships. Directs the Institute to coordinate programs by: (1) providing technical assistance to partnerships; (2) operating an apprenticeship clearinghouse for the partnerships; (3) disseminating model programs and practices to the partnerships; (4) gathering input from all sources on proposals for the labor mobility of apprentices; (5) consult with the Office of Work-Based Learning of the Department of Labor and the Division of Vocational and Technical Education of the Department of Education; and (6) comply with specified evaluation and report requirements. Sets forth provisions relating to: (1) nondiscrimination; (2) notice, hearing, and grievance procedures; (3) nonduplication and nondisplacement; and (4) evaluation and reports. Authorizes appropriations. Abolishes the Board and Institute, terminates all programs established by this Act, and repeals this Act and the amendments it makes not later than 69 months after the initiation of the youth apprenticeship demonstration programs.
United States · United States Congress · 26 November 1991
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to reinstate the ten-percent investment tax credit with respect to property placed in service during 1992, 1993, or 1994, and make the at-risk rules inapplicable to such property. Requires the computation of the rehabilitation credit, energy credit, and reforestation credit as in effect on the day before enactment of this Act. Makes the investment tax credit applicable to certain projects entered into after December 31, 1994.
United States · United States Congress · 26 November 1991
Expresses the sense of the Congress regarding: (1) visionary art as a national treasure; and (2) the American Visionary Art Museum as a national repository and educational center for such art.
United States · United States Congress · 25 November 1991
Establishes a Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States' Democratic Party to coordinate ceremonial events and related activities during 1992. Requires the Commission to submit periodic reports and a final one to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro tempore of the Senate on its activities. Terminates the Commission on February 13, 1993, unless otherwise provided by law.
United States · United States Congress · 22 November 1991
Wetlands Simplification Act - Amends the Food Security Act of 1985 (FSA) to provide that: (1) a technical determination with respect to wetland or converted wetland on agricultural lands (including the identification of wetland and the development of a wetland restoration or mitigation plan) shall be used in the administration of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) (thus giving the Soil Conservation Service sole Federal responsibility for making such determination); and (2) any area of agricultural land or any activities related to the land determined to be exempt from the requirements of FSA shall also be exempt from FWPCA requirements as long as such lands are used as agricultural lands.
United States · United States Congress · 21 November 1991
Reforestation Tax Act of 1991 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide corporations a partial inflation adjustment for the deduction from gross income for qualified timber gain. Allows such deduction in computing adjusted gross income. Provides for applying passive loss limitations to timber activities. Increases the amount allowable as a deduction for amortization of reforestation expenditures and provides an inflation adjustment after calendar year 1992. Applies such inflation adjustment to the reforestation credit.
United States · United States Congress · 20 November 1991
Airline Consumer Protection and Competition Emergency Commission Act of 1991 - Establishes the Emergency Commission on Airline Consumer Protection and Competition to: (1) assess and report to the President and the Congress on the state of the airline industry, particularly the full implications of foreign ownership of U.S. carriers; and (2) recommend Government policies to improve the competitive environment, retard the flow of carrier bankruptcies and accompanying loss of jobs, assure continued ownership and control of U.S. carriers by U.S. citizens, promote adequate levels of competition and service with reasonable fares in all geographic areas of the Nation, and stabilize the work environment of airline industry employees.
United States · United States Congress · 20 November 1991
Expresses the sense of the Senate that any agreement regarding proposed changes to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) must: (1) achieve the elimination or reduction of foreign agricultural export subsidies; (2) achieve new and expanded foreign markets for U.S. farm products; (3) ensure European Community actions do not limit U.S. agricultural exports to it; (4) not limit the U.S. ability under the GATT to eliminate unfair trade barriers; and (5) achieve an agreement governing sanitary and phytosanitary regulations.
United States · United States Congress · 19 November 1991
Title I: Bankruptcy Review Commission - National Bankruptcy Review Commission Act - Establishes the National Bankruptcy Review Commission to investigate and report to the Congress, the Chief Justice, and the President on issues relating to business bankruptcies. Terminates the Commission after submission of such report. Authorizes appropriations. Title II: Commercial and Credit Matters - Amends Federal bankruptcy law to allow State pension funds and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to sit on creditor committees. Provides that filing of a petition in bankruptcy does not operate as an automatic stay of: (1) an audit by a governmental unit to determine tax liability; (2) the issuance to the debtor of a notice of tax deficiency; (3) of a demand for tax returns; (4) an assessment of an uncontested or agreed upon tax liability; of (5) withholding of income from a debtor's wages and collection of amounts withheld, pursuant to the debtor's authorization of such withholding and collection for the benefit of a pension or similar plan, to the extent the amounts withheld and collected are used solely as payments on a loan from such plan. Excludes from a debtor's estate any assets and benefits accumulated for the debtor's benefit under a pension or similar plan, as well as any rights of the debtor to such assets or benefits (thus resolving the "anti-alienation problem"). Deems perfected upon the filing of a petition in bankruptcy any cash collateral which is an interest in rents or leases, in real property, held by a creditor and duly recorded in the public records. Declares that a trustee in bankruptcy may not avoid a transfer: (1) if the transfer sought to be recovered to an insider is on account of goods or services sold and delivered to the debtor in the ordinary course of business; and (2) the transferee is deemed to be an insider solely because the transferee holds a guaranty of payment or performance from another insider of the debtor. Establishes the legal parameters under which a business debtor (or a party in interest) may elect to convert the case to bankruptcy proceedings customized to small businesses. Sets forth special temporary bankruptcy procedures for small businesses. Provides for three-year testing of such procedures in eight judicial districts. Codifies existing Federal law which authorizes a court to issue supplemental permanent injunctions barring claims against a reorganized debtor and redirecting such claims to a debtor-funded trust. Title III: Individual Debtors - Sets forth procedures by which regular income-earning debtors who go into straight bankruptcies under Chapter 7 may elect to go into Chapter 13 bankruptcies (thus having the opportunity to reorganize their debts and pay off their creditors over time). Requires that persons who file for bankruptcy be informed of the consequences of doing so. Requires final hearings on a petition for relief from the automatic stay to conclude within 60 days of the petition's filing, unless for good cause they cannot. Requires any hearing to reaffirm a debt to take place before the discharge being granted. Declares that a trustee's plan may not modify the claim of a person holding a primary or a junior security interest in real property or a manufactured home that is the debtor's principal residence. States that courts should begin making payouts under chapter 13 as soon as practicable. Sets forth additional conditions on the ability of a creditor to seek satisfaction of a debt from a codebtor on a debt stayed under chapter 13. Subrogates such codebtor's rights if the creditor's relief is granted. Title IV: Miscellaneous - Extends from October 1, 1993, until October 1, 1995, the bankruptcy provisions applicable to the debt adjustment of a family farmer with regular annual income. Provides various update modifications. Directs the Judicial Conference of the United States to report to the Congress on efforts to automate and computerize the bankruptcy courts and provide necessary information about the bankruptcy system. Title V: Technical Corrections - Sets forth technical corrections to affected legislation.
United States · United States Congress · 19 November 1991
Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Act of 1991 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to establish the Coal Industry Retiree Health Benefit Corporation to administer a program for the provision of retiree health benefits in the coal industry. Establishes the Coal Industry Retiree Benefit Fund for the deposit of all amounts received by the Corporation. Requires the following payments to the Corporation: (1) an hourly premium on each hour worked in coal production by employees by each person that produces coal for use or for sale; (2) a per-ton premium obligation on the importer of coal; and (3) an annual per beneficiary premium by each last signatory operator and each other employer. Sets forth the eligibility requirements for benefits for orphan miners, and spouses and dependents or orphan miners or deceased coal miners. Requires the Corporation to provide medical and death benefits to such persons. Directs the Corporation to develop managed care rules applicable to the payment of benefits. Establishes the United Mine Workers of America 1991 Benefit Fund as an employee welfare benefit plan consisting of the merger of excess assets from certain closed plans. Sets forth eligibility requirements for benefits from such Fund. Requires the last signatory operator of any individual receiving retiree health care benefits as of February 1, 1993 from an individual employer plan maintained pursuant to a coal wage agreement to provide retiree health care benefits to such individual. Provides for the determination and disposition of excess pension assets to the Corporation or the 1991 Benefit Fund.
United States · United States Congress · 19 November 1991
Designates the week beginning April 12, 1992, as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.
United States · United States Congress · 14 November 1991
National Child Protection Act of 1991 - Establishes a national criminal background check system to which a designated agency in each State is required to report child abuse crime information, for purposes of background checks of child care providers. Directs the Attorney General to establish: (1) guidelines for the reporting of such information; and (2) timetables for each State to report such information to such system (with a three-year deadline for all States to be reporting at a specified level of currency). Requires State agencies to maintain close liason for information exchange and technical assistance in cases of child abuse with the National Centers: (1) on Child Abuse and Neglect; (2) for Missing and Exploited Children; and (3) for the Prosecution of Child Abuse. Directs the Attorney General to publish annually: (1) a Statistical summary of the child abuse crime information reported under this Act; and (2) a summary of each State's progress in reporting child abuse crime information to the national criminal background check system. Requires the Administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to conduct a study to determine various factors relating to potential child abuse crimes and offenders, based on a statistically significant sample of convicted child abuse offenders and other relevant information. Requires a report on such study to be submitted to specified congressional committee officials. Provides for background check procedures. Allows entities that provide child care or child care placement services (including business or organizations that license or certify others to provide such services) to request State agencies to review State and Federal records through the national system, and other criminal justice recordkeeping systems, to determine if a child care provider is under indictment for, or has been convicted of, a background check crime. (Defines "provider" as one who is now or seeks to be: (1) employed by, or a volunteer with, a qualified entity; (2) an owner or operator of a qualified entity; or (3) having unsupervised access to any child to whom the qualified entity provides child care.) Directs the Attorney General to establish guidelines for such State background check procedures, permitting equivalent procedures under specified conditions. Authorizes the Attorney General to: (1) exchange Federal Bureau of Investigation identification records with authorized agencies for purposes of such background checks; and (2) authorize by regulation further dissemination of such records by authorized agencies for such purposes. Directs the Attorney General to: (1) prescribe by regulation any other measures necessary to carry out this Act; and (2) encourage use of the best technology available in conducting background checks. Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to provide for use of certain formula grants to improve State record systems and the sharing of records of child abuse crime information to implement this Act. Directs the Attorney General to make additional grants to States to improve specified aspects of the child abuse crime information system, subject to appropriations and with preference to States having the lowest percent currency of case dispositions in computerized criminal history files. Authorizes appropriations for such additional grants. Authorizes the Attorney General, beginning one year after enactment of this Act, to reduce by up to ten percent the allocation to a State for a fiscal year under title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 if the State is not in compliance with the child abuse crime information timetable established for it under this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 14 November 1991
Designates the month of May 1992 as National Foster Care Month.
United States · United States Congress · 13 November 1991
Authorizes the U.S. Postal Service to issue and sell a postage stamp to honor the Women's Army Corps and to commemorate the date it officially became a part of the U.S. Army.
United States · United States Congress · 7 November 1991
Enterprise Capital Formation Act of 1991 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a deduction for gain on investments in new small business stock (seed capital) held for at least five years. Establishes special rules for such investments. Provides for determining the maximum capital gains rate for small business net capital gain or seed capital gain. Treats capital gains on the sale of such stock as a preference item for purposes of the minimum tax.
United States · United States Congress · 6 November 1991
Designates January 4 through 10, 1992, as Braille Literacy Week.
United States · United States Congress · 6 November 1991
Designates February 3 through 9, 1992, as National Police Officer and Firefighter Recognition Week.
United States · United States Congress · 31 October 1991
Designates March 1992 as Irish-American Heritage Month.
United States · United States Congress · 29 October 1991
Medicaid Moratorium Amendments of 1991 - Amends the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenues Act of 1988 to: (1) delay until September 30, 1992, the issuance of regulations changing the treatment under the Medicaid program (title XIX of the Social Security Act) of voluntary contributions and provider-specific taxes; and (2) maintain current regulations that allow intergovernmental transfers as a source of a State's expenditures for which Federal matching funds are available under the Medicaid program. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit to specified congressional committees a report on: (1) regulations to limit the use of voluntary contributions and provider-specific taxes to obtain Federal financial participation; (2) specific types of voluntary contributions and provider-specific taxes that may be used as sources of a State's expenditures for which Federal financial participation is available; and (3) any legislation that the Secretary believes is appropriate. Sets forth budget compliance provisions.
United States · United States Congress · 29 October 1991
ESOP Promotion Act of 1991 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow S corporations (certain small business corporations) to participate in employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).
United States · United States Congress · 28 October 1991
Directs the Secretaries of Health and Human Services and Agriculture to jointly report to the President and the Congress on the differences in program rules under the food stamp program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (part A of title IV of the Social Security Act), and Medicaid program (title XIX of the Social Security Act) and how such rules could be made uniform.
United States · United States Congress · 24 October 1991
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that: (1) it should be U.S. policy to pursue discussions regarding Syria and terrorism at the Middle East peace conference in Madrid, Spain, in October and November of 1991; and (2) Syria should renounce all forms of terrorism, cease all support of terrorism, and close all terrorist training bases on Syrian territory and Syrian-controlled Lebanese territory.
United States · United States Congress · 22 October 1991
Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to change the period for the U.S. Trade Representative to identify trade liberalization priorities to no later than September 30 of each of the calendar years 1992 through 1997. Sets forth the procedure for a congressional committee to file a petition with the Trade Representative to investigate barriers and market distorting practices of a foreign country.
United States · United States Congress · 22 October 1991
Designates 1992 as The Year of the American Indian.
United States · United States Congress · 17 October 1991
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the United States should continue to support the full protection of the African elephant through an unqualified listing of all populations of the African elephant on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna.
United States · United States Congress · 8 October 1991
Amends the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act to provide temporary extended railroad unemployment insurance benefits, to railroad employees who have less than ten years of service, for periods of high national unemployment of six percent or greater. Provides for such extended benefits for up to 13 weeks, through July 4, 1992. Sets forth transition and reachback provisions.
United States · United States Congress · 8 October 1991
Designates May 16 through 22, 1992, as National Awareness Week for Life-Saving Techniques.
United States · United States Congress · 4 October 1991
Medicare Physician Payment Reform Implementation Act of 1991 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to: (1) direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to increase the conversion factor for physicians' services for each of the years after 1993 through 1996 by one-fourth of the percentage by which the conversion factor may have been decreased due to an adjustment for asymmetry in 1992; (2) prohibit the Secretary, in determining the conversion factor for 1992, from assuming that changes in the volume and intensity of physician services in response to the implementation of the new payment system for such services would increase the estimated aggregate physician expenditures by more than one percent; (3) make any reduction to the conversion factor due to assumed volume and intensity changes equally applicable to the adjusted historical payment base; (4) permit separate payment to physicians for interpretation of electrocardiograms (EKGs) provided during office vists; (5) direct the Secretary to: (a) establish separate fee schedule amounts for the interpretation of EKGs; (b) adjust the relative values in the fee schedule for physician visits to reflect separate payments for EKG interpretation; (c) establish EKG practice guidelines for dissemination to physicians along with other educational information relating to EKG use; (d) develop a profile for EKG use by physicians; and (e) study EKG utilization and costs for a report to the Congress; and (6) make the new payment system for physicians nonapplicable to services furnished on or after January 1, 1992, by a physician who was in his or her first, second, or third year of practice in 1991 and to whom the payment rules under the new system did not apply in that year. Prohibits the Secretary from issuing final regulations before July 1, 1993, which change the methodology for determining: (1) the amount of time that may be billed for anesthesia services; and (2) the amount paid for drugs and biologicals furnished incident to physicians' services. Requires the Director of the Office of Technology Assessment to conduct a study and report to the Congress on whether payments for anesthesia services should be based on a particular unit of time according to the medical procedure with respect to which the service is furnished. Requires the Secretary to: (1) conduct a study and report to the Congress with respect to payment for drugs and biologicals furnished incident to physicians' services and payment for multiple surgical procedures; and (2) provide for pilot projects for developing Medicare volume performance standards other than at the national level. Authorizes appropriations to carry out the pilot projects.
United States · United States Congress · 3 October 1991
Designates March 12, 1992, as Girl Scouts of the United States of America 80th Anniversary Day.
United States · United States Congress · 1 October 1991
Designates December 1 through 7, 1991, and November 29 through December 5, 1992, as National Adoption Week.
United States · United States Congress · 1 October 1991
Designates October 15, 1991, as Up With People Day.
United States · United States Congress · 30 September 1991
Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to design and strike a silver commemorative medal for members of the U.S. armed forces who serve in a combat zone in connection with the Persian Gulf conflict.
United States · United States Congress · 24 September 1991
Designates October 1991 as Crime Prevention Month.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 1991
Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Commemorative Coin and Scholarship Endowment Act of 1991 - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue not more than a specified number of five-dollar gold coins, one-dollar silver coins, and half-dollar clad coins emblematic of the quincentenary of Columbus' encounter with the New World. Sets forth certain features of such coins and provides for their design, issuance, and sale. Terminates the minting of such coins after a certain deadline. Establishes the Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Scholarship Foundation as an independent entity within the executive branch to promote educational activities for secondary students using funds deposited in the Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Scholarship Endowment Fund (the Fund). Requires the Board of Directors of the Foundation to appoint an Executive Secretary who shall be subject to its supervision. Outlines the Fund's operating parameters. Sets forth scholarship criteria for eligible students to be known as "Columbus Scholars." Mandates that the Foundation submit an annual status report to the Congress and the Secretary of Education. Sets forth guidelines for possible termination of the Fund and the Foundation.
United States · United States Congress · 18 September 1991
Designates December 4, 1991, as Hawaii Remembrance Day, to recognize contributions provided by Federal civilian employees during the attack on Pearl Harbor and during World War II.
United States · United States Congress · 18 September 1991
Declares that the President should award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Martha Raye in honor of her service in the form of entertainment and nursing care to members of the U.S. armed forces.
United States · United States Congress · 16 September 1991
Glass Ceiling Act of 1991 - Establishes the Glass Ceiling Commission to conduct a study and prepare recommendations concerning: (1) eliminating artificial barriers to the advancement of women and minorities; and (2) increasing opportunities and developmental experiences of women and minorities to foster advancement of women and minorities to management and decisionmaking positions in business. Establishes the National Award for Diversity and Excellence in American Executive Management. Allows a recipient business to use the award in its advertising if the business agrees to help other U.S. businesses improve with respect to the promotion of opportunities and developmental experiences of women and minorities regarding management and decisionmaking positions. Authorizes appropriations. Terminates the Commission and the authority to make awards four years after enactment of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 16 September 1991
Gulf of Mexico Preservation Act of 1991 - Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a Gulf of Mexico Program. Establishes within EPA a Gulf of Mexico program office (Office), to be headed by a Director appointed by the Administrator. Sets forth the duties of the Director, including collecting and making available information concerning the environmental quality of the Gulf and assisting the Administrator: (1) in coordinating Office activities with coastal and marine resources-related activities of any Federal, State, or local departments, institution of higher education, or private industry with a significant interest in coastal and marine resources; (2) by developing a comprehensive conservation and management plan (Plan) for the Gulf; and (3) in awarding grants. Lists duties of the Administrator, including overseeing the activities of the Director, conducting periodic reviews and evaluations of Program activities, and overseeing the development and implementation of cooperative programs with Federal, State, and local departments. Requires the Director to: (1) conduct a research project to determine the changes in the quality of the environment of living resources of the Gulf resulting from human activity and the changes attributable to other causes; and (2) give special attention, in carrying out such project, to changes in wildlife, shellfish, and key fish populations and assess any interrelated changes to the quality of the living resources of the Gulf. Specifies that such project shall include: (1) an assessment of the impact on the environment of such living resources of pollutants, nutrient loading, acid precipitation and deposition, the dumping of medical and plastic wastes, coastal beach erosion, and habitat degradation; (2) the use of measurements of dissolved oxygen as a determinant of water quality; (3) an assessment of the type and degree of bacterial infection in key fish species of the Gulf; and (4) an assessment of oil spill response activites in the Gulf. Directs the Administrator to conduct a study of regional environmental problems in the Gulf that are not confined to the jurisdiction of any Federal, State, or foreign entity. Authorizes the Administrator, upon completion of such study, to suggest entering into a cooperative agreement with, or participating in, a joint commission with the Mexican Government and any other appropriate foreign country to address such problems. Bars any such agreement from entering into force or such commission from convening prior to the date of issuance of the Plan. Requires the Administrator to develop and implement the Plan, which shall: (1) outline specific activities to be conducted under the Program by the Administrator; (2) provide for cooperative activities under the Program with Federal, State, and local agencies and with institutions of higher education and private industries with a significant interest in coastal and marine resources; and (3) set forth recommendations for actions by States to abate pollution in the Gulf or to otherwise improve environmental quality with respect to the living resources of the Gulf. Directs the Administrator to establish a program to award grants to assist States in implementing such recommendations. Authorizes appropriations. Earmarks 70 percent of appropriated funds for the grant program. Specifies that, in any budget proposal submitted by the Administrator for inclusion in the President's annual budget submitted to the Congress, the Administrator shall request that funding of the office be included as a separate line item.