United States · United States Congress · 23 June 1986
White House Conference on Small Business Authorization Act - Calls upon the President to conduct a National White House Conference on Small Business once every four years to: (1) increase public awareness of the contributions of small business; (2) identify small business problems; (3) examine the status of minority and women small business owners; (4) assist small business in carrying out its role as the nation's job creator; (5) develop specific recommendations for executive and legislative action; and (6) review the status of recommendations adopted at the Conferences. Authorizes and directs Federal departments, agencies, and instrumentalities to provide support and assistance to the planning of such Conferences. Requires a final report of the Conference, within six months from the date a Conference is convened, to be submitted to the President and the Congress. Requires the Small Business Administration to report annually to the Congress for the next three years following the submission of the final report of the Conference. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 23 June 1986
Establishes the position of Under Secretay of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere in the Department of Commerce. Provides that the Under Secretary shall serve as the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Establishes the position of Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere in the Department of Commerce. Provides that the Assistant Secretary shall serve as the Deputy Administrator of NOAA. Establishes the position of Chief Scientist in NOAA. Requires that the Under Secretary, the Assistant Secretary, and the Chief Scientist be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.
United States · United States Congress · 18 June 1986
Declares that the United States: (1) reaffirms its support for the struggle of the Afghan people; and (2) welcomes the Islamic Unity of Afghan Mujahideen delegation led by its spokesman Burhanuddin Rabbani to the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 10 June 1986
Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to acquire specified lands or land interests in South Carolina for facilities, including a tourboat dock and a museum, associated with the Fort Sumter National Monument. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 10 June 1986
Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act - Requires States to provide by law for elections for Federal office: (1) absentee registration and absentee voting for uniformed services voters and overseas voters; and (2) the use of alternative write-in absentee ballots by overseas voters when State absentee ballots are not available. Directs the President to designate the head of an executive department to have primary responsibility for the administrative functions of this Act, including: (1) prescribing an official postcard form containing a voter registration and an absentee ballot application; (2) prescribing an alternative write-in ballot for overseas voters; (3) prescribing forms and designs for balloting materials; (4) distributing election materials; (5) reporting to the Congress in the year immediately following a presidential election year on its effectiveness; and (6) consulting State and local election officials in carrying out this Act. Provides for the distribution of official postcards. Sets forth recommendations to the States in carrying out provisions of this Act. Provides for Federal and State write-in absentee ballots for overseas voters. Declares balloting materials under this Act free of postage. Establishes criminal and civil penalties for violations of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 5 June 1986
Recognizes and supports the historic and educational purposes to be served by the museum and study center in Normandy, France, and the efforts of the U.S. Committee for the Battle of Normandy Museum to encourage understanding of and support among Americans for such memorial.
United States · United States Congress · 4 June 1986
Food Safety Modernization Act of 1986 - Title I: Amendments to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act - Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to define "safe," as applied to food additives, color additives, pesticide residues, and other specified substances, to mean a reasonable certainty that the risks of a substance under the intended conditions of use are negligible. Authorizes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to permit, under specified conditions, the gradual elimination or phase-out of substances from the food supply if the FDA determines that there will be no unreasonable risk to the public health from continued use of a substance while it is phased out and there is no practicable substitute. Permits an extension for up to an additional five years. Provides that certain cancer-causing substances shall not be banned (and may be approved) if the proponent of use demonstrates on the basis of credible experimental evidence that the risks to humans under the intended conditions of use are negligible. Authorizes the FDA to consider the benefits to human health from a long-used additive with no practicable substitute before prohibiting its use on the basis of risks to human health. Permits continued use of an additive if the risks to human health are acceptable on account of the benefits to human health, such as the effects of its use on the nutritional value and availability of food and uses for dietary management and other health-related purposes. Directs the FDA to establish an independent scientific peer review committee to study and give advice on substantial scientific issues related to food safety. Requires the FDA, within two years of enactment of this Act, to establish by regulations standards to determine under what circumstances the use of a substance in a food contact situation (i.e., an indirect additive) meets the food additive definition of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Directs the FDA, in issuing regulations, to consider the extent of human exposure to a substance under its intended conditions of use and the toxicological characteristics of the substance. Title II: Amendments to the Poultry Products Inspection Act, the Federal Meat Inspection Act, and the Egg Products Inspection Act - Amends the Poultry Products Inspection Act, the Federal Meat Inspection Act, and the Egg Products Inspection Act to provide that a meat, poultry, or egg product is adulterated because it contains an added poisonous or added deleterious substance when the presence of the substance renders the food unsafe within the meaning of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture to issue regulations for added poisonous or added deleterious substances in meat, poultry, and egg products but only if the FDA has not already done so. Authorizes the Secretary to phase out the use of substances in meat, poultry, and egg products for which the Department of Agriculture has primary responsibility. Directs the Secretary to establish an independent scientific peer review system.
United States · United States Congress · 4 June 1986
Expresses the sense of the Senate that unless the Health Care Financing Administration allocates sufficient funds and takes other action to ensure prompt payment of Medicare claims, the Senate shall adopt legislation ensuring prompt claims payment.
United States · United States Congress · 21 May 1986
Prompt Payment Amendments of 1986 - Revises Federal law to deem the head of an agency to receive an invoice on the fifth day after the date on which a property is actually delivered, or final performance of a service is actually completed, unless the contract specifies otherwise. Makes Federal prompt payment provisions applicable to the United States Postal Service. Reduces the 15-day grace period for payment of interest penalties to eight days for solicitations issued before October 1, 1988. Requires an agency to pay a double interest penalty if it fails to meet such grace period and the business concern makes a written demand that the agency pay such penalty. Makes the interest penalty provisions applicable to construction contracts for progress payments and retained amounts. Specifies the calculation of time for interest penalties on discount payments. Revises agency reporting requirements on interest penalty payments to include a description of agency payment practices. Requires the modification of Government-wide procurement regulations to implement Federal prompt payment provisions.
United States · United States Congress · 21 May 1986
Authorizes and requests the President, on behalf of the Congress, to present gold medals to Doctor Andrei Sakharov and Doctor Yelena Bonner in recognition of the sacrifices they have made to further the causes of human rights and world peace. Authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to provide for the sale of bronze duplicates of the medals. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 21 May 1986
Expresses the gratitude of the Senate, on behalf of the American people, to Prime Minister Thatcher and the British Government and people for their support of U.S. actions against Libyan terrorism.
United States · United States Congress · 20 May 1986
Amends the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 to reestablish the National Aeronautics and Space Council. Adds the Secretary of Commerce as a member of the Council. Includes the policies, plans, programs, and accomplishments of the United States and other nations under the survey of all significant aeronautical and space activities which the Council is to survey.
United States · United States Congress · 15 May 1986
Amends Federal armed forces provisions to designate one of the Assistant Secretaries of Defense as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, whose principal duty shall be the overall supervision of special operations and low intensity conflict affairs (including terrorism, insurgency, and other unconventional warfare threats) of the Department of Defense. Directs the President to establish a unified command for special operations forces, unless such action is not in the national interest. Amends the National Security Act of 1947 to require the National Security Council to establish within the Council the Board for Low Intensity Conflict to coordinate the low intensity conflict policy for the United States. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the President should establish the position of Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs for Low Intensity Conflict, and that such Deputy Assistant should act as chairman of the Board for Low Intensity Conflict as established under this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 15 May 1986
Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act) to exempt from any sequestration or reduction order issued by the President under such Act certain specified veterans' disability and survivors' benefits payable from the Military Retirement Fund.
United States · United States Congress · 14 May 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Farm Credit System should take specified actions to assist borrowers, including: (1) participating to the maximum extent possible with the Farmers Home Administration and other Government guarantee programs to provide 1986 operating loans; (2) following policies of reasonable loan forbearance; (3) using loan restructuring; (4) emphasizing loan servicing approaches that help borrowers meet the conditions of their loan contracts; (5) resorting to foreclosure only when there is no alternative or when the associated costs would be less than loan restructuring; (6) providing defaulting borrowers with the opportunity to bid on foreclosed property; and (7) maintaining sound institutional credit policies.
United States · United States Congress · 7 May 1986
Aviation Safety Commission Act of 1986 - Establishes the Aviation Safety Commission to study how the Federal Aviation Administration may most effectively perform its responsibilities and increase aviation safety. Outlines the main considerations in such study. Requires the Commission to submit a report of such study to the President and the Congress by one year after the appointment of all Commission members. Terminates the Commission one year after such appointment. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 7 May 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Federal Government should take immediate steps to support funding for a National Storm-Scale Operational and Research Meteorology Program (STORM) under the leadership of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with the cooperation of other Federal agencies. Provides that, on or before August 1, 1986, and each fifth year thereafter, the President would transmit to the Congress a plan for the National STORM Program and its budgetary requirements, specifying the activities to be conducted and the Federal agency which will conduct them. Directs the President, on or about January 1, 1987, to transmit to the Congress a progress report on implementing the National STORM Program. Directs the Administration to: (1) place a high priority on reinstating the two geostationary operational environmental satellite (GOES) system; (2) compensate for the absence of a second GOES satellite by taking actions such as increasing hurricane reconnaissance flights; and (3) undertake an immediate analysis of how best to maintain a two GOES system.
United States · United States Congress · 5 May 1986
Expresses the sense of the Congress that volunteer work should be taken into account by employers when hiring and listed on employment application forms.
United States · United States Congress · 1 May 1986
Amends the judicial code to establish the Beaufort Division in the District of South Carolina, comprising the counties of Beaufort and Jasper. States that court for the Beaufort Division shall be held at Beaufort.
United States · United States Congress · 24 April 1986
Prohibits the proposed sale of integrated avionics system kits (and related defense articles and defense services) to China as contained in a specified certification transmitted by the President pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act to the Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 22 April 1986
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to require the Internal Revenue Service to reimburse State and local law enforcement agencies that provide information which substantially contributes to the recovery of Federal taxes. Limits the amount of such reimbursement to ten percent of the sum ultimately recovered.
United States · United States Congress · 22 April 1986
Directs the Attorney General to develop a model statute for States to prohibit the establishment and use of freebase houses (places where manufacturing, processing, distributing, purchasing, and using illegal drugs take place). Directs the Attorney General to report such statute to the appropriate committees of the Congress and to State and local law enforcement authorities. Defines "freebasing" as the conversion of cocaine crystals into a smokable base form of the drug.
United States · United States Congress · 17 April 1986
Amends Federal law to continue the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission until April 20, 1989 (three years beyond the present termination date). Directs the Commission to annually report to the President and the Congress on its activities, the final report being submitted on the Commission's termination date. Authorizes the Commission to appoint nine additional Commission members.
![Official portrait of Sen. Hollings, Ernest F. [D-SC]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/h000725_200.jpg)