United States · United States Congress · 29 July 1991
Alzheimer's Disease Research, Training, and Education Amendments of 1991 - Amends the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias Services Research Act of 1986 to rename the Act as the Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias Research Act of 1991. Changes, with regard to the Council on Alzheimer's Disease: (1) the composition and designated chair; (2) Council duties; and (3) congressional reporting requirements. Replaces, on the Advisory Panel on Alzheimer's Disease, the Director of the National Center for Health Services Research and Health Care Technology Assessment with the Administrator of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Provides for staggered terms for Panel members. Modifies: (1) vacancy procedures; (2) minimum meeting frequency; and (3) compensation requirements. Abolishes the Panel on September 30, 1994. Authorizes appropriations. Alters the Alzheimer's disease research responsibilities of: (1) the National Institute of Mental Health; and (2) the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Authorizes appropriations. Replaces provisions relating to education programs for providers of care for individuals with Alzheimer's disease with provisions authorizing, with regard to Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, grants for: (1) training and continuing education; (2) model training programs; and (3) educating health care providers and families on care and on community assistance sources. Authorizes appropriations. Establishes a National Alzheimer's Education Program to take specified actions, including developing and distributing educational materials and working with the media to provide information. Authorizes appropriations. Amends the Public Health Service Act to allow Federal payments to Alzheimer's disease centers to be used for construction of the centers, but not for land acquisition. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 26 July 1991
Amends the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to require air carriers that have acquired a certificate transferring air route authority from another air carrier to hire from such air carrier, in order of seniority, no less than the number of employees required to operate such route. Affords such hired employees seniority integration protections provided in Tiger International Seaboard Acquisition Case, CAB Docket 33712. Provides for the enforcement of such seniority protections by U.S. district courts. Amends the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 to declare that air carrier employees who are furloughed or terminated by an air carrier (other than for cause) prior to the last day of the 17-year (currently, ten-year) period beginning upon enactment of such Act shall have first right of hire, regardless of age in his or her occupational speciality by any other air carrier that is hiring additional employees.
United States · United States Congress · 26 July 1991
Medicare Enrollment Improvement and Protection Act of 1991 - Title I: Improving Enrollment - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services' annual notice to Medicare beneficiaries to inform certain low-income Medicare beneficiaries of the requirements to qualify for Medicaid (title XIX of the Social Security Act) payment of their premiums, deductibles, and copayments under Medicare and how to apply for such benefit. Requires the notice described above to be prepared in a manner suitable for posting and distributed to physicians, hospital offices, and other medical facilities. Requires the Secretary to establish a toll-free telephone number for information about such benefit. Amends the Medicaid program to require the Secretary to develop a simplified form for applying for such benefit for processing at social security offices. Amends the Medicare program to provide for mandating direct enrollment of part A (Hospital Insurance) eligibles. Directs the Secretary to make grants to State agencies and approved organizations for the provision of outreach assistance to older individuals who may be eligible for such benefit. Authorizes appropriations to fund such grant program. Title II: Retroactivity - Amends the Medicaid program to permit retroactive payments of medical costs incurred by certain low-income Medicare beneficiaries in or after the third month before the month in which such an individual applied to have Medicaid cover such costs. Title III: Refunds - Allows those individuals whose incomes would have qualified them for Medicaid payment of Medicare costs, but who were not eligible for such benefit because they did not apply, to apply to have such costs refunded. Title IV: Report - Directs the Secretary to submit reports to the Congress on Department activities to ensure enrollment and full implementation of the program under the Social Security Act for Medicaid payment of Medicare costs and the effectiveness of each such activity, along with any recommendations for appropriate legislation.
United States · United States Congress · 25 July 1991
National Sea Grant College Program Authorization Act of 1991 - Amends the National Sea Grant College Program Act (Sea Grant Act) to authorize appropriations to carry out the Act. Repeals provisions of the Sea Grant Act authorizing grants and contracts for a sea grant strategic research plan. Amends the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990 (Aquatic Nuisance Act) to generally authorize appropriations for grants under the Sea Grant Act. (Currently, the provisions of the Aquatic Nuisance Act being amended here authorize appropriations only for grants for the sea grant research plan under the Sea Grant Act.)
United States · United States Congress · 24 July 1991
Emergency Unemployment Compensation Act of 1991 - Establishes an emergency unemployment compensation program. Allows any State to enter into and participate in an agreement with the Secretary of Labor (the Secretary) under which the State agency which administers the State unemployment compensation law will make payments of emergency unemployment compensation: (1) to individuals who have exhausted all rights to regular compensation under State law, have no rights to such regular compensation or any additional State or Federal compensation, and are not receving Canadian compensation; and (2) for any week of unemployment beginning in the individual's eligibility period. Sets forth provisions relating to exhaustion of regular benefits and weekly amount of emergency benefits equal to regular benefits. Requires a State, under such an agreement, to establish an emergency unemployment compensation account with respect to the benefit year of each eligible individual who files an application. Limits benefit payments to not more than the amount in the individual's account. Sets forth formulas for determining the amount in such account. Provides that such amount shall be equal to the lesser of: (1) 100 percent of the total amount of regular compensation (including dependents' allowances) payable to the individual with respect to the most recent regular benefit year; or (2) the applicable limit times the average weekly benefit amount for the benefit year. Sets the applicable limit at: (1) 20 for an eight-percent period, i.e. one triggered by a total unemployment rate (TUR) of eight percent or more in the State, seasonally adjusted, for the most recent six calendar months with available data; (2) 13 for a seven-percent period; (3) seven for a six-percent period; and (4) four for any other period. Sets forth special rules relating to such applicable limits. Requires reduction in such account by the amount of extended benefits received by the individual relating to the same benefit year under the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970. Sets the weekly benefit amount at the amount of regular compensation (including dependents' allowances) payable under the State law to the individual for such week for total unemployment. Provides for determination of periods and applicable triggers. Sets forth transition and reachback provisions for the eligibility of certain individuals for such benefits. Provides for payments to States having such agreements for emergency unemployment compensation. Sets forth financing provisions. Requires that funds in the extended unemployment compensation account of the Unemployment Trust Fund be used to make payments to States having agreements under this Act. Sets forth provisions relating to fraud and overpayments. Amends specified Federal law to repeal certain limitations on payment of unemployment compensation to former members of the armed forces. Reduces the length of required active duty by reserves for purposes of such payment. Sets forth reachback provisions. Amends the Social Security Act to establish an Advisory Council on Unemployment Compensation. Directs the Secretary of Labor to establish such a council by February 1, 1992, and every fourth year thereafter. Requires each such council to evaluate the unemployment compensation program. Sets forth membership and staff provisions. Requires each council to report to the President and the Congress by January 1 of the second year following the year in which it is required to be established. Designates as emergency requirements, pursuant to the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, all direct spending amounts provided, and all appropriations authorized, by this Act (for all fiscal years). Provides that this Act shall not take effect unless, by its enactment date, the President submits to the Congress a written designation of all such direct spending amounts and authorized appropriations as such emergency requirements.
United States · United States Congress · 23 July 1991
Abandoned Infants Assistance Act Amendments of 1991 - Amends the Abandoned Infants Assistance Act of 1988 (the Act) to revise and extend various grant programs. Adds as a goal of the comprehensive services under such Act to support of the family in the broadest sense to prevent abandonment of the child. Includes early intervention and developmental services among such comprehensive services. Requires (currently authorizes) the Secretary of Health and Human Services (the Secretary) to make demonstration project grants for foster care and residential care for infants and young children abandoned in hospitals and for abandonment prevention programs. Includes under such demonstration projects the provision of services to all members of the natural family for any condition that increases the probability of abandonment of an infant or young child. Includes, under such demonstration projects for recruiting, training, and retaining foster families, coverage of: (1) the actual expenses of the persons receiving services; and (2) medically fragile infants and children, and those who are pre- or post-natally exposed to the etiologic agent for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), drugs, or alcohol (as well as the current coverage of those with acquired immune deficiency syndrome, AIDS). Includes family support groups, parenting skills training, and various other services under such demonstration projects for natural and foster families of infants and young children with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) or those exposed to HIV, drugs, or alcohol, and includes coverage for families of medically fragile children and youth under such provisions. Adds provisions for comprehensive service centers. Directs the Secretary to make demonstration grants from specified funds for a program for public and nonprofit private entities to plan, coordinate, and establish model comprehensive service centers. Sets forth requirements for such centers and transition provisions. Requires the Secretary to make demonstration project grants under such Act, subject to availability of funds, for at least three-year periods, with two automatic extensions absent a finding of substantial nonperformance. Revises provisions for evaluations, studies, and reports by the Secretary under such Act. Provides that evaluations of demonstration projects shall be made with specified funds. Adds provisions for special needs dissemination. Directs the Secretary, from specified funds, to maintain the National Resource Center for Programs Serving Abandoned Infants and Infants at Risk of Abandonment and Their Families (the Center) established by the Secretary under the Act. Requires the Center to assist in identifying, developing, and using effective program practices, information, and materials in order to meet the service needs of specific groups of individuals who: (1) show, on a national or State basis, disproportionate risk of dysfunctional behavior that will lead to abandonment of infants or young people covered under such Act, and (2) have been historically underserved in the provision of such information and services. Sets forth: (1) requirements for types of information and technical assistance services; and (2) priorities to be given specified groups. Requires the Secretary to enter into such contracts or cooperative services to be for at least three-year periods, with two additional consecutive one-year extensions absent a finding of substantial noncompliance. Extends by one year, until April 1, 1992, the deadline for the Secretary to complete a study and report to Congress on the most effective methods for responding to the needs of abandoned infants and young children. Defines the terms natural family and medically fragile for purposes of such Act. Authorizes appropriations for: (1) demonstration grants in general; (2) comprehensive service centers; (3) evaluations of demonstration projects; (4) special needs dissemination; and (5) administrative expenses, with specified limitations. Requires such funds to remain available until expended. Repeals a provision for program termination which prohibited any demonstration grant after FY 1991.
United States · United States Congress · 22 July 1991
National Institutes of Health Reauthorization Act of 1991 - Title I: Reauthorization of Certain Institutes and Expansion of Various Programs - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize appropriations for the National Cancer Institute. Authorizes appropriations to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Requires the NHLBI Director to support programs of training and education. Authorizes appropriations to carry out specified provisions relating to the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Mandates grants for research, development, and demonstration of new educational technologies that assist in training health professions students and improve the research and teaching capabilities of health professionals. Removes the cap on grants to medical libraries or related instrumentalities for establishing, expanding, and improving basic resources. Establishes in the NLM the National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology to collect, store, analyze, and disseminate information. Removes similar provisions from provisions relating to the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Mandates grants for comprehensive programs to recruit women, underrepresented minorities, and individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds into biomedical or behavioral research and to provide research training to such people. Authorizes appropriations for payments under National Research Service Awards and under grants for such Awards. Authorizes appropriations for the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Excludes from voting rights the ex officio members of the National Foundation for Biomedical Research. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes grants to institutions that conduct biomedical or behavioral research to expand, remodel, renovate, or alter existing research facilities or construct new facilities, but not to acquire land or make off-site improvements. Establishes in the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health a Technical Review Board on Biomedical and Behavioral Research Facilities to advise on construction of facilities and conduct peer review of applications under these provisions. Provides for recapture of payments in certain circumstances for 20 years. Authorizes appropriations. Title II: Women's Health Research - Requires that women and members of minority groups be included as subjects in each clinical research project under title IV (National Research Institutes) of the Public Health Service Act. Requires projects to be designed and carried out so as to provide for an analysis of whether the variables being tested affect women or minorities differently than other subjects. Establishes in the advisory council of each of the national research institutes the Clinical Research Equity Subcommittee with the duty of determining the extent to which the research is being conducted in accordance with these requirements. Requires, if not in accordance, suspension or revocation of research authority. Requires that technical and scientific peer review conducted under existing provisions include an evaluation of the merit of the proposal regarding women and minorities. Requires the Director of the Institute on Aging to conduct research into the aging processes of women. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, through the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to establish the Office of Women's Health Research to ensure that research on women's health is identified and addressed throughout the research activities conducted and supported by NIH. Establishes in the Office the Women's Health Clinical Research Advisory Committee. Establishes: (1) a program to provide information on research, treatment, and prevention activities relating to women's health and gender differences; and (2) a data bank to compile and disseminate information on research concerning women's health and gender differences that affect women's health. Requires maintenance of a registry of ongoing clinical trials of experimental treatments relating to women's health and gender differences. Authorizes appropriations to carry out these provisions relating to the Office, the Advisory Committee, the information program, the data bank, and the registry. Mandates expansion, intensification, and coordination of activities regarding breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and other cancers of the reproductive systems of women, including basic and clinical research, prevention and control programs, information programs, and demonstration programs. Requires demonstration programs on breast cancer to include the development and operation of at least six breast and prostate cancer research centers. Authorizes appropriations. Establishes a program to expand and intensify research and related activities concerning osteoporosis, Paget's disease, and related bone disorders. Authorizes appropriations. Title III: Contraception and Infertility - Mandates grants or contracts for three centers to conduct activities to improve methods of contraception and two centers to conduct activities for diagnosing and treating infertility. Establishes a program of agreements under which health professionals, including graduate students, agree to conduct research on contraception or infertility in consideration of repayment of up to a specified amount of their educational loans. Authorizes appropriations to carry out this title. Title IV: Programs Relating to Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome - Sets at three years the minimum service period for participation in an existing loan repayment program involving research, as an employee of NIH, on acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Authorizes appropriations for the program. Modifies the duties of the AIDS Clinical Research Review Committee and the AIDS clinical evaluation units. Adds references to participation of primary care providers in provisions relating to community-based evaluations of experimental therapies. Authorizes appropriations. Allows financial assistance for international AIDS efforts to be used for research and training on the natural history and pathogenesis and the development and evaluation of vaccines for AIDS, opportunistic infections, and other emerging microbial diseases. Authorizes appropriations. Adds treatment as one of the services provided under grants for model protocols for clinical care of individuals infected with the etiologic agent for AIDS. Authorizes appropriations. Adds collecting information on the natural history of infection with the etiologic agent to provisions requiring development of an epidemiological data base and long-term studies. Requires a comprehensive plan for the conduct and support of AIDS research by the agencies of NIH. Mandates studies to determine, with regard to AIDS: (1) the impact of parallel-track drug-release mechanisms on public and private clinical research and on drug approval activities; (2) the policies of third-party payers regarding payment of costs of health services provided incident to the participation of individuals as subjects in clinical trials of drugs; and (3) the coordination of various advisory committees. Title V: NIH Director's Discretionary Fund, Child Health Research Centers, and Interagency Program for Trauma Research - Requires that the NIH Director have a discretionary fund. Authorizes appropriations. Mandates development and support for centers to build the research capacity of pediatric institutions and develop pediatric investigators. Establishes: (1) a comprehensive program to conduct and support basic and clinical research on trauma, including on diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation and management; and (2) the Trauma Research Interagency Coordinating Committee. Title VI: National Center for Human Genome Research - Adds the National Center for Human Genome Research to the list of agencies of NIH, declaring its purpose to be characterizing the structure and function of the human genome, including the mapping and sequencing of individual genes. Title VII: Designation of Senior Biomedical Research Service in Honor of Silvio Conte, and Limitation on Number of Members - Renames the Senior Biomedical Research Service as the Silvio Conte Senior Biomedical Research Service and increases the maximum number of its members. Title VIII: Miscellaneous Provisions - Allows the National Library of Medicine to make publications, materials, facilities, or services available under licensing arrangements that provide for quality control and full recovery of access costs. Amends the Health Omnibus Programs Extension of 1988 to extend the due date for the final report of the National Commission on Sleep Disorders Research. Transfers from the Health Research Extension Act of 1985 to title IV (National Research Institutes) of the Public Health Service Act provisions authorizing a grant for an Alzheimer's disease registry. Requires that a report by the Secretary of Health and Human Services on carcinogens be published biennially rather than annually. Includes tropical diseases in provisions setting forth the purpose of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Applies to Directors of each of the NIH agencies provisions setting forth the general duties and authorities of Directors of each of the national research institutes. Authorizes the Directors of each of the national research institutes and each of the NIH agencies, in disseminating information, to enter into licensing agreements that provide for quality control and full recovery of access costs. Requires, for purposes of Federal income, estate, and gift taxes, any gift accepted by NIH to be considered to be a gift or transfer to the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 19 July 1991
Amends Federal law relating to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission to: (1) increase its membership from 23 to 30 and its staff membership from five to eight; (2) increase the potential salary of a staff member from a GS-13 to a GS-15; and (3) authorize appropriations for FY 1992 through 1993.
United States · United States Congress · 18 July 1991
Amends title IX (Graduate Programs) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to direct the Secretary of Education (the Secretary) to provide for coordinated administration and regulation of assisted graduate programs to ensure that they are carried out in a manner most compatible with academic practices. Directs the Secretary to appoint administrative and technical employees with the appropriate educational background to assist in program administration. Revises and renames title IX part A, Grants to Institutions to Strengthen and Diversify the Higher Education Professorate (currently, Grants to Institutions to Encourage Minority Participation in Graduate Education). Directs the Secretary to make multiyear grants to institutions of higher education (or consortia of such institutions and nonprofit entities) with a demonstrated record of enhancing the access of individuals from underrepresented groups to graduate education. Requires the use of such grants to enable institutions to identify from underrepresented groups, and provide with fellowship assistance, talented faculty and baccalaureate degree recipients with financial need who wish to obtain a doctoral degree and continue in or enter the higher education professorate. Requires such fellowships to equal the greater of $10,000 or the recipient's financial need. Directs the Secretary to give priority to grant applications from programs that: (1) provide a tuition waiver and an assistantship to each fellowship recipient; (2) provide a stipend to each recipient from non-Federal resources; (3) emphasize courses of study leading to a doctorate in disciplines in which faculty from underrepresented groups are underrepresented; and (4) describe steps to ensure that a fellowship recipient will teach at an institution of higher education where minority undergraduate students are likely to benefit from the recipient's educational experience and academic achievements. Requires equitable distribution of: (1) grants by the Secretary geographically and with fair representation of public and private institutions; and (2) fellowships by institutions among underrepresented groups. States that such equitable distribution requirements are not to be interpreted as requiring an institution or consortium to grant preferences or disparate treatment to members of one group based on a comparison of group numbers or percentages participating in the program in comparison to group numbers or percentages in any community, State, section, or other area. Sets forth grant application requirements for institutions or consortia. Sets forth agreement requirements for fellowship recipients. Requires an agreement to teach for at least two years, within five years after completing the doctorate, at a public or private nonprofit institution of higher education, by all fellowship recipients (or in the case of recipients who are already faculty members, at an institution with a significant minority enrollment). Requires repayment if the teaching service requirement is not complied with. Provides for deferral of repayment during certain periods, and forgiveness in cases of permanent total disability. Revises title IX part B provisions for Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowships for graduate and professional students who demonstrate financial need. Directs the Secretary to reserve Harris Fellowship funds in specified equal percentages for grants to institutions for doctoral study awards and for masters and professional study awards, as well as a certain percentage for grants to institutions operating postbaccalaureate programs leading to careers that serve the public interest. Sets the Harris Fellowship institutional payment at $8,000 (in addition to the award paid to each individual for a Harris Fellowship grant). Directs the Secretary to adjust the institutional payment annually for inflation. Sets the award amount for individual Harris Fellowships at the greater of $14,000 or the student's financial need as determined by the institution by a Secretary-approved method. (Current law sets such amount at the lesser of $10,000 or the student's financial need as determined under HEA title IV student assistance provisions.) Sets forth separate requirements for fellowship awards and extensions to: (1) master's or professional degree students; and (2) doctoral degree students. Reconstitutes certain current programs as title IX part C, renamed Grants to Support Graduate Study in Areas of National Need. Revises the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship program for graduate study in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Increases the individual fellowship stipend amount to the greater of $14,000 or the student's financial need as determined by the institution by a Secretary-approved method. (Current law authorizes the Secretary to determine appropriate stipend levels, not to exceed demonstrated need, comparable in support to that provided in federally funded graduate fellowships in science and engineering.) Sets the institutional payment at $8,000, to be adjusted annually for inflation. Directs the Secretary to designate areas of national need on the basis of projected need for faculty and scientists due to replacement demands and emerging fields. Requires the grant application to provide assurances that the academic department or program will provide at least one year of supervised training in instruction for students that shall be paid from non-Federal funds. Specifies that students pursuing a doctoral degree after having completed a master's degree program are included among those to whom stipends may be awarded under such graduate assistance program. Authorizes appropriations for title IX programs. Revises HEA title IV Special Programs for Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds to authorize additional appropriations for the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program. Directs the Secretary to ensure that a significant number of projects assisted under such program provide summer research internships coordinated through graduate divisions of institutions of higher education in order to provide effective linkage between graduate faculty and programs assisted under title IX. Reserves a specified minimum amount of program funds for such internship projects.
United States · United States Congress · 18 July 1991
Pell Grant Expansion Act of 1991 - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to extend through FY 1997 the Pell Grant program authority. Revises the formula for and increases the amount of an individual Pell Grant. Sets the maximum amount at $4,500 for award year 1992-1993. Determines the amount as follows: (1) an allowance for living expenses, not to exceed $2,750; plus (2) an amount equal to 25 percent of the cost of tuition at the institution, not to exceed $1,750; minus (3) the expected family contribution. Provides, for academic years 1993-1994 through 1996-1997, for specified inflation adjustments for such specified maximum amounts. Raises to $400 the minimum amount which a student must be eligible for before a Pell Grant may be awarded. Revises Pell Grant program provisions for adjustments for insufficient appropriations. Requires the Secretary, in such cases, to expend from the next succeeding fiscal year's appropriation sums necessary to meet any such insufficiences. Revises the Pell Grant program definition of cost of attendance to eliminate certain limitations, for specified types of students, on the allowance for room and board costs, books, supplies, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses.
United States · United States Congress · 17 July 1991
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the United States should: (1) take a leadership role in urging other G-7 nations to reaffirm their commitment to completing, by 1992, an agreement to stem the destruction of forests worldwide and announce its intention to commit to meaningful reductions in greenhouse gases; (2) propose an agreement to curb deforestation, protect biodiversity, and stimulate positive forest policies; (3) emphasize public participation in forest conservation strategies; (4) support innovative financial mechanisms to support the efforts of developing countries to implement programs to protect forests and promote agroforestry; and (5) initiate a national plan to curb deforestation of primary forests and forests with significant biodiversity.
United States · United States Congress · 16 July 1991
Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the United Nations donor nations, including the United States, should fulfill their pledges made to the United Nations in response to its appeal for emergency humanitarian assistance to Iraq; and (2) the United States and other countries should immediately transfer a portion of Iraq's frozen state assets necessary to help meet the medical and humanitarian needs of Iraqi families and children in greatest need exclusively to the United Nations system, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other internationally recognized relief organizations.
United States · United States Congress · 15 July 1991
Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Amendments Act of 1991 - Amends the Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act of 1986 to allow a State system for the protection and advocacy of the rights of persons with developmental disabilities to use its allotment under specified provisions to provide representation to individuals with mental illness in Federal facilities. Defines "facilities" to include hospitals, nursing homes, community facilities for individuals with mental illness, board and care homes, homeless shelters, and jails and prisons. Modifies requirements concerning: (1) the rights of representatives of such individuals; (2) the circumstances in which the system is accorded access to all the records of certain individuals; (3) the composition and chair of the system's advisory council; (4) availability of the system's grievance procedure to individuals who have received mental health services, family members, and representatives; (5) the composition of the system's governing authority; and (6) the training of system staff. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 11 July 1991
Vulnerable Elders' Rights Protection Amendments of 1991 - Title I: Elder Rights Services - Amends the Older Americans Act of 1965 to establish in the Administration on Aging an Office on Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs headed by an Associate Commissioner for Ombudsman Services who shall serve as the Federal advocate on behalf of older individuals who reside in long-term care facilities. Directs the Administration to establish and operate the National Ombudsman Resource Center to assist State Long-Term Care Ombudsmen and the representatives of the Ombudsmen in carrying out State long-term care programs. Directs the Commissioner of the Administration on Aging to establish a National Center on Elder Abuse to: (1) compile an annual summary of recently conducted research on elder abuse; (2) develop and maintain an information clearinghouse on all programs for the prevention and treatment of such abuse; (3) compile training materials for personnel engaged in elder abuse prevention; (4) provide technical assistance for the planning and implementation of programs relating to the problems of elder abuse; and (5) conduct research and demonstration projects regarding the causes and national incidence of elder abuse. Authorizes the Commissioner to operate such Center directly or through a grant or contract. Extends the deadline for the annual Administration report to the Congress on complaints and conditions in long-term care facilities. Requires a Commission study of the effectiveness of State long-term care ombudsman programs. Adds a new title VII under which the Commissioner is directed to establish and carry out a program for making allotments to States to pay for the Federal share of carrying out elder rights activities under the following new parts of title VII: (1) part B (Ombudsman Programs); (2) part C (Programs for Prevention of Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation); (3) part D (State Elder Rights and Legal Assistance Development Program); and (4) part E (Outreach, Counseling, and Assistance Program). Authorizes appropriations for FY 1992 through 1995 to carry out such parts. Requires States, in order to be eligible to receive allotments under title VII, to submit a plan to the Commissioner with assurances that the State will establish the programs listed above in accordance with specified requirements outlined in this title. Authorizes State agencies to enter into agreements with public or private nonprofit agencies or organizations to carry out activities under such programs to protect the rights of the vulnerable elderly who reside in long-term care facilities. Reauthorizes and extends ombudsman and advocacy demonstration projects under the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act and the Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act of 1986. Directs the Commissioner to award grants to eligible State agencies to establish housing ombudsman demonstration programs to protect the rights of older individuals who are residents in publicly assisted housing programs. Authorizes appropriations. Title II: Definitions - Sets forth definitions of terms used in this Act. Title III: Miscellaneous Provisions - Sets forth the effective dates of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 11 July 1991
Benjamin Franklin Memorial Fire Service Bill of Rights Act - Title I: Minting of Benjamin Franklin National Memorial Commemorative Coin - Benjamin Franklin National Memorial Commemorative Coin Act - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue: (1) five dollar gold coins emblematic of Benjamin Franklin's contributions to the advancement of science; (2) one dollar silver coins emblematic of Benjamin Franklin's contributions to the American Fire Service. Sets forth sale and issuance guidelines, including a general waiver of procurement regulations and surcharge distributions. Title II: Fire Service Bill of Rights - Fire Service Bill of Rights Act - Amends the Federal Fire Prevention and Control Act of 1974 to set forth a fire service bill of rights, including the right of responding fire services to: (1) know the kind of danger presented by hazardous materials they face in emergency responses; and (2) be fully informed of infectious diseases their members face during the course of life safety activities. Declares that the bill of rights does not create any private right of action.
United States · United States Congress · 27 June 1991
Expresses the sense of the Congress that U.S. nationals conducting industrial cooperation projects in China or Tibet should adhere to specified principles, including to: (1) suspend the use of merchandise manufactured by convict or forced labor; (2) seek to ensure political and religious freedom without fear for one's employment status; (3) ensure that methods of production do not pose a danger to project employees and the surrounding environment; (4) strive to use business enterprises that are not controlled by China; and (5) promote human rights in China. Requires the Secretary of State (Secretary) to forward a copy of such principles to member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and encourage them to promote such principles. Requires each U.S. national to register with the Secretary of State and indicate whether they agree to implement such principles. Sets forth specified reporting requirements. Authorizes U.S. agencies to intercede on behalf of a U.S. national with foreign governments or foreign nationals regarding export marketing activity in China or Tibet if such U.S. national adheres to such principles. Requires the Secretary to report annually to appropriate congressional committees on: (1) enforcement procedures with respect to prohibitions on the importation into the United States of goods manufactured by convict or forced labor; (2) steps taken to investigate which goods are produced by such labor in China and Tibet; and (3) the results of such investigations.
United States · United States Congress · 27 June 1991
Defense Federal Nuclear Facilities Waste Management Act - Title I: Nuclear Waste Management Fund - Establishes in the Treasury the Defense Federal Nuclear Facilities Environmental Response Fund. Transfers into the Fund all amounts appropriated for Federal nuclear waste management of defense Federal nuclear facilities. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to report annually to the Congress on the financial condition and operation of the Fund. Requires Fund amounts to be expended to carry out Federal nuclear waste management. Directs the Secretary of Energy (Secretary) to establish a separate budget account for the Fund within the Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management. Title II: Environmental Management and Remedial Action - Requires any land use compliance plan entered into between the Secretary and a State or Indian tribe to contain a requirement that such parties will cooperate in the development of a land use plan for the region in which the facility or site is located and the remediation of the facility or site to the extent necessary to make it compatible with the land use plan. Requires the Secretary, at least 180 days before a stage of remediation is scheduled to be accomplished under a compliance agreement, to notify the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State or Indian tribe affected concerning whether such stage of remediation will be completed on time or whether such compliance agreement will need to be modified to permit the delay. States that a substantial modification of a compliance agreement shall not be made without opportunity for public comment. Directs the Secretary, in consultation with the EPA Administrator and affected States and Indian tribes, to prepare a plan describing nuclear waste management activities that are recommended to be undertaken over a period of five years at all defense Federal nuclear facilities under the jurisdiction of the Department of Energy (DOE). Outlines plan contents and requires the Secretary to publish a notice in the Federal Register as well as a brief analysis of such plan, with opportunity for public comment. Requires the Secretary to adopt a final plan within one year after publication of the proposed plan and to submit it to the President and the Congress. Directs the Secretary to annually review and update such plan. Requires the Secretary to annually prepare and submit to the President a request for appropriations sufficient to fund all of the activities identified in the five-year plans in order to ensure that milestones established in the enforceable agreements will be achieved. Requires all defense Federal nuclear facilities and sites to meet all Federal, State, and tribal environmental, health, and safety laws at the earliest practicable time. Requires the Secretary to complete the environmental restoration of all defense Federal nuclear facilities by the year 2019. Establishes in DOE an Office of Nuclear Waste Management to consolidate all waste management, remedial, environmental, and decommissioning programs related to defense Federal nuclear facilities within the Department and to improve the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, budgeting, and accountability of those programs. Requires the Director of the Office to carry out the functions of the Secretary under this Act and to be responsible for DOE's remedial action and waste technology programs other than those assigned to the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. Provides that, in the execution of activities necessary to bring defense Federal nuclear facilities into compliance with Federal laws governing the management of nuclear waste and in the execution of any other actions for the decommissioning, decontamination, long-term care, and monitoring of defense Federal nuclear facilities, the Secretary and the EPA Administrator shall consult with and ensure the participation of affected States and Indian tribes. Requires requests for information pertinent to a defense Federal nuclear facility or site by an affected Governor or Indian tribe to be acted upon by the Secretary within 30 days. Directs the Secretary to make grants from the Fund to States affected by defense Federal nuclear facilities remedial actions in order to implement all actions necessary to achieve remedial environmental and compliance activities at defense Federal nuclear facilities. Requires such grant funds to also be used for testing and monitoring, evaluations and public education, information requests, and public comment. Directs the Secretary to make grants to an affected State to which the Administrator has delegated regulatory authority under Federal law governing the management of Federal nuclear waste for execution of such authority with respect to defense Federal nuclear facilities located in that State. Requires such States, prior to receiving such grants, to submit to the Congress certain analyses of grant amounts and of the adequacy of DOE's environmental restoration and waste management programs relating to defense Federal nuclear facilities within such State.
United States · United States Congress · 25 June 1991
United States-China Act of 1991 - Prohibits the extension for a 12-month period beginning July 3, 1992, of nondiscriminatory treatment (most-favored-nation treatment) to China under the Trade Act of 1974, unless the President submits to the Congress a specified report stating that China has: (1) accounted for and released prisoners who have been detained and imprisoned as a result of the nonviolent expression of their political beliefs; (2) ceased exporting to the United States products manufactured by convict or forced labor; (3) ceased the supply of military arms to the Khmer Rouge; and (4) adhered to the Joint Declaration with the United Kingdom on Hong Kong. Requires such report to state whether China has made significant progress in: (1) engaging in high-level discussions on human rights issues; (2) preventing gross violations of such rights (including in Tibet); (3) terminating harassment of Chinese citizens in the United States; (4) ensuring access of international human rights monitoring groups to prisoners; (5) providing protection of U.S. intellectual property rights; (6) providing U.S. exporters access to Chinese markets by lowering tariffs, removing nontariff barriers, and increasing the purchase of U.S. goods and services; and (7) adopting a national policy consistent with specified missile, nuclear, and chemical and biological control agreements. Terminates most-favored-nation trade status for China unless the President certifies to the Congress that it has not transferred ballistic missiles or missile launchers for the M-9 or M-11 weapon systems to Syria, Iran, or Pakistan. Requires the President, if he determines such transfers to have occurrred, to: (1) notify the Congress; and (2) terminate most-favored-nation treatment for Chinese products.
United States · United States Congress · 21 June 1991
El Salvador Peace, Security, and Justice Act of 1991 - Limits the amount of military assistance for El Salvador for FY 1992. Prohibits the provision of such assistance if the President reports to the appropriate congressional committees that: (1) the Salvadoran Government has declined to participate in negotiations for a permanent settlement and cease-fire to the armed conflict; (2) the Salvadoran Government has failed to support an active role for the United Nations Secretary General in mediating such settlement; (3) the Salvadoran Government is not conducting an investigation into, and prosecution of those responsible for, the murders at the University of Central America; or (4) the Salvadoran military and security forces are engaging in violent acts against civilians or are failing to control such activities by elements subject to their control. Provides for the resumption of such assistance pursuant to a law enacted by the Congress. Withholds 50 percent of military assistance allocated for FY 1992 and of unobligated assistance for prior fiscal years. Releases such assistance only if: (1) the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front (FMLN) has declined to participate in negotiations for a settlement or have failed to accept the Secretary General's role in such settlement; (2) the survival of the Salvadoran Government is being jeopardized by FMLN actions; (3) proof exists that the FMLN is continuing to acquire significant shipments of lethal military assistance from outside El Salvador; or (4) the FMLN is engaging in violent acts against civilians or is failing to control such activities by elements subject to its control. Conditions the provision of military assistance to El Salvador on the prior notification of the appropriate congressional committees. Prohibits U.S. assistance to El Salvador if the elected head of the government is deposed by military coup or decree. Provides for the resumption of such assistance pursuant to a law enacted by the Congress. Establishes the Demobilization and Transition Fund to assist in monitoring a settlement of the conflict and in demobilizing combatants in such conflict and aiding their transition to peaceful pursuits. Makes amounts in the Fund available only if the President notifies the appropriate congressional committees that a permanent settlement of the conflict has been reached. Transfers withheld military assistance to the Fund on the date of such notification or on September 30, 1992, if no notification has occurred. Authorizes the delivery of U.S. military assistance to the Salvadoran armed forces only with the prior approval of the elected president of El Salvador. Directs the Secretary of State, through agreement with the National Endowment for Democracy or other qualified organizations, to continue programs to strengthen democratic, political, and legal institutions in El Salvador. Makes available economic support fund (ESF) assistance for such program. Authorizes the Secretary to cooperate with the United Nations to implement the Human Rights Accord agreed to by the Salvadoran Government and the FMLN and to provide assistance in support of the United Nations Observer Force in El Salvador. Makes ESF assistance available for such purposes. Withholds a specified amount of military assistance for El Salvador until the President certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that the Salvadoran Government has pursued all legal avenues to investigate, bring to trial, and obtain verdicts against those responsible for the murders of certain land reformers, peasants, priests, and unionists. Repeals provisions of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 1991 concerning military assistance for El Salvador.
United States · United States Congress · 19 June 1991
Manufacturing Strategy Act of 1991 - Amends the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act to direct the Department of Commerce to be the lead civilian agency for working with U.S. industry to: (1) develop new generic advanced manufacturing technologies; and (2) encourage and assist the deployment and use of advanced manufacturing equipment and techniques throughout the United States. Requires the Secretary of Commerce (the Secretary) to establish an Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Networking Project to create a collaborative multi-year technology development program in the Institute, U.S. industry, and, as appropriate, the States, to develop, refine, test, and transfer advanced computer-integrated electronically-networked manufacturing technologies and associated applications. Authorizes appropriations for such Project. States that it shall be a mission of all Federal research and development agencies to support the national technology base. Sets forth specifics of the required support. Provides for the establishment of programs to provide fellowships to: (1) graduate students at institutions of higher education who choose to pursue masters or doctoral degrees in manufacturing engineering; and (2) industrial executives to serve as instructors in manufacturing at two-year community and technical colleges. Authorizes appropriations for such fellowships. Establishes a National Quality Laboratory to disseminate information and materials and promote education and research activities regarding ways in which companies and organizations can improve their quality management programs and productivity. Authorizes appropriations for such Laboratory. Amends provisions of Federal law to require the Secretary, under provisions which require the Secretary to provide assistance for the creation and support of Regional Centers (Centers) for the Transfer of Manufacturing Technology, to provide assistance for the creation and support of National Centers for Manufacturing and Process Technology (National Centers). Provides that if a Center receives a positive evaluation after its third year of operation the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (the Institute) may contract with the Center to provide additional technology extension or transfer services above and beyond the baseline activities of the Center. Specifies what such additional services may include. States that the objective of the National Centers program is to enhance manufacturing productivity and quality. Authorizes appropriations. Establishes within the Institute a State Technology Extension Program and sets forth its authorities. Establishes a National Commission on Industrial Modernization for the purpose of examining what steps must be taken by industry and government to ensure that within a decade the U.S. has a modern industrial infrastructure second to no other nation. Authorizes appropriations for the Commission.
United States · United States Congress · 19 June 1991
Federal Technology Strategy Act of 1991 - Amends the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 to direct the President to develop Federal technology development plans for specified areas of technology and identify national needs in those areas. Requires that the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy serve as the lead Federal official for preparation of the plans. Designates the Department of Commerce as the lead civilian agency and the Department of Defense as the lead defense agency. Requires that the Director review the budget of each department and agency, in the context of the plans, before submission. Requires that the Director summarize Federal funding proposed for each of the critical technologies or groups of technologies identified in the most recent biennial critical technologies report. Requires Federal agencies, as appropriate, to support: (1) industry-led projects to develop new generic enabling technologies; and (2) collaboration with State and industry to accelerate commercialization and use of new advanced technologies. Requires each Federal research and development agency to provide funds to support activities under the Advanced Technology Program. Prohibits Federal departments and agencies and any organization in the United States which receives Federal research and development funding from participating in or assisting any technology development project that is operated by or receives funds from a foreign government with which the U.S. Government has a science and technology agreement unless the participation is approved in advance by the Director or the Secretary of Commerce. Authorizes banning violators from receiving Federal research assistance for two years. Requires, when such approval has been obtained, that any Federal department or agency channel funding through U.S.-based joint research and development ventures. Directs the Secretary of Commerce to report to the Congress on actions that can be taken by private industry, the States, and the Federal Government to increase private investment in: (1) the development and production of new commercial technologies; and (2) the use and application of advanced manufacturing and process technologies.
United States · United States Congress · 19 June 1991
Advanced Manufacturing Technology Act of 1991 - Title I: Advanced Manufacturing Technology Management - Amends the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 to direct the President, through the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology, to develop and submit to the Congress, at least once every two years, a strategic road map, covering at least four years after the year in which it is issued, for advanced manufacturing technology (AMT). Establishes the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Advisory Committee. Requires that the Council serve as the lead Federal entity for the development of the map and interagency coordination of Federal AMT activities. Title II: Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development - Part A: Department of Defense - Directs the Secretary of Defense to: (1) refine and implement the National Defense Manufacturing Technology Plan; and (2) encourage AMT research and development of the U.S. public and private sectors. Directs the Secretary to establish one or more Advanced Manufacturing Technology Partnerships to encourage the development and use of generic, precompetitive AMT. Requires each Partnership to be composed of at least two eligible firms. Allows other participants. Authorizes appropriations. Part B: Department of Commerce - Amends the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act to establish, in the Advanced Technology Program, the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Component to provide financial support for activities to identify and solve generic problems associated with research and development in AMT and with the establishment of technical standards in AMT. Directs the Secretary of Commerce to establish one or more such Partnerships. Authorizes appropriations. Part C: Other Departments and Agencies - Directs the Secretary of Energy, the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Director of the National Science Foundation each to establish such Partnerships. Authorizes appropriations. Part D: Administrative and Other Provisions for Partnerships - Requires the participants in each Partnership to designate a lead institution to direct the Partnership. Provides for submission and contents of Partnership proposals, cost-sharing requirements, competitive selection of Partnerships, and protection of information. Part E: Additional Definitions - Sets forth definitions for purposes of this title. Title III: Manufacturing Extension Programs - Amends Federal law to direct the Secretary of Defense to promote the improvement of defense foundation firms (currently, of the subtier defense industry) through the use of manufacturing extension programs (currently, the use of manufacturing extension programs and other organizations). Requires the extension programs to be carried out under existing provisions relating to regional centers for the transfer of manufacturing technology or provisions added by this Act relating to a National Manufacturing Extension Program. Revises the definition of "manufacturing extension programs" to mean public and private nonprofit programs (currently, publicly-chartered organizations and services) for certain purposes aimed at small and medium-sized (currently, small) manufacturing firms. Amends the National Institute of Standards and Technology Act to direct the Secretary of Commerce to conduct the National Manufacturing Extension Program to: (1) encourage efforts to improve manufacturing quality, productivity, and performance; (2) promote development of a broad range of AMT programs; and (3) increase the involvement of appropriate private sector segments. Authorizes: (1) assistance through contracts, cooperative agreements, or other financial arrangements; and (2) technical assistance. Authorizes one-time grants to States which, due to chronic economic disadvantages, lack the resources to establish and sustain AMT programs. Declares that there is an Interagency Council on Manufacturing Extension to take such actions as advising the Secretary of Commerce and providing for coordinated implementation regarding the Extension Program. Authorizes appropriations for: (1) the Department of Commerce to carry out provisions of this Act relating to the Extension Program and the Council; and (2) the Department of Defense to carry out provisions relating to the Program and the Council and for transfer to the Department of Commerce for the conduct of the Extension Program. Title IV: Manufacturing Education and Training - Part A: Defense Manufacturing Engineering Education - Establishes a program of grants to higher education institutions for enhancement of existing and establishment of new manufacturing engineering education programs. Requires that at least ten grants be awarded within one year after enactment of this Act. Requires that a supported program be: (1) conducted at the undergraduate or graduate levels, or both; (2) a consolidated and integrated multidisciplinary program including multidisciplinary instruction, work experience opportunities, faculty and student research, and significant private sector involvement. Authorizes appropriations. Part B: Manufacturing Managers in the Classroom - Directs the Secretary of Defense to conduct the Manufacturing Managers in the Classroom Program to support employment of experienced manufacturing managers and experts as teachers in higher education institutions. Authorizes appropriations to: (1) the Department of Defense to carry out the Program and for transfer to the Department of Commerce for the conduct of the Program; and (2) the Department of Commerce to carry out this part. Title V: International Activities in Advanced Manufacturing - Earmarks certain funds, authorized to be appropriated to the Departments of Defense and Energy under title II of this Act, for AMT activities under the authority of technology agreements entered into by the United States and other nations.
United States · United States Congress · 19 June 1991
Defense Manufacturing Engineering Education Act of 1991 - Directs the Secretary of Defense (the Secretary) to establish a program of grants to institutions of higher education to support enhancement of existing and establishment of new programs in manufacturing engineering education. Requires consultation with the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Requires the Secretary and the NSF Director to enter into an agreement to coordinate such grant program with similar NSF programs, and for NSF assistance in administering and managing such grant program. Sets forth requirements for programs of engineering supported by such grant awards. Requires such programs to be conducted at the undergraduate and/or graduate level. Sets forth components for such consolidated and integrated multidisciplinary programs. Requires significant involement of industry in such programs. Sets forth requirements for grant proposals. Bases grant awards on merit competition. Sets forth minimum criteria for selection. Authorizes appropriations to the Department of Defense to carry out such grant program for FY 1992 and 1993.
United States · United States Congress · 19 June 1991
National Critical Technologies Act of 1991 - Title I: Federal Management of National Critical Technologies - Amends the National Science and Technology Policy, Organization, and Priorities Act of 1976 to direct the President, through the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology, to develop and submit to the Congress, at least once every two years, a strategic road map, covering at least four years after the year in which it is issued, for each national critical technology. Specifies the required contents of each map, including: (1) assessing current U.S. strengths and weaknesses in developing and applying the covered technologies; (2) specifying goals and priorities in enhancing development or application; (3) increasing access to foreign technology; and (4) identifying feasible joint actions of Federal departments and agencies. Requires the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy to establish one or more critical technologies advisory committees to advise the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology (Coordinating Council) and review each map. Requires that the Coordinating Council: (1) serve as the lead Federal agency for development of the maps and interagency coordination of map-related activities; (2) review the Federal budget prior to submission and submit review results to the Executive Office of the President. Title II: Federal Support for Development of Critical Technologies - Part A: Department of Defense - Directs the Secretary of Defense to enter into cooperative arrangements, each known as a Defense Dual-Use Technology Partnership, to encourage and provide for research and development of dual-use critical technologies identified in the annual defense critical technologies plan mandated by current law. Amends Federal law to authorize the Secretary of Defense, in carrying out advanced research projects through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) or a military department (currently, through DARPA), to enter into cooperative agreements and other transactions with any entity. Allows the Secretary to authorize the Secretary of the military department concerned to enter into such transactions. Repeals provisions terminating, on a specified date, the Secretary's authority to enter into such agreements. Sets forth special rules for applying existing provisions (relating to payments by the Department of Defense of independent research development costs) to a specified portion of costs attributable to participation in critical technology research and development consortia meeting certain requirements. Authorizes appropriations to carry out the Partnership provisions. Part B: Other Departments and Agencies - Directs the Secretary of Commerce, through the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology acting under the Advanced Technology Program, to continue to support the activities of U.S. industry and joint ventures associated with applications of national critical technologies. Authorizes appropriations. Directs the Secretary of Energy to enter into cooperative arrangements, each known as a Department of Energy Critical Technology Partnership, for research and development of critical technologies selected by the Secretary, with each Partnership required to be composed of at least two eligible firms and at least one Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory. Allows other participants. Mandates similar Critical Technology Partnerships within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Authorizes appropriations separately for DOE, NASA, and HHS. Part C: Administrative Provisions Relating to Critical Technology Partnerships - Requires that the participants in each Partnership designate a lead institution to direct Partnership activities. Requires: (1) non-Federal participants to contribute at least half of the total Partnership cost; and (2) Partnership selection to be made through a competitive process using specified criteria. Allows an agreement establishing a Partnership to include a requirement that a participant make payments to the department or agency establishing the Partnership. Protects trade secrets and information that is privileged or confidential. Part D: Additional Definitions - Sets forth definitions applicable to this title. Title III: Critical Technology Application Centers - Amends Federal law to direct the Secretary of Defense to conduct the Critical Technology Application Centers Assistance Program, to assist regional critical technology application centers. Requires a center to: (1) include eligible firms conducting business in the region; and (2) be sponsored by an agency connected in one of specified ways to State or local governments. Declares the purpose of a center to be to facilitate the use of national critical technologies for commercial purposes to enhance the development and economic sustainability of the capability of an industry of the region to compete internationally and, in the case of military applications, thereby to maintain industrial capabilities vital to national security. Allows center activities to include: (1) joint research and development; (2) proprietary research and development (limited to a specified percentage of center costs); and (3) sharing of information, equipment, personnel, and expertise. Authorizes the Secretary to provide to a center financial assistance (limited to 30 percent of costs) and technical assistance for up to six years. Prohibits financial assistance for construction. Requires the sponsoring agency to pay at least 30 percent and participating firms to pay at least 40 percent of center costs. Requires that non-Federal participants pay the total costs for proprietary research and development. Requires assistance to be awarded under a competitive process according to specified criteria. Directs the Secretary of Defense to appoint a panel to evaluate the activities of each center receiving financial assistance. Prohibits further assistance to a center if the panel determines that the center's activities are not consistent with center purposes as specified in this Act. Authorizes appropriations to the Department of Defense and Commerce to carry out the Program. Title IV: Foreign Technology Monitoring and Assessment - Requires the Federal Coordinating Council for Science, Engineering, and Technology to: (1) coordinate Federal monitoring of foreign technology developments; (2) facilitate joint foreign science and technology monitoring and assessment efforts of Federal departments and agencies; and (3) establish strategic goals and priorities for the clearinghouses established by this title. Amends the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 to establish in the Office of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology the Clearinghouse of Foreign Commercial Technology Monitoring and Assessment (Commerce Clearinghouse) to serve as the lead Federal agency for the compilation and dissemination of unclassified information and assessments on foreign research, development, and application of commercial critical technologies. Authorizes appropriations. Directs the Secretary of Commerce to establish a merit-based foreign critical technology monitoring and assessment grant program for the establishment of foreign critical technology monitoring and assessment offices in Europe and on the Pacific Rim Area. Limits support for an office to six years and 50 percent of operating and capital costs. Requires each office to disseminate its assessments to the Commerce Clearinghouse. Authorizes appropriations. Amends Federal law to declare that there is, in the Office of the Director of Defense Research and Engineering, the Clearinghouse of Foreign Defense Technology Monitoring and Assessment (Defense Clearinghouse). Includes among Defense Clearinghouse responsibilities: (1) creating unclassified and classified data bases; and (2) ensuring maximum public availability of information in those data bases through limiting restrictive classification and through disseminating information to the Commerce Clearinghouse. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes making available to the National Science Foundation, for support of the assessment of foreign capabilities in critical technologies, specified sums from the amounts authorized by this Act for the Commerce and Defense Clearinghouses.
United States · United States Congress · 19 June 1991
Prohibits the proposed sale to the United Arab Emirates of AH-64 APACHE attack helicopters and related defense articles and services, and design and construction services described in the certification submitted to the Congress pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act on June 11, 1991.
United States · United States Congress · 17 June 1991
Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration Reorganization Act of 1991 - Title I: Administration and Institutes - Subtitle A: Restructuring - Amends the Public Health Service Act to remove provisions relating to the administration, institutes, and research of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration. Establishes, as an agency of the Public Health Service, the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (ADAMHSA). Sets forth its general duties. Authorizes appropriations. Mandates: (1) grants to prevent and treat substance abuse among high risk youth; (2) grants for providing pregnant and postpartum women and their children substance abuse prevention, education, and treatment services, including primary health care, comprehensive social services, support services, counseling, housing, and case management; (3) grants to improve the provision of substance abuse treatment services, including through focusing on specified populations, treatment and vocational training in exchange for service, projects operated by community and migrant health centers, and treatment campus projects; (4) grants for drug and alcohol treatment services to individuals under criminal justice supervision; (5) grants to increase the number of full-time substance abuse treatment and prevention providers and the number of health professionals providing treatment and prevention as a component of primary health care; and (6) grants to States to expand their substance abuse treatment capacity. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes: (1) grants or contracts for outreach to intravenous drug abusers to prevent exposure to and transmission of the etiologic agent for acquired immune deficiency syndrome; (2) grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements to develop and expand mental health and substance abuse treatment for homeless individuals; and (3) grants to communities for the development of comprehensive long-term strategies for the prevention of substance abuse and evaluation of different community approaches to such prevention. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes grants for demonstration projects for: (1) community services for seriously mentally ill individuals and their families, seriously emotionally and mentally disturbed children and youth and their families, and seriously mentally ill homeless and elderly individuals; (2) the prevention of youth suicide; (3) recognition, assessment, treatment, and clinical management of depressive disorders; (4) the prevention of sex offenses and treatment and assistance to sex offense victims; (5) mental health services to family violence victims; and (6) prevention services for individuals at risk of developing mental illness. Authorizes appropriations. Requires: (1) the appointment of one or more advisory councils for ADAMHSA; (2) peer review of services grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts administered through ADAMHSA. Requires peer review approval for assistance under, and both peer review and advisory council approval for assistance over, a specified amount. Mandates a process to respond to misconduct in projects receiving funds under specified provisions. Authorizes and regulates the use of experts and consultants. Establishes within ADAMHSA the Office for Special Populations to take specified actions with regard to women, minorities, and the elderly. Establishes in the National Institutes of Health the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), requiring comprehensive research on cause, diagnosis, epidemiology, prevention, and treatment, including services research. Authorizes appropriations. Includes in the purpose of NIMH the study of psychological, social, and legal factors that influence behavior. Authorizes grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts through NIAAA, NIDA, and NIMH relating to research and demonstrations relative to the cause, diagnosis, treatment, control, and prevention of mental illness and substance abuse. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish, through NIAAA, NIDA, and NIMH, National Health and Substance Abuse Education Programs to disseminate information on improved treatment and family assistance methods and to support training. Authorizes the Secretary, through NIAAA and NIDA, to designate National Substance Abuse Research Centers for interdisciplinary research on substance abuse and other biomedical, behavioral, and social issues. Mandates annual grants to Centers. Establishes in NIDA the Medication Development Program to take specified steps regarding: (1) medication to treat the symptoms and disease of alcohol and drug abuse and addiction and related mental disorders; and (2) supporting training in such areas. Mandates related grants or contracts and cooperative agreements. Subtitle B: Miscellaneous Provisions - Replaces provisions titled "Miscellaneous Provisions Relating to Substance Abuse and Mental Health" with provisions directing the Secretary, through the ADAMHSA Administrator, as feasible and on request of a State, to make technical assistance available for specified purposes, including: (1) program management and evaluation; (2) accreditation or licensure of facilities and personnel; and (3) improving the scope of mental health and substance abuse health insurance offered in the State. Makes the Secretary, through the Administrator, responsible for fostering substance abuse prevention and treatment programs and services in State and local governments and private industry. Mandates: (1) development of model programs suitable for replication on a cost-effective basis in different types of businesses and governmental entities; and (2) dissemination of information on the model programs. Prohibits denial or deprivation of Federal civilian employment or a Federal professional or other license or right solely on the grounds of prior substance abuse, except for employment in specified Federal agencies, any other Federal department or agency designated for purposes of national security by the President, or any Federal position determined to be sensitive. Prohibits discrimination against substance abusers who are suffering from medical conditions in admission or treatment, solely because of their substance abuse, by any private or public general hospital, or outpatient facility receiving any Federal support. Prohibits disclosure of patient information maintained in connection with substance abuse prevention, training, treatment, or research which is conducted or assisted by any Federal department or agency, subject to specified exceptions. Provides for monetary penalties. Mandates: (1) data collection on the national incidence and prevalence of the various forms of mental illness and substance abuse; and (2) competitive grants for epidemiological and longitudinal studies of infants and the families of infants with fetal cocaine and fetal alcohol syndromes. Authorizes appropriations. Provides, if the Secretary determines that a disease or disorder within the jurisdiction of ADAMHSA constitutes a public health emergency, for: (1) expediting peer and advisory committee review; (2) waiving advertising requirements for proposals for contracts; (3) increasing existing grants and contracts; and (4) disseminating information. Subtitle C: Transfer Provisions - Provides for the transfer from the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration (ADAMHA) to: (1) ADAMHSA of authorities, responsibilities, services, personnel, assets, liabilities, orders, regulations, legal actions, and other matters; and (2) the appropriate Directors of NIAAA, NIDA, and NIMH all research related functions of ADAMHA. Subtitle D: Conforming Amendments - Amends specified provisions of the Public Health Service Act relating to projects for assistance in transition from homelessness and provisions relating to alternative utilization of military facilities to substitute references to the Administrator of ADAMHSA for references to: (1) the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health; and (2) the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Directs the Secretary to carry out provisions relating to alcohol and drug abuse and mental health services block grants through the Administrator. Subtitle E: Miscellaneous Provisions - Directs the Secretary to try to get alternative Federal funding for grantees receiving assistance under the community youth activity program under the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988. Requires that the peer review systems, advisory councils, and scientific advisory committees used by NIAAA, NIDA, and NIMH before the transfer of those Institutes to NIH be used by those Institutes after the transfer. Title II: Reauthorization and Improvement of Alcohol and Drug Abuse and Mental Health Service Block Grant Program - Authorizes appropriations for the alcohol and drug abuse and mental health service block grant provisions of the Public Health Service Act. Revises the formula for determining the amount of block grant allotments. Requires that unobligated block grant funds remain available to a State if the Secretary finds that the funds were obligated but subsequently unobligated due to the State's diligence in carrying out the purposes of such provisions. Directs (currently, authorizes) the Secretary to waive a requirement (to spend at least 50 percent of specified funds reserved to carry out certain drug abuse activities) if the Secretary determines that the incidence of intravenous drug abuse in a State does not require that level of funding. Allows block grant allotments to be used for: (1) grants to community health centers for services relating to seriously (currently, chronically) mentally ill individuals; (2) grants to underserved populations of mentally ill individuals in State and local correctional facilities; (3) renovation that makes land or a facility suitable for use under such block grant provisions, including removing hazards or making the land or facility accessible to disabled persons; and (4) programs of treatment for adult and juvenile substance abusers in State and local criminal and juvenile justice systems. Replaces provisions prohibiting the use of block grant funds for the distribution of needles or bleach in connection with the use of illegal drugs with a provision prohibiting the use of such funds for any program prohibited by specified provisions (relating to needle or syringe distribution) of the Health Omnibus Programs Extension of 1988. Amends provisions limiting the percentage of block grant funds a State may use for administration to prohibit including in administrative expenses reasonable expenses incurred for training. Prohibits substance abuse treatment facilities and mental health treatment facilities receiving assistance under Public Health Service Act block grant provisions from discriminating against mentally ill substance abusers. Requires a State to maintain spending levels for alcohol and drug abuse and community mental health services at least at the level (currently, the average level) the State maintained during the previous two years. Removes a provision allowing waiver of that requirement due to extraordinary economic conditions in the State. Adds a requirement that the State mental health planning council comment on the State plan required under specified provisions. Requires a State, on request of the council, to submit the comments to the Secretary with the State plan. Requires development and implementation by a State, and annual approval by the Secretary, of a statewide Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Plan. Directs the Secretary, in making grants under existing provisions for the development of State comprehensive mental health services plans, act through the Administrator of ADAMHSA. Title III: Studies - Requires the Director of the NIDA to report to specified congressional committees on the role of the private sector in the development of anti-addiction medications, including legislative proposals designed to encourage private sector development of such medications. Requires the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration to report to specified congressional committees on the process by which anti-addiction medications receive marketing approval. Declares that it is the sense of the Congress that the Medications Development Division of the NIDA shall devote special attention and adequate resources to the development of specified medications relating to drug abuse. Requires the Directors of NIAAA, NIDA, and NIMH to establish a panel of independent experts in pharmacotherapeutic treatment of drug addiction to report to the appropriate congressional committees on the national strategy for developing such treatments. Requires the report to be made available to the public. Directs the Secretary to report to the appropriate congressional committees on a uniform definition of "serious mental illness." Requires the ADAMHSA Administrator, acting jointly with the NIMH Director, to report to the appropriate congressional committees on the most effective methods for, and the obstacles to, providing mental health services to individuals residing in correctional facilities.
United States · United States Congress · 13 June 1991
Unemployment Insurance Reform Act of 1991 - Title I: Optional Supplemental Unemployment Benefits Program - Allows States to enter into and participate in an agreement with the Secretary of Labor (the Secretary) to provide optional supplemental unemployment compensation under this Act in lieu of extended unemployment compensation under the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Act of 1970 (if the State has a State unemployment compensation law approved by the Secretary under which such extended compensation is payable). Allows a State to terminate such agreement upon 30 days written notice to the Secretary. States that supplemental benefits are for unemployed workers who have exhausted their basic 26 weeks of regular benefits in States experiencing specified elevated levels of employment. Provides for up to 26 weeks of such supplemental benefits for an eligible individual. Requires that the supplemental benefit period in a State last at least 26 weeks, but that no other such period shall begin until five weeks after the close of a prior such period. Bases the State "on" indicator or trigger for a week of such supplemental benefits on whether, for the most recent three calendar month period for which data are available, the seasonaly adjusted average rate of total unemployment (TUR) in the State equals or exceeds: (1) seven percent; and (2) 120 percent of the average of such rates for the corresponding three-month period ending in each of the preceding two calendar years. Establishes a special rule to declare there is a State "on" indicator if: (1) the State TUR for such period is at least six percent but less than seven percent; and (2) the national TUR for such period is seven percent or more. Declares there is a State "off" indicator for a week when the most recent three-month period does not satisfy such requirements. Sets forth a formula for determining the amount of any optional supplemental benefits account, with a variable limit based on the State's average unemployment rate. Provides for payments to States having agreements for the payment of optional supplemental compensation benefits. Authorizes appropriations to the extended unemployment compensation account in amounts necessary to carry out this Act. Sets forth sanctions for fraud and overpayments. Makes conforming amendments to the Social Security Act. Title II: Extended Unemployment Compensation Reform - Amends the Federal-State Extended Unemployment Compensation Act of 1970 to revise the State "on" and "off" indicators or triggers for a week. Declares that there is State "on" indicator for a week if there is: (1) a State TUR, for the most recent three-month period for which data are available, which is seven percent or more and which is 120 percent or more of average of certain earlier rates; or (2) a national TUR for the most recent such period of eight percent or more. Declares there is on "off" indicator for a week when such "on" requirements are met. Amends the Social Security Act to establish a contingency fund for costs of unemployment compensation administration during periods of high unemployment. Provides for an additional specified amount to be appropriated for every increase of 100,000 persons (with pro rata amounts for smaller increases above the first 100,000 increase) in the insured unemployment level above that assured in the President's budget proposal for that fiscal year. Designates such appropriations emergency direct spending and an emergency requirement in reports required under the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Reduction Act of 1985 (Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act), as amended by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1990. Repeals specified provisions of Federal law which limit ex-military service personnel's eligibility for regular unemployment benefits to the 13 weeks after a four-week waiting period (thus making such individuals eligible for such benefits on the same basis as other unemployed workers, that is, for 26 weeks after a one-week waiting period). Amends the Internal Revenue Code with respect to approval of State unemployment compensation laws to: (1) allow States (by making benefit denial discretionary rather than mandatory) to pay unemployment benefits to nonprofessional employees (i.e. support staff) of educational institutions between academic years or terms if they are otherwise eligible; and (2) require States to determine eligibility for compensation on an individual's work history, which includes such history for the most recent calendar quarter (setting specified deadlines for a State to meet such requirement).
United States · United States Congress · 11 June 1991
Amends the General Education Provisions Act to extend through FY 1996 the authorization of appropriations for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement.
United States · United States Congress · 11 June 1991
Prohibits the shipment in interstate or foreign commerce of steel jaw leghold traps and of articles of fur derived from animals trapped in such traps. Prescribes criminal penalties for violations of this Act. Directs the Secretary of the Interior to reward nongovernment informers for information leading to a conviction under this Act. Empowers enforcement officials to detain, search, and seize suspected merchandise or documents and to make arrests with and without warrants. Subjects seized merchandise to forfeiture.
United States · United States Congress · 6 June 1991
Higher Education Act Amendments of 1991 - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to revise and reauthorize its programs. Title I: Access and Retention - Establishes a new HEA title I, Access and Retention, to provide special programs and projects: (1) to identify and encourage students from low-income or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds who have potential for postsecondary and graduate education; and (2) to prepare students from such backgrounds for such education. (Replaces the current title I, Postsecondary Programs for Nontraditional Students.) Establishes a new Precollege Outreach Program of grants to States (replacing the current part A program) to support outreach services for individuals from low-income and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds in order to help them successfully complete secondary education and begin and succeed in postsecondary education. Authorizes States to make subgrants to eligible entities to carry out one or more of such services. Provides for a gradually declining Federal share of project costs, from 90 percent in the first year, with five percent reductions in succeeding years leveling off at 70 percent for the fifth year and thereafter. Includes among criteria to be used by the State agency in selecting projects the degree to which an applicant's service area include large numbers of low-income or first-generation college students. Prohibits an institution of higher education from using such grant funds for recruitment of students to enroll at that institution. Authorizes appropriations. Establishes a new Student Support Service Program of grants to institutions of higher education (replacing the current part B National Programs) to support individuals pursuing postsecondary education programs who are first-generation college students or from low-income or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. Directs the Secretary, in making such grant awards, to give highest priority to projects at institutions with the lowest educational and general expenditures per full-time equivalent student. Sets forth types of authorized services to assist in motivating and preparing students for postsecondary education. Authorizes appropriations. Establishes a new Ronald E. McNair Graduate Outreach Program of grants to institutions of higher education (combining and replacing certain current part C programs) for services to eligible individuals from low-income and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds to prepare them for graduate, professional, and doctoral study. Directs the Secretary not to make such a grant award without assurances that: (1) at least two-thirds of project participants will be first-generation college students from low-income families; (2) remaining participants will be from a group underrepresented in graduate education; (3) participants will be enrolled in a degree program at an institution of higher education; and (4) participants in summer research internships will have completed their sophomore year in postsecondary education. Sets forth authorized uses of grant funds, including opportunities for research or other scholarly activities, summer internships, and fellowships. Authorizes appropriations. Title II: National Graduate Fellowships Program - Repeals HEA titles II (Academic Library and Information Technology Enhancement) and IX (Graduate Programs). Establishes a new HEA title II, National Graduate Fellowships Program, for competitive grants to institutions of higher education to provide financial support to highly qualified individuals in graduate studies in areas of national need (including individuals from groups traditionally underrepresented in such studies in such areas). Designates each fellowship recipient a National Graduate Fellow. Limits the fellowship stipend to five years. Authorizes the Secretary to award continuation grants to institutions demonstrating satisfactory progress. Revises institutions receiving them to give preference in awarding fellowship stipends to students who have received National Graduate Fellowships and who demonstrate satisfactory progress in their studies. Sets forth reporting requirements. Directs the Secretary to make new grants under title II only to the extent that funds remain from continued prior funding under HEA to recipients of graduate fellowship assistance for: (1) the Foreign Language and Areas Studies Fellowship Program; (2) the Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship Program; (3) the Jacob K. Javits Fellows Program; or (4) the Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need Program. Requires institutions receiving title II grants to give preference in awarding fellowships to students who previously received such assistance under a listed program. Allows a student who received such assistance to subsequently receive a National Graduate Fellowship, but limits the combined period of assistance to not more than five years. Authorizes appropriations. Title III: Institutional Aid - Revises HEA title III, Institutional Aid. Eliminates provisions for special consideration for certain activities. (Deems these simply as allowable program activities.) Revises eligibility criteria for institutions to require that their average educational and general expenditures be lower, by a percentage determined annually, than the same expenditures per full-time equivalent undergraduate student of institutions that offer similar instruction. Eliminates as a requirement for such assistance that such institutions are to have been authorized for the preceding five years to offer a specified degree program, and accredited or making reasonable progress toward accreditation. Eliminates provisions for waivers of such requirement for institutions with specified percentages of minority students. Limits grant awards to only one such grant, with a maximum five-year duration, to any eligible institution, except that a one-year planning grant may be awarded for preparing plans and applications. Requires: (1) grant applications to describe measurable goals for the institution's management and academic programs, and a plan for achieving them; and (2) continuation applications to demonstrate progress toward achieving them. Revises the program of grants to strengthen Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Allows the use of grant funds to establish or improve a development office to strengthen or improve contributions from alumni and the private sector. Prohibits awarding to any one undergraduate institution: (1) more than two such grants for a period not to exceed ten years from September 30, 1987; or (2) any grant exceeding five years. Requires grant applications to describe measurable goals for the institution's financial management as well as academic goals, and plans to achieve them. Revises and renames a certain program Endowment Challenge Grants for Institutions Eligible for Assistance. Increases the amount (from $10,000,000 to $20,000,000) which appropriations for such grants must exceed before the Secretary may make a two-to-one matching endowment grant exceeding $1,000,000 to an institution. Gives priority for endowment grants to applicants that have received another title III grant within the preceding five years. Revises title III general provisions. Authorizes appropriations. Title IV: Student Assistance - Part A: Grants to Students - Amends HEA title IV (Student Assistance) with respect to the program of Grants to Students in Attendance at Institutions of Higher Education. Subpart 1: Pell Grants - Extends Pell Grant program authority through FY 1997. Eliminates a requirement that the Secretary make an advance payment to eligible institutions of at least 85 percent of the amount each institution requests as needed to pay Pell Grants to eligible students. Revises requirements for the amount of Pell Grants. Sets the amount of an award to a student at the lesser of: (1) the specified maximum award less the expected family contribution; or (2) the percentage (based on family-income level) of the amount of the student's need for financial assistance (i.e. cost of attendance minus expected family contribution). Increases the maximum award amount to $3,700 for 1992-3 and the four succeeding award years. Sets forth a table of percentages of student need for award computation. Increases the minimum allowable award from $200 to $400. Eliminates certain restrictions on the award of Pell Grants to students attending on a less than half-time basis. Revises the period of eligibility for Pell Grants. Limits such period to the full-time equivalent of three academic years in the aggregate in the case of all undergraduate degree or certificate programs normally requiring two years or less. Specifies that longer eligibility periods for longer programs are cumulative and include periods for which the student received a Pell Grant under shorter programs Revises requirements for adjustments for insufficient appropriations for the Pell Grant program. Provides for reduction of all awards by a percentage determined in accordance with a schedule of reductions by the Secretary. (Currently certain awards are held harmless.) Increases the minimumm allowable Pell Grant, under such reduction formula, from $100 to $200. Eliminates certain limitations on the availability of Pell Grant funds when excess amounts are available at the end of a fiscal year. Subpart 2: Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants - Extends the authorization of appropriations for the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG) program, but reduces the amount of funding. Reduces the Federal share of SEOG awards to not more to not more than 50 percent in FY 1992 and thereafter. (Current law provides for a maximum Federal share of 85 percent in FY 1991, and allows an even greater Federal share if the Secretary determines it warranted.) Subpart 3: Repeals - Repeals authority for the following programs: (1) Grants to States for State Student Incentives (SSI); (2) Special Programs for Students from Disadvantaged Backgrounds (TRIO programs); (3) Assistance to Institutions of Higher Education (including the Veterans Education Outreach Program); and (4) Special Child Care Services for Disadvantaged College Students. Subpart 4: Presidential Achievement Scholarship Program - Creates a Presidential Achievement Scholarship Program to award scholarships to Pell Grant recipients who demonstrate high levels of academic achievement. Authorizes appropriations. Allows Presidential Achievement Scholars to receive up to four scholarships, each for one academic year, for full-time undergraduate study (or five scholarships for full-time undergraduate study programs that require attendance for five academic years). Bases eligibility in the first year of postsecondary education on the student's receiving a Pell Grant and either: (1) ranking, or having ranked, in the top ten percent, by grade point average, of his or her high school graduating class; or (2) achieving at least the announced minimum score on one of the nationally administered, standardized tests identified by the Secretary. Bases eligibility after the first year on the student's receiving a Pell Grant and: (1) being enrolled in a program of study of at least two years that lead to a degree or certificate; and (2) ranking in the top 20 percent, by cumulative grade point average or equivalent, of his or her postsecondary education class as of the last academic year of study completed. Provides that a student's eligibility for such a scholarship does not depend on receipt of scholarship or Pell Grant in the previous academic year. Requires full-time attendance at the institution as a condition for receiving such a scholarship. Directs the Secretary to establish scholarship award procedures, including deadlines for consideration of students. Requires disbursement of scholarship proceeds to the institutions, but not until the student recipients are enrolled. Sets such scholarship award at $500 for any academic year. Reduces such amount by the amount it exceeds the student's cost of attendance by itself or when combined with other Federal or non-Federal grant or scholarship assistance in the the academic year. Provides for proportionate reductions in each award to adjust for insufficient appropriations. Subpart 5: National Science Scholars Program - Creates a National Science Scholars Program to award scholarships to outstanding students, selected by the President, for the study of physical, life, or computer sciences, mathematics, or engineering. Authorizes appropriations. Provides for an a initial award for the first year of undergraduate study and continuation award for the remaining three (or four) years, as appropriate. Allows National Science Scholars to use such award to attend any defined institution of higher education. Requires the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF Director) and the Secretary to jointly establish criteria for selection of scholars for initial year awards. Requires such criteria to include potential to successfully complete a postsecondary program, and motivation to pursue a career, in such fields. Allows consideration to be given to individual financial need and to the nondiscriminatory promotion of participation by minorities and individus with disabilities. Requires States to establish a nominating committee, if they desire to qualify student residents for selection. Requires each State nominating committee to submit to the President nominations of from four to ten individuals from each congressional district. Requires priority ranking of such nominations. Requires the President to select and announce two such scholars for each academic year from each congressional district. Directs the Secretary to make continuation awards of additional scholarships to recipient of initial awards who meet specified requirements. Requires disbursement of scholarship proceeds to the institutions, but not until the student recipients are enrolled. Requires the NSF Director and the Secretary to encourage the support and assistance of civic groups, the business community, professional associations, institutions of higher education, and others in providing scholarship assistance to National Science Scholarship finalists. Sets forth eligibility requirements for initial and continuation awards. Allows the Secretary to waive full-time attendance requirements in unusual circumstances. Directs the Secretary to determine circumstances for eligibility reinstatement after an interruption of schooling for personal reasons. Requires the Secretary annually to notify all public and private secondary schools and all institutions of higher education in each State of the availability of such scholarships. Sets such a scholarship award at $6,000 for any academic year. Reduces such amount by the amount it exceeds the student's cost of attendance by itself or when combined with other Federal and non-Federal grant or scholarship assistance in the academic year. Provides for proportionate reductions in each award to adjust for insufficient appropriations. Requires priority consideration to be given students receiving such scholarships, to the extent they are otherwise qualified, for federally financed summer employment in federally funded research and development centers that complements and reinforces their educational program. Requires Federal agencies to participate actively in providing appropriate summer employment opportunities for such students. Repeals provisions of the Excellence in Mathematics, Science, and Engineering Education Act of 1990 which currently authorize the National Science Scholars Program. Subpart 6: Special Programs for Students Whose Families Are Engaged in Migrant and Seasonal Farmwork - Revises the Special Programs for Students Whose Families Are Engaged in Migrant and Seasonal Farmwork. Renames certain grants as grants to build the program capacity of educational agencies, institutions, and organizations to operate high school equivalency programs (HEP) and college assistance migrant programs (CAMP) for migrant students. Makes State and local educational agencies (as well as as institutions of higher education and private nonprofit organizations) eligible for such HEP grants. Allows provision of HEP services to individuals 16 years of age or older, or beyond the State age of compulsory school attendance, and not currently enrolled in school. (Current laws requires 17 years of age or over.) Limits authorized CAMP services, with specified exceptions, to those services necessary to assist migrant students in completing their first year of college. Requires CAMP grantees to provide follow-up services for migrant students after their first year of college. Authorizes use of up to ten percent of the CAMP grant for such follow-up services. Requires such follow-up services to include: (1) monitoring and reporting on student academic progress; and (2) referring students to providers of counseling services, academic assistance, or financial aid. Requires each project application to include a long-range management plan describing how the applicant will, over the grant period, gradually assume financial responsibility to provide services substantially similar to those proposed in the application. Requires the Secretary in making grants, to consider the geographic distribution of the persons to be served by grantees. Requires grant awards to be one-time, nonrenewable grants for: (1) a five-year period for first-time grantees; and (2) a three-year period for previous grantees. Provides for a Federal share of 90 percent in the first year, declining to 50 percent in the last year of such grants. Retains the $150,000 minimum allocation for each project. Extends the authorization of appropriations for the the HEP and CAMP programs. Subpart 7: Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program - Revises the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program, particularly the formula for allocation of such scholarship program funds among States. Bases such allocation on relative population ages five through 17. Provides that each State shall receive at least ten scholarships. Allocates to the State $1,500 per scholarship. Eliminates a requirement that ten such scholars be selected for each congressional district. Requires the State education agency to adopt selection procedures to ensure an equitable geographic distribution of awards within the State. Eliminates requirements for an award ceremony. Extends the authorization of appropriations for the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program. Part B: Guaranteed Student Loans - Revises the Robert T. Stafford Student Loan program. Extends the authorization for, and the amount of, new loan principal that may be made to students covered by Federal loan insurance. Increases the annual and aggregate loan limits under the Stafford loan and the Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS) programs. Requires lenders to: (1) offer Stafford and SLS loan borrowers the option of repaying such loans on a graduated repayment schedule under specified conditions; (2) obtain the borrower's authorization for entry of judgment against the borrower in the event of default; and (3) obtain the borrower's driver's license number, if any, at the time of loan application (for the parent loan PLUS program, as well). Eliminates a provision which allowed an institution to refuse to certify a student's eligibility for a loan, or allowed it to certify a lesser amount, under specified conditions. Revises loan deferment provisions. Retains deferment while the borrower is in specified courses of study. Replaces the various current categorical deferments with a hardship deferment of up to three years in the aggregate. Requires the lender to grant specified forbearance if the borrower is a Peace Corps or VISTA volunteer does not qualify for such hardship deferment. Revises provisions for Federal reinsurance coverage. Revises the period in which guaranty agencies must file reinsurance claims. Revises requirements for calculation and payment of such reinsurance. Requires in the case of Stafford, SLS, and PLUS loan applicants over age 21, that the lender: (1) obtain a credit report; and (2) require a cosigner for such applicants who have adverse credit histories. Allows the lender to charge such applicants for the actual cost of such credit reports, up to $25. Requires a 60-day delayed disbursement of Stafford or SLS loans to first-year undergraduates at institutions with default rates of 30 percent or greater. (Retains the current 30-day delayed disbursement for first-year undergraduates at institutions with default rates less than 30 percent.) Revises provisions for eligibility limitations, suspensions, terminations, other hearing procedures, and fines for lenders or institutions that violate program requirements. Sets forth conflict-of-interest restrictions on guaranty agency officers and employers. Prohibits any guaranty agency from permitting any of its officers or employees, or any member of their immediate families, to have a direct financial interest in, or serve as an officer or employee of, any lender, secondary market, contractor, or service with which the guaranty agency does business. Includes financial information among the information the Secretary may reasonably require from a guaranty agency to carry out the student loan programs and protect the U.S. financial interest. Revises the administrative cost and collection retention allowances for guaranty agencies. Revises provisions for oversight of guaranty agencies. Authorizes the Secretary to require a guaranty agency to submit and implement a management plan if the ratio of its reserve funds to outstanding guarantees is less than a set level, or if its administrative or financial condition jeopardizes its continued ability to perform its responsibilities under its guaranty agreement. Authorizes the Secretary to terminate the guaranty agreement with any agency that fails to submit an acceptable management plan or fails to improve substantially its condition in accordance with such a plan. Authorizes the Secretary to assume guaranty agency functions of agencies whose agreements are terminated by the Secretary or themselves. Limits the Secretary's liability for any outstanding liabilities of a guaranty agency, the functions of which the Secretary has assumed, to the fair market value of assets assigned by the agency to the Secretary, minus any necessary liquidation or administrative costs. Requires State backing of designated guaranty agencies. Requires each State to guarantee, with its full faith and credit or the equivalent, all student loans guaranteed by the guaranty agency designated for that State for borrowers attending eligible institutions in that State. Provides that a State may elect to guarantee, in addition, student loans guaranteed by any other guarantee agency for borrowers who are attending eligible institutions in that State. Requires the State, if such a guaranty agency backed by the State is unable to discharge its insurance obligation, to be responsible for discharging them, as well as administrative costs associated with transferring the guaranty agency's operations to another entity. Directs the Secretary, if a State discharges such insurance obligations, to pay the State the amount the guaranty agency would otherwise have received as reimbursement. Directs the Secretary, unless a State demonstrates by January 1, 1994, that it is backing the designated guaranty agency, to assess institutions of higher education participating in the student loan program that are located in that State a fee based on the risk of financial loss to the Federal Government that the State would otherwise assume. Requires such fees to be deposited in the student loan insurance fund. Requires State to pay a share of default costs in specified circumstances. Allows a State to charge a fee to an institution of higher education in the State participating in the loan program, to an approved fee structure based on the institution's cohort default rates and the State's risk of loss under such requirement. Eliminates the student loan program eligibility of foreign institutions (but not of study abroad that is part of the curriculum of U.S. institutions). Revises the definition of cohort default rate. Reduces the special allowance rates for holders of loans for which the cohort default rate exceeds 20 percent. Requires the Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae) to notify the Secretary, within 15 days, when: (1) it makes a loan or extends any other form of credit to a guaranty agency; (2) its cumulative loans or other forms of credit outstanding to any one lender exceed $50,000,000; or (3) it makes any additional loans or other forms of credit to a lender whose cumulative outstanding loans from it exceed $50,000,000. Requires Sallie Mae's annual report on its operations and activities: (1) to be submitted to the Secretary and the Congress (currently the President and the Congress); and (2) to include specific information regarding its investments and debts, the characteristics of its student loan portfolio, and other data which the Secretary may reasonably require. Part C: Work-Study Programs - Extends the authorization of appropriations for Work-Study Programs (but reduces the amount of such funding). Lowers the maximum Federal share of the the compensation of students employed in the work-study program to 50 percent for FY 1992 and succeeding fiscal years. (Current law sets it at 70 percent for academic year 1990-1991 and succeeding academic years.) Eliminates special incentives (such as increased Federal administrative allowance and increased Federal share of student compensation for community service-learning jobs under the work-study program. Lowers the maximum Federal share of the cost of any job location and development program, under the work-study program from 80 percent to 50 percent. Prohibits students attending proprietary institutions of higher education from being employed by such institutions under the work-study program (but allows them to participate in work-study program employment by a government agency or a private nonprofit organization). Reduces from $200 to $100 the amount of work-study program compensation in excess of need that a student may receive. Eliminates provisions for private sector employment agreements under the work-study program. Part D: Income Contingent Loan Program - Extends through FY 1996 the authorization of appropriations for the Income Contingent Direct Loan Program (ICL program) (and increases the amount of such funding). Eliminates the limitation that the Secretary may not enter into ICL agreements with more than ten institutions of higher education. Makes consortia of institutions of higher educations (as well as single institutions) eligible to participate in the ICL program. Provides for an aggregate ICL loan limit of $50,000 for individual graduate and professional students, including any such loans made to such persons before they become graduate or professional students. Provides for an annual limit of $10,000 on ICL loans to graduate and professional students. (Retains current limits for undergraduates.) Requires ICL applicants to provide their driver license number, if any. Requires institutions to: (1) obtain a credit report on any ICL applicant over age 21; and (2) require any such applicant with an adverse credit history to obtain a cosigner and report to the Congress on the cost-effectiveness of the ICL program, its impact on participating institutions and students, and the feasibility of extending it to a loan program of general applicability. Part E: Perkins Loan Program - Authorizes appropriations for the Perkins Loan Program, but only for reimbursement of institutions for Perkins loans that are cancelled for certain public service. Terminates the authorization of appropriations for: (1) Federal contributions to student loan funds established under such program; and (2) continuation loans to certain students who have received earlier Perkins Loans. Revises provisions for terms of such loans and cancellation for public service. Extends provisions for distribution of assets from such student loan funds. Repeals provisions for allocation of funds. Part F: Need Analysis - Revises provisions for need analysis to apply them to all need-based student assistance programs, including Pell Grants (which currently have a separate need analysis system). Revises the definitions of cost of attendance and family contribution, as well as provisions for data elements used in determining expected family contribution. Revises the formula for calculation of the expected family contribution for a dependent student to eliminate references to the student's spouse. Allows application of any parent's negative available income: (1) to reduce the parent's income supplement amount from assets; and (2) if there is any negative amount remaining after that is reduced to zero, to increase the allowances against the dependent student's income. Revises the minimum dependent student contribution to be the greater of: (1) specified amounts that vary according to family total income; or (2) 70 percent of the student's total income, minus the adjustment to student income. Eliminates certain exceptions to the general need analysis calculation for dislocated workers and displaced homemakers. Excludes from the calculation of net worth the net value of the principal place of residence for the families of dependent students and for independent students, if their adjusted gross income is less than $20,000. Revises the tables for determination of standard maintenance allowance, employment expense allowance, adjusted net worth of business and of farm, asset protection allowance, and parent's assessment from available income. Revises the asset protection allowance to provide for consideration of the average age of both parents. Revises provisions for family contribution for married or single independent students without dependents (including various revisions similar to those described for dependent students). Includes married, as well as unmarried, students under this category of independent students without dependents. Revises provisions for minimum student contribution under this category. Revises tables for determining various allowances and other factors. Revises provisions relating to the family contribution for married or single independent students with dependents (including provisions similiar to those in other categories). Revises tables for determining various allowances and other factors. Eliminates certain restrictions on the Secretary's authority to prescribe regulations to carry out need analysis requirements. Revises provisions relating to development of revised tables of assessment rates for purposes of such need analysis. Authorizes the Secretary to prescribe regulations specifying situations in which the data elements considered in determining a student's expected family contribution may be modified to accommodate the special circumstances of the student. Part G: General Provisions - Revises general provisions relating to student assistance programs. Includes as an institution of higher education for the student assistance programs any institution that provides programs of at least six months (or 600 clock hours) that prepare students for gainful employment in recognized occupations, and that has been in existence for at least two years. Makes ineligible for student assistance program participation for specified periods any institution whose cohort default rate equals or exceeds a specified threshold percentage. Revises provisions for proprietary institutions of higher education. Authorizes the Secretary, if a particular category of proprietary institution does not meet specified student assistance program requirements because there is no nationally recognized accrediting agency or association qualified to accredit such institutions, to: (1) appoint an advisory committee to recommend qualifying standards; and (2) determine whether the particular schools meet them. Provides for reduction of student assistance loan award maximums for short-term programs. Revises provisions relating to a master calendar. Revises provisions for a common financial reporting form for determination of expected family contribution. Requires students, in order to remain eligible for assistance, to satisfy specified minimum academic achievement standards, including an academic standing above the bottom ten percent of their postsecondary class. Directs the Secretary to implement a system of verification of immigration status. Revises requirements for borrower information to be submitted to the institution during the exit interview. Eliminates certain provisions for training in financial aid and student support services. Requires any institution participating in any student assistance program to have in effect a fair and equitable refund policy and to provide a written statement of it, with examples, to prospective students. Revises provisions for student assistance program participation agreements. Requires the institution to acknowledge the authority of the Secretary, guaranty agencies, accrediting agencies, and State licensing bodies to share with each other any information pertaining to the institution's eligibility to participate in such programs. Prohibits institutions from providing any incentive payments for securing enrollments to any persons or entities engaged in any student recruiting or admission activities or in making decisions regarding the award of student financial assistance. Eliminates the requirement that hearings be on the record, with respect to program participation limitation, suspension, or termination procedures. Authorizes the Secretary to conditionally certify an institution's eligibility to participate in student assistance programs, under specified circumstances. Provides for wage garnishment for loan collection. Authorizes a guaranty agency, or the Secretary where appropriate, to garnish the disposable pay of an individual to collect the amount owed or the required repayment, subject to certain conditions. Provides for data matching. Authorizes the Secretary to obtain from Federal or State agencies specified information relating to an individual for student loan collection purposes. Directs the Secretary of Labor to enter into an agreement to provide prompt access for the Secretary to wage and unemployment compensation claims information and data maintained by or for the Department of Labor or State employment security agencies. Subjects to specified criminal penalties attempts to commit specified offenses. Amends the Higher Education Technical Amendments of 1991 to make permanent the elimination of limitations on actions to collect defaulted student loans or grant overpayments. Title V: Education Recruitment, Retention, and Development - Establishes a new Partnerships for Innovative Teacher Education program, replacing the current Midcareer Teacher Training for Nontraditional Students program. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to and contracts with State and local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and consortia of such institutions and agencies to plan, establish, and operate teaching schools to develop and put into practice the best knowledge about teaching. Provides that such awards shall be for a term of three years, with renewals for two additional years under specified conditions. Provides for applications, priorities, uses of funds by award recipients, and authorized activities of such teaching schools. Authorizes appropriations. Sets the Federal share at 75 percent for the first three years and 50 percent for the final two years. Repeals provisions for School, College, and University Partnerships. Retains Professional Development and Leadership Programs. Authorizes appropriations to complete the final year of funding for the territories under provisions for Leadership in Educational Administration Development. Repeals provisions for Professional Development Resource Centers and Leadership in Educational Administration Development. Retains Teacher Scholarships and Fellowships. Renames the Congressional Teacher Scholarship Programs the Paul Douglas Teacher Scholarship Program. Makes such scholarships available to outstanding high school graduates who demonstrate an interest in teaching. Authorizes appropriations. Revises requirements for the teaching service obligation of certain scholarship recipients, repayment conditions, assurances of pursuing a teaching career, and maintenance of academic achievement. Revises the Christa McAuliffe Fellowship Program to authorize appropriations. Bases allotment of funds on the number of public school teachers in each State and other specified jurisdictions. Authorizes the Secretary, in extraordinary circumstances, to waive or defer all or a portion of the service requirement, or to allow fellows to fulfill their service requirement by teaching in another school or school district. Requires States, in making fellowship awards, to give priority to applicants proposing fellowship projects involving pursuit of eligible activities on a full-time basis as part of a sabbatical. Eliminates the requirement that announcement of such awards be made in a public ceremony. Repeals provisions for State Task Forces on Teacher Training. Title VI: International Education Programs - Revises the International and Foreign Language Studies program for graduate and undergraduate language and area centers to eliminate stipends and allowances for: (1) individuals undergoing advanced training; and (2) students beginning their third year of graduate training. Repeals provisions for grants to institutions of higher education or public or private nonprofit library institutions or consortia to acquire, maintain bibliographic data on, preserve, and make available to researchers and scholars certain periodicals published outside the United States which are not commonly held by U.S. academic libraries. Authorizes appropriations to carry out International Education Programs. Title VII: College Facilities Loans and Insurance - Revises and redesignates the Construction, Reconstruction, and Renovation of Academic Facilities Loans and Insurance program to: (1) provide higher education institutions with access to private capital construction debt through the College Construction Loan Insurance Association; and (2) provide for servicing of the remaining loan portfolio of the Higher Education Facilities Loans, College Housing Loans, and College Housing and Academic Facilities Loans authorized before the effective date of this Act. Repeals the authorization of appropriations and other provisions for: (1) Grants for the Construction, Reconstruction, and Renovation of Undergraduate Academic Facilities; (2) Grants for Construction, Reconstruction, and Renovation of Graduate Academic Facilities; (3) Loans for Construction, Reconstruction, and Renovation of Academic Facilities; (4) Grants to Pay Interest on Debt; (5) Housing and Other Educational Facilities Loans; and (6) Special Programs. Authorizes appropriations for remaining programs. Title VIII: Cooperative Education - Extends the authorization of appropriations for Cooperative Education (but reduces the amount of such funding). Eliminates certain reservations of funds for specified categories of projects. (Retains the current division of 75 percent of funds for grants for cooperative education programs and 25 percent for demonstration and innovation projects, training and resource centers, and research.) Defines cooperative education as the provision of alternating or parallel periods of academic study and public and private employment in order to give students work experience related to their academic or occupational objectives and an opportunity to earn the funds necessary for continuing and completing their education. Revises matching requirements for cooperative education grants. Requires grant applicants to describe fiscal support plans to ensure that such programs shall continue beyond the five-year period of Federal assistance at not less than the level of expenditures for the initial year of Federal assistance. Authorizes the Secretary to elect not to make a continuation award to a fund recipient that has failed to maintain such fiscal effort in years after the grant period. Requires each recipient to document to the Secretary its maintenance of fiscal effort beyond the five-year period of Federal assistance. Revises grant application requirements to require descriptions of: (1) the extent to which programs in the academic discipline for which the application is made have had a favorable reception by public and private sector employers; and (2) the plans the applicant will carry out to evaluate their cooperative education program at the end of the grant period. Eliminates certain factors for special consideration of applications. Directs the Secretary to give special consideration to applications which demonstrate a commitment to serving disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. Revises provisions relating to the duration of grants. Provides that: (1) only institutions that have received such a grant before enactment of this Act shall be eligible to receive one additional continuation grant of not more than five years; and (2 all other institutions may receive only a single five-year grant. Revises provisions for training and resource centers to provide that their improvement of materials used in cooperative education programs shall take place in conjunction with other specified activities. Title IX: Postsecondary Improvement Programs - Revises provisions for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE). Repeals consultation provisions which prohibit any FIPSE grant or contract unless it has been submitted to the appropriate State entity and that entity has had an opportunity to submit comments and recommendations to the Secretary. Specifies that the Secretary appoints the Director of the National Board of FIPSE. Revises Board functions and repeals a requirement for a minimum number of Board meetings annually. Eliminates provisions requiring the Director to establish grant and contract review and evaluation procedures, and prohibiting such procedures from being subject to any review outside of officials responsible for FIPSE administration. Extends the authorization of appropriations for the FIPSE program. Revises and renames the Minority Science and Engineering Programs the Minority Science Improvement Program. Repeals a requirement tht the Secretary submit to the Congress an annual list of grantees. Directs the Secretary in cooperation with the heads of other Federal departments and agencies that operate programs similar to the Minority Science Improvement Program, to report to the President before 1995, summarizing and evaluating those programs. Repeals provisions for Science and Engineering Access Programs. Requires grant recipients, in order to remain eligible to receive funds, to demonstrate to the Secretary that they are making reasonable progress toward achieving the project goals. Repeals specified provisions: (1) relating to Procedures for grant and contract review; and (2) for the Advisory Board for the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Programs. Extends the authorization of appropriations for the Minority Science Improvement Program. (Eliminates provisions allocating funds and providing an additional appropriation for new activities specifically aimed at increasing the participation of minority students in scientific and engineering research careers.) Revises and renames the Innovative Projects for Community Services and Student Financial Independence programs the Innovative Projects for Community Services, to support innovative projects to encourage student participation in community service projects, including literacy projects. Provides that the Secretary (rather than the FIPSE Board Director) shall establish the procedures under which the FIPSE Board approves Innovative Projects grant and contract applications. Extends the authorization of appropriations for Innovative Projects for Community Services (and increases the amount of such funding to reflect the incorporation of certain functions of the Student Literacy Corps eliminated by this Act). Title X: Partnerships for Economic Development and Urban Community Service - Repeals the Partnerships for Economic Development and Community Service program. Title XI: General Provisions - Revises the definition of institution of higher education. Requires such institutions, in order to be eligible to participate in HEA programs, to comply with such minimum State licensing standards as the Secretary may prescribe by regulation and which the relevant State licensing body is to impose upon institutions it licenses. Revises the alternative accreditation process. Authorizes the Secretary, if a particular category of institutions is not accredited because no nationally recognized accrediting agency or association is qualified to do so, to appoint an advisory committee to: (1) recommend standards to qualify institutions in such category to participate in HEA programs; and (2) review whether particular institutions meet such standards. Requires an institution, if it is accredited by more than one accrediting body, to designate, for HEA eligibility purposes, one such body as it primary accreditor, on either an institutionwide or program basis. Deems such an institution no longer accredited for purposes of HEA eligibility for a 24-month period if its accreditation is terminated for cause by the primary accreditor, or if it withdraws from such accreditation voluntarily under a show cause or suspension order, unless such accreditation is restored by the same accreditor during such 24-month period. Revises provisions relating to treatment of territories and territorial student assistance. Changes from mandatory to discretionary the Secretary's authority to waive the eligibility criteria of any postsecondary education program administered by the Department of Education where such criteria does not take into account the unique circumstances of specified U.S. territories. Eliminates provisions for: (1) promulgation of certain regulations; and (2) an authorization of appropriations for supporting the cost of providing postsecondary education programs on Guam for nonresident students from specified U.S. territories. Extends the authorization for the continued existence of the National Advisory Committee on Accreditation and Institutional Eligibility. Revises provisions for peer review of applications to authorize the Secretary to use up to one-half of one percent of appropriations, for discretionay grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to provide for the panels of readers required to review the applications for such grants, contracts, and agreements. Provides for sharing of institutional eligibility information by the Secretary, guaranty agencies, accrediting agencies, and State licensing bodies. Makes ineligible for any HEA assistance any individual who is in default on any loan made, insured, or guaranteed by the Federal Government, unless satisfactory repayment arrangements are made. Repeals provisions for: (1) a Joint Study Commission on Postsecondary Institutional Recognition; and (2) regional technology transfer centers. Title XII: Effective Dates - Sets forth effective dates for various provisions of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 6 June 1991
Racial Justice Act of 1991 - Amends the Federal judicial code to make it unlawful to impose or execute sentences of death under color of State or Federal law in a racially discriminatory pattern. Prohibits a person from being put to death in the execution of a sentence imposed pursuant to any law if that person's death sentence furthers a racially discriminatory pattern. Provides that ordinary methods of statistical proof shall suffice to establish a racially discriminatory pattern. States that it shall not be necessary to show discriminatory motive, intent, or purpose on the part of any individual or institution. Establishes the requirements for a prima facie showing that a racially discriminatory pattern exists. States that a State or Federal entity may rebut a prima facie showing by establishing by clear and convincing evidence that identifiable nonracial factors explain the racial disparities constituting the pattern. Requires any State or Federal entity that provides for the imposition of the death penalty to collect and maintain pertinent data on the charging, disposition, and sentencing patterns for all cases of death-eligible crimes. Provides for the appointment of counsel for all indigent clients (and the furnishing of investigative and other services) for habeas corpus actions arising under this Act. Provides that no State court determination on the merits of a factual issue pertinent to a claim under this Act shall be presumed to be correct unless: (1) the State has collected and maintained the necessary death penalty data; and (2) the determination was made in a court proceeding where the defendant was afforded his rights required under this Act. States that nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to affect the lawfulness of any sentence of death that does not violate this Act. States that the failure to raise such a claim before the enactment of this Act shall not bar future claims.
United States · United States Congress · 6 June 1991
Promotion of Democracy and Respect for Human Rights in Guatemala Act of 1991 - Prohibits the provision of unobligated military assistance and all military assistance for FY 1992 and 1993 to Guatemala until the President reports to the Congress that: (1) the Government of Guatemala has conducted investigations and prosecutions of those responsible for specified murders; (2) military harassment and assassinations with respect to human rights activists have ceased and such activists may freely carry out activities; (3) respect for rights of certain freedoms and political pluralism have increased; (4) internationally recognized workers' rights have been extended to Guatemalan workers; (5) the Guatemalan Government is prosecuting members of the police force who are responsible for murders and disappearances of street children; and (6) the Guatemalan Government has put an end to the practice of forced civil patrol duty. Provides that unobligated economic support fund (ESF) assistance and ESF assistance for FY 1992 and 1993, development assistance, and assistance under the Agricultural Trade Development and Assistance Act of 1954 for Guatemala may be used only by civilian agencies and nongovernmental organizations and shall be limited to assistance for: (1) the Guatemalan human rights ombudsman; (2) programs that address poverty and basic human needs; (3) fiscal administration; (4) the National Reconciliation Commission; and (5) the improvement of the performance of democratic institutions or the promotion of political pluralism. Prohibits the use of such assistance for partisan political purposes or as an instrument of counterinsurgency. Makes restrictions on the use of such assistance inapplicable if the President reports to the Congress that the Guatemalan Government has: (1) conducted investigations and prosecutions of those responsible for the murders and mistreatment of named individuals; and (2) made substantial progress towards a fiscally responsible tax policy and improved fiscal administration. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the President should encourage other nations to cease the provision of military assistance to Guatemala until conditions under this Act have been met. Requires the President to report biennially to specified congressional committees on: (1) countries, companies, and individuals engaged in the sale or export of military equipment to the Guatemalan Government; and (2) the nature and type of such equipment.
United States · United States Congress · 5 June 1991
HealthAmerica: Affordable Health Care for All Americans Act - HealthAmerica Act - Title I: Amendments to Public Health Service Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to create a new title on basic health benefits for employees and their families. Requires each employer, with regard to each of its full-time employees and their families, and allows an employer, with regard to all of its part-time employees and their families, to: (1) enroll them in a health benefit plan under provisions of this Act; or (2) make a contribution for coverage of the employees and their families under the public health insurance plan added by this Act to the Social Security Act. Requires employers making a contribution to follow prescribed procedures to facilitate enrollment of its employees, including distributing and submitting enrollment forms and withholding and submitting payroll deductions. Requires, beginning seven years after enactment of this Act, that an individual seeking benefits under a Federal program certify possession of health insurance meeting minimum standards under this Act. Conditions claiming of a personal exemption deduction under the Internal Revenue Code on the individual filer certifying coverage meeting such standards. Title II: Requirements for Health Benefit Plans - Allows, except for provisions of title III of this Act relating to small and medium-sized business insurance, an employer to meet the requirements of this title through any health benefit plan. Exempts, in certain circumstances, employers in the State of Hawaii from the requirements of this title so long as the Hawaii Prepaid Health Care Act remains in effect. Requires that enrollment of an employee include enrollment of the employee's family and prohibits waiver of enrollment of the employee or the employee's family, subject to exception to avoid duplicate enrollment. Permits variations in premiums, deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance which are actuarially equivalent to the requirements in certain provisions of this title. Establishes an Advisory Board to develop actuarial equivalency standards and to deal with other matters concerning the administration of this title. Sets forth general requirements for plan coverage, including, subject to certain limitations, inpatient and outpatient hospital care, inpatient and outpatient physician services, diagnostic tests, prenatal and well-baby care, preventive services (limited to well child care, pap smears, and mammograms), and inpatient and outpatient mental disorder care. Prohibits limitations on the amount, scope, and duration of certain benefits. Allows such limitations on specified other benefits. Allows a plan to: (1) provide benefits through managed care systems; (2) select particular providers or types, classes, or categories of providers; and (3) establish different levels of payment for different providers. Allows an employer to establish a fee schedule or other basis for payment different from charges, provided the payment is sufficient to achieve adequate access to plan services without additional out-of-pocket expenses, but for permitted copayments and deductibles. Requires inpatient mental health care to include payment for professional services by a physician or a licensed or certified clinical psychologist. Requires plan coverage to include outpatient services by a licensed or certified clinical psychologist or a provider with training and education equivalent to a licensed clinical social worker. Mandates reports to the Congress regarding: (1) possible changes to the preventive services covered; and (2) the cost-effectiveness and desirability of coverage of colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and osteoporosis screening and of coverage of outpatient prescription drugs. Specifies when plan coverage must begin in various circumstances. Prohibits preexisting condition limitations or exclusions. Allows a part-time employee who is charged an increased premium under specified provisions of this Act to waive enrollment. Requires the employer, in such case, to pay, under title V of this Act, the minimum amount the employer would have paid toward coverage if the employee had not waived enrollment. Requires continuation of employee or family coverage during a period of hospitalization. Permits a plan to require an enrollee to pay premiums, deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance amounts, subject in each case to certain limits. Limits out-of-pocket expenses. Mandates administration of certain requirements and standards of this title by the State agency designated by the State's chief executive officer. Requires certain notice to the employee, including plan contents, the availability of premium and cost-sharing subsidies, and employer failure to make premium payments. Provides for establishment of model plan language. Requires each plan to designate an individual to answer questions on the plan. Requires the State administering authority to assist employees regarding their rights under the plans. Provides for review of denied claims. Allows an employer to offer a nonmanaged care plan as well as a managed care plan. Allows an employee, if no unmanaged plan is offered, to use nonparticipating providers. Allows a plan to provide for cost-sharing of up to 200 percent of the normal or minimum plan if nonparticipating providers are used. Provides for a civil monetary penalty on an employer, up to a specified percentage of all wages paid by the employer for the year, for failure to comply with specified provisions of this Act. Requires penalties collected to be credited to the public health insurance plan established by this Act. Makes an employer that knowingly does not comply with specified provisions of this Act liable for damages, including health care costs, to the employee or the family of the employee. Allows the employee or family to bring a civil action to recover damages. Title III: Special Assistance for Small and Medium Sized Businesses - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to declare that certain provisions of ERISA supersede any State law relating to benefits under title II of this Act. Includes benefit plans under that title in the ERISA definitions of "employee welfare benefit plan" and "welfare plan." Subtitle A: Reform of Small Group Insurance - Amends the Public Health Service Act to create a new part, and amends (using similar language) the Social Security Act to create a new title, on group health insurance standards. Prohibits issuing a health benefit plan in a State, or offering a new contract under such a plan with respect to a small employer (defined as having fewer than 100 employees), unless the plan meets certain standards under this Act. Provides for: (1) complaints by individuals and entities respecting potential violations of certain requirements of this subtitle; (2) investigations and related procedures; and (3) enforcement, including cease and desist orders, civil monetary penalties, and orders to take other corrective action. Requires penalties collected to be credited to the AmeriCare Trust Fund. (Provides, in the amendments to the Social Security Act, but not in the amendments to the Public Health Service Act, for imposition on a carrier that is not in compliance with provisions of this subtitle of an excise tax, as provided in subtitle B of this title.) Directs the Secretary to request the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to develop a model Act and model regulations to implement requirements of this subtitle. Requires establishment of a toll-free telephone number to: (1) handle consumer complaints or inquiries; and (2) provide information to small employers and consumers about carriers that offer plans in the area. Mandates periodic audits of State regulatory programs by the Comptroller General to determine compliance with provisions of this subtitle. Sets forth transitional provisions applicable only to plans offered to small employers during the first four years after the effective date of these provisions, including: (1) allowing, in certain circumstances, preexisting condition exclusion; and (2) requiring making available equivalent coverage during any waiting period before the individual may be covered by the plan. Requires carriers offering a plan to small employers to: (1) register with State regulatory authorities; and (2) offer the same plan to any other small employer in the community. Allows: (1) health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to have geographic and size limitations; and (2) carriers to require participation by a minimum percentage of employees. Requires, at the option of the business, plan renewability under the same terms as for issuance, except for rates and administrative changes. Regulates rate changes. Requires premiums for plans offered to small employers to be based on a single cohesive rating system applied consistently for all small employer groups and designed not to treat groups, after the fourth year after enactment of this Act, differently based on health status or risk status. Requires the lowest rate for plans with similar benefits within a block of business to be the same for all small employers. Limits the percentage by which the premium rate for the most expensive block of business may exceed the rate for the least expensive block of business. Allows limited variation in premium rates for: (1) different age and gender groups; and (2) employers who elect, under provisions of this Act, reimbursement under title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act. Requires plans offered to small employers to permit enrollment and compute premiums based on four specified beneficiary classes. Requires plans offered to small employers to: (1) cover all basic health services specified in title II of this Act; and (2) not impose cost-sharing in excess of that permitted by title II (with regard to the amendments to the Public Health Service Act) or in excess of that permitted by the Social Security Act, as amended by title VI of this Act (with regard to the amendments to the Social Security Act.) Requires the carrier, except HMOs, to offer to the small employer a plan that only provides basic services and maximum cost-sharing. Requires a carrier (other than an HMO or a reinsurance carrier) which offers a managed care plan to an employer that is not a small employer to make a managed care plan available to small employers in the same community. Requires the NAIC to develop a model to standardize benefits offered to small employers to promote consumer understanding and comparison among plans. Requires each carrier offering a plan to small employers under subtitle E (relating to payment for services at Medicare rates) of this title to offer the employer the option of having payment at rates no higher than the rates established by title II of this Act (with regard to the amendments to the Public Health Service Act) or by title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (with regard to the amendments to the Social Security Act). Applies, with regard to an employer who elects such option, the limits on charges that may be made under Medicare to individuals receiving benefits under the plan. (Applies, with regard to the amendments to the Social Security Act, the sanctions imposed under Medicare and title XI (general provisions and peer review) of the Social Security Act to violations of these limits.) Requires the NAIC to develop models of legislation for the enactment of health insurance policy reinsurance systems for use by States, including plans offered to small employers. Specifies three models which must be included. Requires any system enacted to provide for an adjustment in reinsurance premiums charged to HMOs that takes into account specified factors. Subtitle B: Tax Equity for Small and Medium-Sized Business - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow self-employed individuals to take a deduction for 100 percent of the cost of health insurance coverage for the individual and the individual's family under subtitle A of this title or under AmeriCare. (Current law allows a deduction of 25 percent of the cost of health insurance coverage.) Provides for a deduction for certain group health plan contributions for the benefit of self-employed individuals. Imposes an excise tax on an entity's violation of the Social Security Act, as amended by subtitle A of this title. Subtitle C: Opportunity for Voluntary Provision of Coverage - Prohibits requiring a medium-sized employer (defined as having between 25 and 100 employees) to provide a health benefit plan under title II of this Act or make a contribution under title V of this Act until the fifth calendar year after enactment of this Act. Ties application to medium-sized employers of the requirement to provide coverage or make a contribution to the number of uninsured employees of all such employers, during or after those four years, as compared to the number of such employees when this Act is enacted. Delays application to small employers of the requirement to provide coverage or make a contribution until the sixth calendar year after enactment of this Act. Ties application of the requirement to the change in the number of uninsured employees of small employers in the first five years. Subtitle D: Small Business Tax Credit - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow an eligible small business (defined as having no more than 60 employees) a tax credit for a percentage of health plan expenses. Reduces the percentage as the number of employees increases and as the expanded profit ratio increases. Subtitle E: Additional Assistance to Small and Medium-Sized Businesses - Makes businesses with fewer than 100 employees that did not provide coverage in the year before enactment of this Act eligible to buy private coverage from a small or medium-sized business insurer under which health service providers are paid at rules based on Medicare rates. Allows a small employer that employs fewer than 25 employees and that has been an employer for not more than three years to: (1) not provide coverage or make a contribution for the first two years of being an employer; and (2) make a contribution at one-half the normal rate. Establishes a small and medium-sized business advisory committee. Authorizes appropriations. Title IV: Reducing Health Care Cost Inflation - Subtitle A: Outcomes Research and Practice Guideline Development and Dissemination - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require the Administrator for Health Care Policy and Research to: (1) develop an initial set of guidelines for at least three clinical treatments or conditions that account for a significant portion of national health expenditures, have a significant variation in treatment, or otherwise meet specified needs and priorities; and (2) develop outcomes research and practice parameters for mental health services, including regarding childhood attention deficit disorders and manic depression. Amends the Social Security Act to increase the authorization of appropriations to carry out provisions relating to research on outcomes of health care services and procedures. Modifies the percentages which are, during FY 1993 and 1994, to be appropriated from the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. Subtitle B: Federal Health Expenditure Board - Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish as an independent agency in the executive branch the Federal Health Expenditure Board. Amends the Public Health Service Act and, using similar language, the Social Security Act to require the Board to take specified actions, including: (1) developing national health care expenditure, access, and quality goals; (2) convening and overseeing negotiations between providers and purchasers to develop payment rates regarding those expenditure goals; (3) establishing recommended payment levels and other recommended measures; (4) developing State and regional goals; (5) establishing uniform billing and claim forms and mandatory reporting requirements; and (6) recommending rates, budgets, and other measures. Mandates that the Board require negotiations regarding physician and hospital care. Allows the Board to require negotiations concerning other health care sectors. Declares that the Board shall determine which individuals, organizations, and institutions are eligible for representation by negotiators. Sets forth procedures and requirements regarding approval of an organization or individual as a negotiator. Sets forth requirements regarding payment systems adopted for hospitals or physicians. Requires the Board, when negotiators for a sector fail to reach an agreement, to promulgate regulations recommending advisory rates and other matters to achieve the goals. Allows, with regard to the amendments to the Public Health Service Act, purchasers and providers to combine for the purpose of agreeing to pay or charge at the recommended rates. Allows, with regard to the amendments to the Social Security Act, purchasers to combine for such purpose. Makes a provider assessing or a purchaser paying rates other than those required: (1) ineligible for any assistance under the Public Health Service Act (with regard to the amendments to the Public Health Service Act) or for any assistance under the Social Security Act (with regard to the amendments to the Social Security Act); and (2) liable to the United States for a civil monetary penalty. Provides for temporary injunctive relief. Requires the Board to promulgate regulations recommending nonbinding rates for all Federal programs that reimburse providers on a fee, charge, or cost basis or charge third-party providers on such basis. Exempts from that requirement: (1) with regard to the amendments to the Public Health Service Act, programs under titles XVIII (Medicare), XIX (Medicaid), or XXI (AmeriCare) of the Social Security Act; and (2) with regard to the amendments to the Social Security Act, programs under such title XVIII. Prohibits, through the fifth fiscal year after enactment of these provisions, Federal payments from rising as a result of such rates. Allows a State consortium, with the approval of the Board, to establish an alternative payment system, rates and methods for achieving Board goals. Requires the Board to establish a system of uniform billing and reporting to enable the Board to determine the progress in meeting the goals, enable providers and purchasers to provide and obtain efficiently provided care, and reduce administrative costs of the health care system. Directs the Secretary to develop and implement methodologies that will measure the effectiveness of the health care service provided by health care providers. Amends Federal law to add members of the Board to the list of positions paid at levels III and IV of the Executive Schedule. Amends the Social Security Act to require the Board to make recommendations regarding hospital and physician services, including modifications of the prospective payment system and the physician payment system. Prohibits, through the fifth fiscal year after enactment of these provisions, the recommendations from increasing Federal payments. Subtitle C: State Purchasing Consortia - Amends the Public Health Service Act to mandate establishment in each State of a consortium open to all providers and purchasers of health insurance and health care in the State. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make a grant to each State for establishment and initial operation of the consortium. Amends the Public Health Service Act and, using similar language, the Social Security Act to set forth the mandatory consortium functions, including: (1) enrolling all small share health insurance companies in the State as consortium members; (2) establishing a claim payment fund and payment procedures, with the fund to be capitalized through public and private contributions and assessments by the consortium on such enrollees; (3) developing and using uniform billing and claim forms and procedures consistent with subtitle B of this title; and (4) attempting to reduce administrative costs and burdens on enrollees and providers through specified measures. Lists optional consortium functions, including: (1) permitting insurers with a large market share in a State to participate in the consortium; and (2) convening negotiations with providers, purchasers, and others on service availability, coverage and reimbursement levels, and claim submission and payment procedures. Exempts such negotiations, if authorized by the State, from Federal anti-trust laws. Declares that the Consumer Product Safety Act and other Federal consumer protection laws apply to the mandatory consortium functions. Allows States to enter into an agreement for the establishment of a regional consortium. Declares that a State that fails to comply with the requirements regarding consortia shall be ineligible: (1) with regard to the amendments to the Public Health Service Act, to receive assistance under that Act; and (2) with regard to the amendments to the Social Security Act, to receive payments to States under provisions of that Act, as amended by title VI of this Act. Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize appropriations to carry out provisions relating to the consortia. Subtitle D: Cost Control Grant Program - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants and contracts for the development, demonstration, and evaluation of innovative methods for reducing health care costs. Provides for the establishment of a clearinghouse and other activities to disseminate information on successful health care cost control methods. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle E: Malpractice Reform - Authorizes grants to States for programs for medical malpractice reforms. Requires programs receiving grants to include alternative dispute resolution methods. Allows the programs to include medical practice guidelines. Requires a grant to be either: (1) a planning grant, for up to two years; or (2) an operational grant, for up to five years. Authorizes appropriations. Provides for the collection and analysis of data and issues related to: (1) ineffective or unnecessary testing; (2) the occurrence of malpractice and malpractice awards; (3) licensing and disciplining; and (4) malpractice insurance. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle F: Reducing the Administrative Cost of Assuring Appropriate Utilization of Health Care Services and Improving the Quality of Health Care Services - Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to contract with the quality improvement board in each State to review the quality of health care provided by professionals and institutions in the State and to establish mechanisms to encourage continuous quality improvement. Amends the Public Health Service Act and, using similar language, the Social Security Act to set forth board duties, including: (1) adopting practice guidelines and quality improvement guidelines; (2) recommending continuous quality improvement measures; (3) reviewing provider performance, with the board allowed to certify a provider as an outstanding provider; and (4) data collection. Prohibits a plan from: (1) denying payment for any service performed or ordered by a provider certified as outstanding; and (2) denying coverage on the basis that the service is not medically necessary. Authorizes planning grants to facilitate the establishment of a board in each State. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle G: Use of Practice Guidelines in Federal Health Insurance and Service Programs - Requires that clinical guidelines developed under existing provisions of the Public Health Service Act relating to the Forum for Quality and Effectiveness in Health Care be used in Federal health insurance programs as utilization review screens and as practice guidelines in Federal programs providing health care services. Subtitle H: National Standards for the Promotion of Managed Care - Amends the Public Health Service Act to prohibit any State law or regulation from: (1) prohibiting a managed care plan from selecting providers, or the type of providers, as the participating providers; or (2) limiting the ability of a managed care entity to negotiate, make contracts or establish alternative rates or forms of payment for participating providers, or require or provide incentives to promote the use of participating providers. Allows, notwithstanding any State law, an entity to offer utilization review services, provided certain procedures are established. Makes the applicable State regulatory authority (or, in certain circumstances, the Secretary of Health and Human Services) responsible for certifying, for the Public Health Service Act and the Social Security Act, whether a plan is a managed care plan. Prohibits making amounts available to a State under the Public Health Service Act unless the State is in compliance with this requirement. Deems a State, unless the State's chief executive officer otherwise indicates, to have elected to comply. Limits State regulation of certain actions by managed care plans. Provides for the establishment of Federal standards for utilization review programs of health benefit plans. Preempts inconsistent State laws or regulations. Subtitle I: Expansion of Technology Assessment - Requires the Administrator for Health Care Policy and Research to focus on expanding and applying assessments of existing health care technologies, to be achieved in part through an evaluation of services provided to individuals through publicly and privately funded sources. Mandates a program of contracts and cooperative agreements for the establishment of public-private partnerships to undertake technology assessment and related activities in the private sector. Title V: Contribution by Employers Not Providing Private Health Coverage - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide for the percentage of wages which must be paid by employers who elect, under provisions of this Act, to pay a contribution rather than provide a health benefit plan covering their employees. Provides for setting, by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, of that percentage at a level that reflects the cost of coverage of no more than 65 percent of those employees under provisions of the Social Security Act (as amended by this Act) and at least 35 percent covered under provisions of the Public Health Service (as amended by this Act). Title VI: Assuring Provision of Health Benefits to All Americans - Amends the Social Security Act to create a new title on "AmeriCare," under which a State is required to provide basic health benefits described in this title to: (1) any child or pregnant woman without other nongovernmental health coverage by the second year after enactment of this title; (2) any employee or family member for whom an employer makes a contribution under title V of this Act by the second year after enactment of this title; and (3) any individual not covered by a plan under title II of this Act by the seventh year after enactment of this title. Sets forth other requirements on States for participation in AmeriCare. Entitles each individual not otherwise covered under a health benefit plan under title II of this Act to basic health benefits under AmeriCare. Allows each State to require that employers collect AmeriCare premiums on behalf of the employer's employees. Requires basic benefits to include inpatient and outpatient hospital care, inpatient and outpatient physician services, diagnostic tests, prenatal and well-baby care, preventive services (limited to well child care, pap smears, and mammograms), inpatient and outpatient mental disorder care, and certain items and services described under existing provisions of title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act relating to early and periodic screening, diagnosis, and treatment for children under the age of 21. Requires, subject to exception, the basic health benefits with respect to special eligibility individuals to include medical assistance in the State's plan under Medicaid. Allows a State to provide, but prohibits Federal payment for, coverage beyond basic benefits. Prohibits imposing premiums, deductibles, or other cost-sharing on an individual in an under-poverty family. Sets varying limits on premiums, deductibles, and other cost sharing for individuals in families whose income is specified percentages over the poverty line. Provides for the premium levels of employees whose employer elects, in lieu of providing a health benefit plan, to make a contribution under title V of this Act. Allows States to compute premiums separately for four specified combinations of individual, spouse, and child coverage. Limits deductibles, copayments, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket expenses. Declares ineligible for AmeriCare benefits an individual who is enrolled in a health plan under title II of this Act, except that AmeriCare is required to pay, with respect to an individual covered by a plan or whose employer makes a contribution under title V of this Act, for: (1) premiums, deductibles, and other cost-sharing for an individual in an under-poverty family; and (2) a specified percentage of premiums, deductibles, and other cost-sharing for an individual in a near-poverty family. Requires that an individual receive advanced payment of supplemental premium payments for the calendar year from AmeriCare. Disqualifies all family members from the supplemental payments if a required family income statement is not filed by a specified deadline. Requires payment under AmeriCare to be: (1) on the same basis as under title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act, adjusted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services to take into account differences between the population served under Medicare and the population served by AmeriCare or title II of this Act; (2) according to an alternative payment system provided for by a State, if the State meets in the aggregate for all health care providers in the State the requirements for national reimbursement levels described in these provisions; or (3) under Medicare rates phased-in over specified periods. Prohibits administrative or judicial review of the payment rates or rules, including adjustments, under these provisions. Allows a State to contract for the design and implementation of innovative systems of health care delivery and administrative systems that meet the standards of the AmeriCare title. Requires each State, as part of AmeriCare, to offer managed care plans, selected competitively, in which an individual eligible under AmeriCare may enroll. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish demonstration projects to enable States that submit an approved application to implement cost management initiatives that promote the effective furnishing of care. Specifies initiatives required to be included. Allows the Secretary to provide that a State plan for AmeriCare may include payment for services described in existing provisions of title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act relating to home or community-based services. Provides for the administration of AmeriCare in each State, directly or by contract: (1) by that State; (2) at the election of the State and with the approval of the Secretary, by the Secretary; or (3) by a regional administration with other States approved by the Secretary. Provides for review of denied claims and other administrative matters. Mandates a quarterly Federal payment to each State with an approved AmeriCare plan for the Federal share of the expenditures for benefits, supplemental payments, and administrative expenses. Sets the State share of expenses at 80 percent of the State percentage under title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act during the second year after enactment of this Act and increases that percentage until 100 percent of the State medicaid percentage is reached in the seventh year after enactment. Establishes in the Treasury the AmeriCare Trust Fund consisting of such gifts and bequests as may be made and amounts credited to the Fund. Appropriates to the Fund the amounts received from: (1) contributions by employers under title V of this Act in lieu of health plan coverage; (2) AmeriCare premiums collected by employers on behalf of employees; (3) penalties collected for employment discrimination based on family status and the requirement to enroll a spouse or child; and (4) penalties collected for failure of an employer to either provide coverage or make a title V contribution. Authorizes appropriations to the Fund as required to make certain expenditures from the Fund. Authorizes and appropriates from the Fund each fiscal year a sum sufficient to carry out the purpose of the AmeriCare title, to be used for making payments to States with approved plans for benefits, supplemental payments, and administrative expenses. Requires amounts received in the Fund to be allotted to each State on the basis of amounts received in the Fund with respect to employees residing in the State. Make amounts in the Fund available, as provided in appropriations Acts, for the expenses of administering the AmeriCare title. Provides for review of AmeriCare programs by utilization and quality control peer review organizations in a similar manner as provided under title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to develop: (1) recommendations for the calculation of a specific Federal insurance assistance percentage applicable to coverage furnished under AmeriCare; and (2) recommendations for the creation of an emergency fund to fund certain benefits under AmeriCare in the event a State experiences changes in economic conditions or other conditions necessitating emergency funding. Mandates a reduction (by one quarter after the second year after enactment of this Act and by one half after the seventh year after enactment of this Act) in the Medicare disproportionate share adjustment percentage, subject to exception for hospitals receiving, under title VI of this Act, less that 200 percent of the reduction. Amends title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act to prohibit the provision of medical assistance under Medicaid to any individual eligible for AmeriCare. Provides for an annual increase in the Medicaid cap on payments to territories based on the percentage increase in the total Federal program costs of AmeriCare over such costs of Medicaid in the year preceding the effective date of this Act. Title VII: Development of Health Service Capacity - Amends the Public Health Service Act to mandate grants to entities that do or will meet requirements relating to migrant or community health centers to expand the availability of comprehensive primary health services in medically underserved or high impact areas. Sets forth priorities in making the grants, including that the amounts be used to provide services in areas with the greatest need and in which demand can be expected to increase after implementation of this Act. Authorizes appropriations. Title VIII: Effective Date - Sets forth the effective dates of specified provisions of this Act. Declares that, after enactment of this Act, no employer shall be required under title II of this Act to provide any health benefit in addition to the benefits required under specified provisions of title II, as in effect on the date of enactment, unless: (1) the additional benefit is for a service that AmeriCare plans are required to cover; and (2) before enactment of such requirement, the benefits and costs have been analyzed and considered by the Congress.
United States · United States Congress · 4 June 1991
Chinese Student Protection Act of 1991 - Defers enforced departure for certain Chinese student and exchange visitor nationals until January 1, 1994, or July 1, 1994, if the President has not certified to the Congress that conditions in the People's Republic of China permit the safe return of such nationals. Waives the two-year home country residence requirement and authorizes such students to travel abroad and work in the United States. Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to provide for the adjustment to temporary resident status of certain nationals of the People's Republic of China residing in the United States under student, vocational student, or exchange visitor visas. Waives the two-year home country residence requirement for such persons.
United States · United States Congress · 4 June 1991
Designates August 1, 1991, as Helsinki Human Rights Day. Authorizes and requests the President to: (1) reassert American commitment to the Helsinki Accords; (2) raise the issue of noncompliance with such Accords with any signatory nation which may be in violation; (3) convey to all signatories of such Accords that respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms is vital to progress in the ongoing Helsinki process; and (4) develop new proposals to advance the human rights objectives of the Helsinki process, including the self-determination of peoples.
United States · United States Congress · 3 June 1991
Family Planning Amendments of 1991 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to require family planning projects under existing provisions to offer adoption referral services. Removes provisions authorizing a reduction in grant amounts by the value of supplies or equipment furnished. Authorizes appropriations for the projects. Repeals provisions authorizing formula grants to States for family planning services. Replaces provisions authorizing grants and contracts for training personnel to carry out the family planning projects with provisions authorizing grants and contracts for technical assistance, clinical training for personnel, training for educators and counselors, and training of other personnel to carry out the family planning projects and information and education programs. Authorizes appropriations. Allows grants and contracts for research on contraceptive development to be used: (1) for contraceptive evaluation; and (2) to improve the clinical management and direct delivery of family planning services. Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct, and make grants and contracts for the conduct of: (1) applied research into the development of new or improved contraceptive devices, drugs, and methods; and (2) evaluations of the acceptance, convenience, safety, efficacy, and cost of contraceptive devices, drugs, and methods. Authorizes appropriations. Replaces provisions authorizing grants and contracts for developing and making available family planning and population growth information to all persons desiring such information with provisions authorizing grants or contracts to establish community-based information and education programs to assist individuals in making responsible choices concerning human sexuality, pregnancy, and parenthood, and to enable individuals to prevent unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. Directs the Secretary to: (1) conduct, or make grants and contracts for the conduct of, training and technical assistance activities to assist in carrying out the information and education programs; and (2) make grants and contracts for the development, evaluation, and dissemination of educational and informational materials. Authorizes appropriations. Directs the Secretary to annually collect data on: (1) the numbers of low- and moderate-income individuals and adolescents at risk of unintended pregnancies; (2) the sources of funding for family planning services; and (3) the number of individuals who receive family planning services from grantees and contractees under certain provisions amended by this Act and the types of services chosen by those individuals. Authorizes grants and contracts for the collection of the data. Requires the data to be: (1) made public; and (2) included in an annual report to the Congress, mandated by current law, on family planning and population research. Requires that all grantees under the title of the Public Health Service Act relating to population research and family planning provide education to patients concerning self breast examinations. Requires that projects receiving assistance under such title offer pregnant women information and counseling concerning all legal and medical options regarding their pregnancies. Requires that women requesting such information be provided with nondirective counseling, and referral on request, concerning alternative courses of action, including: (1) prenatal care and delivery; (2) infant care, foster care, or adoption services; and (3) pregnancy termination.
United States · United States Congress · 3 June 1991
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the American public should observe the 100th anniversary of filmmaking in 1993 and recognize the American Film Institute's leadership role in preserving the art of film.
United States · United States Congress · 24 May 1991
Authorizes the Peace Corps Volunteers Memorial Commission to establish a memorial on Federal land in the District of Columbia or its environs to honor service in the Peace Corps. Establishes the Peace Corps Volunteers Memorial Commission to provide for solicitation and acceptance of private contributions for the memorial and conduct such other activities necessary for its establishment. Terminates the Commission 30 days after the completion of the Memorial. Prohibits the use of Federal funds for the construction of the memorial, except for a fund hereby established in the Treasury for the sole purpose of carrying out this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 23 May 1991
Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to reauthorize funding for its various programs. Extends through FY 1996 the authorization of appropriations for: (1) program and planning grants, and for national programs, under postsecondary programs for nontraditional students; (2) the Student Literacy Corps; (3) academic library and information technology enhancement; (4) institutional aid; (5) supplemental educational opportunity grants; (6) grants to States for State student incentives; (7) special programs for students from disadvantaged backgrounds; (8) special programs for students whose families are engaged in migrant and seasonal farmwork; (9) the Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship Program; (10) the veterans' education outreach program; (11) special child care services for disadvantaged college students; (12) work-study programs; (13) the income-contingent direct loan demonstration project; (14) direct loans to students in institutions of higher education; (15) educator recruitment retention and development; (16) periodicals published outside the United States; (17) international education programs; (18) business and international education programs; (19) construction, reconstruction, and renovation of academic facilities; (20) the agriculture, strategic metals, minerals, forestry and oceans college and university research facilities and instrumentation modernization program; (21) cooperative education; (22) graduate programs; (23) postsecondary improvement programs; (24) the minority science and engineering improvement program; (25) innovative projects for community service and student financial independence; and (26) partnerships for economic development and urban community service. Extends through FY 1997: (1) the aggregate annual limit on the authorization of appropriations for HEA programs (not including the Pell Grant and the Robert T. Stafford Student Loan programs); and (2) the 85 percent Federal share of awards under the supplemental educational opportunity grants program. Extends through academic year 1997 the annual maximum basic grant amount of $3,100 under the program of basic educational opportunity grants (Pell Grants).
United States · United States Congress · 23 May 1991
Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Act - Establishes the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Foundation (the Foundation), as an independent entity of the executive branch, to be located in Tucson, Arizona. Sets forth provisions for a Board of Trustees and an Executive Director of the Foundation. Provides that the Foundation, among its other specified purposes, is to establish, and assist in developing and implementing, a Program for Environmental Policy Research and Environmental Conflict Resolution at the Udall Center for Studies in Public Policy (the Center) at the University of Arizona. Authorizes the Foundation, in consultation with the Center, to identify and conduct appropriate programs, activities, and services to carry out its specified purposes, including increasing awareness of the importance of natural resources, public lands, and environment, identifying critical environmental issues, developing resources to train professionals in environmental and related fields, and providing educational outreach regarding environmental policy. Authorizes the Foundation to conduct a national competition and to award undergraduate scholarships, graduate and faculty fellowships, internships in governmental agencies or environmental organizations, and grants for individuals (Morris K. Udall Scholars) to study in fields related to the environment. Directs the Foundation to award grants to the Center for: (1) annual expert panel discussions; (2) research; and (3) sharing practical experiences of visiting policymakers. Directs the Foundation to provide assistance from the Fund established under this Act to the Center to maintain a repository, and assure public availability, for Morris K. Udall's papers and other appropriate public papers. Directs the Foundation to determine program priorities, but requires that certain minimum or maximum amounts be used for specified activities. Establishes the Morris K. Udall Scholarships and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Trust Fund, in the Treasury, to be administered by the Foundation. Provides for investment of Fund assets, and for Fund expenditures and audits. Sets forth administrative provisions for the Foundation. Authorizes appropriations to the Fund to carry out this Act.
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