United States · United States Congress · 30 September 1982
Declares that it should be U.S. policy to: (1) support the people of Afghanistan in their struggle to be free from foreign domination; (2) provide the Afghans, upon request, with material assistance; and (3) pursue a negotiated settlement of the war in Afghanistan based on the total withdrawal of Soviet troops and the recognition of the right of the Afghans to choose their own destiny.
United States · United States Congress · 17 September 1982
Rebuilding of America Act of 1982 - Directs the National Commission on the Rebuilding of America, established by this Act, to conduct an inventory of existing major public improvements (highways, roads, bridges, and water and sewer systems) by region, State, and major metropolitan area of the United States. Requires the Commission to develop a National Public Improvements Plan listing in priority order maintenance, repair, rehabilitation, or replacement of public improvements which will be necessary in each region, to sustain regionally balanced national economic development. Requires the Commission, as a part of the plan, to suggest specific revisions in Federal laws, regulations, and policies that may be necessary to reverse the pattern of disinvestment in national public improvements. Sets forth procedures for the submission of such plan to Congress and for review and implementation of the plan. Establishes the National Commission on the Rebuilding of America to assess the condition of the national public works infrastructure. Authorizes appropriations to carry out this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 17 September 1982
Expresses the sense of the Congress that the President should take action to encourage increasing the processed product share of farm exports, including but not limited to: (1) urging U.S. negotiators to try to include a quantity of value-added processed farm products in grain agreements with the Soviet Union or other nonmarket economy countries; (2) seeking elimination of unfair trade practices by foreign competitors by pursuing international trade negotiations; (3) using the authority of Public Law 480 to encourage inclusion of more processed products under both concessional sales and food aid programs; and (4) using authorities of the Commodity Credit Corporation and the Export- Import Bank to ensure that credit arrangements for farm exports and farm product exports are on terms equal to those offered by other countries.
United States · United States Congress · 16 September 1982
Soviet-Bloc Research and Training Act of 1982 - Establishes the Soviet-Bloc Research and Training Trust Fund in the Treasury. Appropriates a specified amount for the Fund. Requires that the interest on any obligations held in the Fund shall be available for payments to the National Council for Soviet and East European Research. Requires the Council to use one-fourth of the payments made in each fiscal year to develop and publicize a research agenda at the postdoctoral level in the field of Soviet and East European studies and to award contracts for appropriate research projects. Requires the Council to use parts of the payments to: (1) establish and publish the findings of a fellowship program for advanced training in Soviet studies; (2) make payments to the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars to provide fellowship support and research facilities in Washington, D.C., for American specialists to conduct advanced research and to conduct workshops designed to facilitate research collaboration between Government and private specialists; and (3) make payments to the International Research and Exchanges Board to conduct specialized reciprocal programs in advanced training and research in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe to facilitate access for American specialists to research resources in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Sets forth the method of submitting applications to the Secretary of the Treasury for payments from the Fund. Provides that the Secretary shall manage the Fund. Requires the Council to report annually to the President and the Congress on the activities supported by this Act of the Council, the Board, and the Wilson Center.
United States · United States Congress · 13 September 1982
National Commission on Neurofibromatosis Act - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a National Commission on Neurofibromatosis within 60 days. Sets forth operating and related provisions. Authorizes the Commission to transmit interim reports. Requires: (1) the Commission to make a final report to the President and to each House of Congress within one year; and (2) the Secretary to file a final report and a budget analysis for neurofibromatosis research with the appropriate congressional committees within 15 days after the President submits his budget to Congress. Terminates the Commission three months after submission of the final report. Authorizes appropriations.
United States · United States Congress · 9 September 1982
Expresses the sense of the Senate that: (1) the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee shall investigate methods of strengthening the Export-Import Bank to ensure competitive financing for U.S. exports; (2) the Senate Appropriations Committee shall provide sufficient authority for the Export-Import Bank to enable U.S. exporters to compete in world markets; and (3) the Export-Import Bank shall provide U.S. exporters with competitive financial support.
United States · United States Congress · 20 August 1982
Expresses the sense of Congress that September 4, 1982, the 100th anniversary of Thomas Edison's Pearl Street central power station, should be commemorated as Pearl Street Centennial Day.
United States · United States Congress · 3 August 1982
Wilderness Protection Act of 1982 - Withdraws from disposition under all laws pertaining to oil, gas, oil shale, coal, phosphate, potassium, sulphur, gilsonite, and geothermal leasing: (1) wilderness areas; (2) lands recommended for wilderness designation, until Congress determines otherwise or until the lands concerned are recommended for other uses; (3) wilderness study areas, for the period of interim wilderness protection and management required by law; and (4) lands identified for further planning in Executive Communication 1504, 96th Congress, until one year after the final approval and implementation of an initial forest plan covering the further planning area. Exempts from the withdrawal pursuant to this Act: (1) national forest system land released to management for nonwilderness uses; (2) lands designated as congressional wilderness study areas in Colorado and New Mexico and certain lands within the River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho; (3) Bureau of Land Management wilderness study areas; and (4) lands in Alaska. Permits activities compatible with the preservation of the wilderness environment for the purpose of inventorying energy, mineral, and other resource values in areas withdrawn by this Act. Requires the Secretary of the Interior to augment recurring surveys of mineral values of wilderness areas and to acquire information on the areas withdrawn by this Act by conducting mineral inventories of such areas. Authorizes the President to recommend to Congress that minerals exploration, development, or extraction be permitted in specified areas withdrawn under this Act if: (1) there is an urgent national need for the mineral activity; and (2) the need outweighs the public values of the wilderness lands involved and the potential adverse environmental impacts likely to result. Makes such a recommendation effective only upon enactment of a joint resolution by Congress approving such recommendation. Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to issue oil and gas leases for the subsurface of national forest or public land wilderness areas that are immediately adjacent to oil and gas producing fields or areas that are prospectively valuable. Prohibits surface occupancy under such leases and provides that such leases may be entered only by directional drilling from outside the wilderness or by other nonsurface disturbing methods.
United States · United States Congress · 28 July 1982
Major League Sports Community Protection Act of 1982 - Declares that it shall not be unlawful under any antitrust law for a professional sports league and its member clubs to enforce rules: (1) authorizing the league membership to decide that a member club shall not be relocated; or (2) providing for the division of league or member club revenues that promote comparable economic opportunities for member clubs. Prohibits any State or local government from imposing any limitation on the collective conduct of sports leagues or member teams authorized by this Act. Specifies the applicability of this Act to actions commenced under the antitrust laws before its enactment.
United States · United States Congress · 1 July 1982
Designates certain lands in the Hoosier National Forest in Indiana as the Charles C. Deam Wilderness. Requires that the right of public access to the Terril Cemetery and the right of adequate access to privately owned lands within the areas designated as wilderness by this Act be protected. Prohibits the condemnation of private property pursuant to this Act without the owner's consent. States that the second roadless area review and evaluation (RARE II) final environmental statement (dated January 1979) shall not be subject to judicial review with respect to national forest system lands in Indiana. Provides that: (1) the RARE II study of national forest system lands in Indiana shall be considered an adequate consideration of the suitability of such lands for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System; and (2) the Department of Agriculture shall not be required to review the wilderness option before the revision of the initial land management plans, required for such lands by the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act of 1974. Requires that areas in Indiana reviewed in the RARE II final environmental statement and not designated as wilderness by this Act be managed for multiple uses other than wilderness. Prohibits the Department of Agriculture from conducting any further statewide roadless area review and evaluation of national forest system lands in Indiana to determine their suitability as wilderness without express congressional authorization.
United States · United States Congress · 16 June 1982
Product Liability Act - Preempts State product liability laws. States that this Act governs any civil action for harm caused by a product which would have been based on: (1) strict or absolute liability in tort; (2) negligence or gross negligence; (3) breach of express or implied warranty and; (4) failure to discharge a duty to warn or instruct. Makes a manufacturer liable if the claimant establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that a product was unreasonably dangerous: (1) in construction or design; (2) because the manufacturer failed to provide adequate warnings of danger; or (3) because the product did not conform to an express warranty. Specifies the requisite findings which must be made for such proof of unreasonable danger to be determined. Subjects a product seller to liability if the claimant proves by a preponderance of the evidence that the claimant's harm was proximately caused by such seller's failure to use reasonable care with respect to the product. Enumerates circumstances under which such a seller is also subject to the liability of a manufacturer. Provides that all claims, under this Act shall be governed by the principles of comparative responsibility. Sets forth rules with respect to conduct affecting comparative responsibility, including misuse, alteration or modification of a product. Specifies the manner in which damages are to be apportioned. Requires that damages in any product liability claim be reduced by an amount paid as workers' compensation benefits. Prescribes statutes of limitation for recovery. Allows punitive damages to be awarded if the claimant proves by clear and convincing evidence that the harm suffered was the result of the product manufacturer's or sellers's reckless disregard for the safety of product users, consumers, or others who might be harmed by the product. Provides that evidence of corrective measures taken by a product seller after a harm has occurred would not be admissible in court to prove liability.
United States · United States Congress · 27 May 1982
Export-Import Bank Restructuring Act of 1982 - Amends the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 to provide that the terms of the directors of the Bank will be four-years, except that two of the directors will be appointed initially for two years and then for four-years. (Current law provides that the directors serve at the pleasure of the President.) Excludes from the Federal budget the receipts and disbursements of the Bank in the discharge of its functions (other than salaries and expenses). Exempts such receipts and disbursements from the limitations on the Federal budget. Directs the President to report to Congress annually on the Bank's budget for program activities and administrative expenses and on the Bank's net lending. Establishes the Competitive Agricultural Commodity and Manufactured Product Export Subsidy Fund. Requires amounts appropriated to the Fund to be used to make interest subsidy payments to private lenders and to enter into arrangements with the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to enable private lenders or the CCC to reduce the interest rates on loans for financing U.S. exports. Requires the Board of Directors of the Fund to report to Congress on agreements to make interest subsidy payments. Authorizes appropriations for the Fund. Extends the authorization for the Bank until September 30, 1988.
United States · United States Congress · 27 May 1982
Military Widows and Surviving Children Benefits Restoration Act - Directs the Secretary of the military department concerned to make monthly payments equivalent to the child's insurance benefit under the Social Security Act before the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 to certain children between the ages of 18 and 22 attending institutions of higher learning. Limits eligibility for such payments to children of veterans who died on active duty or from a service-connected disability. Directs the Secretary to make a lump-sum payment to persons who would have been entitled to such payments one month before the effective date of this Act. Directs the Secretary of the military department concerned to make monthly payments to the surviving spouse of such veteran in the amount such spouse would have received under the Social Security Act were she caring for a child under 16 (when such child is actually between 16 and 18 years of age). Directs the Secretary to make a lump-sum payment to persons who would have been entitled to such payments one month before the effective date of this Act. Directs the Secretary concerned to notify each member of the armed forces that his or her dependents will be ineligible for such benefits should the member die after the applicable date, in no case later than August 13, 1983. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to provide the Secretary concerned with information necessary to carry out this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 26 May 1982
Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the President should direct the appropriate agencies to pursue vigorously and promptly conclude certain countervailing duty and antidumping duty investigatons and the pending steel unfair trade practices investigation; and (2) Congress should consider legislation to strengthen U.S. trade laws.
United States · United States Congress · 20 May 1982
Amends the Federal criminal code to add to current penalties for killing officers and employees of the United States penalties for: (1) attempting to kill; and (2) killing, or attempting to kill, any officer or employee of any department or agency within the Intelligence Community. Establishes as new offenses the murder, manslaughter, assault, threat against, extortion, or kidnapping of: (1) persons given entry into the United States for permanent residence pursuant to the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949; and (2) persons present in the United States under intelligence auspices.
United States · United States Congress · 14 May 1982
Capital Assistance Act of 1982 - Amends the National Housing Act and the Federal Deposit Insurance Act to authorize the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to increase or maintain the capital of a qualified institution by making periodic purchases of capital instruments from such institution. Requires such an institution to have: (1) a net worth of at most three percent of its assets; (2) losses for two consecutive quarters; (3) a prospect of solvency for more than six months; and (4) investments in residential mortgages or mortgage-backed securities equal to at least 20 percent of its assets. Sets forth the initial capital instruments that the Corporations may purchase. Allows the Corporations to establish criteria which, with respect to ranges of net worth, calculation of losses, and percentage of losses to be met by purchases of capital instruments, differ from such criteria set forth by this Act. Prohibits any such assistance from being provided to a qualified institution if the Corporation determines that providing such assistance would be costlier than liquidating such institution.
United States · United States Congress · 10 May 1982
Urges the Soviet Union to facilitate the emigration of certain named Soviet citizens who are married to citizens of Western countries and who have begun a hunger strike to protest the Soviet refusal to allow them to emigrate. Expresses U.S. support and sympathy for the families of the hunger strikers and for the families of others who have attempted to obtain and been denied exit visas.
United States · United States Congress · 6 May 1982
Extends the congratulations of the Senate to the people and leaders of Greater Miami and Dade County, Florida, for their efforts in the production of the New World Festival of the Arts. Acclaims the Festival as a major cultural and artistic event.