Skip to content
PoliticalRepoPoliticalRepo

Person

Official portrait of Sen. McClure, James A. [R-ID]

Sen. McClure, James A. [R-ID]

United States · Official source

Records

2,287 records where Sen. McClure, James A. [R-ID] is listed as a sponsor, author, or other actor. Search with topics and years

Bill· SS. 1860 (99th)open

Trade Enhancement Act

United States · United States Congress · 20 November 1985

Trade Enhancement Act - Title I: National Trade Policy - Declares that it is U.S. policy to: (1) eliminate or offset foreign unfair trade practices and other trade-distorting measures through enforcement of U.S. laws and rights under the international trading system; (2) strengthen international trading rules and U.S. laws relating to such rules through trade agreements that promote open and fair world trade; (3) aid potentially competitive U.S. industries faced with injury from imports; (4) examine the underlying reasons for exchange rate misalignment and currency market instability and investigate alternative methods of structuring currency values; (5) increase the participation of developing countries in the world trading system; (6) revise U.S. laws related to unfair trade practices to eliminate trade-distorting practices of nonmarket economy countries; (7) protect intellectual property rights of U.S. persons to ensure the competitiveness, technological innovation, and growth of U.S. industry and agriculture; (8) facilitate U.S. exports; and (9) respond immediately to import problems in which national security may be involved. Title II: Trade Barriers and Distortions of Trade - Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to direct the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) to prepare for the annual report on national trade estimates an estimate of the increase in U.S. exports that would result from the elimination of each act, policy, or practice identified as a significant barrier to, or distortion of, U.S. exports and foreign investment by U.S. persons. Directs the USTR, in preparing the national trade estimate, to consider the international competitiveness of the appropriate goods or services. Directs the USTR to begin investigations on an annual basis with respect to those acts, policies, and practices identified in each report on national trade estimates which: (1) are likely to be acts, policies, or practices that constitute unfair foreign trade practices; and (2) constitute a barrier to, or distortion of, a significant portion of all the U.S. goods and services that the USTR estimates would have been exported if such acts, policies, and practices did not exist. Sets forth factors to be considered in determining whether acts, policies, or practices should be investigated. Transfers from the President to the USTR the authority to: (1) determine whether U.S. action is appropriate to enforce U.S. rights under a trade agreement or to respond to certain foreign trade practices; (2) determine the appropriate additional import relief in such cases; and (3) determine any additional restrictions on service sector access authorizations. Transfers from the President to the USTR the authority to take action on the USTR's own motion. Includes among the foreign trade practices that may trigger a U.S. response any act, policy, or practice that threatens to burden or restrict U.S. commerce. Sets forth a list of foreign acts, policies, and practices which burden U.S. commerce. Authorizes the USTR, in response to certain foreign trade practices, to: (1) enter into binding agreements that fully offset the burden on U.S. commerce of such practices; or (2) withdraw, or refrain from proclaiming, eligibility of a foreign country for preferential treatment under the Generalized System of Preferences. Includes within the meaning of unreasonable foreign trade acts, policies, or practices any combination of unfair foreign trade acts, policies, or practices and any such acts, practices, or procedures that deny: (1) market opportunities (including protection of an industry in its formative stages); (2) opportunities for the establishment of an enterprise; (3) protection of intellectual property rights; or (4) protection against anti-competitive practices. Includes within the definition of "service sector access authorization" any authorization that gives access to the U.S. market to a foreign supplier of goods related to a service. Directs the USTR to determine, within 90 days of the start of such an investigation, whether: (1) the United States is being denied its rights under any trade agreement; or (2) there is any unfair trade act, policy, or practice. Sets forth the actions to be taken by the USTR based on such determination. Requires an import relief action to terminate after seven years if it has existed continuously for seven years and no request to extend the action is made during the last 60 days of such seven year period. Requires the USTR to review the effectiveness of such an import action if a request to extend the import relief is made. Authorizes the President, if such import relief involves raising tariffs or imposing import restrictions, to negotiate a trade agreement providing compensation, or to proclaim tariff changes to provide compensation for certain countries in order to meet U.S. international obligations. Title III: Relief from Injury Caused by Import Competition - Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to allow one of the purposes of an import relief petition to be the desire to enhance competitiveness. Includes among the economic factors to be considered in determining whether increased imports constitute a serious injury to a domestic industry the inability of a significant number of firms to operate domestic production facilities at a reasonable profit. Adds to the factors to be considered in import relief investigations relating to whether increased imports are a threat of serious injury to a domestic industry: (1) any combination of coordinated government actions that are bestowed on a specified enterprise the effect of which is to increase the competitiveness of that enterprise and that cause or threaten to cause serious injury to the domestic industry concerned; (2) the existence of an affirmative antidumping or countervailing duty determination; (3) the extent to which firms in the domestic industry concerned are unable to maintain existing levels of research and development expenses; and (4) the extent to which the U.S. market is the focal point for diversion of exports because of a foreign country's market restraints. Requires the International Trade Commission (ITC) in determining what domestic industry is affected by imports to treat as part of the domestic industry only the domestic production of a domestic producer who also imports. Prohibits considering imports of like or directly competitive articles by domestic producers as a factor indicating the absence of serious injury or threat of serious injury to a domestic industry. Requires the ITC, in an import relief investigation, to consider factors other than imports which may cause injury or threaten injury to a domestic industry and to report on such factors to the President. Permits the ITC to recommend both increases in import restrictions and adjustment assistance if the ITC finds that increased imports are causing a serious injury or threat of serious injury to a domestic industry. Requires the ITC to prepare for the President an estimate of the short-term and long-term effects of such increases in import duties or import restrictions on private and industrial consumers. Directs the President to impose provisional import relief if critical circumstances exist (circumstances caused by a significant increase in imports over a short period of time in which a delay in the imposition of relief would cause damage to the domestic industry that would be difficult to remedy under the usual import relief measures). Authorizes filing a petition with the Secretary of Agriculture for emergency import relief in addition to any petition filed with the ITC if the petition relates to imports of perishable products. Requires the Secretary to make a recommendation to the President within 14 days of receiving such petition on whether or not to take emergency action. Requires the Secretary to recommend emergency relief if the Secretary finds that emergency action is warranted and that increased imports of a perishable product are a substantial cause of serious injury or threat of serious injury to the competing domestic industry. Requires the President to decide, within seven days of receiving such recommendation, what, if any, import restrictions to impose on such imports. Provides for the termination of such emergency relief. Requires the ITC to evaluate the effectiveness of import relief actions and to report on such evaluation to the President and the Congress. Requires the USTR to establish a plan development group for an industry after the ITC begins an import relief investigation based upon a petition filed by firms, a union, or a group of workers that represent a significant portion of the domestic industry if the petitioners request the establishment of such a plan development group. Requires each such group (made up of government and private sector representatives) to prepare an assessment of current problems in the industry and a strategy to enhance its competitiveness. Sets forth information to be included in such assessment and strategy. Requires the assessment and strategy to be submitted, along with the opinions of the members of the plan development group on the viability of such strategy, to the petitioner within 120 days of the start of an ITC import relief investigation. Authorizes the petitioner, if the ITC finds that imports have caused serious injury to the domestic industry, to submit the assessment and strategy to the ITC on the day after the ITC makes such finding. Requires the USTR to present to the ITC some of the opinions of Federal agencies on the viability of such strategy. Requires the ITC, upon submission of such assessment and strategy to the petitioner and before the ITC evaluates what effect such a strategy will have on the domestic industry to try to obtain confidential commitments from the individual members of the domestic industry on their future actions. Requires the ITC to transmit such commitments to certain members of the Government to enable them to evaluate the assessment and strategy. Requires the President under certain circumstances to consider such confidential commitments, assessment and strategy, and recommendations of the interagency trade organization. Sets forth the actions the ITC must take if the ITC finds that increased imports are a substantial cause of or constitute a threat of serious injury to a domestic industry and if an adjustment assessment and strategy have been submitted. Directs the President, in determining whether to provide import relief, to take into account the probable effectiveness of import relief as a means of promoting adjustment or modernization in order to improve competitive abilities. Directs the President, if the President has received an assessment and strategy in connection with an injured or threatened industry, to: (1) provide the import relief found necessary by the ITC; (2) provide substantially equivalent import relief; or (3) submit to the Congress a draft of a bill making certain waivers and containing provisions implementing the import relief, if any, that the President has decided to take. Provides for expedited congressional consideration of such a bill. Requires the President to implement the import relief found necessary by the ITC if after 90 days such bill is not enacted. Provides for publication of the assessment and strategy if import relief is provided. Requires a review committee to: (1) monitor actions taken by petitioners to improve the competitive position of the industry; (2) make recommendations for administrative actions to achieve the objectives of the assessment and strategy; and (3) submit to the Congress legislative recommendations. Provides for expedited consideration of legislative recommendations. Requires the review committee to consult with members of the plan development group and with members of the domestic industry if the objectives and actions specified in the assessment and strategy are not being implemented or if the confidential commitments are not being kept. Authorizes the President to terminate or modify the import relief if, after the consultations, the review committee determines that such failure to implement the strategy or commitments is not justified by changed circumstances and has adversely affected overall implementation of the objectives set forth in the assessment and strategy. Directs the President, before deciding whether to grant import relief, to consult with the interagency trade organization established pursuant to the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and consider the recommendations of such organization. Includes among the import relief actions available to the President the right to: (1) initiate on an accelerated basis an antidumping or countervailing duty investigation; (2) direct the Attorney General to review applications from the injured industry for antitrust law exemptions; or (3) enter into multilateral negotiations to address problems not susceptible to unilateral solution. Permits an import relief investigation into imports of an article that received import relief less than two years before the start of the new investigation if good cause is shown. Sets forth the procedure for an antidumping or countervailing duty investigation which the President orders as a form of import relief. Sets forth the factors to be used to determine whether to grant an antitrust law exemption if the President as a form of import relief orders the Attorney General to consider applications for such exemptions. Requires the Attorney General to report to specified congressional committees if any such exemption is granted. Directs the President to impose import restrictions or increase import duties if multilateral negotiations ordered by the President as a form of import relief fail to provide relief from serious injury or the threat of serious injury within one year. Provides for expedited consideration of legislation implementing such import restrictions or import duty increases. Requires the ITC to review an injury determination and its recommendations relating to the determination if: (1) the ITC has made a unanimous affirmative injury determination; (2) the President declined between January 1, 1984, and October 1, 1985, to prevent or remedy the injury or threat of injury found by the ITC; and (3) a petition for review is filed within one year of enactment of this Act. Requires the ITC, within 60 days of receiving such petition, to: (1) determine whether the injury should be reaffirmed or revoked; and (2) if the injury determination is reaffirmed, report such determination to the President and set forth the increase in import duty or the import restriction necessary to prevent the injury or threat of injury. Requires the ITC to publish such report. Requires the President to decide whether to impose such import relief within 30 days of receiving such report. Title IV: Negotiating Authority for Trade Agreements - Amends the Trade Act of 1974 to urge the President to take all appropriate and feasible steps to reduce or eliminate tariff and nontariff barriers to international trade and other distortions of international trade through: (1) the full exercise of U.S. rights under international agreements; and (2) the negotiation of trade agreements. Authorizes the President to enter into trade agreements during the five years following January 3, 1988, to reduce or eliminate trade barriers and distortions if the President finds that: (1) such barriers or distortions unduly restrict U.S. foreign trade or adversely affect the U.S. economy or are likely to result in such a restriction or effect; (2) the purposes of the Trade Act of 1974 will be promoted by the reduction or elimination of such barriers or distortions. Authorizes entering into a trade agreement only if the President, at least 150 days before such agreement is entered into: (1) notifies specified congressional committees of the negotiations of such agreement; (2) consults with each such committee regarding the negotiation; and (3) submits to each such committee a written statement of the specific negotiating objectives that the President anticipates will be achieved by such agreement and its implementing bill, a description of how such objectives will be achieved, and the specific negotiating objectives the President anticipates will not be achieved and the reasons for such failure. Provides that an implementing bill will not receive expedited congressional consideration if such conditions are not met or if a specified congressional committee disapproved the negotiation within 60 days of receiving notice of it. Requires the USTR to consult with interested congressional committees at least once a year on such negotiations, their progress, and obstacles to the achievement of their objectives. Requires the President to consult with specified congressional committees before entering into any trade agreement. Requires the President, whenever entering into a trade agreement, to submit such agreement, together with a draft implementing bill and statement of proposed implementing administrative action to the Congress. Provides that a trade agreement submitted to the Congress shall enter into force with respect to the United States if and only if: (1) the President, at least 90 days before entering into such trade agreement, notified the Congress of intent to enter into it and published notice of such intent; and (2) after entering into the agreement, the President sends the final legal text of the agreement to the Congress along with certain other information. Sets forth certain recommendations the President may make to the Congress to insure that foreign countries which benefit under a trade agreement are subject to obligations under the agreement. Directs the President, upon starting negotiations on a trade agreement to limit trade barriers, to try to obtain an interim agreement under which any country participating in such negotiations shall: (1) decline to impose new trade barriers or trade-distorting devices; and (2) reduce market intervention to allow market forces to govern growth of industries characterized by overcapacity or overproduction. Requires that the U.S. objectives in negotiating trade agreements under the basic authority to negotiate shall be to obtain: (1) more open, fair, and equitable market access; (2) the reduction or elimination of barriers and other trade-distorting practices; and (3) an appropriate overall balance between benefits and concessions within the agricultural, manufacturing, mining, and services sectors. Requires that the principle objectives in negotiating agreements to reduce trade barriers shall be: (1) to obtain with respect to manufacturing, mining, agriculture, and services and with respect to related investments, equivalent competitive opportunities for U.S. exports; and (2) to bring previously made agreements into conformity with principles promoting an open nondiscriminatory, and fair world economic system. Authorizes the President for the five years following January 3, 1988, to: (1) proclaim an increase in an import duty or an imposition of an additional import duty in lieu of any limit on imports of an article; or (2) use import licenses in administering any of such limitations and sell such licenses at public auctions. Title V: Exchange Rates and Developing Country Debt - Subtitle A: Measures Relating to Exchange Rates - Declares that it is U.S. policy that the United States and the Western industrialized allies should coordinate: (1) monetary and fiscal policies in order to eliminate imbalances in trade and capital flows and to stabilize exchange rates; and (2) the participation by central banks in international currency markets in order to reduce severe currency fluctuations, deter currency speculation, aid in the stabilization of the dollar in international currency markets, and promote orderly exchange rate adjustments. Directs the President, within six months of enactment of this Act, to enter into negotiations with: (1) other G-5 countries (West Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and France) to improve the international monetary system; (2) the other G-5 countries to enhance their role in coordinating fiscal and monetary policy to ensure that their policies converge on money growth, inflation, fiscal policy, interest rates, and other economic factors; and (3) other countries to achieve reciprocal opportunities for investment. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board to accumulate foreign currencies in amounts sufficient to make participation in foreign exchange markets effective and credible. Requires the President to report to the Congress every six months on implementation of this subtitle. Subtitle B: Measures Relating to Developing Country Debtors - Requires the negotiating objectives of the United States with developing country debtors to be to: (1) reduce barriers to U.S. exports; (2) reduce barriers to foreign investment; (3) lessen the burden on U.S. exports and international trade caused by destabilizing debt service and trade and investment barriers maintained by developing countries; (4) lessen the destablizing impact of difficulties in international debt service; (5) encourage developing countries to eliminate structural barriers that limit their efficiency and productivity; and (6) permit the resumption of economic growth of developing countries. Amends the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945 to authorize the Export-Import Bank to establish for FY 1986 through 1989 the Trade Expansion Loan Guarantee and Insurance program. Requires the program to be available to the Export-Import Bank for the establishment of general facilities consisting of guarantees and insurance in support of U.S. exports to specific developing countries if certain conditions are met. Authorizes the President to enter into negotiations with members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development to eliminate official financing or support for new mining or production facilities for commodities in developing countries and to encourage the reduction of commodities from such facilities if the commodity is in oversupply internationally. Authorizes the President to enter into negotiations with members of each multilateral development bank to prohibit aid by each such bank for any new mining or production facility for a commodity that is in oversupply internationally. Authorizes the President to enter into negotiations with the members of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to terminate the Compensatory Financing Facility and transfer the resources and assets of the Facility to the general resources of the IMF. Authorizes the President to enter into negotiations with members of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development for: (1) an agreement to permit increases in loans and guarantees by the Bank up to 200 percent of the Bank's unimpaired subscribed capital, reserves, and surplus; (2) an agreement that new lending by the Bank would be at interest rates based upon an index reflecting economic conditions in the country getting the loan; and (3) an agreement that new loans made by the Bank should be conditioned on the removal of existing trade and investment barriers and on the promotion of development of the private sector. Requires the President to report annually to the Congress on implementation of this subtitle. Title VI: Withdrawal of Benefits under Generalized System of Preferences - Directs the President to submit to the Congress, within 90 days of enactment of this Act, a draft of a bill to withdraw, within two years of enactment of this Act, trade preferences under title V of the Trade Act of 1974 from a foreign country if, on the basis of such country's per capita income and other indications of economic development and international competitiveness, the continued provision of such preferences can no longer be justified as promoting economic growth and development in the developing world. Provides for special congressional procedures with respect to such bill. Prohibits such bill from applying to any country which has entered into an agreement with the United States establishing a free trade zone between the United States and such country. Title VII: Nonmarket Economy Countries - Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to change the method of dealing with dumping from nonmarket economy countries. Requires the foreign market value of merchandise to be the trade-weighted average price at which the merchandise or similar merchandise produced by eligible market economy producers is sold in the United States if: (1) the merchandise under investigation is exported from a nonmarket economy country; and (2) the administering authority finds that the foreign market value of the merchandise cannot be accurately determined under the usual method because information provided by the country is not verifiable or is insufficient. Requires the foreign market value, if a trade-weighted average price is not available, to be the price at which the merchandise or similar merchandise produced by an eligible market economy producers is sold in the United States. Requires the foreign market value, if there are no eligible market economy producers, to be the constructed value of the merchandise or similar merchandise produced in any country other than a nonmarket economy country. Defines nonmarket economy country generally to be a country which appears on a list prepared annually by the administering authority that designates countries whose economies do not operate on market principles of cost or pricing structures. Defines an eligible market economy producer to be a foreign producer who: (1) produces merchandise that is the subject of dumping investigation or any similar merchandise in a country that is not a nonmarket economy country; (2) exports the merchandise or similar merchandise to the United States; and (3) is not subject to an antidumping or countervailing duty order against the merchandise or similar merchandise. Title VIII: Intellectual Property Rights - Amends the Tariff Act of 1930 to declare that the unauthorized importation (or sale) of articles into the United States that infringe a valid U.S. patent, copyright, trademark, U.S. maskwork, or trade secret is unfair and has the effect of destroying or substantially injuring a U.S. industry or impairing the establishment of such industry. Permits any person to petition the ITC for the issuance of an order to exclude such articles, during its investigation, from entry into the United States. Sets forth: (1) civil penalties for violations under this Act; and (2) procedures for the modification or recission of an ITC order under this Act. Repeals a specified section of the Tariff Act of 1930 relating to the importation of products produced under a process covered by claims of unexpired patent. Process Patent Amendment of 1985 - Amends the patent laws to make it an infringement of patent to use, sell, or import into the United States without authority a product produced by a patented process. Directs the Department of Commerce to report to the Congress annually for five years on the effect such restriction has on the importation of ingredients for U.S. manufacturing. Agricultural Patent Reform Act of 1985 - Amends the patent laws to extend the terms of patents which encompass specified products or methods for using a product, including methods of manufacturing which primarily use recombinant DNA technology, any of which are subject to certain nonpatent regulatory review periods. Sets forth the terms and conditions of such extension, including a five-year limitation on the extension and a 25-year maximum patent term for the earliest filing. Directs the Commissioner of Patents to notify the appropriate Federal agency upon receipt from the product sponsor of a notice of extension to determine the applicable regulatory review period and whether, within that period, the sponsor acted with due diligence. Provides for notice and informal hearings for persons interested in such determinations. Permits the setting of fees to cover the costs of review. Directs the Commissioner, upon a final determination of the applicable regulatory review period, to issue to the owner of record of a patent a certificate of extension stating the fact and length of the extension and identifying the product and the use and the claim to which such extension is applicable. Makes such certificate a part of the original patent. Limits the application of such patent term extension to patents for: (1) any new animal drug or antibiotic subject to regulation under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act; (2) any veterinary biological product subject to regulation under the Virus-Serum-Toxin Act; (3) any pesticide subject to regulation under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; and (4) any chemical substance or mixture subject to regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Title IX: Export Related Measures - Subtitle A: Fair Export Financing - Fair Export Financing Act of 1985 - Amends the Trade and Development Enhancement Act of 1983 to declare that one of the purposes of such Act is to establish a temporary tied aid credit program to combat the predatory concessional credit programs of foreign governments. Directs the President to negotiate limits on partially untied aid credit. Changes the U.S. negotiating objectives to include references to partially untied aid credits. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to establish within the Department of the Treasury a program of tied aid credits for U.S. exports. Requires the program to be carried out in cooperation with the Export-Import Bank or with private financial institutions or entities. (Currently the program is established within the Export-Import Bank and carried out in cooperation with the Agency for International Development (AID)). Sets forth financing methods that may be included in such program. Authorizes appropriations. Repeals the provision that established a tied aid credit program in AID. Requires the Secretary to seek the advice of the National Advisory Council on International Monetary and Financial Policies before approving financing under the tied aid credit program. Terminates the tied aid credit program on September 30, 1987. Limits judicial review of actions by the Chairman of the Export-Import Bank and by the Secretary. Changes the definition of "tied aid credit." Defines "partially untied aid credit." Deletes references to government-mixed credits and public-private cofinancing. Subtitle B: Amendments to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 - Practices and Records Act - Changes the name of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 (FCPA) to the Business Practices and Records Act. Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to require securities issuers to maintain an internal accounting system that provides reasonable assurance that specified accountability and accuracy goals are met. Prohibits imposing criminal liability for failing to maintain such an accounting system. Prohibits imposing civil injunctive relief with respect to: (1) an issuer who fails to maintain the required accounting system if the issuer tried in good faith to meet the requirements; or (2) any person other than an issuer in connection with an issuer's failure to comply with such requirements, unless such person knowingly caused the issuer to fail to comply. Prohibits anyone from knowingly circumventing such an accounting system for a purpose inconsistent with the accountability and accuracy goals of such system. Requires only good faith efforts at ensuring compliance by issuers who hold 50 percent or less of the equity of domestic or foreign firms. Transfers from the Securities and Exchange Commission to the Department of Justice jurisdiction to enforce the bribery prohibitions of the FCPA with respect to issuers. Revises the prohibition against domestic concerns using any means of interstate commerce to further payments to obtain business with a foreign official. States that such a payment made "directly or indirectly" to a foreign official is illegal. Prohibits such payments that are made to: (1) influence a foreign official's act or induce such an official to violate a legal duty; or (2) induce a foreign official to affect a foreign government's act. Prohibits domestic concerns from using interstate commerce to direct or authorize an agent to further such a payment to a foreign official. Exempts from such prohibitions: (1) payments to foreign officials to expedite or to secure the performance of routine governmental action; (2) payments to such officials that are lawful under the foreign country's laws; (3) payments which constitute tokens of regard or esteem; (4) expenditures associated with selling, purchasing, or demonstrating goods; or (5) ordinary expenditures associated with performing a contract with a foreign government. Revises the fines and criminal penalties for violations of such Act. Empowers the Attorney General to undertake all civil investigations necessary to enforce the Act. Prohibits prosecution of a domestic concern or specified agents of such concern for violating the Federal mail or wire fraud provisions by making a payment to a foreign official if the prosecution is based on the theory that the official, by receiving the payment, violated a duty to or defrauded the foreign government or the citizens of a foreign country. Authorizes the Attorney General to issue guidelines specifying: (1) permissible conduct associated with common types of export sales arrangements; and (2) precautionary procedures which would create a rebuttable presumption of compliance. Provides for the establishment of a Business Practices and Records Act Review Procedure to answer specific inquiries concerning enforcement of such Act. Requires the Attorney General to issue opinions regarding compliance. Makes such opinions final and binding on all parties if the opinion states that the conduct does not involve a violation. Directs the Attorney General to protect the confidentiality of materials submitted in the review procedure. Requires annual reports to the Congress by: (1) the Attorney General concerning actions taken pursuant to such Act; and (2) the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission concerning the reporting requirements. Subtitle C: Miscellaneous Provisions - Directs the Secretaries of State and Commerce to review periodically the number of personnel assigned to U.S. missions abroad to determine whether an adequate number of such personnel are engaged in economic or commercial duties to aid U.S. exporters and businesses doing business outside the United States. Declares that the Secretaries should extend the length of assignment of such personnel in order to ensure greater continuity in promoting U.S. exports. Requires each chief of a U.S. mission to a country that is an important trading partner and which has significant potential for U.S. export sales to report annually to the President and the Congress on: (1) the strategy used by such mission to expand U.S. exports; and (2) the efforts of such mission to assist U.S. industries in expanding export sales and in improving their market position. Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) each U.S. Executive Director to a multilateral development bank should take specified actions to promote procurement opportunities for U.S. firms; and (2) a Foreign Commercial Officer should be assigned to each such Director to help promote such opportunities. Requires each Federal agency, before taking any major action that may affect international trade, to prepare and publish a report on the potential impact of such action on U.S. international trade and on the ability of U.S. firms to compete in foreign markets. Directs the Secretary of Commerce, through the International Trade Administration, to develop and maintain an effective system to collect and disseminate information on international trade to U.S. exporters. Sets forth information to be included in such system. Title X: National Security - Amends the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to require the President to implement the recommendations contained in a certain report by the Secretary of Commerce with respect to imports that threaten national security if the President has made no determination and taken no action on such report within 90 days of receiving it. Requires the President and the Secretary to consider, in determining whether imports threaten national security, the impact on national security of: (1) not only short-term supply disruptions of articles needed for national security but also long-term U.S. dependence on imports of such articles; and (2) the loss of a viable domestic industry producing articles needed for national security. Requires the President to issue a proclamation on the date of enactment of this Act that implements the recommendation of the Secretary in such report if the President did not by November 20, 1985, make a specified determination with respect to such report that was received before the date that is 90 days before the enactment of this Act.

Bill· SS. 1817 (99th)open

A bill to suspend temporarily most-favored-nation treatment to Romania.

United States · United States Congress · 1 November 1985

Suspends most-favored-nation treatment for Romania for six months. Directs the President, before the end of such six months, to: (1) assess the status of civil liberties and human rights in Romania; and (2) recommend to the Congress whether to extend the suspension of nondiscriminatory treatment to Romania.

Bill· SS. 1810 (99th)referred

A bill to require United States representatives to international financial institutions to oppose assistance by such institutions for the production of agricultural commodities in competition with United States produced agricultural commodities, and for other purposes.

United States · United States Congress · 30 October 1985

Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the U.S. Executive Directors of specified development credit institutions to oppose any aid by such institutions for the production of any agricultural commodity for export if: (1) such commodity is in surplus on world markets; and (2) the export of such commodity would cause substantial injury to U.S. producers of the same or a similar competing commodity. Limits the amount of U.S. payment to any capital expansion such institution based upon the amount of assistance furnished by such institution for the production of surplus agricultural commodities that are injurious to U.S. producers or for the subsidization of the export of agricultural commodities from certain countries.

Bill· SS. 1774 (99th)open

A bill to amend section 1951 of title 18 of the United States Code, and for other purposes.

United States · United States Congress · 18 October 1985

Amends the Hobbs Act to redefine "extortion" to mean obtaining property from another with consent by use of actual or threatened force, violence or fear thereof, or wrongful use of fear not involving force or violence, or under color of official right. Expresses congressional intent not to: (1) exclude Federal jurisdiction on the ground that conduct involving force, violance, or fear thereof takes place in the course of a legitimate business or labor dispute, or on the ground that the conduct violates State or local law; or (2) chill legitimate labor activity by authorizing Federal prosecution for offenses occurring during a labor dispute not involving extortion.. Makes it a bar to a prosecution under this Act that the defendant's conduct: (1) was incidental to peaceful picketing in the course of a legitimate labor dispute; (2) consisted solely of minor bodily injury or property damage; or (3) was not intended to extort property.

Bill· SS. 1702 (99th)open

Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985

United States · United States Congress · 25 September 1985

Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 - Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 to eliminate the second concurrent resolution on the budget and thus provide for the annual adoption of a single concurrent resolution on the budget (budget resolution). Sets forth maximum Federal budget deficit amounts for each of fiscal years 1986 through 1990 providing for the incremental reduction of the deficit to zero by 1990. Prohibits either House of Congress from considering or adopting a budget resolution or a revision thereof providing for budget outlays exceeding revenues by more than the prescribed maximum deficit amount. Requires the Congress to complete action on any reconciliation bill or resolution to: (1) an original budget resolution by June 15 of each year; or (2) a revised budget resolution within 30 days after the revision is adopted. Provides that no amendment that would increase specific budget outlays or reduce specific revenues set forth in a budget resolution or reconciliation bill as reported shall be in order in the House or the Senate, unless such amendment provides for offsetting adjustments in other outlays and revenues to ensure that total outlays are not increased and total revenues are not reduced. Requires each Senate and House committee to report its subdivisions of allocated budget outlays and new budget authority within ten legislative days after the budget resolution is agreed to. Makes it out of order for the House or the Senate, after the Congress has completed action on the budget resolution for a fiscal year, to consider legislation that, if enacted, would: (1) provide for or require budget outlays or new budget authority in excess of the appropriate committee allocation reported in connection with such resolution, unless the legislation is favorably reported by the Committee on Appropriations of the House involved with a certification that the appropriate committee will take actions necessary to assure that enactment of such legislation will not result in a deficit exceeding the maximum deficit amount applicable; or (2) provide for new budget authority or spending authority or reduce revenues so that the resulting deficit would exceed the maximum deficit amount applicable. Requires the conference report on any legislation providing new budget authority or new or increased tax expenditures to disclose the information required to be disclosed in committee reports on such legislation. Requires the Federal budget transmitted to the Congress by the President each year, and revisions thereof, to set forth levels of outlays and revenues resulting in a deficit not in excess of the applicable maximum deficit amount. Permits the President to transmit alternative budgets satisfying such requirement. Requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and the Director of the Congressional Budget Office: (1) to estimate the levels of total revenues and budget levels for each fiscal year; (2) to estimate the rate of real economic growth during that year; (3) to determine whether the deficit for such year will exceed the applicable maximum deficit amount and whether such excess is statistically significant; and (4) if either Director determines that the maximum deficit amount will be exceeded, to submit a report to the President and the Congress specifying the amount of such excess, whether it is statistically significant, the estimated rate of real economic growth for that year, and the percentages by which automatic spending increases and relatively controllable expenditures shall be reduced during such year in order to eliminate such excess. Requires the President, upon receiving such a report, to: (1) issue an order that eliminates one-half of such excess by suspending or uniformly reducing (not below zero) automatic spending increases under Federal law for such year and the other half by sequestering such amounts of budget authority as are necessary to reduce each relatively controllable expenditure by a uniform percentage; and (2) send a message to both Houses of Congress identifying the total amount and percentage by which automatic spending increases are to be reduced, the total amount of budget authority to be sequestered, the amount of budget authority to be sequestered for each relatively controllable expenditure, and the account, department, establishment, project, or function affected by the cut in budget authority. (Authorizes the President to issue such an order if the reported excess is not statistically significant.) Directs the President to issue such order: (1) within 14 days after receiving such report if the estimate for real economic growth for the fiscal year is zero or greater; or (2) within 30 days if the estimate for real economic growth is less than zero. Authorizes the President, during such 30-day period, to submit to the Congress a joint resolution to: (1) reduce the deficit to an amount not exceeding the applicable maximum deficit amount; or (2) suspend the requirements of this Act for such fiscal year. Permits the President's message to the Congress to include alternative ways to reduce the deficit to an amount not exceeding the maximum deficit amount. Permits the Committee on the Budget of the House or the Senate, within ten days after the President has issued such an order, to report a joint resolution superseding such order. Makes it out of order for the House or the Senate to consider or agree to any such resolution which, if enacted, would cause the fiscal year deficit to exceed the maximum deficit amount. Sets forth House and Senate procedures for consideration of such a resolution. Waives specified provisions of this Act in any fiscal year for which a declaration of war has been enacted. Makes this Act applicable through FY 1990.

Law· SS. 1639 (99th)enacted

Gold Bullion Coin Act of 1985

United States · United States Congress · 12 September 1985

Gold Bullion Coin Act of 1985 - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue gold coins in 50-dollar, 25-dollar, ten-dollar, and five-dollar denominations. Requires the Secretary to acquire the gold for such coins by purchase only from natural deposits in the United States or a U.S. territory or possession or from U.S. reserves. Repeals a provision prohibiting the Government from delivering any gold coin. Requires any profit from the sale of such coins to be deposited in the Treasury and applied toward reducing the national debt. Directs the Secretary to ensure that the issuance of such coins results in no net cost to the Government.

Resolution· SCONRESS.Con.Res. 62 (99th)passed

A concurrent resolution expressing solidarity with the Sakharov family in their efforts to exercise their rights of freedom of expression, of travel, and of communication, as guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

United States · United States Congress · 12 September 1985

Expresses the sense of the Congress that, in accordance with the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and other specified human rights agreements, the Soviet Union should: (1) drop all charges against Elena Bonner and restore the rights to travel and free expression to her and Doctor Sakharov; (2) allow correspondence between them and their relatives; and (3) allow Alexei Semyonov permission to visit them in the Soviet Union. Urges the President to protest Soviet violations of the Sakharovs' rights and to call upon other signatory nations of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe to join such protests.

Bill· SJRESS.J.Res. 192 (99th)open

A joint resolution to authorize financial assistance for the Northern Mariana Islands, and for other purposes.

United States · United States Congress · 9 September 1985

Amends the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America to authorize $228,000,000 in guaranteed annual amounts of direct grant assistance for capital development (including government operations and special programs) to the Government of the Northern Mariana Islands for FY 1986 through 1992. Sets forth the formula for the distribution of such funds.

Law· SS. 1570 (99th)enacted

Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1985

United States · United States Congress · 1 August 1985

Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to exclude the employees of States and local governments from the provisions of that Act relating to maximum hours. Revises the definition of "employee" under that Act to exclude any volunteer for a State, local, or interstate public agency, even if such volunteer is paid expenses or a nominal fee to perform the voluntary services.

Resolution· SCONRESS.Con.Res. 59 (99th)referred

A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of the Congress that food producers who permit gleaning of their fields and nonprofit organizations which glean fields and distribute the resulting harvest to help alleviate hunger should be commended for their efforts, and for other purposes.

United States · United States Congress · 31 July 1985

Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) food producers who permit gleaning of their fields and nonprofit organizations which glean fields and distribute the resulting harvest to help alleviate hunger should be commended for their efforts; and (2) State and local governments should be encouraged to offer tax and other incentives for such purposes.

Bill· SS. 1528 (99th)referred

A bill to provide for the expenditure or transfer of funds by the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture for the emergency prevention, suppression, control, or eradication of grasshoppers or mormon crickets on public lands.

United States · United States Congress · 30 July 1985

Provides for the expenditure or transfer of funds by the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture for the emergency prevention and control of grasshoppers and Mormon crickets on public lands.

Bill· SS. 1517 (99th)open

Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act Amendments of 1985

United States · United States Congress · 29 July 1985

Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act Amendments of 1985 - Amends the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Policy Act to authorize the States to enter into compacts for the establishment and operation of regional disposal facilities for low-level radioactive waste. Requires each compact to provide that every five years the Congress may by law withdraw its consent. Requires the Secretary of Energy to: (1) provide technical and financial assistance to both member and non-member States of such regional disposal compacts; and (2) submit an annual report to the Congress summarizing the progress of low-level waste disposal activities. Requires each compact region that has a regional disposal facility in operation before a certain date to offer to allocate available disposal capacity to compact regions which do not have such facilities in operation. Exempts from such availability requirements certain facilities in Barnwell, South Carolina, Hanford, Washington, and Beatty, Nevada. Authorizes such allocation agreements to impose a surcharge upon the disposal of low-level radioactive waste. Requires each compact region that does not have a regional disposal facility, and that enters into such an allocation agreement, to accept wastes from the State with which the allocation agreement was made. Authorizes denying access to existing regional disposal facilities if a nonsited compact region or nonmember State fails to ratify compact legislation or disposal facility development legislation by July 1, 1986.

Bill· SS. 1441 (99th)open

A bill to amend the Guam Organic Act, and for other purposes.

United States · United States Congress · 16 July 1985

Amends the Guam Organic Act to require the Governor of Guam: (1) to submit to the Secretary of the Interior a plan to govern the use and/or disposal of Federal lands by Guam; and (2) to gain approval of such plan by the legislature of Guam. Requires the Secretary to notify specified congressional committees with respect to any changes to such plan. Directs the Secretary to survey and to categorize such lands in Guam.

Bill· SS. 1442 (99th)open

A bill to amend the Act of May 27, 1955, to increase the effectiveness of domestic firefighting forces and ensure prompt and effective control of wildfires on Federal lands by permitting the use of firefighting forces of foreign nations and the reimbursement of such forces for costs incurred in fighting wildfires throughout the United States, and for other purposes.

United States · United States Congress · 16 July 1985

Amends Federal law authorizing reciprocal fire protection agreements between U.S. agencies and other fire fighting organizations by deleting proximity restrictions on the use and reimbursement of foreign firefighting organizations for fighting wildfires throughout the United States. Requires the agency head to determine that no U.S. firefighting organization is reasonably available to provide such protection before funds are expended for foreign fire protection.

Law· SJRESS.J.Res. 161 (99th)enacted

A joint resolution to appeal for the release of Soviet Jewry.

United States · United States Congress · 11 July 1985

Calls on the Soviet Union to: (1) release Anatoly Shcharansky, Yosef Begun, and other Prisoners of Conscience and allow them to leave the Soviet Union; (2) issue exit permits to long term "Refuseniks" including Ida Nudel and Vladimir Slepak; and (3) allow thousands of Jews who have requested such permits to leave.