United States · United States Congress · 21 May 2014
Every Child is a Blessing Act of 2014 - Prohibits recovery of damages in certain civil actions based on a claim that, but for the conduct of the defendant, a child, once conceived, would not or should not have been born. Makes such prohibition applicable to claims based on a child's disability, defect, abnormality, race, sex, or other inborn characteristic. Bars such prohibition from being construed to: (1) provide a defense against charges of intentional misrepresentation in state proceedings regulating the professional practices of health care providers and practitioners; (2) provide a defense in any criminal action, including cases of rape or incest; or (3) limit damages in cases where the conduct of the defendant caused personal injury or death to the child or gestational mother.
United States · United States Congress · 19 May 2014
State Exchange Accountability Act - Amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to require a state to reimburse the federal government for the amount of establishment or early innovator grants the state received to operate a health care exchange if it operated an exchange in 2014 but subsequently elected to provide for enrollment in qualified health plans solely through the federal health care exchange. Requires that: (1) reimbursement be made in full within 10 years of such election, pursuant to an agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and (2) in case of failure to enter such an agreement, the Secretary of HHS shall reduce the state's Medicaid funding for 10 fiscal years in an aggregate amount equal to the reimbursement amount.
United States · United States Congress · 1 May 2014
Flood Insurance Market Parity and Modernization Act of 2014 - Amends the Flood Disaster Protection Act of 1973 to redefine "private flood insurance" to include a policy issued by an insurance company that is eligible as a nonadmitted insurer to provide insurance in the state or jurisdiction where the property to be insured is located.
United States · United States Congress · 10 April 2014
Supporting New Avenues to Protect Our Fishermen's Resources Act or the SNAPR Act - Amends the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act to repeal a provision that requires any fishery management plan, plan amendment, or regulation submitted by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council to contain conservation and management measures that establish catch limits (separate quotas for recreational and commercial fishing that, when reached, result in a prohibition on the retention of caught fish for the remainder of the fishing year) for the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery.
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 2014
Protecting the Sustainable Use of Spent Grains Act of 2014 - Amends the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act to permit the continued exemption from the Act, as an alcohol-related facility, of a facility that distributes, for use as food for animals, spent grains resulting from the production of alcoholic beverages.
United States · United States Congress · 7 April 2014
Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2014 - States that it shall be U.S. policy to: (1) prevent Hezbollah's global logistics and financial network from operating in order to curtail funding of its domestic and international activities; and (2) utilize diplomatic, legislative, and executive avenues to combat Hezbollah's criminal activities in order to block that organization's ability to fund its global terrorist activities. Directs the President to report to Congress: (1) a list of satellite, broadcast, or other providers that knowingly transmit the content of al-Manar TV; and (2) the identity of those providers that have or have not been sanctioned pursuant to Executive Order 13224. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to prohibit or impose strict conditions on the opening or maintaining in the United States of a correspondent account or a payable-through account by a foreign financial institution that knowingly: (1) facilitates the activities of Hezbollah or its agents, instrumentalities, affiliates, or successors; (2) facilitates the activities of a person acting on behalf of or owned or controlled by an agent, instrumentality, affiliate, or successor; (3) engages in money laundering to carry out such an activity; (4) facilitates a significant transaction or provides significant financial services to carry out such an activity, including services that involve a transaction of gold, silver, platinum, or other precious metals; or (5) facilitates any of these activities, conspires to facilitate or participate in such an activity, or is owned or controlled by a foreign financial institution that knowingly engages in such an activity. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe reporting, information sharing, and due diligence requirements for domestic financial institutions that maintain a correspondent account or payable-through account in the United States for a foreign financial institution. Authorizes the Secretary to waive such requirements if in the U.S. national security interests, and with congressional notification. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to identify to Congress every 180 days each foreign central bank that carries out an activity prohibited under this Act. Sets forth penalty requirements for specified violations under this Act. Directs the President to designate Hezbollah as: (1) a significant foreign narcotics trafficker if Hezbollah meets meets the criteria set forth under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, and (2) a significant transnational criminal organization if Hezbollah meets the criteria set forth under specified executive orders and statutes. Requires the President to report to Congress which of these criteria the President determines that Hezbollah has not met, if it does not. Directs the Secretary of State to report to Congress regarding Hezbollah's involvement in the trade in rough diamonds outside of the Kimberly Process Certification Scheme. Declares that nothing in this Act shall apply to authorized U.S. intelligence activities. States that any requirement of this Act shall cease to be in effect 30 days after the President certifies to Congress that Hezbollah: (1) is no longer designated as a foreign terrorist organization; (2) is no longer listed in the Annex to Executive Order 13224 (blocking property and prohibiting transactions with persons who commit or support terrorism); and (3) poses no significant threat to U.S. national security, interests, or allies.
United States · United States Congress · 2 April 2014
Repeals the National Technical Information Act of 1988, effective one year after the enactment of this Act (thus abolishes the National Technical Information Service [NTIS]). Directs: (1) the Secretary of Commerce, the Archivist of the United States, the Comptroller General (GAO), and the Commissioner of Social Security to consult with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to determine if any NTIS function is critical to the U.S. economy; (2) the Comptroller General to determine which of any such critical functions are not being carried out by any other agency or instrumentality of the federal government; and (3) the Secretary of Commerce, prior to the effective date of this Act, to submit to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the Senate Committee on Finance a written certification that all NTIS operations have been terminated.
United States · United States Congress · 27 March 2014
Domain Openness Through Continued Oversight Matters Act of 2014 or the DOTCOM Act of 2014 - Prohibits the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information from relinquishing or agreeing to any proposal relating to the relinquishment of the responsibility of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) over Internet domain name system functions (including the authoritative root zone file, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions, and related root zone management functions) until the Comptroller General (GAO), within one year after the NTIA receives a relinquishment proposal developed in a process convened by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at the request of the NTIA, submits a report to Congress regarding the role of the NTIA with respect to the Internet domain name system. Requires such GAO report to include: (1) advantages and disadvantages of such relinquishment of NTIA responsibility; (2) any principles or criteria that the NTIA sets for relinquishment proposals, as well as an analysis of each proposal received by the NTIA; (3) the processes used by the NTIA and any other federal agencies for evaluating proposals; (4) any national security concerns; and (5) a definition of "multistakeholder model" as used by the NTIA with respect to Internet policymaking and governance.
United States · United States Congress · 26 March 2014
Jumpstarting Opportunities with Bold Solutions Act - Division I: Labor - Title I: Repeal of Davis-Bacon Act - Repeals the Davis-Bacon Act (which requires that the locally prevailing wage rate be paid to various classes of laborers and mechanics working under federally-financed or federally-assisted contracts for construction, alteration, and repair of public buildings or public works). States that references in any law to a wage requirement of the Davis-Bacon Act after the enactment of this Act shall be null and void. Title II: Union Contract Not a Bar to Higher Wages - Amends the National Labor Relations Act to declare that neither its prohibition against interference by an employer with employees' right to bargain collectively, nor the terms of a collective bargaining agreement entered into between employees and an employer after enactment of this Act, shall prohibit an employer from paying an employee higher wages, pay, or other compensation than the agreement provides for. Title III: Repeal of Provisions Relating to Official Time of Federal Employees for Purposes of Union Organizing - Repeals the requirements that: (1) a federal employee representing an exclusive representative in the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement be authorized official time for such purposes during the time the employee otherwise would be in a duty status; and (2) the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) determine whether any federal employee participating for, or on behalf of, a labor organization in any phase of proceedings before it shall be authorized official time for that purpose. Title IV: Rulemaking, Investigative, and Adjudicative Authority of the National Labor Relations Board - Amends the National Labor Relations Act to repeal the authority of the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to issue, and prosecute before the Board, complaints with respect to unfair labor practices. Repeals the prohibition against: (1) review of an administrative law judge's report by any person other than a Board member or legal assistant; and (2) advice to or consultation with the Board by an administrative law judge with respect to exceptions taken to his or her findings, rulings, or recommendations. Limits the Board's rulemaking authority to rules concerning the internal functions of the Board. Prohibits the Board from promulgating rules that affect the substantive rights of a person, employer, employee, or labor organization. Revises Board powers to grant it the authority to investigate unfair labor practices, but repeals its power to prevent any person from engaging in them. Repeals the Board's power to issue a complaint against a person charging an unfair labor practice. Allows an aggrieved party to bring a civil action for relief (including injunctions) in U.S. district court or the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in cases where it appears that a person has engaged, is engaging, or is about to engage in an unfair labor practice. Division II: Deregulation - Title V: Uniform Cost-Benefit Analysis of Regulations - Establishes additional requirements for rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), including: identification by a federal agency, in the context of a coherent conceptual framework and supported with objective data, of the nature and significance of the market failure, regulatory failure, or other problem that necessitates regulatory action and why other alternatives, such as market forces or state or local regulations, could not address the problem better than federal regulation; establishment by an agency of an achievable objective for its regulatory action; development of at least three distinct regulatory options, in addition to not regulating, that the agency estimates will provide the greatest benefits for the least cost in meeting the regulatory objective; an estimate by each agency of the costs and benefits of each regulatory option developed, at least to the extent the agency is able to exclude options whose costs exceed their benefits, and rank such options by cost from lowest to highest; publication for public comment of all analyses, documentation, and data relating to the requirements of this Act for a public comment period of not less than at least 30 days; establishment, by rule, of the specific cost-benefit analysis methodology appropriate to the functions and responsibilities of the agency and establishment of an appropriate period for review of new rules to assess their cost-effectiveness; justification of why the agency does not select the least-cost regulatory option as its proposed rule; and agency review, every four years, of all rules of the agency that are in effect and a determination based on objective data of whether the rules are working as intended, furthering their objectives, imposing unanticipated costs, or generating a net benefit. Requires the Comptroller General (GAO), for purposes of congressional review, to examine and report on: (1) each agency cost-benefit analysis for compliance with the requirements of this Act, including the methodology for such analysis; (2) risk analysis pertaining to the cost-benefit analysis; and (3) agency quadrennial regulatory reviews for consistency with the requirements of this Act, with a report to Congress on the results of the examination of such reviews. Title VI: Periodic Review and Termination of Regulations - Sets forth requirements for agencies to review their significant rules to determine whether they should be modified, consolidated with another rule, or terminated (sunset review). Defines a "significant rule" as one that the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) determines: (1) results in an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more, (2) is a major rule, or (3) was issued pursuant to a significant regulatory action. Provides for the sunset review of a rule that is not a significant rule upon petition by a person adversely affected or at the request of a congressional committee or a majority of the majority or non-majority party members of such a committee. Requires the Administrator to: (1) inventory existing rules; (2) publish annually an updated list of covered rules specifying the review deadline for each rule; (3) prioritize rules for review based on specified criteria, including the rule's cost to those regulated and the burden of reviewing it; (4) group related rules for simultaneous sunset review; (5) provide guidance to agencies on conducting sunset reviews; and (6) provide feedback to agencies on sunset reviews and results. Requires new significant rules to be reviewed within three years after taking effect. Requires each agency to: (1) designate a Regulatory Review Officer; (2) conduct a sunset review of its significant rules; (3) publish a sunset review notice, consider public comments, and issue a preliminary report; and (4) issue a final report recommending that a rule be continued without change or that it be changed or discontinued, in which case the agency shall conduct a rulemaking to modify, consolidate, or terminate such rule. Allows judicial review of a denial of, or a substantial inexcusable delay in granting or denying, a petition for sunset review of a rule. Terminates the provisions of this title 10 years after its enactment. Title VII: Regulation Costs to Small Businesses and Grace Period for Regulatory Violations - Requires the Administrator of the Small Business Administration (SBA) to conduct an annual study of the total costs to small business concerns of federal regulations and the amount such costs have increased over the prior year. Requires a federal agency, before any enforcement action is taken on any sanction on a small business for any violation of a rule or pursuant to an adjudication, to: (1) notify the small business that it may be subject to a sanction at the end of a six-month grace period following such notification; (2) delay further action for 15 days after such notification; (3) defer further action for the six-month period (allowing an additional three-month period upon application by the small business demonstrating reasonable good-faith efforts to remedy the violation or other conduct giving rise to the sanction); (4) make a further determination at the end of the applicable grace period as to whether the small business would still be subject to the sanction; and (5) upon a negative determination, waive the sanction. Makes the grace period inapplicable with respect to a violation that puts anyone in imminent danger, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). Title VIII: Major Rules of the Executive Branch Be Approved by Congress - Revises provisions relating to congressional review of agency rulemaking to require a federal agency promulgating a rule to include in its report to Congress and to the Comptroller General (GAO) a classification of the rule as a major or non-major rule. Requires a joint resolution of approval of major rules to be enacted before such rules may take effect (currently, major rules take effect unless a joint resolution disapproving them is enacted). Provides that if a joint resolution of approval is not enacted by the end of 70 session days or legislative days, as applicable, after the agency proposing the rule submits its report on such rule to Congress, the major rule shall be deemed not to be approved and shall not take effect. Permits a major rule to take effect for one 90-calendar day period without such approval if the President determines it is necessary because of an imminent threat to health or safety or other emergency, for the enforcement of criminal laws, for national security, or to implement an international trade agreement. Sets forth the congressional approval procedure for major rules and the congressional disapproval procedure for non-major rules. Prohibits an agency from allowing a major rule to take effect without the congressional review procedures set forth in this Act. Allows a court to review whether an agency has completed the necessary requirements under this Act for a rule to take effect (currently, no judicial review of a determination, finding, action, or omission in the rulemaking process is subject to judicial review). Limits the effect of a joint resolution of approval of a major rule. Makes this Act inapplicable to rules that concern monetary policy proposed or implemented by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or the Federal Open Market Committee. Provides that any rule promulgated by a federal agency that relates to a regulatory program for a commercial, recreational, or subsistence activity related to hunting, fishing, or camping, or any rule other than a major rule for which an agency for good cause finds that notice and public procedure thereon are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest, shall take effect at such time as the agency determines. Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 to provide that any congressional approval procedure set forth in this Act affecting budget authority, outlays, or receipts shall be assumed to be effective unless it is not approved in accordance with this Act. Directs the Comptroller General to conduct a study to determine, as of the date of enactment of this Act: (1) how many rules were in effect, (2) how many major rules were in effect, and (3) the total estimated economic cost imposed by all such rules. Requires a report to Congress on such study within one year of the enactment of this Act. Title IX: Simplification of Mergers, Acquisitions and Sales of Small Business - Amends the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to exempt from its registration requirements certain merger and acquisition (M&A) brokers and associated persons. Denies such registration exemption to brokers who: (1) receive, hold, transmit, or have custody of any funds or securities to be exchanged by parties to a transfer of ownership of an eligible privately held company; or (2) engage on behalf of an issuer in a public offering of securities that are subject to mandatory registration or securities with respect to which the issuer must file periodic information, documents, and reports. Prohibits the construction of this Act to limit any other authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to exempt any person or any class of persons from any provision of this Act, including any related rule or regulation. Division III: Energy - Title X: Offshore Energy and Jobs Act - Offshore Energy and Jobs Act - Amends the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) to direct the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary in this title) to implement a leasing program that includes at least 50% of the available unleased acreage within each outer Continental Shelf (OCS) planning area considered to have the largest undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources, with an emphasis on offering the most geologically prospective parts of the planning area. Instructs the Secretary, in developing a five-year oil and gas leasing program, to determine a specified domestic strategic production goal for the development of oil and natural gas as a result of that program. Requires the Secretary to: (1) develop and submit a new five-year oil and gas leasing program, (2) conduct offshore oil and gas Lease Sale 220 within one year after enactment of this Act, and (3) make replacement lease blocks available in the Virginia lease sale planning area that are acceptable for oil and gas exploration and production if the Secretary of Defense proposes deferral from a lease offering due to defense-related activities irreconcilable with mineral exploration and development. Instructs the Secretary to conduct a lease sale within two years after enactment of this Act for areas off the coast of South Carolina that have the most geologically promising hydrocarbon resources and constituting at least 25% of the leasable area within the South Carolina offshore administrative boundaries. Directs the Secretary to: (1) offer for sale by December 31, 2014, leases of tracts in the Santa Maria and Santa Barbara/Ventura Basins of the Southern California OCS Planning Area, and (2) prepare a multisale environmental impact statement pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 for all lease sales required under this Act. Amends the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 to repeal the moratorium on oil and gas leasing, or preleasing, or any related activity in: (1) any area east of the Military Mission Line in the Gulf of Mexico, (2) any area in the Eastern Planning Area that is within 125 miles of the Florida coastline, or (3) specified areas within the Central Planning Area and within 100 miles of the Florida coastline. Allocates 37.5% of the amount of new federal leasing revenues to coastal states that are: (1) impacted by the leases under which those revenues are received by the United States, and (2) within 200 miles of the leased tract. Establishes in the Department of the Interior: (1) an Under Secretary for Energy, Lands, and Minerals; (2) an Assistant Secretary of Ocean Energy and Safety; (3) an Assistant Secretary of Land and Minerals Management; (4) a Bureau of Ocean Energy; (5) an Ocean Energy Safety Service; and (6) an Office of Natural Resources Revenue. Instructs the Secretary to establish: (1) a National Offshore Energy Safety Academy, and (2) an Outer Continental Shelf Energy Safety Advisory Board. Requires the Secretary to: (1) certify annually that all Interior Department personnel having regular, direct official contact with government contractors, or conducting investigations, issuing permits, or overseeing energy programs; (2) comply fully with federal employee ethics laws and regulations; and (3) conduct a random drug testing program of such personnel. Abolishes the Minerals Management Service. Directs the Secretary to collect non-refundable fees from the operators of facilities subject to inspection. Establishes in the Treasury the Ocean Energy Enforcement Fund as depository for such fees. Prohibits the Bureau of Ocean Energy and the Ocean Energy Safety Service from developing, proposing, finalizing, administering, or implementing any limitation on activities under their jurisdictions as a result of the coastal and marine spatial planning component of the National Ocean Policy developed under Executive Order No. 13547. Redefines the OCS to include all submerged lands lying within the U.S. exclusive economic zone and the Continental Shelf adjacent to any U.S. territory. Prescribes requirements for filing complaints for judicial review. Directs the Secretary to issue rules to provide more clarity, certainty, and stability to the revenue streams contemplated by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006. Directs the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to publish by December 31, 2014, a record of decision on the Atlantic G&G Programmatic Final Environmental Impact Statement. Terminates in 2014 (currently, 2016) the allocation among Gulf producing states of revenues under the the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006. Title XI: Alaskan Energy for American Jobs Act - Alaskan Energy for American Jobs Act - Directs the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary in this title), acting through the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), to implement a competitive leasing program for the exploration, development, and production of the oil and gas resources on the Coastal Plain of Alaska. Amends the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 to repeal the prohibition against leasing or other development leading to production of oil and gas from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Deems any oil and gas leasing programs and activities authorized by this Act to be in compliance with the purposes of ANWR, so that no further findings or decisions are required to implement this determination. Authorizes the Secretary to designate up to 45,000 acres of the Coastal Plain as a Special Area, after consultation with the state of Alaska, the city of Kaktovik, and the North Slope Borough. Permits directional drilling in the Special Area. States that the Secretary's sole authority to close lands within the Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing, exploration, development, and production is that set forth in this Act. Requires the Secretary, when possible and practicable, to encourage the use of U.S. workers and equipment manufactured in the United States in all construction related to mineral development on the Coastal Plain. Sets forth a "no significant adverse effect" standard to govern Coastal Plain activities. Prescribes procedures governing Coastal Plain lease sales and lease sale bids, as well as lease terms and conditions, including: (1) site-specific assessment and mitigation; (2) regulations to protect Coastal Plain fish and wildlife resources, subsistence users, and the environment; (3) compliance with environmental laws; (4) design safety and construction standards for pipelines and access and service roads; (5) reclamation and rehabilitation requirements; (6) restrictions affecting transportation modes, sand and gravel extraction, use of explosives, and hazardous and toxic waste disposal. Instructs the Secretary to develop a plan facility consolidation plan for the Coastal Plain. Prescribes guidelines for expedited judicial review of complaints. Requires deposit in the Treasury of 50% of all bonus, rental, and royalty revenues from federal oil and gas leasing and operations authorized under this Act. Directs the Secretary to: (1) issue rights-of-way and easements across the Coastal Plain for the transportation of oil and gas produced under leases under this Act, (2) convey to the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation the surface estate of specified lands, and (3) convey to the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation a certain subsurface estate to which it is entitled pursuant to a specified agreement. Title XII: State Control on All Available Federal Land - Authorizes a state to: (1) establish a program covering the leasing and permitting processes, regulatory requirements, and any other provisions by which the state would exercise its rights on available federal land in the state; and (2) as a condition of certification, submit a declaration to the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture (USDA), and Energy (DOE) that such a program has been established or amended. Considers each program certified under this Act as satisfying all applicable requirements of federal law and regulations, including: (1) the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), (2) the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and (3) the National Historic Preservation Act. Requires, upon submission of a declaration by a state, the program to be certified, and the state to receive all rights from the federal government to develop all forms of energy resources covered by the program. Prohibits activities carried out in accordance with this Act from being subject to: (1) judicial review, and (2) the Administrative Procedure Act. Title XIII: Federal Lands Jobs and Energy Security Act - Federal Lands Jobs and Energy Security Act - Streamlining Permitting of American Energy Act of 2014 - Amends the Mineral Leasing Act to revise requirements for the issuance of permits to drill in energy projects on federal lands. Authorizes the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary in this title) to extend the initial 30-day permit application review period for up to 2 periods of 15 days each, if the Secretary has given written notice of the delay to the applicant. Deems a permit application approved if the Secretary has not made a decision on it by 60 days after its receipt. Prescribes a notice requirement for denial of an application. Requires the Secretary to collect a single $6,500 permit processing fee per application from each applicant at the time the decision is made whether or not to issue a permit. Requires that specified minimum percentages of fees collected as annual wind energy and solar energy right-of-way authorization fees be available for the local Department of the Interior field office where they are collected, for Bureau of Land Management (BLM) permit approval activities, and to the Secretary for department-wide permitting activities. Requires the Secretary to collect a $5,000 documentation fee to accompany each protest for a lease, right of way, or application for permit to drill. Requires the Secretary to: (1) establish a Federal Permit Streamlining Project in every BLM Field office with responsibility for permitting energy projects on federal land; and (2) enter into a related memorandum of understanding with the Secretary of Agriculture, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers. Requires federal signatories to such memorandum to assign staff with special expertise to BLM field offices. States that the Secretary shall not require a finding of extraordinary circumstances related to a categorical exclusion in administering the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPA 2005) with respect to review under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). (A "categorical exclusion" under NEPA is a category of actions which do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment and which have been found to have no such effect in procedures adopted by a federal agency in implementing environmental regulations and for which, therefore, neither an environmental assessment nor an environmental impact statement is required.) Sets forth procedures for judicial review of leasing of federal lands for the exploration, development, production, processing, or transmission of oil, natural gas, wind, or any other energy source of energy. Directs the Secretary to provide 50% matching funding for joint projects with states to conduct oil and gas resource assessments on federal lands with significant oil and gas potential. Providing Leasing Certainty for American Energy Act of 2014 - Directs the Secretary, in conducting lease sales under the Mineral Leasing Act, to offer for sale at least 25% of the annual nominated acreage not previously made available for lease. Shields such acreage from protest and the test of extraordinary circumstances, but makes it eligible for certain categorical exclusions under EPA 2005 and NEPA. Amends the Mineral Leasing Act to prohibit the Secretary from: (1) withdrawing any covered energy project issued under that Act without finding a violation of lease terms by the lessee; (2) delaying indefinitely issuance of project approvals, drilling and seismic permits, and rights of way for activities under a lease; and (3) cancelling or withdrawing any lease parcel after a competitive lease sale has occurred and a winning bidder has made the last payment for the parcel. Instructs the Secretary to: (1) make nominated areas available for lease within 18 months after an area is designated as open under a current land use plan, (2) issue all leases sold 60 days after the last payment is made, and (3) adjudicate any lease protests filed following a lease sale. Prohibits additional lease stipulations (except certain emergency stipulations) after the parcel is sold without consultation and agreement of the lessee. Requires federal land managers to follow existing resource management plans and continue to actively lease in areas designated as open when resource management plans are being amended or revised, until such time as a new record of decision is signed. Declares without force or effect Bureau of Land Management Instruction Memorandum 2010-117. Amends the Mineral Leasing Act to repeal the requirement that notice of the proposed reinstatement of a terminated mineral lease be published in the Federal Register at least thirty days in advance of the reinstatement. Requires publication only in an annual report. Protecting Investment in Oil Shale the Next Generation of Environmental, Energy, and Resource Security Act or PIONEERS Act - Deems the final regulations regarding oil shale management published by the BLM on November 18, 2008, to satisfy all legal and procedural requirements under any law, including the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, NEPA, and EPA 2005. Directs the Secretary of the Interior to implement those regulations, including the oil shale leasing program they authorize, without any other administrative action necessary. Deems the November 17, 2008, U.S. Bureau of Land Management Approved Resource Management Plan Amendments/Record of Decision for Oil Shale and Tar Sands Resources to Address Land Use Allocations in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming and Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement also to satisfy all legal and procedural requirements under any law. Directs the Secretary to implement the oil shale leasing program in those areas covered by the resource management plans amended by such amendments, and covered by such record of decision, without any other administrative action necessary. Directs the Secretary to hold a lease sale, within 180 days after enactment of this Act, that offers an additional 10 parcels for lease for research, development, and demonstration of oil shale resources under the terms offered in the solicitation of bids for such leases published on January 15, 2009. Requires the Secretary, by January 1, 2016, to hold at least 5 separate commercial lease sales, in multiple lease blocs, in areas of at least 25,000 acres, which: (1) have been nominated through public comment, and (2) are considered to have the most potential for oil shale development. Planning for American Energy Act of 2014 - Amends the Mineral Leasing Act to direct the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) and the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) to publish every four years a Quadrennial Federal Onshore Energy Production Strategy to direct federal land energy development and department resource allocation in order to promote the energy and national security of the United States in accordance with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) mission to promote the multiple use of federal lands. Instructs the Secretary to consult with the Administrator of the Energy Information Administration on the projected energy demands of the United States for the next 30 years and on how energy derived from federal onshore lands can put the United States on a trajectory that meets such demand during the next four years, with a goal for increasing energy independence and production. Requires the Secretary to determine a domestic strategic production objective for the development of energy resources from such lands. Expresses the sense of Congress that federally recognized Indian tribes may elect to set their own production objectives as part of the Strategy. Grants the relevant Secretary all necessary authority to make determinations regarding which additional federal lands available for leasing at the time the lease sale occurs will be available to meet the production objectives established by the strategies. Directs the Secretary also to take all necessary actions to achieve such objectives unless the President determines that it is not in U.S. national security and economic interests to increase federal domestic energy production and to further decrease dependence upon foreign energy sources. Requires the Secretary, within 12 months of this Act's enactment, to complete a programmatic environmental impact statement in accordance with certain requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Deems such statement sufficient to be in compliance with NEPA requirements for all necessary resource management and land use plans associated with implementation of the Strategy. Requires the Secretary to submit to: (1) the President and Congress, each proposed strategy, together with comments received from the affected states, federally recognized tribes, and local governments prior to publishing it; and (2) Congress the first Strategy within 18 months of enactment. National Petroleum Reserve Alaska Access Act - Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the National Petroleum Reserve (NPR) in Alaska remains explicitly designated to provide oil and natural gas resources to the United States, and (2) it is national policy to actively advance oil and gas development within the NPR. Amends the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976 to require the mandatory program of competitive leasing of oil and gas in the NPR to include at least one lease sale annually in those areas of the NPR most likely to produce commercial quantities of oil and natural gas each year in the period 2015-2025. Directs the Secretary to ensure permits according to a specified timeline, for all surface development activities, including pipelines and roads construction to: (1) develop and bring into production any areas within the NPR that are subject to oil and gas leases, and (2) transport oil and gas from and through the NPR to existing transportation or processing infrastructure on the North Slope of Alaska. Instructs the Secretary to issue: (1) regulations establishing clear requirements to ensure that the Department of the Interior is supporting development of oil and gas leases in the NPR, (2) a new proposed integrated activity plan from among the non-adopted alternatives in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska Integrated Activity Plan Record of Decision issued by the Secretary of the Interior and dated February 21, 2013, and (3) an environmental impact statement for issuance of oil and gas leases in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Nullifies the February 21, 2013, Record of Decision, including its integrated activity plan and environmental impact statement. Requires the Secretary to assess all technically recoverable fossil fuel resources within the NPR, including all conventional and unconventional oil and natural gas. BLM Live Internet Auctions Act - Amends the Mineral Leasing Act to authorize the Secretary to conduct onshore oil and gas lease sales through Internet-based live bidding methods. Requires each individual Internet-based lease sale to conclude within seven days. Directs the Secretary to analyze the first 10 such lease sales, including estimates of: (1) increases or decreases in such lease sales, compared to sales conducted by oral bidding; and (2) the total cost or savings to the Department of the Interior as a result of such sales, compared to sales conducted by oral bidding. Requires the report to evaluate the demonstrated or expected effectiveness of different structures for lease sales which may provide an opportunity to better maximize bidder participation, ensure the highest return to the federal taxpayers, minimize opportunities for fraud or collusion, and ensure the security and integrity of the leasing process. Native American Energy Act - Amends the Energy Policy Act of 1992 to allow the Secretary, an affected Indian tribe, or a certified third-party appraiser under contract with the Indian tribe to appraise Indian land or trust assets involved in a transaction requiring the Secretary's approval. Gives tribes the option of waiving such appraisals. Requires each agency within the Department of the Interior involved in the review of oil and gas activities on Indian lands to use a uniform system of reference numbers and tracking systems for oil and gas wells. Amends the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 to make the environmental impact statement for major federal action on Indian lands available for review and comment only to the affected Indian tribe and individuals residing within the affected area. Prescribes judicial review procedural requirements relating to any energy-related action. Amends the Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 to direct the Secretary to enter into agreements with Indian tribes to carry out demonstration projects that promote biomass energy production on Indian forest land and in nearby communities by providing tribes with reliable supplies of woody biomass from federal lands. Considers activities conducted or resources harvested or produced pursuant to a tribal resource management plan or an integrated resource management plan approved by the Secretary to be a sustainable when sustainability is federally required. Amends the Long-Term Leasing Act to authorize the Navajo Nation to enter into commercial or agricultural leases of up to 99 years on their restricted lands without the Secretary's approval, provided they are executed under tribal regulations approved by the Secretary. Allows the Navajo Nation to enter into mineral resource leases on their restricted lands without the Secretary's approval if they are executed under approved tribal regulations and do not exceed 25 years, though they may include a renewal option for one additional term not exceeding 25 years. Prohibits any Department of the Interior rule regarding hydraulic fracturing, used in oil and gas development or production, from having any effect on land held in trust or restricted status for Indians, except with the express consent of its Indian beneficiaries. Amends the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act to require the Secretary, upon submission of a substantially completed application, to issue or deny an eagle take permit for at least 30 years that authorizes taking of any bald eagle or golden eagle that is incidental to, but not the purpose of, an otherwise lawful activity. Deems any failure to issue or deny such a permit within a reasonable time (not exceeding one year) to be issuance of the permit, and shields the applicant from liability for any incidental take of a bald eagle or golden eagle that is in conformity with the information submitted as part of the permit application. Amends the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to change liability for violating the Act from strict to knowing and intentional only. Declares that a knowing and intentional violation does not include any taking, killing, or other harm to any migratory bird that is accidental or incidental to the presence or operation of an otherwise lawful activity. Title XIV: Hydraulic Fracturing - Protecting States' Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act - Amends the Mineral Leasing Act to prohibit the Department of the Interior from enforcing any federal regulation, guidance, or permit requirement regarding hydraulic fracturing (including any component of that process), relating to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities on or under any land in any state that has regulations, guidance, or permit requirements for that activity. Requires the Department to recognize and defer to state regulations, permitting, and guidance, for all activities related to hydraulic fracturing relating to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities on federal land. Defines "hydraulic fracturing" as the process by which fracturing fluids (including a fracturing fluid system) are pumped into an underground geologic formation to generate fractures or cracks, thereby increasing rock permeability near the wellbore and improving production of natural gas or oil. Requires each state to submit to the BLM a copy of: (1) its regulations that apply to hydraulic fracturing operations on federal land, and (2) any state regulations that require disclosure of chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations on federal land. Requires the Secretary to make such state regulations available to the public. Directs the Comptroller General (GAO) to examine the economic benefits of domestic shale oil and gas production resulting from the process of hydraulic fracturing. Prohibits the Department of the Interior from enforcing any federal regulation, guidance, or permit requirement regarding the process of hydraulic fracturing, or any component of it, relating to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities on any land held in trust or restricted status for the benefit of Indians, except with the express consent of the beneficiary on whose behalf such land is held in trust or restricted status. EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Study Improvement Act - Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in conducting the study of the potential impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water resources, with respect to which a request for information was issued in November 2012, to: prior to issuance and dissemination of any final or interim report summarizing EPA research on such relationship, consider such reports to be Highly Influential Scientific Assessments requiring peer review in accordance with specified EPA and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) policy documents; require the reports to meet the standards and procedures for the dissemination of influential scientific, financial, or statistical information set forth in the EPA's Guidelines for Ensuring and Maximizing the Quality, Objectivity, Utility, and Integrity of Information Disseminated by the Environmental Protection Agency , developed in response to guidelines issued by OMB under the Treasury and General Government Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2001; and ensure that identification of the possible impacts included in such reports be accompanied by objective estimates of the probability, uncertainty, and consequence of each identified impact, taking into account the risk management practices of states and industry, and that estimates or descriptions of probability, uncertainty, and consequence are as quantitative as possible given the validity, accuracy, precision, and other quality attributes of the underlying data and analyses, but no more quantitative than the data and analyses can support. Title XV: Northern Route Approval - Northern Route Approval Act - Declares that a presidential permit shall not be required for the pipeline described in the application filed on May 4, 2012, by TransCanada Keystone Pipeline, L.P. to the Department of State for the Keystone XL pipeline, including the Nebraska reroute evaluated in the Final Evaluation Report issued by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality in January 2013 and approved by the Nebraska governor. Deems the final environmental impact statement issued by the Secretary of State on August 26, 2011, coupled with such Final Evaluation Report, to satisfy all requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and of the National Historic Preservation Act. Grants original and exclusive jurisdiction to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to determine specified issues (except for review by the Supreme Court on writ of certiorari). Deems the Secretary of the Interior to have issued a written statement setting forth the Secretary's opinion that the Keystone XL pipeline project will not jeopardize the continued existence of the American burying beetle or destroy or adversely modify American burying beetle critical habitat. States that any taking of the American burying beetle that is incidental to the construction or operation and maintenance of the Keystone XL pipeline shall not be considered a prohibited taking of such species under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Deems the Secretary to have issued: (1) a grant of right-of-way and temporary use permit pursuant to the Mineral Leasing Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, and (2) a special purpose permit under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (described in a certain application filed with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for the Keystone XL pipeline). Directs the Secretary of the Army to issue permits pursuant the Rivers and Harbors Appropriations Act of 1899 for the construction, operation, and maintenance of the Keystone XL pipeline. Authorizes such Secretary to waive any procedural requirement that the Secretary considers desirable in order to accomplish the purposes of this Act. Prohibits the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from prohibiting or restricting an activity or use of an area that is authorized under this Act. Requires any pipeline owner or operator required under federal law to develop an oil spill response plan for the Keystone XL pipeline to make that plan available to the governor of each state in which the pipeline operates to assist with emergency response preparedness. Title XVI: Relief from EPA Climate Change Regulations and Federal Prohibitions on Synthetic Fuels - Amends the Clean Air Act to redefine "air pollutant" to exclude carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, or sulfur hexafluoride (greenhouse gases). Declares that nothing in specified statutes addressing pollution control shall be treated as authorizing or requiring the regulation of climate change or global warming. Amends the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to repeal the prohibition against federal procurement of alternative or synthetic fuel. Declares the sense of the Congress that a carbon tax: (1) would be detrimental to American families and businesses, and (2) is not in the best interest of the United States. Prohibits the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from using the social cost of carbon in order to incorporate social benefits of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, or for any other reason, in any cost-benefit analysis relating to an energy-related rule. Title XVII: Addressing the President's War on Coal - Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act of 2014 - Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA) to authorize states to adopt and implement coal combustion residuals permit programs. Requires states that decide to implement such a program to: (1) certify that such program meets the specifications of this Act, and (2) maintain either an approved program or system for the disposal of hazardous waste from households or small quantity generators or an authorized state hazardous waste program. Requires the agency implementing such coal combustion residuals permit programs to apply the revised criteria established by this Act to owners or operators of structures that receive such residuals, including surface impoundments. Sets forth requirements for: (1) the preparation and maintenance of emergency action plans in the event of dam safety emergency for surface impoundments that pose a high hazard potential, and (2) the mitigation of such hazards. Directs such agency to require each structure that first receives coal combustion residuals after this Act's enactment to be constructed with a base located a minimum of two feet above the upper limit of the water table, with specified exceptions. Directs such agency to require structures to address wind dispersal of dust. Sets forth revised criteria for program structures with respect to: (1) design, groundwater monitoring, corrective action, closure, and post-closure care; (2) location restrictions in floodplains, wetlands, fault areas, seismic impact zones, and unstable areas; (3) air quality; (4) financial assurance; (5) surface water; and (6) record keeping. Sets forth revised criteria for: (1) run-on and run-off control systems for landfills and other land-based units other than surface impoundments that receive coal combustion residuals, and (2) run-off control systems for surface impoundments that receive coal combustion residuals. Establishes deadlines for owners and operators to comply with such criteria. Sets forth: (1) closure requirements for surface impoundments if they do not have specified liner systems and do not meet specified design criteria for municipal solid waste landfills, and (2) deadlines for compliance with the groundwater protection standard for structures subject to corrective action. Prohibits such a program from applying to the utilization, placement, and storage of coal combustion residuals at surface mining and reclamation operations. Prohibits this Act from being construed to alter the EPA's regulatory determination, entitled "Notice of Regulatory Determination on Wastes from the Combustion of Fossil Fuels," that the fossil fuel combustion wastes addressed do not warrant regulation as hazardous waste under SWDA. Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America - Amends the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to require state programs for regulation of surface coal mining to incorporate the necessary rule concerning excess spoil, coal mine waste, and buffers for perennial and intermittent streams published by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement on December 12, 2008. Requires the Secretary of the Interior to: (1) publish notice of a determination when all states that wish to assume exclusive jurisdiction of such mining regulation have incorporated the rule in their programs; (2) assess the effectiveness of the rule's implementation during the five-year period following such notice; and (3) report to Congress an evaluation of the rule's effectiveness, any ways in which it inhibits energy production, and any proposed changes to the rule. Prohibits issuance of any regulations regarding stream buffer zones or protection before publication of the report, other than a rule necessary to implement incorporation of the December 2008 rule described in this Act. Requires each state with an approved program for regulation of surface coal mining to submit program amendments incorporating such rule within two years of enactment of this Act. Title XVIII: Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment - Satisfying Energy Needs and Saving the Environment Act of 2014 or SENSE Act of 2014 - Makes certain emission limits for hydrogen chloride and sulfur dioxide, in regulations entitled "Emission Limits for Existing EGUs," inapplicable to an electric utility steam generating unit in the subcategory "Coal-fired unit not low rank virgin coal" if the unit: (1) is in operation as of the date of enactment of this Act, (2) utilizes circulating fluidized bed technology to convert coal refuse into energy, and (3) derives at least 75% of its heat input from coal refuse or is a qualifying small power production or cogeneration facility as defined by the Federal Power Act. Title XIX: Nuclear Regulatory Commission Reorganization Plan Codification and Complements - Nuclear Regulatory Commission Reorganization Plan Codification and Complements Act - Codifies and expands the Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1980 governing the administration of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Identifies approval of the distribution of appropriated funds according to programs and purposes proposed by the Executive Director for Operations, in addition to functions concerned with policy formulation, rulemaking, and orders and adjudications, as functions that remain vested in the Commission. Revises provisions of such Reorganization Act relating to: (1) the appointment and replacement of NRC officers and employees, (2) the role of the NRC Chairman, (3) the scope of the emergency authority of the NRC Chairman, and (4) NRC reporting procedures. Sets forth NRC policy with respect to: (1) certification of documents transmitted to Congress, (2) time limits for review of Atomic Safety and Licensing Board decisions and actions, (3) allegations of wrongdoing on the part of the NRC Chairman, and (4) approval of international travel requests by NRC members. Title XX: Permitting for Onshore and Offshore Wind Energy - Advancing Offshore Wind Production Act - Exempts any project determined by the Secretary of the Interior to be an offshore meteorological site testing and monitoring project from environmental impact statement requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Defines an "offshore meteorological site testing and monitoring project" as a project that is administered by the Department of the Interior and carried out on or in the waters of the Outer Continental Shelf to test or monitor weather (including wind, tidal, current, and solar energy) using towers, buoys, or other temporary ocean infrastructure and that: (1) causes less than one acre of surface or seafloor disruption at the location of each meteorological tower or other device and no more than five acres of surface or seafloor disruption within the proposed area affected by the project (including hazards to navigation), (2) is decommissioned within five years of its commencement, and (3) provides meteorological information to the Secretary of the Interior. Directs the Secretary to: (1) require that any applicant seeking to conduct an offshore meteorological site testing and monitoring project on the outer Continental Shelf obtain a permit and right of way; (2) determine whether to issue such a permit and right of way within 30 days after receiving an application; (3) provide an opportunity for submission of comments by the public; (4) consult with the Secretary of Defense (DOD), the Commandant of the Coast Guard, and the heads of other federal, state, and local agencies that would be affected by issuance of the permit and right of way; and (5) provide an applicant the opportunity to remedy deficiencies in an application that was denied. Reducing Regulatory Obstacles to Wind Energy Production Act - Exempts projects determined by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or the Forest Service to be meteorological site testing and monitoring projects from environmental impact statement requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA). Defines a "meteorological site testing and monitoring project" as a project that is carried out on land administered by BLM or the Forest Service to test or monitor weather using towers or other devices, that is decommissioned within five years of its commencement, that provides meteorological information to such agencies, that causes less than one acre of soil or vegetation disruption at the location of each meteorological tower or other device and no more than five acres of soil or disruption within the proposed right-of-way for the project, and that is installed: (1) using existing access roads, (2) in a manner that does not require off-road motorized access other than one installation activity and one decommissioning activity along an identified off-road route approved by the BLM Director or the Chief of the Forest Service, (3) without construction of new roads other than upgrading of existing minor drainage crossings for safety purposes, and (4) without the use of digging or drilling equipment vehicles other than rubber-tired vehicles with gross weight ratings under 8,500 pounds. Requires the BLM Director or Chief of the Forest Service: (1) to decide whether to issue a permit for such a project within 30 days after receiving an application for such permit; (2) during such period, to provide an opportunity for public comments and to consult with the heads of agencies that would be affected by issuance of the permit; and (3) to provide to the applicant reasons why an application is denied and an opportunity to remedy any deficiencies. Requires BLM and the Forest Service to treat the meteorological information provided under this Act as proprietary information and to protect it against disclosure. Title XXI: Domestic Prosperity and Global Freedom - Domestic Prosperity and Global Freedom Act - Declares that the importation of the natural gas, or the exportation of natural gas to a World Trade Organization member nation (currently, a nation with which there is in effect a free trade agreement requiring national treatment for trade in natural gas) shall be deemed to be consistent with the public interest, and applications for such importation or exportation shall be granted without modification or delay. Applies this expedited approval to all pending applications for which a notice has been published in the Federal Register before March 6, 2014. Division IV: Access to Capital - Title XXII: Small Business Access to Capital - Amends the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 to exempt private equity fund investment advisers from its registration and reporting requirements, provided that each private equity fund has not borrowed and does not have outstanding a principal amount exceeding twice its invested capital commitments. Directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to promulgate final rules that: (1) require such investment advisers to maintain records the SEC determines necessary, taking into account fund size, governance, investment strategy, and risk; and (2) define the term "private equity fund" for purposes of this Act. Title XXIII: Community Lending Enhancement and Regulatory Relief - Directs the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) to publish in the Federal Register proposed revisions to the Small Bank Holding Company Policy Statement on the Assessment of Financial and Managerial Factors that: (1) apply the policy to bank holding companies having pro forma consolidated assets of less than $5 billion (adjusted annually), no engagement in nonbanking activities involving significant leverage, and no significant amount of outstanding debt; and (2) increase from 1.1 to 3.1 the debt-to-equity ratio allowable for a small bank holding company in order to retain its eligibility both to pay a corporate dividend and to implement expedited processing procedures under Regulation Y of the Board. Amends the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) to require the Board to exempt from certain escrow or impound requirements a loan secured by a first lien on a consumer's principal dwelling if the loan is held by a creditor with assets of $10 billion or less. Amends the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act to exempt from its annual privacy policy notice requirement any financial institution which: (1) provides nonpublic personal information only in accordance with specified requirements, and (2) has not changed its policies and practices regarding disclosures of nonpublic personal information from those disclosed in the most recent disclosure sent to consumers. Amends the Securities Act of 1933 to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to conduct cost-benefit analyses of certain new or amended generally accepted accounting principles. Requires the SEC to determine, as a prerequisite to recognition of such new or amended principles, whether the benefits to investors significantly outweigh the costs. Amends the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to exempt community banks having total assets on a consolidated basis of $10 billion or less from mandatory annual management assessment of internal controls. Amends TILA to: (1) add to the definition of a qualified residential mortgage loan that it is originated and retained in a portfolio for at least three years by a creditor having less than $10 billion total assets, and (2) redefine a balloon loan that is a "qualified mortgage" to specify a balloon loan extended by a creditor that originates and retains balloon loans in a portfolio for at least three years, and, together with all affiliates, has total assets of $10 billion or less. Amends the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974 to direct the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to provide either exemptions or adjustments from the mortgage loan servicing and escrow account administration requirements of the Act for servicers of 20,000 or fewer mortgage loans. Amends the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 to require federal financial institutions regulatory agencies to establish a $250,000 threshold level at or below which a certified or licensed appraiser is not required to perform appraisals in connection with federally related transactions. Declares that, if an order to request for the transfer of funds (entry) is received via an automate clearing house, a receiving depository financial institution shall not be required to verify that the entry is not a prohibited transaction if the originating depository financial institution has warranted its compliance with the sanctions programs administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control in connection with the entry.
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 2014
Domestic Prosperity and Global Freedom Act - Amends the Natural Gas Act to require the expedited approval by the Federal Power Commission of applications for the export of natural gas from the United States to a World Trade Organization (WTO) member nation. (Currently, the expedited approval process applies to such applications where the United States has in effect with a foreign country a free trade agreement requiring national treatment for trade in natural gas.) Requires expedited approval of any applications for which a notice has been published in the Federal Register before March 6, 2014.
United States · United States Congress · 28 February 2014
Suspending the Individual Mandate Penalty Law Equals Fairness Act or the SIMPLE Fairness Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to delay until 2015 the imposition of the monthly penalty amount on individual taxpayers for failure to purchase minimum essential health care coverage.
United States · United States Congress · 21 February 2014
Internet Freedom Act - Prohibits regulations adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the Report and Order in the matter of preserving the open Internet and broadband industry practices (adopted December 21, 2010) from having any force or effect. Prohibits the FCC from reissuing such regulations in substantially the same form, or from issuing new regulations that are substantially the same, unless such regulations are specifically authorized by a law enacted after the enactment of this Act. Exempts from such prohibitions any regulations that the FCC determines are necessary to: (1) prevent damage to U.S. national security, (2) ensure public safety, or (3) assist or facilitate actions taken by a federal or state law enforcement agency.
United States · United States Congress · 14 February 2014
Freeing Americans from Inequitable Requirements Act of 2014 or the FAIR Act of 2014 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to the individual mandate to purchase health care coverage, to delay such requirement from taking effect until the Secretary of the Treasury submits to Congress a certification that the employer mandate to provide health care coverage for employees is being applied and administered without any administratively created exceptions.
United States · United States Congress · 11 February 2014
Department of Veterans Affairs Management Accountability Act of 2014 - Authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) to: (1) remove any individual from the Senior Executive Service upon determining that such individual's performance warrants such removal, and (2) remove such individual from federal service or transfer the individual to a General Schedule position at any grade the Secretary deems appropriate. Requires: (1) the Secretary to notify the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs committees within 30 days after removing such an individual, and (2) such removal to be done in the same manner as the removal of a professional staff member employed by a Member of Congress. .
United States · United States Congress · 27 January 2014
National Commission on the Structure of the Army Act of 2014 - Establishes the National Commission on the Structure of the Army to undertake a comprehensive study of the structure of the Army to determine: (1) the proper force mixture of the active component and reserve component, and (2) how the structure should be modified to best fulfill mission requirements in a manner consistent with available resources. Directs the Commission to give particular consideration to evaluating a structure that: (1) meets current and anticipated requirements of the combatant commands; (3) achieves a cost-efficiency balance between the regular and reserve components, with a focus on fully burdened and lifecycle cost of Army personnel; (3) ensures that the regular and reserve components have the capacity needed to support homeland defense and disaster assistance missions in the United States; (4) provides for sufficient numbers of regular members of the Army to provide a base of trained personnel from which the personnel of the reserve components could be recruited; (5) maintains a peacetime rotation force to support operational tempo goals of 1:2 for regular members and 1:5 for members of the reserve components; and (6) maximizes and appropriately balances affordability, efficiency, effectiveness, capability, and readiness. Prohibits the use of any funds made available for FY2015 for the Army to: (1) divest, retire, or transfer, or prepare to divest, retire, or transfer, any aircraft of the Army assigned to units of the Army National Guard as of January 15, 2014; or (2) reduce personnel below the authorized end strength levels of 350,000 for the Army National Guard as of September 30, 2014.
United States · United States Congress · 14 January 2014
Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act of 2014 - Requires the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) standards and definitions in effect on January 1, 2010, for determining whether an organization qualifies for tax-exempt status as an organization operated exclusively for social welfare to apply to such determinations after enactment of this Act. Prohibits the Secretary of the Treasury from issuing, revising, or finalizing any regulation (including proposed regulations), revenue ruling, or other guidance not limited to a particular taxpayer relating to such standards and definitions. Terminates this Act one year after its enactment.
United States · United States Congress · 9 January 2014
Electricity Security and Affordability Act - Prohibits the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from issuing, implementing, or enforcing any proposed or final rule under the Clean Air Act that establishes a performance standard for greenhouse gas emissions from any new source that is a fossil fuel-fired electric utility generating unit unless the rule meets specified requirements of this Act. Requires the Administrator to separate sources fueled with coal and natural gas into separate categories. Prohibits the Administrator, however, from setting a standard based on the best system of emission reduction for new sources within the coal category unless it has been achieved on average for at least one continuous 12-month period (excluding planned outages) by each of at least 6 units within the category. Requires each such unit to: (1) be located at a different electric generating station in the United States, (2) be representative of the operating characteristics of electric generation at its location, and (3) be operated for the entire 12-month period on a full commercial basis. Prohibits the use of any results obtained from a demonstration project in setting the standard. Requires the Administrator, in separating sources fueled with coal into a separate category, to establish a separate subcategory for new sources that are fossil fuel-fired electric utility generating units using coal with an average heat content of 8300 or less British Thermal Units (BTUs) per pound. Prohibits the Administrator, in issuing any rule establishing performance standards for greenhouse gas emissions from new sources in such subcategory, from setting a standard based on the best system of emission reduction unless the standard has been achieved on average for at least one continuous 12-month period (excluding planned outages) by each of at least 3 units within such subcategory that meets the unit requirements specified by this Act for the coal category. Precludes from taking effect, unless a federal law is enacted specifying an effective date, any EPA rule or guideline that: (1) establishes any performance standard for greenhouse gas emissions from a modified or reconstructed source that is a fossil fuel-fired electric utility generating unit, or (2) applies to greenhouse gas emissions from such an existing source. Nullifies the force and effect of specified proposed rules (or similar successor proposed or final rules) for Standards of Performance for Greenhouse Gas Emissions for New Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units that are issued before enactment of this Act.
United States · United States Congress · 9 January 2014
State Marriage Defense Act of 2014 - Prohibits, in determining the meaning of any Act of Congress, or of any ruling, regulation, or interpretation of U.S. administrative bureaus and agencies, as applied with respect to individuals domiciled in a state or in any other territory or possession of the United States: (1) the term "marriage" from including any relationship that the state, territory, or possession does not recognize as a marriage; and (2) the term "spouse" from including an individual who is a party to a relationship that is not recognized as a marriage by that state, territory, or possession.
United States · United States Congress · 12 December 2013
Immigration Compliance Enforcement (ICE) Act - Prohibits the use of federal funds for: (1) the position of Public Advocate within U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); (2) the position of Deputy Assistant Director of Custody Programs and Community Outreach within ICE; or (3) any other position within ICE whose functions are substantially the same as those which as of March 26, 2013, were assigned to the position of Public Advocate within ICE, or as of the date of the enactment of this Act were assigned to the position of Deputy Assistant Director of Custody Programs and Community Outreach within ICE.
United States · United States Congress · 12 December 2013
Next Generation Television Marketplace Act - Repeals provisions of the Communications Act of 1934 concerning: (1) the carriage of distant television stations and significantly viewed signals by satellite carriers, (2) the retransmittal of television signals to eligible state counties in the designated market area of another state by cable operators or satellite carriers, (3) the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) qualified carrier certification process, (4) the designation of cable channels for commercial video programming use, (5) the carriage of local commercial television signals and qualified low power stations by cable operators, (6) the FCC's authority to adopt syndicated exclusivity rules for private home viewing of secondary transmissions by satellite of broadcast station signals, and (7) the requirement that cable systems or other multichannel video programming distributors obtain consent to retransmit a broadcasting station signal. Repeals and revises provisions concerning: (1) the carriage of local television signals by satellite carriers, and (2) the regulation of rates and broadcast signal carriage. Makes several existing requirements concerning the carriage of local television broadcast stations applicable only to qualified noncommercial educational television stations. Repeals federal copyright laws requiring statutory licenses for certain secondary transmissions of distant and local television programming by satellite carriers. Eliminates certain categories of remedies relating to alteration of programming violations by cable systems. Extends exemptions from copyright infringement laws to certain secondary transmissions by cable systems and satellite carriers. Repeals provisions concerning cable system: (1) nonsimultaneous transmission infringement, and (2) statutory licenses for secondary transmissions. Directs the FCC to repeal related FCC rules and eliminate: (1) restrictions on the number of broadcast television stations that a person or entity may own, operate, or control in the same designated market area under the local television multiple ownership rule; (2) the radio-television cross-ownership rule; and (3) limitations on the direct or indirect ownership, operation, or control of a broadcast television station by a person or entity that owns, operates, or controls a daily newspaper under the daily newspaper cross-ownership rule. Requires this Act to take effect on January 1, 2018.
United States · United States Congress · 12 December 2013
Requires the House of Representatives to bring a civil action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for declaratory or injunctive relief to challenge any of the following policies or actions: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) policy that, for health insurance coverage that is renewed for a policy year between January 1, 2014, and October 1, 2014, health insurance issuers may continue to offer coverage that would otherwise be terminated or cancelled for noncompliance with various requirements of title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act (relating to health insurance coverage, individual group market reforms, and general reforms) and corresponding portions of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and the Internal Revenue Code, as announced by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services on November 14, 2013; the one-year delay in the application of the reporting requirements of the Code (and its related requirements with respect to shared responsibility for employers regarding health coverage), as provided under Department of the Treasury Notice 2013-45, as announced by the Department on July 2, 2013; the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy to exercise prosecutorial discretion for individuals who came to the United States as children, as announced by DHS on June 15, 2012; and the authorization, approval, renewal, modification, or extension of any experimental, pilot, or demonstration project under the Social Security Act (SSA) that waives compliance with any of its mandatory work requirements through a waiver of SSA state family assistance plan requirements. Derives any amounts obligated or expended by the House to carry out this resolution during a fiscal year from existing appropriations for House salaries and expenses for that fiscal year. Provides that nothing in this resolution may be construed as authorizing an increase in the amount of budget authority available to the House for that fiscal year.
United States · United States Congress · 11 December 2013
General Aviation Pilot Protection Act of 2013 - Directs the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to issue or revise FAA medical certification regulations to ensure that an individual may operate as a pilot of a covered aircraft without regard to any medical certification or proof of health requirement otherwise applicable under federal law if the flight meets certain criteria and the individual: (1) possesses a valid state driver's license, (2) complies with applicable medical requirements associated with that license, (3) is transporting five or fewer passengers, and (4) is operating under visual flight rules. Defines "covered aircraft" as an aircraft that: (1) is not authorized under federal law to carry more than six occupants, and (2) has a maximum certificated takeoff weight of no more than 6,000 pounds.
United States · United States Congress · 11 December 2013
Two-Midnight Rule Delay Act of 2013 - Prohibits the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) from enforcing the two-midnight rule to a hospital for which payment is made under title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act for admissions occurring before October 1, 2014. (The two-midnight rule allows Medicare coverage of only hospital stays for which a physician admits to a hospital a beneficiary expected to require care that crosses two midnights, but generally denies coverage of care expected to require less than a two-midnight stay.) Applies such prohibition to Medicare review contracts. Prohibits Medicare review contractors from denying a claim for inpartient hospital services furnished by a hospital, or inpatient critical access hospital services furnished by a critical access hospital, for discharges occurring before October 1, 2014: (1) for medical necessity due to the length of an inpatient stay in such hospital or due to a determination that the services could have been provided on an outpatient basis; or (2) for requirements for orders, certifications, or recertifications, and associated documentation relating to such matters. Prohibits the Secretary from increasing the sample of claims selected for prepayment review under the Medicare Probe and Educate program above the number and type established by the Secretary as of November 4, 2013. Directs the Secretary to develop: (1) a Medicare hospital payment methodology for short inpatient hospital stays; (2) general equivalency maps to link the relevant International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD)-10 codes (used to report medical diagnoses and inpatient procedures) to relevant Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes, and the relevant CPT codes to relevant ICD-10 codes, in order to permit comparison of inpatient hospital services and hospital outpatient department servives; and (3) a second crosswalk between Diagnosis-Related Group (DRG) codes for inpatient hospital services and Ambulatory Payment Class codes for outpatient hospital services.
United States · United States Congress · 11 December 2013
Flood Insurance Relief and Transparency Act of 2013 - Delays until March 1, 2015, the effective date of specified changes in risk premium rates for flood insurance under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Directs the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to make publicly available all data affecting any changes in such risk premium rates. Amends the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 to remove the $750,000 restriction from the maximum amount of funds available to FEMA for the study of participation in and affordability of NFIP for certain flood insurance policyholders. Amends the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to require FEMA to provide policyholders with the option of paying chargeable risk premiums for flood insurance coverage on an annual (as under current law) or a monthly basis. Sets forth criteria for policyholder eligibility to exercise the monthly option.
United States · United States Congress · 5 December 2013
States that it is U.S. policy to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability. Calls on the Senate to take immediate action on the Nuclear Iran Prevention Act of 2013 to increase sanctions against Iran.
United States · United States Congress · 3 December 2013
Safe and Secure Federal Websites Act of 2013 - Prohibits a federal agency from deploying or making available to the public a new Federal PII website until a certification is submitted to Congress that the website is fully functional and secure, as defined by this Act. Defines "new Federal PII website" as a website that: (1) is operated by (or under contract with) an agency; (2) elicits, collects, or stores personally identifiable information (i.e., information that can be associated with one individual through a social security account number, taxpayer identification number, state identification number, or other identifier) of individuals and is accessible to the public; and (3) is first made accessible or collects or stores personally identifiable information on or after July 1, 2013. Exempts beta websites designed for testing and development if users execute an agreement acknowledging the risks involved. Directs the Comptroller General (GAO) to study and report on each current and future new Federal PII website.
United States · United States Congress · 20 November 2013
Office of Strategic Services Congressional Gold Medal Act - Requires the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate to arrange for the presentation of a congressional gold medal to the members of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in recognition of their superior service and major contributions during World War II.
United States · United States Congress · 14 November 2013
Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish preclearance facilities, conduct preclearance operations, or provide customs services outside of the United States to prevent terrorists, terrorist instruments, and other national security threats from gaining access to the United States. Declares such requirements shall not apply to any preclearance facility that was in operation outside of the United States before enactment of this Act. Declares that any preclearance facility located, preclearance operations conducted, or customs services provided at Abu Dhabi International Airport, Al Maktoum International Airport, Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates, or Doha International Airport in Qatar shall not be considered to have been in operation, conducted, or provided before enactment of this Act. Prohibits such facility, operations, or services from being established, conducted, or provided at any of such airports on or after such enactment. Requires the Secretary, not later than 180 days before entering into any agreement to establish a preclearance facility, conduct preclearance operations, or provide customs services outside of the United States, to: (1) notify Congress and the General Accountability Office (GAO) of the intent to establish such facility, conduct such operations, or provide such services; as well as (2) assess any impacts on passengers traveling to the United States, or economic or security impacts on the United States.
United States · United States Congress · 14 November 2013
Employee Rights Act - Amends the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to make it an unlawful labor practice for a labor organization or its agents to interfere with the rights of employees to organize and select representation to collectively bargain. Adds a requirement that representatives be selected by secret ballot in an election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by a majority of the employees in a unit. Defines "majority" for purposes of determining the majority of employees in an election to mean the majority of all employees in the unit, and not the majority of employees voting in the election. Requires the NLRB, in cases where an existing certified or voluntarily recognized bargaining unit experiences turnover, expansion, or alteration by merger of more than 50% of the unit's employees, to conduct a secret paper ballot among the unit employees: (1) between the 120th day and 110th day before the collective bargaining agreement's expiration or before the end of three years, if there is an agreement between the labor organization and the employer; or (2) within 30 days, if there is no agreement between such parties. Requires the NLRB to decide, before the election of a labor organization as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of all employees of an appropriate unit, whether such unit shall be the employer unit, craft unit, plant unit, or subdivision unit. Requires the NLRB to give 14 days advance notice before a hearing when it is investigating an election petition if it has reasonable cause to believe that a question of representation affecting commerce exists. Revises the requirement that the NLRB direct an election by secret ballot, and certify its results, whenever it finds upon the record of such a hearing that a question of representation exists. Adds a requirement that the NLRB also review all post-hearing appeals before finding that such a question exists. Requires an employer to provide the NLRB a list consisting only of employee names and home addresses of all eligible voters within 7 days after an NLRB determination of the appropriate unit or following any agreement between the employer and the labor organization regarding eligible voters. Prohibits an election after the filing of a petition unless and until: (1) a hearing is conducted before a qualified hearing officer on any and all material, factual issues regarding jurisdiction, statutory coverage, appropriate unit, unit inclusion or exclusion, or eligibility of individuals; and (2) the issues are resolved by a regional Director, subject to appeal and review, or by the NLRB. Declares that election results shall not be final nor any labor organization be certified as a bargaining representative unless the NLRB has ruled on: (1) each pre-election issue not resolved before the election; and (2) the NLRB conducts a hearing and resolves each issue pertaining to the conduct or results of the election. Makes any labor organization found to have interfered with, restrained, or coerced employees in the exercise of their rights to form or join a labor organization or to refrain from forming or joining (including the filing of a decertification petition) liable for lost wages and unlawfully collected union dues and fees, if any, and an additional amount as liquated damages. Amends the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (Landrum-Griffin Act) to permit an election by secret ballot to be conducted through votes cast by electronic ballot cast in the privacy of a voting booth. Requires every employee in a bargaining unit represented by a labor organization, regardless of membership status, to have the same right as members to vote by secret ballot to ratify a collective bargaining agreement with, or to engage in, a strike or refusal to work of any kind against their employer. Prohibits the use of an employee's union dues for any purpose not directly related to the labor organization's collective bargaining, unless that employee authorizes such expenditure in writing. Prohibits a strike without the consent of a majority of all unit employees affected, determined by a secret ballot vote conducted by a neutral, private organization chosen by agreement between the employer and the labor organization. Requires each labor organization to make the independently verified annual audit report of its financial condition and operations available to all of its members and represented nonmembers. Makes it unlawful for a person to use force or violence, or threaten the use of force or violence, to restrain, coerce, or intimidate a person, or attempt to, in order to obtain from any person any right to represent employees, compensation, or other term or condition of employment. Subjects persons who willfully violate such prohibitions to both civil and criminal penalties.
United States · United States Congress · 14 November 2013
Restoring Main Street Investor Protection and Confidence Act - Amends the Securities Investor Protection Act of 1970 to revise the definition of "net equity." Bases the determination of net equity, the positions, options, and contracts of a customer reported to the customer as held by the debtor, and any indebtedness of the customer to the debtor, upon: (1) the information contained in the last statement issued by the debtor to the customer before the filing date; and (2) any additional written confirmations of the customer's positions, options, contracts, or indebtedness received after such last statement but before the filing date. Makes an exception to this requirement when a debtor's records indicate a higher value. Requires determination of the customer's net equity using the debtor's books and records instead of the customer's last statement when the debtor's books and records indicate that the net value of a customer's positions, options, and contracts reported to the customer as held by the debtor, and any indebtedness of the customer to the debtor, is greater than the customer's net value as calculated on the basis specified by this Act. Prohibits reliance on the final statement of the debtor to customer, however, if the customer: (1) knew the debtor was involved in fraudulent activity with respect to any of its customers which reasonably indicated a fraud adversely affecting a substantial number of customers; or (2) as a registered broker, dealer, or investment adviser under specified securities laws, or a person required to be so registered, knew, or should have known, that the debtor was involved in a fraudulent activity and did not notify the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), or law enforcement personnel. Prohibits a trustee in bankruptcy in a liquidation proceeding from recovering any property transferred by the debtor to a customer before the filing date unless, at the time of such transfer, the customer meets the same criteria regarding actual or constructive knowledge of the debtor's involvement in fraudulent activity. Prescribes alternative methodologies for allocation of customer property to customers by a trustee in a liquidation proceeding. Requires public notice and comment as a prerequisite to court approval of a proposed allocation methodology. Transfers from the SIPC to the SEC authority to nominate to a court persons for appointment as trustee for the liquidation of a debtor's business and as attorney for the trustee. Prohibits a trustee from serving in multiple liquidations if the trustee is currently serving as such under this Act for the liquidation of the business of another debtor. Sets forth requirements for trustee and attorney compensation. Requires the SIPC to issue quarterly public reports on its payments to the trustee, as well as all other costs in connection with the liquidation proceeding. Defines as a "customer" of the debtor under such Act: (1) any person that had cash or securities that were converted or otherwise misappropriated by the debtor (or any person who controls, is controlled by, or is under common control with the debtor, if such person was operating through the debtor), irrespective of whether the debtor held or otherwise had custody, possession, or control of that cash or securities; and (2) any other person the SIPC deems a customer of the debtor. Authorizes the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as the SIPC (as under current law) to apply for a protective decree on an SIPC member's behalf with any court of competent jurisdiction. Prescribes the timing of: (1) SIPC advances, and (2) payments to customers. Conditions the SEC authorization to make loans to the SIPC upon an SEC determination that the SIPC is unable to borrow in the public debt markets at reasonable terms (both as to yield and maturity). Requires the SEC to inspect SIPC members periodically to ensure that the information they provide to customers is accurate. Requires the self-regulatory organization to which an SIPC member belongs, or in which it is a participant, to inspect or examine the member to assess its financial stability as well as ensure that the information the member provides to customers is accurate.
United States · United States Congress · 14 November 2013
Transportation Empowerment Act - Declares the purposes of the Act, including returning maximum discretionary authority and fiscal responsibility to the states for all elements of the national surface transportation systems (excluding the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways). Prescribes a limitation on funding of transportation programs and projects carried out under this Act. Authorizes appropriations out of the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) (other than the Mass Transit Account) for FY2015-FY2019 for specified core programs under the federal-aid highway program, including: (1) metropolitan transportation planning, (2) emergency relief for highways and roads, (3) the federal lands transportation program, and (4) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) administrative expenses. Authorizes a state to transfer and use excess federal-aid highway funds for any surface transportation project (including mass transit and rail). Limits federal assistance to states for highway bridge replacement and rehabilitation to bridges on the federal-aid highway system. Repeals the authorization of federal assistance to states for historic bridges. Repeals the transportation alternatives program. Declares that, beginning with FY2014, a highway construction or improvement project shall not be considered a federal project: (1) unless and until a state expends federal funds for the construction portion of such project, (2) solely by reason of the state expenditure of federal funds before the construction phase of the project (including for any environmental document or design work), or (3) upon state reimbursement to the federal government of the federal costs of such projects. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to make amounts in the HTF available for expenditure for core highway programs through FY2020. Requires the Secretary of Treasury to transfer from the HTF amounts equivalent to motorboat and aviation fuel taxes collected before October 1, 2022, to: (1) the Land and Water Conservation Fund, (2) the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, and (3) the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. Requires the Secretary to pay from the HTF into the general fund of the Treasury amounts equivalent to the floor stocks refunds made before July 1, 2023. Prescribes a motor fuel tax rate schedule for financing of core highway programs. Terminates, on September 30, 2014, the authority of the Secretary to make certain transfers to the Mass Transit Account. Directs the Secretary, on October 1, 2014, to transfer all amounts in the Mass Transit Account to the Highway Account. Authorizes appropriations out of the HTF (other than the Mass Transit Account) for FY2015-FY2019 for the highway research and development program. Directs the Secretary to allocate to the states for surface transportation projects (including mass transit and rail) any excess highway tax receipts appropriated to the HTF in FY2016-FY2019. Reduces the excise taxes imposed on: (1) gasoline from 18.3 cents to 3.7 cents, (2) diesel fuel or kerosene from 24.3 cents to 5.0 cents, and (3) diesel-water fuel emulsion from 19.7 cents to 4.1 cents. Requires credits or refunds of certain floor stocks taxes on liquids imposed before October 1, 2019. Declares that this Act shall become effective only if the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) certifies that it is deficit neutral.
United States · United States Congress · 30 October 2013
If You Like Your Health Plan, You Can Keep it Act - Amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) to prohibit anything in the Act from being construed to require an individual to terminate coverage under a group health plan or health insurance coverage in which the individual was enrolled during any part of the period beginning on the date of enactment of PPACA (March 23, 2010) and ending on December 31, 2013. Allows: (1) continuation of coverage under a group health plan or health insurance in which an individual was enrolled during any part of such period, regardless of whether the individual renews such coverage; (2) family members of the individual to join coverage under such a plan that is renewed; (3) new employees to join a group health plan that provides coverage during any part of such period; and (4) continuation of coverage maintained pursuant to a collective bargaining agreement that was ratified before the end of such period.
United States · United States Congress · 29 October 2013
Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act of 2013 - Prohibits the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) from: (1) increasing flood insurance risk premium rates to reflect the current risk of flood for certain property located in specified areas subject to a certain mandatory premium adjustment, or (2) reducing such subsidies for any property not insured by the flood insurance program as of July 6, 2012, or any policy that has lapsed in coverage as a result of the policyholder's deliberate choice (Pre-Flood Insurance Rate Map or pre-FIRM properties). Sets forth expiration dates for such prohibitions. Amends the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 (NFIA) to prohibit the Administrator from providing flood insurance to prospective insureds at rates less than those estimated for any property purchased after the expiration of such six-month period (currently, any property purchased after July 6, 2012). Directs FEMA to: (1) restore during such six-month period specified estimated risk premium rate subsidies for flood insurance for pre-FIRM properties and properties purchased after such six-month period, and (2) submit to certain congressional committees a draft affordability framework addressing the affordability of flood insurance sold under the National Flood Insurance Program. Prescribes procedures for expedited congressional consideration of legislation on FEMA affordability authorities. Permits FEMA to enter into an agreement with another federal agency either to: (1) complete the affordability study, or (2) prepare the draft affordability framework. Directs FEMA submit to certain congressional committees the affordability study and report. Amends NFIA to authorize FEMA to reimburse homeowners for successful map appeals. Makes any community that has made adequate progress on the construction (as under current law) or reconstruction (new) of a flood protection system which will afford flood protection for the one-hundred year frequency flood eligible for flood insurance at premium rates not exceeding those which would apply if such flood protection system had been completed. Revises guidelines governing availability of flood insurance in communities restoring disaccredited flood protection systems to include riverine and coastal levees. Requires FEMA to: (1) rate a covered structure using the elevation difference between the floodproofed elevation of the covered structure and the adjusted base flood elevation of the covered structure; and (2) designate a Flood Insurance Advocate to advocate for the fair treatment of policy holders under the National Flood Insurance Program and property owners in the mapping of flood hazards, the identification of risks from flood, and the implementation of measures to minimize the risk of flood.
United States · United States Congress · 28 October 2013
Keep Your Health Plan Act of 2013 - Permits a health insurance issuer that has in effect health insurance coverage in the individual market as of January 1, 2013, to continue offering such coverage for sale during 2014 outside of a health care exchange established under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Treats such coverage as a grandfathered health plan for purposes of an individual meeting the requirement to maintain minimum essential health coverage.
United States · United States Congress · 28 October 2013
Obamacare Choice Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, as amended by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, to delay until 2015 the requirement that individuals maintain minimal essential health care coverage.
United States · United States Congress · 23 October 2013
Firearms Interstate Commerce Reform Act - Amends the federal criminal code to: (1) allow licensed firearms importers, manufacturers, dealers, or collectors (licensees) to sell or deliver any firearm (currently, rifles or shotguns) to a resident of a state other than the state in which the licensee is located or temporarily located if the licensee meets with the purchaser to complete the sale or delivery and the transaction complies with the laws of the state in which the transfer is conducted and the purchaser's state of residence; and (2) eliminate the requirement that a licensee must conduct business at a gun show only in the state that is specified on the licensee's license. Provides that nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit the sale or other disposition of a firearm or ammunition: (1) between licensed firearms dealers at any location in any state; or (2) by a licensed importer, manufacturer, or dealer to an unlicensed person at a temporary location in any state. Amends definitions for federal firearms provisions to: (1) revise the definition of a "member of the Armed Forces on active duty" to include a member (or member's spouse) who is a resident of the state in which such person maintains legal residence or in which the member maintains a place of abode from which the member commutes each day to the permanent duty station; and (2) provide that an officer or employee of the United States (other than a member of the Armed Forces) stationed outside the United States for a period exceeding one year, or a spouse residing with such an officer or employee, is a resident of the state in which the person maintains legal residence.
United States · United States Congress · 22 October 2013
Designates the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center in Bay Pines, Florida, as the "C.W. Bill Young Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center."
United States · United States Congress · 11 October 2013
Fiduciary Responsibility and Fairness Act of 2013 - Exempts from the prohibition against making or authorizing an expenditure or obligation of federal funds exceeding an amount available in an appropriation or fund (Antideficiency Act) an expenditure or obligation derived from user fees.
United States · United States Congress · 9 October 2013
Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2013 - Amends the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, with respect to abortion coverage in qualified plans offered through a Health Benefit Exchange, to modify the notice rules to require that: in the case of services regarding abortions both for which public funding is prohibited and allowed, the extent of coverage shall be prominently displayed in any marketing or advertising materials, comparison tools, or summary of benefits and coverage explanation made available by the issuer of the plan, by an Exchange, or by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), including information made available through an Internet portal or Exchange; and in the case of abortions for which public funding is prohibited and where the premium for the plan is disclosed, the surcharge attributable to such services, consisting of an amount equal to the actuarial value of the coverage, shall be disclosed and identified separately.
United States · United States Congress · 3 October 2013
Appropriates for FY2014, for any period during which a joint resolution or other Act making appropriations for commerce, justice, science, and related agencies is not in effect, such sums as may be necessary to continue emergency training and critical training by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), at a rate for operations as provided by the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (P.L. 113-6), as reduced by the presidential sequestration order dated March 1, 2013. Defines: (1) "emergency training" as training of new employees in positions designated as "emergency"; and (2) "critical training" as training of state and local officers, training for international law enforcement officers occurring in the United States, and training of international law enforcement officers abroad (such as the training of officers who will be working in a combat zone) that is deemed necessary to protect human life or property.
United States · United States Congress · 25 September 2013
Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to exempt from maximum hours requirements any employee who: (1) adjusts or evaluates claims resulting from or relating to a major disaster for at least $591 per week (or any minimum weekly amount established by the Secretary of Labor, whichever is greater) during the 2-year period after the disaster; and (2) is employed as an adjuster or evaluator by an employer not itself engaged, directly or through an affiliate, in underwriting, selling, or marketing property, casualty, or liability insurance policies or contracts.
United States · United States Congress · 25 September 2013
Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that tax reform should: (1) jointly address corporate and pass-through entities in a fiscally responsible manner, and (2) reduce the current tax rate differences between corporate and pass-through entities while maintaining adequate forms of organization for businesses.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 2013
Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees Act or RAISE Act - Amends the National Labor Relations Act to declare that neither its prohibition against interference by an employer with employees' right to bargain collectively, nor the terms of a collective bargaining agreement entered into between employees and an employer after enactment of this Act, shall prohibit an employer from paying an employee higher wages, pay, or other compensation than the agreement provides for.
United States · United States Congress · 19 September 2013
Marriage and Religious Freedom Act - Prohibits the federal government from taking an adverse action against a person on the basis that such person acts in accordance with a religious belief that: (1) marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or (2) sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage. Defines "adverse action" as any federal government action to discriminate against such person, including: (1) denying or revoking certain tax exemptions or disallowing a deduction of any charitable contribution made to or by such person; (2) denying or excluding such person from receiving any federal grant, contract, cooperative agreement, loan, license, certification, accreditation, employment, or similar position or status; or (3) denying or withholding any benefit under a federal benefit program. Permits a person to assert an actual or threatened violation of this Act as a claim or defense in a judicial proceeding and to obtain compensatory damages or other appropriate relief against the federal government. Authorizes the Attorney General (DOJ) to bring actions to enforce this Act. Specifies that the term "person" includes any person regardless of religious affiliation, as well as corporations and other entities regardless of for-profit or nonprofit status.
United States · United States Congress · 18 September 2013
American Health Care Reform Act of 2013 - Repeals the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the health care provisions of the Health Care and Education and Reconciliation Act of 2010, effective as of their enactment. Restores or revives provisions amended or repealed by such Act or such health care provisions. Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to allow an income tax standard deduction for a specified percentage of an individual's health insurance costs, regardless of whether or not the taxpayer itemizes other deductions. Excludes the amount of such a deduction from employment taxes. Allows a taxpayer, for earned income credit purposes, to exclude from earned income any employer contributions to a qualified accident or health plan. Allows double additional contributions to a health savings account (HSA) if both spouses are age 55 or older and one spouse is not an account beneficiary. Prescribes special rules for HSA coverage eligibility for certain individuals: (1) participating in a Medicare Advantage Medical Savings Account (MSA), (2) receiving periodic hospital care or medical services for a service-connected disability, (3) eligible for Indian Health Service assistance, or (4) eligible for TRICARE coverage. Prescribes requirements for interaction of health flexible spending arrangements (FSAs) and health reimbursement arrangements with HSAs. Prohibits the payment of health insurance premiums from HSAs, with certain exceptions. Prescribes circumstances in which certain medical expenses incurred before establishment of an HSA may still be qualified expenses. Prescribes requirements for protection of any HSA in a bankruptcy proceeding. Amends title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to authorize additional health opportunity account demonstration programs. Treats membership in a health care sharing ministry as coverage under a high deductible health plan. Renames high deductible health plans as HSA qualified plans. Allows payments from an HSA for: (1) direct primary care service arrangements, (2) certain exercise equipment and physical fitness programs, (3) certain nutritional and dietary supplements, and (4) periodic fees paid to a primary care physician for the right to receive medical services on an as-needed basis. Increases the maximum limit on contributions to an HSA to match deductible and out-of-pocket expenses limitations. Prescribes requirements for establishment of child health savings accounts, for which an income tax deduction shall be allowed a taxpayer equal to the aggregate cash amount paid into the account during the taxable year. Amends the IRC to include in gross income any distributions from an HSA for an abortion. Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the Public Health Service Act (PHSA), and the IRC to authorize premium and cost-sharing variances in group health plans based on certain financial incentives for participation (or lack of it) in a standards-based wellness program. Amends the PHSA to direct the Secretary to provide a grant of up to $5 million to each state for the costs of creation and initial operation of a qualified high risk pool if it has not created such a pool as of September 1, 2013. Limits participation in such a pool to U.S. citizens and nationals. Declares that the laws of the state designated by a health insurance issuer (primary state) shall apply to individual health insurance coverage offered by that issuer in the primary state and in any other state (secondary state), but only if the coverage and issuer comply with conditions of this Act. Prohibits a health insurance issuer from offering, selling, or issuing individual health insurance coverage in a secondary state if its insurance commissioner does not use a risk-based capital formula for determining capital and surplus requirements for all health insurance issuers. Amends the McCarran-Ferguson Act to declare that nothing in it shall modify, impair, or supersede the operation of any of the antitrust laws with respect to the business of health insurance (including the business of dental insurance). Amends SSA title XI (General Provisions) to require the Secretary to make available to the public Medicare claims and payment data, including data on payments made to any provider of services or supplier. Authorizes a state to establish a Health Plan and Provider Portal website to standardize information on: (1) health insurance plans available in the state, and (2) price and quality information on health care providers (including physicians, hospitals, and other health care institutions). Declares that nothing in this Act shall be construed to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship or the practice of medicine. Amends the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to eliminate the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. Amends ERISA to prescribe requirements for establishment and governance of association health plans, which are group health plans meeting certain ERISA certification criteria whose sponsors are trade, industry, professional, chamber of commerce, or similar business associations. Limits the commencement of a health care lawsuit, except in certain cases including fraud or intentional concealment, to three years after the date of manifestation of injury or one year after the claimant discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have discovered, the injury, whichever occurs first. Limits to $250,000 the amount of noneconomic damages in such a lawsuit, but allows a claim for the full amount of any economic damages. Requires the court, in any health care lawsuit, to supervise the arrangements for payment of damages to protect against conflicts of interest that may have the effect of reducing the amount of damages awarded that are actually paid to claimants. Specifies criteria for the award of punitive damages, limited to the greater of $250,000 or double the amount of economic damages. Preempts state law with respect to health care lawsuits. Declares that nothing in this Act shall be construed to: (1) require any health plan to provide coverage of or access to abortion services; or (2) allow the Secretary, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Labor, or any other federal or non-federal person or entity in implementing this Act to require coverage of, or access to, abortion services. Prohibits the use of funds authorized or appropriated by this Act to pay for any abortion or to cover any part of the costs of any health plan that includes abortion coverage, except: (1) if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest; or (2) in the case where a pregnant female suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the female in danger of death unless an abortion is performed, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself.
United States · United States Congress · 17 September 2013
Honoring the Fort Hood Heroes Act - Directs: (1) the Secretary of the military department concerned to award the Purple Heart to members of the Armed Forces (members) who were killed or wounded in the attack at Fort Hood, Texas, on November 5, 2009; and (2) the Secretary of Defense (DOD) to award the Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom to civilian employees and contractors of DOD who were killed or wounded in such attack. Deems, for purposes of all applicable federal benefit laws, regulations, and policies: (1) such members to have been killed or wounded in a combat zone as the result of an enemy act; and (2) such employees to have been killed or wounded by hostile action while serving with the Armed Forces in a contingency operation and to have been killed or wounded in a terrorist attack. Excludes any member whose death or wound was the result of willful misconduct. Applies such provisions to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other psychological injuries that were a a result of such attack.
United States · United States Congress · 12 September 2013
Gulf of Mexico Red Snapper Conservation Act of 2013 - Directs the Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission to: (1) prepare and adopt a data collection strategy for the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery, including interstate collaboration measures and a plan for annual stock assessments; and (2) prepare, adopt, and submit to the Secretary of Commerce a fishery management plan providing for the conservation and management of Gulf of Mexico red snapper and describing the standards of compliance for Gulf coastal states (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas) to use in developing fishery management measures. Permits an increase in the quota of Gulf of Mexico red snapper apportioned to commercial fishing based on stock assessments. Prohibits such plan, for a three-year period, from reducing such quota, except in the event of a reduction in stock prior to the end of such period in which case the quotas apportioned to all fishing sectors shall be reduced to ensure a sustainable harvest. Directs the Secretary to determine whether the plan: (1) includes fishery management measures compatible with the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and (2) ensures the long-term sustainability of Gulf of Mexico red snapper. Requires each Gulf coastal state to submit for the Commission's approval appropriate management measures that ensure compliance with the objectives of the fishery management plan. Directs the Secretary, upon receiving the Commission's certification that the management measures of all such states have been approved, to: (1) revoke federal regulations and portions of the Fishery Management Plan for the Reef Fish Resources of the Gulf of Mexico that conflict with the plan for Gulf of Mexico red snapper, and (2) transfer management of Gulf of Mexico red snapper to such states. Directs the Commission to determine, periodically, whether state enforcement is satisfactory. Requires the Commission to: (1) offer assistance to noncompliant states, and (2) vote on whether to notify the Secretary when a state remains noncompliant. Authorizes the Secretary to close a fishery within federal waters adjacent to a noncompliant state. Directs the Secretary to report biennially to Congress, the governor of each Gulf coastal state, and the Commission regarding the economic impacts for the local, regional, and national economy of the Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery.
United States · United States Congress · 12 September 2013
Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act - Amends the Internet Tax Freedom Act to make permanent the ban on state and local taxation of Internet access and on multiple or discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce.
United States · United States Congress · 2 August 2013
One In, Two Out Act - Prohibits a federal agency from: (1) issuing a new rule unless such agency has repealed two or more existing rules that impose a cost or responsibility on a nongovernmental person or state or local government and that are, to the extent practicable, related to the new rule; or (2) issuing a major rule (generally, a rule that has an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more) unless such agency has repealed two or more rules that are related to such major rule and the cost of the new major rule is less than or equal to the cost of the rules being repealed. Requires any rule that is repealed to be published in the Federal Register.
![Official portrait of Rep. Scalise, Steve [R-LA-1]](https://www.congress.gov/img/member/s001176_200.jpg)