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Bill· HRH.R. 1266 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 9 April 1997
Budget Neutral American Tax Relief Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to, as a general rule, substitute the indexed basis (the adjusted basis increased by the applicable inflation adjustment factor) for the adjusted basis for purposes of determining the gain on the sale of an indexed asset held by an individual more than three years. Provides, as a general rule, for the treatment of an American Dream Savings Account (ADS account) in the same manner as an individual retirement plan (IRP). Defines an ADS account as an IRP designated at the time of its establishment as an ADS account. Prohibits the deduction of ADS contributions. Limits ADS contributions. Exempts from gross income qualified distributions, which include distributions made: (1) after the account holder attains the age of 59 and one-half; (2) to a beneficiary following the account holder's death; (3) which are attributable to the account holder's disability; and (4) to pay for qualified higher education, medical, or first-time homebuyer expenses. Provides for the phaseout and repeal of the tax increase on social security benefits made under the Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1993. Requires any reductions in revenues to the Federal Government by reason of the amendments made by this Act to be offset by reductions in the funds available for the Department of Commerce and the Department of Energy.
Bill· SS. 527 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1997
Tobacco Disclosure and Warning Act of 1997 - Makes it unlawful to manufacture, import, package, or distribute cigarettes, spit tobacco products, or other tobacco products for sale unless: (1) the package bears one of specified warnings and discloses (for cigarettes, contains an insert disclosing) ingredients; and (2) the advertising bears one of the specified warnings. Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to revise the warnings. Requires each manufacturer, packager, or importer of any tobacco product to report annually on ingredients. Directs the Secretary: (1) if the Secretary finds the information directly affects public health, to require inclusion of the information in labeling and inserts required by this Act; and (2) to establish a toll-free telephone number and an Internet site to make additional ingredient information available. Requires that the Secretary carry out the Secretary's duties under this Act through the Commissioner of Food and Drugs. Allows any nonprofit organization (a substantial part of the activities of which include promoting public health through reducing tobacco use) to bring a civil action for an injunction. Mandates a civil monetary penalty for violations. Declares that compliance with this Act, the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, or the Comprehensive Smokeless Tobacco Health Education Act of 1986 shall not relieve any person from liability to any other person at common law or under State statutory law.
Bill· HRH.R. 1233 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Tax Provisions Title II: Student Financial Aid Provisions Hope and Opportunity for Postsecondary Education Act of 1997 - Title I: Tax Provisions - Higher Education Tax Incentive Act of 1997 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to establish a tax credit of up to $1,500 for qualified higher education expenses. Allows the credit: (1) for only the first two years of postsecondary education; and (2) only if an individual is an eligible student for at least one academic period during the year. Reduces such credit: (1) by the amount of any non-taxable Federal scholarship or grant assistance received; and (2) if adjusted gross income exceeds specified levels. Sets forth other rules concerning the credit, including denying the credit to an individual: (1) convicted of a drug offense; and (2) failing to maintain grade point average requirements. Prohibits the credit after December 31, 2000. (Sec. 103) Permits a limited deduction for qualified higher education expenses based on modified adjusted gross income for qualified higher education expenses. Prohibits taking both such deduction and the above credit. Prohibits the deduction after December 31, 2000. (Sec. 104) Revises provisions concerning the cancellation of certain student loans. (Sec. 105) Terminates, after December 31, 2000, the exclusion from gross income of employer-provided educational assistance. (Sec. 106) Includes in the general business credit, until December 31, 2000, a small business educational assistance credit equal to ten percent of qualified educational assistance expenses. Prohibits a deduction for that portion of such expenses otherwise allowable as a deduction which is equal to such credit. Permits election of a reduced credit. Title II: Student Financial Aid Provisions - Student Financial Aid Improvements Act of 1997 - Part A: Pell Grants - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to increase the maximum Pell grant award from $2,700 to $3,000, subject to specified award rules. Part B: Student Loan Provisions - Directs the Secretary of Education to recall from the reserve funds held by guaranty agencies specified minimum amounts in FY 1998 through 2002. Requires such recalled amounts to be: (1) in proportion to each guaranty agency's share of the total reserve funds held by guaranty agencies as of September 30, 1996; and (2) deposited in the Treasury. Requires each guaranty agency to transfer all reserve funds that it holds to a restricted account and invest those funds in U.S. Government securities specified by the Secretary. Prohibits a guaranty agency from using any restricted account funds for any purpose without the express permission of the Secretary, with specified exceptions for limited amounts of working capital to use for certain operational expenses. Provides that non-liquid reserve fund assets, as well as any liquid assets remaining in a guaranty agency's restricted account after the recalls, remain U.S. property, may only be used for purposes that the Secretary determines are appropriate, and are be subject to recall by the Secretary. (Sec. 222) Provides borrowers under the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program with certain extended and graduated repayment options currently available to Direct Loan program borrowers, including the option to change repayment plans. Directs the Secretary to ensure that the repayment plans offered to FFEL borrowers are comparable to Direct Loan repayment plans. (Sec. 223) Reduces the applicable interest rate on all subsidized and unsubsidized FFEL and Direct Loans during in-school, grace, and deferment periods to the same rate as the borrowing rate of the Department of Education, but retains current cap levels on such interest rates. Specifies that the interest rate used to determine the rebate of excess interest under specified HEA is not to be used to change special allowance payments for the period affected by the rebate. (Sec. 224) Revises specified HEA provisions to reduce the lenders' insurance rate from 98 to 95 percent. (Sec. 225) Eliminates the one percent insurance premium charged to a FFEL borrower at the time of loan origination. Reduces FFEL origination fees on subsidized FFELs from three percent to two percent. Reduces the loan fee charged on Direct Loans from four percent to three percent for unsubsidized Direct Loans, and from four percent to two percent for subsidized Direct Loans. (Sec. 226) Revises HEA provisions relating to the role of the guaranty agency in the FFEL program. Declares that the Secretary is the sole guarantor of FFELs. Authorizes the Secretary to enter into an agreement with a guaranty agency to insure loans, with the guaranty agency acting as the agent of the Secretary. Allows any guaranty agency that had an agreement with the Secretary under specified provisions on the day before the date of enactment of this Act to enter into an initial agreement with the Secretary. Makes all existing guaranty agency agreements expire within 180 days of such date of enactment. Replaces outstanding loan insurance issued by the guaranty agency by loan insurance issued by the Secretary. Relieves the guaranty agency of any further liability on the loans. Authorizes interim administration measures necessary for the efficient transfer of such loan insurance function. Makes the new guaranty agreements effective for five years, and renewable by the Secretary for successive five-year periods, but authorizes the Secretary to terminate the agreements prior to expiration under certain circumstances. Authorizes the Secretary, after the initial agreement has ended, to enter into: (1) another agreement with that guaranty agency; (2) an alternate agreement with a different guaranty agency; or (3) one or more contracts under specified provisions, under which contractors would carry out one or more of the functions formerly performed by the guaranty agency. Requires the agreement between the Secretary and a guaranty agency to specify the responsibilities of the guaranty agency, if any, with respect to certain functions. Authorizes the Secretary to permit a guaranty agency to engage in other businesses, previously purchased or developed with reserve funds, that relate to the FFEL program. Provides that, under such agreements, guaranty agencies shall receive specified fees and revenues. Permits guaranty agencies to retain a share of their net revenues for activities in support of postsecondary education. Requires such share to be calculated and approved by the Secretary after determining an adequate level of economic incentive for guaranty agencies to maximize their efficiency, in an amount not to exceed 50 percent of guaranty agency net revenues. Requires guaranty agencies to carry out their responsibilities under the agreement in accordance with performance standards set by the Secretary and uniformly applied to all guaranty agencies. Directs the Secretary to compare the performance of the guaranty agencies with one another, and publicly disseminate such comparison. Establishes fines for guaranty agencies that fail to achieve a specified level of performance on one or more performance standards. Requires the guaranty agency, if its failure resulted in a financial loss to the United States, to indemnify the Secretary for that loss. Termination of a guaranty agency's agreement prior to the expiration date either automatically under certain circumstances or upon the Secretary's determination that the guaranty agency has substantially failed to achieve an acceptable level of performance. Grants an exemption to lenders with small FFEL portfolios, by requiring only eligible lenders that originate or hold more than $5 million in FFELs during an annual audit period to submit to compliance audit for that period. (Sec. 227) Repeals specified HEA provisions which require a State to pay to the Secretary an annual amount that represents the State's share of risk for high default rates at institutions within the State. (Sec. 228) Revises HEA provisions relating to FFEL consolidation loans. (Sec. 229) Authorizes the Secretary to enter into one or more contracts to carry out any of the functions that otherwise would be carried out by a guaranty agency. (Sec. 230) Revises the definition of an eligible lender to require lenders to offer uniform terms and conditions to all borrowers taking out the same type of FFEL loans. (Sec. 231) Requires computation of special allowance rates at the same time and in the same manner as student loan interest rates (annually rather than quarterly). (Sec. 232) Revises provisions relating to the Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae) and its payment of an offset fee on loans it holds. (Sec. 233) Limits the payment of a specified transition fee to: (1) institutions or consortia in their first year of participation in the Direct Loan program; and (2) an amount not more than an average of $10 per borrower at such institutions. (Sec. 234) Sets funding levels through FY 2002 for mandatory administrative expenses for the student financial aid programs, including the Direct Loan program, at levels lower than the current baseline. Part C: Need Analysis and General Provisions - Revises provisions for calculation of a postsecondary student's need for assistance under HEA title IV. (Provides, in various ways, that students' future eligibility for title IV assistance not be affected by their families' use of the HOPE Scholarship tax credit or the education and training tax deduction.) (Sec. 242) Makes the income protection allowance (IPA) for independent students without dependents (other than a spouse) comparable to those used for parents of dependent students and for independent students with dependents. Permits updating IPA calculation to reflect inflation. (Sec. 243) Requires the Secretary to define certain education-related terms for purposes of the HOPE Scholarship tax credit and the education and training tax deduction provided under specified provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. Makes inapplicable to such regulations specified HEA provisions relating to a deadline for publication of regulations in final form. (Sec. 244) Extends the FFEL program and certain other HEA title IV student assistance provisions through FY 2002. Part D: Effective Dates - Sets forth the effective dates for specified provisions of this Act.
Bill· HRH.R. 1234 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1997
Equal Protection School Finance Act - Provides for a system to help equalize funding for education within States. Makes a State ineligible for Federal funds administered by the Department of Education to support elementary and secondary education unless the coefficient of variation of per pupil expenditures in local educational agencies statewide for elementary and secondary education is greater than ten percent. Authorizes the Secretary of Education to provide such funding to a noncompliant State if that State submits a plan which the Secretary determines will bring the State into compliance within five years. Sets forth procedures for compliance reporting, certification, and challenges. Directs the Secretary to reallocate to compliant States, and States developing or implementing compliance plans, any funds that are not distributed to noncompliant States.
Bill· HRH.R. 1244 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1997
Tobacco Disclosure and Warning Act of 1997 - Makes it unlawful to manufacture, import, package, or distribute cigarettes, spit tobacco products, or other tobacco products for sale unless: (1) the package bears one of specified warnings and discloses (for cigarettes, contains an insert disclosing) ingredients; and (2) the advertising bears one of the specified warnings. Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to revise the warnings. Requires each manufacturer, packager, or importer of any tobacco product to report annually on ingredients. Directs the Secretary: (1) if the Secretary finds the information directly affects public health, to require inclusion of the information in labeling and inserts required by this Act; and (2) to establish a toll-free telephone number and an Internet site to make additional ingredient information available. Requires that the Secretary carry out the Secretary's duties under this Act through the Commissioner of Food and Drugs. Allows any nonprofit organization (a substantial part of the activities of which include promoting public health through reducing tobacco use) to bring a civil action for an injunction. Mandates a civil monetary penalty for violations. Declares that compliance with this Act, the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, or the Comprehensive Smokeless Tobacco Health Education Act of 1986 shall not relieve any person from liability to any other person at common law or under State statutory law.
Bill· HJRESH.J.Res. 68 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1997
Constitutional Amendment - Declares that nothing in the Constitution shall be construed to prohibit individual prayer in public schools or to prohibit public school officials from including voluntary prayer in official school ceremonies and meetings. Prohibits the United States or any State from prescribing the content of any such prayer.
Resolution· HCONRESH.Con.Res. 58 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 8 April 1997
Establishes the congressional budget for the Government for FY 1998. Sets forth appropriate budgetary levels for FY 1999 through 2002. (Sec. 2) Lists recommended budgetary levels and amounts, for FY 1998 through 2002, with respect to: (1) Federal revenues; (2) new budget authority; (3) budget outlays; (4) deficits; (5) public debt; (6) new direct loan obligations; and (7) new primary loan guarantee commitments. (Sec. 3) Lists the appropriate levels of new budget authority, budget outlays, new direct loan obligations, and new primary loan guarantee commitments for each of specified major functional categories for FY 1998 through 2002. (Sec. 4) Sets forth appropriate levels of new budget authority and budget outlays for Federal investments for each of specified major functional categories for FY 1998 through 2002. (Sec. 5) Establishes reconciliation procedures. Specifies outlay reductions for the House Committee on Commerce and the House Committee on Ways and Means for each of FY 1998 through 2002. Directs the House Committee on Ways and Means to report changes in laws within its jurisdiction: (1) such that the total level of revenues for that committee is increased by specified amounts in each of such fiscal years; and (2) that provide for the establishment of an Investment Trust Fund as a separate account in the Treasury, into which shall be transferred revenues realized by the acution of spectrum allocations by the Federal Communications Commission. Requires that amounts in that fund be used exclusively for programs assumed under Federal investments provisions of this resolution. (Sec. 7) Expresses the sense of the Congress regarding budget trends. Declares that the increasing portion of the Federal budget absorbed by interest payments and consumption programs, particularly health spending, has led to a declining level of domestically financed investment and may adversely affect the ability of the economy to grow at the levels needed to provide for future generations. (Sec. 8) Expresses the sense of the Congress regarding the need to maintain Federal investments. Declares that a balanced program to improve the economy should be based on the concurrent goals of eliminating the deficit and maintaining Federal investment in programs that enhance long-term productivity such as research and development, education and training, and physical infrastructure improvements. (Sec. 9) Expresses the sense of the Congress regarding the treatment of Federal investments within the budget. Declares that: (1) the current budget structure focuses primarily on short-term spending and does not highlight for decision making purposes the differences between Federal spending for long-term investment and that for current consumption; and (2) in order to restructure the Federal budget to make such a distinction, it is necessary to identify an investment component in the Federal budget and establish specific budgetary targets for such investments.
Bill· HRH.R. 1219 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 21 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: General Programs Regarding Prevention of HIV Infection Title II: Preventive Health Programs Regarding Women and HIV Infection Title III: General Provisions William A. Bailey Comprehensive HIV Prevention Act of 1997 - Title I: General Programs Regarding Prevention of HIV Infection - Amends the Public Healht Service Act to replace title XXV (Prevention of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) with a new title (Prevention of HIV Infection). Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to plan, coordinate, and evaluate human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection prevention activities of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Indian Health Service, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (designated agencies). Directs the Secretary to establish the Secretary's Advisory Council on HIV Prevention. Mandates, for each designated agency, a comprehensive plan and certain implementation activities regarding the conduct and support of all HIV prevention activities. Requires annual budget requests by the Secretary and each designated agency. Requires each designated agency (except NIH) to establish an office to carry out HIV prevention activities. Requires that the remainder of this title be carried out through the CDCP. Authorizes HIV epidemiology and surveillance activities. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes financial assistance to health departments of States and subdivisions for HIV prevention projects in communities of at-risk individuals. Mandates local and statewide HIV community planning groups. Allows use of assistance for: (1) certain counseling and testing; and (2) counseling and treatment for any victim of a crime involving force or the threat of force to compel sexual activity. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes the Secretary, directly or through financial assistance, to carry out HIV public education. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes HIV prevention activities regarding specific populations identified by the Secretary. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes HIV prevention activities regarding adolescents, including through school-based programs. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes, directly or through financial assistance, the conduct of HIV prevention research and the carrying out of demonstration projects. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes, directly or through financial assistance, HIV prevention activities in addition to those specified above in this Act. Authorizes appropriations. Title II: Preventive Health Programs Regarding Women and HIV Infection - Women and HIV Outreach and Prevention Act - Amends Public Health Service Act provisions (as amended by title I of this Act) relating to the CDCP to authorize grants, with regard to women (and their partners) and HIV, for preventive health services, referrals, follow-ups, outreach, and training on the effective provision of such services. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes grants to provide HIV prevention education to women. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts to provide: (1) substance abuse treatment to women; (2) counseling to women who engage in substance abuse on the prevention of infection with, and the transmission of, the etiologic agent for AIDS; and (3) such counseling to women who are the partners of individuals who abuse substances. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes appropriations for grants under existing provisions to provide early intervention services for women and related technical assistance. Title III: General Provisions - Authorizes technical assistance to applicants and recipients under provisions of this Act relating to the CDCP.
Bill· SS. 504 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 20 March 1997
Children's Privacy Protection and Parental Empowerment Act of 1997 - Amends the Federal criminal code to prohibit specified activities relating to personal information about a child (defined as a person under age 16), including knowingly: (1) selling such information (by a list broker) without the consent of a parent of that child, knowing that such information pertains to a child; (2) using prison inmate labor for data processing of personal information about children; and (3) distributing or receiving any such information, knowing or having reason to believe that the information will be used to abuse or physically harm the child. Authorizes civil actions by children or their parents with respect to whom a violation of this Act occurs. Directs the court to award a prevailing plaintiff a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs. Specifies that nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect the sale of lists to: (1) any Federal, State, or local government agency or law enforcement organization; (2) the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; or (3) any institution of higher education.
Bill· SS. 485 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 20 March 1997
Precision Agriculture Research, Education, and Information Dissemination Act of 1997 - Amends the Competitive, Special, and Facilities Research Grant Act to emphasize competitive grants that promote precision agriculture (as defined by this Act) research projects and to promote dissemination of such projects' results. Provides for the establishment of multistate and national agriculture partnerships, including existing partnerships between national laboratories (Secretary of Energy) and the Department of Agriculture. Amends the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 to include precision agriculture within the research categories of the Fund for Rural America.
Bill· HRH.R. 1153 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 20 March 1997
21st Century Classrooms Act for Private Technology Investment - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide businesses with a deduction for: (1) the donation of computer technology and equipment (within two years of production or acquisition) to elementary or secondary schools, tax-exempt entities supporting education, or private foundations that contribute such property to these entities; and (2) cash contributions used for such purposes.
Bill· HRH.R. 1158 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 20 March 1997
Superfund Liability Exemption for Local Education Agencies Act - Amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 to absolve any local educational agency from liability for costs or damages under the Act, by reason of solid municipal waste generation or transportation, if the amount and toxicity of the substances in such waste do not exceed that which a reasonable person would expect to find in such waste generated by the agency.
Bill· HRH.R. 1201 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 20 March 1997
Medicare Medication Evaluation and Dispensing System Act of 1997 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish and operate the Medicare Medication Evaluation and Dispensing System (MMEDS) to provide for: (1) prospective and retrospective review of prescription drugs furnished to Medicare beneficiaries; (2) education of physicians, patients, and pharmacists in the appropriate use of prescription drugs; (3) the establishment of standards for counseling Medicare beneficiaries regarding the appropriate use of prescription drugs; and (4) review, information, and counseling with respect to any prescription drug furnished to a Medicare beneficiary without regard to whether or not payment may be made for the drug under Medicare. Sets forth requirements for review of prescriptions. Directs the Secretary to establish: (1) a point-of-sale electronic system for carriers and pharmacists to use in submitting information on outpatient prescription drugs dispensed to Medicare patients; and (2) standards to protect from public disclosure any MMEDS-provided information identifying individuals with respect to their physical or mental health. Requires the Secretary to report to the Congress: (1) an analysis of the effect on net aggregate Medicare expenditures from the establishment of such a System; and (2) any recommendations on Medicare coverage of pharmacist professional services. Directs the Secretary to publish and disseminate a consumer guide to outpatient prescription drugs to assist: (1) Medicare beneficiaries in reducing expenditures for them; and (2) individuals and entities furnishing items and services to such beneficiaries in determining the cost-effectiveness of such drugs.
Bill· HRH.R. 1203 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 20 March 1997
Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to prohibit the use of ESEA funds to promote teaching or using dialects peculiar to a region or group within the U.S. population. Allows teachers, notwithstanding such prohibition, to: (1) be trained in, use, and teach foreign languages; and (2) communicate in their own modes of speech, if no special effort is made to teach or encourage students to communicate in such modes of speech.
Bill· HRH.R. 1200 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 20 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Establishment of a State-Based American Health Security Program; Universal Entitlement; Enrollment Title II: Comprehensive Benefits, Including Preventive Benefits and Benefits for Long Term Care Title III: Provider Participation Title IV: Administration Subtitle A: General Administrative Provisions Subtitle B: Control Over Fraud and Abuse Title V: Quality Assessment Title VI: National Health Security Budget; Payments; Cost Containment Measures Subtitle A: Budgeting and Payments to States Subtitle B: Payments by States to Providers Subtitle C: Mandatory Assignment and Administrative Provisions Title VII: Promotion of Primary Health Care; Development of Health Service Capacity; Programs to Assist the Medically Underserved Subtitle A: Promotion and Expansion of Primary Care Professional Training Subtitle B: Direct Health Care Delivery Subtitle C: Primary Care and Outcomes Research Subtitle D: School-Related Health Services Title VIII: Financing Provisions; American Health Security Trust Fund Subtitle A: American Health Security Trust Fund Subtitle B: Taxes Based on Income and Wages Subtitle C: Increase in Excise Taxes on Tobacco Products Title IX: Conforming Amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 Title X: Additional Conforming Amendments American Health Security Act of 1997 - Title I: Establishment of a State-Based American Health Security Program; Universal Entitlement; Enrollment - Establishes the American Health Security Program (AHSP), to be administered by the States. Requires a State to establish a State health security program (program) to receive Federal health care funding. (Sec. 102) Entitles every individual who is a U.S. resident and is a U.S. citizen or national or a lawful resident alien to benefits. (Sec. 103) Requires each State program to provide an enrollment mechanism and issue a health security card to each enrollee. (Sec. 104) Makes benefits portable. Prohibits a minimum residence or waiting period in excess of a specified period. Allows reciprocal arrangements for coverage of border region enrollees. (Sec. 106) Supersedes titles XVIII (Medicare) and XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act, the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program, and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS). Title II: Comprehensive Benefits, Including Preventive Benefits and Benefits for Long Term Care - Entitles all eligible individuals to payment items and services specified by the American Health Security Standards Board (Board) (established by title IV of this Act). Prohibits: (1) deductibles, coinsurance, or copayments for acute care and preventive benefits, subject to exception; (2) providers from charging a patient for covered services; and (3) duplicative private insurance. (Sec. 203) Covers a percentage of home and community-based long-term care services. (Sec. 204) Sets forth special delivery requirements for mental health and substance abuse treatment services provided to at-risk children. Directs the Board to make national determinations on coverage of experimental services. Title III: Provider Participation - Requires providers, to receive payment, to agree: (1) not to discriminate based on race, national origin, income, religion, age, sex or sexual orientation, disability, handicapping condition, or (subject to the qualifications of the provider) illness; (2) not to charge patients for covered services; (3) to furnish necessary information to the Board or program; (4) not to employ excluded providers; and (5) to submit bills within a specified time. (Sec. 302) Considers a health care provider to be qualified if the provider is licensed or certified and meets State law requirements, Federal requirements, and additional standards specified by the Board. Requires: (1) establishment of national minimum quality assurance standards and related monitoring; and (2) an exchange of information among programs regarding quality assurance and cost containment. (Sec. 303) Defines a "comprehensive health service organization" (CHSO) as a public or private organization that, in return for a capitated payment, furnishes or arranges for a full range of health services and out-of-area coverage for urgently needed services. Regulates CHSOs. (Sec. 304) Extends current Medicare prohibitions on physician self-referrals and applies the prohibitions to AHSP. Title IV: Administration - Subtitle A: General Administrative Provisions - Establishes the American Health Security Standards Board to develop policies and procedures for enrollment, benefits, provider participation, national and State funding levels, assisting programs with planning for capital expenditures and service delivery, and other functions. Mandates uniform reporting standards. (Sec. 402) Mandates an American Health Security Advisory Council. (Sec. 404) Requires: (1) each State to submit a plan for a program for providing health care services to residents; (2) the Board to provide States incentives to develop regional planning mechanisms; (3) State programs to meet Federal standards; and (4) each State to appoint a State Health Security Advisory Council. Allows: (1) programs not meeting Federal requirements to be placed in receivership; and (2) States to use fiscal agents to process claims. Subtitle B: Control Over Fraud and Abuse - Authorizes provider exclusion, civil monetary penalties, and criminal prosecution for fraud or abuse, based on current Medicaid standards. (Sec. 412) Requires each program to establish and maintain a health care fraud and abuse unit. Title V: Quality Assessment - Establishes the American Health Security Quality Council. (Sec. 502) Mandates: (1) methods for profiling practice patterns and for identifying those with quality deficiencies; (2) guidelines for procedures performed only at tertiary centers; and (3) standards for education and sanctions regarding those with quality deficiencies. (Sec. 503) Requires each participating State to establish an entity to conduct quality reviews. (Sec. 504) Expresses the intent to replace random utilization controls with a systematic review of patterns of practice. Supersedes all existing Federal utilization review programs. Title VI: Health Security Budget; Payments; Cost Containment Measures - Subtitle A: Budgeting and Payments to States - Directs the Board to establish a national health security budget specifying the total expenditures to be made by the Federal Government and the States for covered health care services. (Sec. 602) Provides for the allocation of funds in the budget by the Board to the States. (Sec. 604) Provides for programs to receive Federal funds equal to a weighted average of a specified percentage of their population-based share of the budget. (Sec. 605) Requires each program to establish a separate budget account for health professional education expenditures. Subtitle B: Payments by States to Providers - Directs that: (1) payment for operating expenses for institutional and facility-based care under State programs be made directly to each institution or facility; and (2) facility budgets be adjusted to reflect payments made by CHSOs. Allows programs to permit institutions and facilities to raise funds from private sources for specified purposes. (Sec. 612) Requires: (1) State programs to pay individual practitioners on a fee-for-service basis; and (2) the Board to establish models for such payment and for global fee payment methodologies. Permits States to require electronic billing. (Sec. 613) Authorizes programs to pay CHSOs based on annual budgets or risk-adjusted capitation payments, reduced by the costs of covered services not provided by the CHSO. (Sec. 614) Directs that programs pay for community-based primary health services based on global budgets, basic primary care capitation amounts for enrollees, or fee-for-service. (Sec. 615) Requires: (1) the Board to establish a list of approved prescription drugs and to determine maximum prices; and (2) each program to pay for such drugs based on such maximum prices and to pay separate dispensing fees to pharmacies. (Sec. 616) Directs: (1) the Board to establish a list of approved durable medical equipment and therapeutic devices and equipment; and (2) programs to pay for such items based on maximum prices determined by the Board. (Sec. 617) Requires State programs to pay for other items and services based on methodologies adopted by the Board. (Sec. 618) Directs the Board to establish model payment methodologies and other incentives that promote the provision of services in medically underserved areas. (Sec. 619) Authorizes programs to use alternative payment methodologies, provided certain requirements are met. Subtitle C: Mandatory Assignment and Administrative Provisions - Requires that participating providers accept program payment as full payment. Permits provider exclusion and civil penalties for violations. (Sec. 632) Requires a provider payment appeals process. Title VII: Promotion of Primary Health Care; Development of Health Service Capacity; Programs to Assist the Medically Underserved - Subtitle A: Promotion and Expansion of Primary Care Professional Training - Sets forth Board responsibilities regarding the education of health professionals. Sets as national goals that: (1) at least 50 percent of graduate medical residencies be in primary care within five years of this Act's enactment; and (2) there be a certain number, specified by the Board, of midlevel primary care practitioners employed in the health care system by a specified date. (Sec. 702) Mandates an Advisory Committee on Health Professional Education. (Sec. 703) Requires transfer of specified revenues from the American Health Security Trust Fund (Fund) for certain existing programs supporting health professional education and nursing education and for the National Health Service Corps. Subtitle B: Direct Health Care Delivery - Mandates transfer of specified Fund revenues to the Public Health Service for maternal and child health block grants, prevention and treatment of tuberculosis, prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases, preventive health block grants, grants to States for community mental health services and the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, grants for HIV health care services, public health formula grants, and primary care service expansion grants. (Sec. 713) Mandates grants to primary care centers to plan, develop, and deliver primary care to medically underserved populations. Subtitle C: Primary Care and Outcomes Research - Mandates transfer of specified Fund revenues to the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research for health outcomes research. (Sec. 722) Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish in the National Institutes of Health an Office of Primary Care and Prevention Research and a national data system and clearinghouse on primary care and prevention research. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle D: School-Related Health Services - Authorizes appropriations for this subtitle. Mandates grants to State health agencies or to local community partnerships to develop and operate school health service sites. Title VIII: Financing Provisions; American Health Security Trust Fund - Subtitle A: American Health Security Trust Fund - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to create the American Health Security Trust Fund (Fund). Appropriates to the Fund the increase in tax liabilities attributable to the application of amendments made by this title and receipts from: Medicare, Medicaid, Federal employees' health benefits program, CHAMPUS, Maternal and Child Health program (under title V of the Social Security Act), vocational rehabilitation programs, drug abuse and mental health services programs under the Public Health Service Act, programs providing general hospital or medical assistance, and certain other Federal programs. Transfers to the Fund amounts in the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund. Subtitle B: Taxes Based on Income and Wages - Imposes a health care excise tax on every employer and on the self-employed, railroad employers, and railroad employee representatives. Imposes an individual health care income tax. Prohibits credits against the tax and any effect on the minimum tax in relation to the individual health care income tax. Subtitle C: Increase in Excise Taxes on Tobacco Products - Increases the excise taxes on tobacco products. Title IX: Conforming Amendments to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 - Makes the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) inapplicable to health coverage arrangements under State health security programs. Exempts State health security programs from ERISA preemption. Prohibits employee benefits duplicating State health security program benefits and requires that a liable workers' compensation carrier reimburse the State health security plan. Repeals ERISA continuation coverage requirements. Title X: Additional Conforming Amendments - Repeals specified provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, ERISA, and the Public Health Service Act.
Bill· HRH.R. 1199 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 20 March 1997
Common Sense Hazardous Waste Facilities Siting and Permitting Act of 1997- Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to add to standards applicable to hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal facilities under the Act and under State and local law the requirement that States and local permitting authorities develop siting criteria which, at a minimum, impose restrictions on facility location: (1) within specified distances of densely populated areas or schools, churches, day care centers, or other buildings frequented by persons under age 18; (2) on or within specified distances of aquifers or recharge areas used as sources of drinking or irrigation water, bodies of water, or prime farm land (as defined in this Act); and (3) based upon environmental redlining (selection of sites predominantly on the basis of the income of residents in the surrounding area). Requires States and local permitting authorities to develop siting procedures which meet specified minimum standards concerning the application process, host community advisory committee recommendations, official consent of the host community, and a restricted appeals process.
Bill· SS. 472 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 19 March 1997
Declares that it is U.S. policy that the residents of Puerto Rico should be afforded periodically the opportunity freely to express a preference for preserving its current political status or choosing to seek U.S. statehood or separate sovereignty (independence or free association). Requires a referendum on these questions to be held by December 31, 1998. Sets forth specified requirements with respect to the referendum and implementation of its results. Makes funds derived from excise taxes collected on rum imported into the United States and deposited into the treasury of Puerto Rico available for grants to the State Elections Commission of Puerto Rico for: (1) costs of conducting the referendum; and (2) voter education.
Bill· HRH.R. 1130 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 19 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Pension Access and Coverage Subtitle A: Improved Access to Individual Retirement Savings Subtitle B: Improved Fairness in Retirement Plan Benefits Subtitle C: Improving Retirement Plan Coverage Subtitle D: Simplifying Plan Requirements Title II: Security Subtitle A: General Provisions Subtitle B: ERISA Enforcement Title III: Portability Title IV: Comprehensive Women's Pension Protection Subtitle A: Pension Reform Subtitle B: Protection of Rights of Former Spouses to Pension Benefits Under Certain Government and Government-Sponsored Retirement Programs Subtitle C: Modifications of Joint and Survivor Annuity Requirements Subtitle D: Spousal Consent Required for Distributions From Section 401(k) Plans Subtitle E: Women's Pension Toll-Free Phone Number Title V: Date for Adoption of Plan Amendments Retirement Security Act of 1997 - Title I: Pension Access and Coverage - Subtitle A: Improved Access to Individual Retirement Savings - Chapter 1: Contributions To Individual Retirement Plans Through Payroll Deductions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to require a private contractor with the Secretary of Labor to establish a system under which: (1) eligible employees, through employer payroll deductions, may make contributions to individual retirement plans; and (2) amounts in the individual retirement plans are invested according to certain requirements. (Sec. 103) Provides for: (1) contributions to individual retirement plans; (2) investment options; (3) accounting and information; (4) administrative costs; (5) fiduciary responsibilities, liability and penalties, bonding, and investigative authority; and (6) selection of contractor. (Sec. 108) Authorizes appropriations for: (1) the Secretary of Labor to design and award the contract for such system; and (2) the contractor to begin operations. Chapter 2: Nonrefundable Tax Credit for Contributions to Individual Retirement Accounts - Amends IRC to allow a nonrefundable tax credit for a portion of contributions to individual retirement plans, calculated according to a specified scale. Chapter 3: Expanded Individual Retirement Accounts to Increase Coverage and Portability - Subchapter A: IRA Deduction - Raises the income limitations for the individual retirement account (IRA) tax deduction, with a corresponding adjustment to the formula for the phaseout of such limitations. (Sec. 122) Prescribes an inflation adjustment for the IRA deductible amount and income limitations. Subchapter B: Distributions and Investments - Allows the use of distributions from individual retirement plans, without additional tax, to: (1) purchase first homes; (2) pay higher education expenses; or (3) pay financially devastating medical expenses. (Sec. 132) Allows the use without penalty of distributions from certain plans during periods of unemployment. (Sec. 133) Requires that contributions to individual retirement plans (other than special individual retirement accounts) be held for at least five years in certain cases before they may be distributed without specified tax consequences. Chapter 4: Periodic Pension Benefits Statements - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) with respect to periodic pension benefits statements in cases of defined benefit plans, defined contribution plans, and multiemployer plans. Subtitle B: Improved Fairness in Retirement Plan Benefits - Amends IRC to require a specified minimum employer contribution to simple retirement accounts. Provides for an employer option to suspend contributions with 30-days' notice. Amends ERISA with respect to fiduciary duties in the case of such accounts. (Sec. 152) Amends IRC to set forth various nondiscrimination rules for qualified cash or deferred arrangements and matching contributions. (Sec. 153) Increases from $75,000 to $80,000 per year specified compensation criteria for a highly compensated employee. Excludes specified categories of employees with respect to age, short length of service, and part-time service from the meaning of highly compensated employee. Subtitle C: Improving Retirement Plan Coverage - Allows a tax credit for up to a maximum $500 of the qualified start-up costs of eligible small employers in establishing a qualified pension plan or qualified employer payroll deduction system. (Sec. 162) Limits annual benefits under governmental and multiemployer plans to $90,000, eliminating the alternative 100 percent of high three-year average compensation limitation. Exempts from the $7,500 or one third of includible compensation limit for annual benefits certain excess benefit arrangements under deferred compensation plans of State and local governments and tax-exempt organizations. Prohibits such arrangements from being taken into account in determining whether any other plan is an eligible deferred compensation plan. (Sec. 163) Declares that compensation deferred under a mirror plan shall not be taken into account in applying certain limits (with respect to deferred compensation plans of State and local governments and tax-exempt organizations) to compensation deferred under any other deferred compensation plan. (Sec. 164) Sets forth special rules to treat contributions by self-employed individuals as matching contributions. (Sec. 165) Amends specified Federal law relating to Federal employees to allow immediate participation in the Thrift Savings Plan for Federal employees by eliminating certain waiting periods. (Sec. 166) Amends the IRC to revise the limits on contributions excluded from the calculation of non-deductible contributions for purposes of the tax on non-deductible contributions to a qualified employer plan. (Sec. 167) Excludes from gross income any workers' compensation received by former police officers or fire fighters for heart disease or hypertension. Subtitle D: Simplifying Plan Requirements - Amends IRC and ERISA to set a full funding limitation for multiemployer plans. (Sec. 172) Eliminates IRC partial termination rules for multiemployer plans. (Sec. 173) Revises IRC nondiscrimination and minimum participation rules with respect to governmental plans. (Sec. 174) Eliminates specified ERISA requirements for plan descriptions and for filing of summary plan descriptions and descriptions of material modifications to a plan. (Sec. 175) Replaces the 150 percent of current liability factor in the calculation of the full-funding limit with an incremental scale from 155 percent in 1998 to 170 percent in 2001, followed by zero in 2002 and succeeding years. (Sec. 176) Directs the Secretaries of the Treasury and of Labor to expand their efforts to examine existing guidance regarding notice, recordkeeping, and operational requirements for retirement plans, in order to permit the use of new technologies by plan sponsors and administrators in ways which maintain the protection of the rights of participants and beneficiaries. Title II: Security - Subtitle A: General Provisions - Amends ERISA to provide investment protection for specified plans that include qualified cash or deferred arrangements under IRC ("401(k) plans") by setting limitations on investment in employer securities and employer real property by cash or deferred arrangements. Provides a transition rule for plans holding excess securities or property. (Sec. 202) Applies an ERISA requirement for annual, detailed investment reports to certain IRC 401(k) plans. Directs the Secretary of Labor, in prescribing regulations for required information in such reports, to consider including specified types of information. (Sec. 203) Directs the Secretary of Labor to study and report to the Congress on: (1) the extent to which pension plans invest in collectibles; and (2) whether such investments present a risk to the pension security of the participants and beneficiaries of such plans. (Sec. 204) Amends IRC to prohibit qualified employer plans from making loans through credit cards and other intermediaries. (Sec. 205) Increases the amounts of multiemployer plan benefits guaranteed under ERISA. (Sec. 206) Increases the maximum amount of the civil penalty which may be assessed administratively for certain prohibited transactions. (Sec. 207) Amends ERISA with respect to substantial owner benefits to revise the phase-in of guarantee and the allocation of assets. (Sec. 208) Directs the Secretary of Labor to report annually to the President and the Congress on plans from which residual assets were distributed to employers (reversion report). (Sec. 209) Expresses the sense of the Congress that the Secretary of the Treasury should: (1) review existing correction mechanisms to determine whether modifications might facilitate additional utilization by sponsors, improve voluntary compliance, and hasten the correction of pension plans; (2) consider whether additional means of addressing nonegregious violations should be explored; and (3) make appropriate legislative recommendations. Subtitle B: ERISA Enforcement - Amends ERISA enforcement provisions to repeal a limited scope audit requirement for employee pension benefit plans. Requires an accountant, in offering an opinion in the case of an employee pension benefit plan, to rely, to the extent consistent with generally accepted auditing standards, on the work of any independent public accountant of any bank or similar institution or insurance carrier that holds assets or processes transactions of the employee pension benefit plan, provided that such bank, institution, or insurance carrier is regulated, supervised, and subject to periodic examination by a State or Federal agency. (Sec. 212) Sets forth additional ERISA requirements for qualified public accountants. (Sec. 213) Amends ERISA and the IRC to exempt from the prohibition against assignment or alienation of an accrued pension benefit offsets for certain civil and criminal judgments against fiduciaries. Changes from mandatory to discretionary the imposition and amount of civil penalties for breach of fiduciary responsibilities. Title III: Portability - Amends ERISA and the IRC to provide for faster vesting of employer matching contributions. (Sec. 302) Revises certain restrictions on distributions from IRC 401(k) plans. (Sec. 303) Amends ERISA and IRC with respect to an accrued benefit not to be decreased by plan amendment to revise the treatment of transfers between defined contribution plans. (Sec. 304) Amends ERISA rules requiring transfer of benefits of missing participants to direct the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to prescribe similar rules for multiemployer plans that terminate. Requires transfer of missing participants' plan benefits to the PBGC by certain plans not otherwise subject to ERISA enforcement provisions. Title IV: Comprehensive Women's Pension Protection - Subtitle A: Pension Reform - Makes certain new rules for pension integration under the Tax Reform Act of 1986 applicable to all existing accrued benefits. (Sec. 401) Amends IRC to: (1) disallow integration for simplified employee pensions; and (2) provide for eventual repeal of certain pension integration rules. (Sec. 402) Sets forth rules regarding the application of minimum coverage requirements with respect to separate lines of business. (Sec. 403) Amends IRC and ERISA with respect to division of pension benefits upon divorce, at the former spouse's election, to deem any State divorce decree to be a domestic relations order specifying that half of the marital share of the participant's accrued benefit is to be provided to such former spouse. (Sec. 404) Amends the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 (RRA) to entitle divorced spouses to railroad retirement annuities independent of the employee's actual entitlement. Subtitle B: Protection of Rights of Former Spouses to Pension Benefits Under Certain Government and Government-Sponsored Retirement Programs - Amends RRA to extend Tier II railroad retirement benefits to surviving former spouses pursuant to divorce agreements. (Sec. 412) Amends Federal civil service law with respect to survivor annuities for widows, widowers, and former spouses of Federal employees who die before attaining the age for deferred annuity under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). (Sec. 413) Amends Federal law relating to the armed forces to terminate a two-tier annuity computation and social security offset under the military survivor benefit plan. (Sec. 414) Amends Federal civil service law with respect to payment of lump-sum benefits to former spouses of Federal employees under CSRS and the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS). Subtitle C: Modifications of Joint and Survivor Annuity Requirements - Modifies ERISA and IRC requirements for joint and survivor annuities to provide for an alternative joint and two-thirds survivor annuity payable while both the participant and the spouse are alive. Subtitle D: Spousal Consent Required for Distributions From Section 401(k) Plans - Amends IRC to require spousal consent for distributions from section 401(k) plans. Subtitle E: Women's Pension Toll-Free Phone Number - Directs the Secretary of Labor to contract with an independent organization to create a women's pension toll-free phone number and contact. Authorizes appropriations. Title V: Date for Adoption of Plan Amendments - Sets forth dates for adoption of plan amendments.
Law· HRH.R. 1119 (105th)enacted
United States · United States Congress · 19 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Procurement Title II: Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Title III: Operation and Maintenance Subtitle A: Authorization of Appropriations Subtitle B: Environmental Provisions Subtitle C: Other Matters Title IV: Military Personnel Authorizations Subtitle A: Active Forces Subtitle B: Reserve Forces Title V: Military Personnel Policy Subtitle A: Officer Personnel Policy Subtitle B: Enlisted Personnel Policy Subtitle C: Reserve Personnel Policy Subtitle D: Education Policy Title VI: Compensation and Other Personnel Benefits Subtitle A: Pay and Allowances Subtitle B: Bonuses and Special Pays Subtitle C: Allowances Subtitle D: Other Matters Title VII: Health Care Provisions Title VIII: Repeal of Certain Acquisition Reports and Acquisition Policy Subtitle A: Repeal of Certain Acquisition Reports Subtitle B: Acquisition Policy Title IX: Department of Defense Organization and Management Title X: General Provisions Subtitle A: Financial Matters Subtitle B: Naval Vessels Subtitle C: Other Matters Subtitle D: Military Construction Provisions Title XI: Department of Defense Civilian Personnel National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999 - Title I: Procurement - Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 and 1999 to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, and Air Force for aircraft, missiles, weapons and tracked combat vehicles, ammunition, shipbuilding and conversion, and other procurement. (Sec. 104) Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 and 1999 for: (1) defense-wide procurement; (2) the Defense Inspector General; (3) the Defense Health Program; and (4) the chemical demilitarization program. (Sec. 108) Authorizes the transfer of up to $400 million from the National Defense Stockpile Transaction (NDST) Fund to specified aircraft procurement accounts for FY 1998. Title II: Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation - Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 and 1999 for the armed forces for research, development, test, and evaluation. (Sec. 202) Extends permanently (currently terminates on September 30, 1998) the authority of the Secretary of Defense to contract with commercial entities to conduct commercial test and evaluation activities at a major range and test facility installation. Title III: Operation and Maintenance - Subtitle A: Authorization of Appropriations - Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 and 1999 for operation and maintenance (O&M) for the armed forces and specified activities and agencies of the Department of Defense (DOD). (Sec. 302) Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 and 1999 for: (1) working capital and revolving funds; (2) the Armed Forces Retirement Home; and (3) O&M of Fisher houses, to be derived from the Fisher House Trust Fund. (Sec. 305) Authorizes the transfer of up to $150 million from the NDST Fund to specified O&M accounts. (Sec. 306) Repeals the Defense Business Operations Fund. Authorizes the Secretary to award contracts for capital assets of a working capital fund in advance of the availability of such funds. Subtitle B: Environmental Provisions - Amends the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 to authorize the Secretary to enter into a cooperative agreement with an Indian tribe to obtain assistance in certifying environmental technologies. (Sec. 312) Allows the use of a DOD facility for the storage and disposal of nondefense toxic and hazardous materials when such materials will or have been used in connection with a DOD activity or a service to be performed for the benefit of DOD. Provides as exceptions to the general prohibition against the use of DOD facilities for such storage and disposal the use of: (1) a space launch facility; and (2) DOD facilities for testing materials or training personnel. Subtitle C: Other Matters - Directs the Secretary to conduct programs to commemorate the 50th anniversaries of the Marshall Plan and the Korean War, using Army O&M funds. Establishes in the Treasury the Department of Defense 50th Anniversary of the Marshall Plan and Korean War Commemoration Account. Requires a report from the Secretary to the congressional defense committees on the use of Account funds. (Sec. 322) Authorizes the Superintendent of the Naval Postgraduate School (currently, the Secretary of the Navy) to enter into an agreement with an accredited higher educational institution for an exchange of students. Title IV: Military Personnel Authorizations - Subtitle A: Active Forces - Sets forth the authorized end strengths for active-duty forces as of the end of FY 1998 and 1999. Subtitle B: Reserve Forces - Sets forth the authorized end strengths as of the end of FY 1998 and 1999 for members of the Selected Reserve and reserve personnel on active duty in support of the reserves. Title V: Military Personnel Policy - Subtitle A: Officer Personnel Policy - Authorizes the Secretary of the military department concerned to allow military personnel of that department, or the Department of Transportation when the Coast Guard is not operating as a service in the Navy, to serve in the management of a military welfare society and other designated entities. (Sec. 504) Revises generally the authority for the promotion of officers through promotion boards. (Sec. 505) Excludes chaplains, health care professionals, and officers assigned to duty with the American Battle Monuments Commission from current limitations on the period of recall to active duty. Subtitle B: Enlisted Personnel Policy - Authorizes the Superintendent of the Naval Postgraduate School to permit enlisted members of the armed forces and Coast Guard who are assigned to such School to receive instruction there on a space-available basis. (Sec. 512) Directs the Community College of the Air Force to prescribe programs for enlisted members of the armed forces, other than the Air Force, whose jobs are closely related to Air Force jobs and for enlisted personnel who are serving as instructors at Air Force training schools. Subtitle C: Reserve Personnel Policy - Allows lieutenant colonels (currently, only grades above lieutenant colonel) to serve on boards of inquiry for the involuntary separation of military personnel. Subtitle D: Education Policy - Protects educational assistance entitlements for those members of the Selected Reserve who are ordered to serve on active duty (current law) or in support of a contingency operation. Removes references to the entitlement period for such personnel who served on active duty during the Persian Gulf War. Title VI: Compensation and Other Personnel Benefits - Subtitle A: Pay and Allowances - Waives any FY 1998 military pay increases tied to increases in the General Schedule of Compensation for Government employees. Increases by 2.8 percent, effective on January 1, 1998, the rates of basic pay and basic allowance for quarters. (Sec. 602) Allows the Ready Reserve muster duty allowance to be paid before such duty is actually performed, while requiring such payment within 30 days after such duty. Subtitle B: Bonuses and Special Pays - Increases and extends through FY 2002 certain bonuses and special pay provided to nuclear-qualified officers. (Sec. 612) Provides a special pay incentive for enlisted personnel who enter into an agreement with the Secretary concerned to extend their tour of duty overseas. (Sec. 613) Increases the special pay for Selected Reserve personnel who: (1) extend their enlistments for either three or six years; and (2) reenlist in a critical military skill position after completing their initial service obligation. Subtitle C: Allowances - Authorizes the Secretary concerned to pay a variable housing allowance to military personnel without dependents who make a close-proximity move within the United States. Subtitle D: Other Matters - Authorizes the Secretary to use amounts appropriated for FY 1997 and thereafter for payments to participants in the F. Edward Hebert Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program. Authorizes the payment of supplemental stipends to such participants. Title VII: Health Care Provisions - Repeals a Federal provision which prohibits DOD funds from being used to perform abortions except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term. (Sec. 702) Authorizes the provision of prosthetic devices to military health care beneficiaries when determined necessary due to significant conditions resulting from trauma, congenital anomalies, or disease. Title VIII: Repeal of Acquisition Reports and Acquisition Policy - Subtitle A: Repeal of Certain Acquisition Reports - Amends prior defense authorization Acts to repeal various defense acquisition reporting requirements. Subtitle B: Acquisition Policy - Authorizes the use of a single payment due date for mixed invoices of a defense contractor. (Sec. 812) Authorizes the retention of amounts collected from a contractor under the Contract Disputes Act of 1978 during the pendency of any further litigation or appeals. (Sec. 813) Authorizes the Secretary or the Secretary concerned to contract for the procurement of severable services for periods which overlap fiscal years. (Sec. 814) Revises the quantity requirements for certain small arms weapons procurement objectives of the Secretary of the Army under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995. (Sec. 816) Eliminates certain time and qualifying requirements concerning acquisition unit cost reports. (Sec. 817) Repeals: (1) an additional competition documentation requirement with respect to international agreements; and (2) a certification requirement under the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988. (Sec. 819) Requires, under a contract in which property vests to the United States, that such title vest regardless of any prior or subsequently asserted security interest in the property. (Sec. 820) Authorizes the head of an agency to enter into an undefinitized contract action with respect to: (1) contingency operations; (2) peacekeeping or peace enforcement operations; (3) disaster relief operations; and (4) humanitarian assistance. (Sec. 821) Authorizes a defense agency director, when considered advantageous, to lease personal property that is under the control of the defense agency, not needed for public use, and not excess property. Title IX: Department of Defense Organization and Management - Reduces from annually to every two years or as needed the required frequency of written policy guidance from the Secretary to defense agency heads concerning contingency plans. (Sec. 902) Changes from three to no less than two or more than four years the term for members of the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program Scientific Advisory Board. (Sec. 903) Directs the Secretary to phase out the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, beginning in FY 1998 and ending with its closure no later than September 30, 2001. Prohibits the entry of any new class of students there after September 30, 1997, and the awarding of degrees after September 30, 2001. (Sec. 904) Amends the Military Construction Authorization Act, 1968 to repeal the requirement to operate the Naval Academy Dairy Farm in Gambrills, Maryland. (Sec. 905) Includes the Information Resources Management College within the National Defense University. Title X: General Provisions - Subtitle A: Financial Matters - Amends the Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1992 to extend through FY 1999 the authority of the Secretary to provide assistance in support of international nonproliferation activities. Subtitle B: Other Matters (sic) - Sets forth procedures for the sale of naval vessels stricken from the Naval Register and not subject to disposal under any other laws. (Sec. 1011) Authorizes the Secretary of the Navy to charter a vessel in support of the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor Program. (Sec. 1012) Repeals Federal provisions providing shipbuilding contract adjustment limitations. Subtitle C: Other Matters - Authorizes a special agent of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service to: (1) carry firearms; (2) execute and serve warrants or other Federal process; and (3) make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in the officer's presence or for any Federal felony if such agent has probable cause to believe that a person has committed or is committing such felony. (Sec. 1022) Amends the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 to extend through FY 1998 the authority of the Secretary to provide Mexico with specified support in connection with counter-drug activities. (Sec. 1023) Authorizes the Secretary to accept foreign gifts or donations in order to defray the costs of, or enhance the operation of, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. Requires the Secretary to notify the Congress if total contributions exceed $2 million in any fiscal year. Requires a report identifying the foreign governments permitted to participate in Center programs during the preceding year. (Sec. 1024) Includes imagery, imagery intelligence, or geospatial information among the geodetic data authorized to be sold by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. (Sec. 1025) Extends through FY 1999 the authority to carry out the National Guard civilian youth opportunities pilot program as authorized under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1993. (Sec. 1026) Repeals requirements for: (1) an annual DOD conventional standoff weapons master plan and report on standoff munitions under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991; and (2) annual reports concerning special operations training conducted with friendly foreign forces. (Sec. 1027) Revises general policy objectives and goals under the Ballistic Missile Defense Act of 1995. Subtitle D: Military Construction Provisions - Authorizes the Secretary of the Army to construct a heliport at Fort Irwin, California, using prior authorized and appropriated funds. (Sec. 1032) Amends prior military construction authorization Acts to repeal report requirements concerning: (1) the procurement of overseas family housing from a U.S. contractor; (2) funding for naval strategic homeporting; and (3) a proposed contract for the sale of Gregg Circle Area, Fort Jackson, South Carolina. (Sec. 1033) Provides for the crediting of financial incentives received by military departments or defense agencies for energy savings or water conservation. (Sec. 1035) Authorizes the Secretary concerned to convey any U.S. interest in a utility system under the control of that department to another utility company or other entity, under specified conditions and requirements, including congressional notification. Title XI: Department of Defense Civilian Personnel - Extends through FY 2001 the authority of the Secretary to provide voluntary separation incentive pay to DOD civilian personnel. (Sec. 1104) Amends the Intelligence Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1990 to state that no prior admission for permanent U.S. residence shall be required of staff and faculty of the George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies. (Sec. 1105) Preserves certain civil service benefits and protections for certain former employees of the Defense Mapping Agency who became employees of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.
Bill· HRH.R. 1123 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 19 March 1997
IRA Self-Loan Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow loans to be made or secured by an individual retirement account for first-time homebuyer expenses, education expenses, or medical emergency expenses. Exempts such loans from the tax on prohibited transactions.
Bill· SS. 468 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 18 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Surface Transportation Title II: Highway Safety Title III: Federal Mass Transportation Amendments of 1997 Title IV: Motor Carrier Safety Title V: Infrastructure Credit Enhancement Title VI: Research Part A: Programs and Activities Part B: Intelligent Transportation Systems Act of 1997 Title VII: Revenue Title VIII: Rail Passenger Programs National Economic Crossroads Transportation Efficiency Act of 1997 - Title I: Surface Transportation - Surface Transportation Act of 1997 - Authorizes appropriations from the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) for: (1) the National Highway System (NHS); (2) the Interstate Maintenance Program (IM); (3) the Surface Transportation Program (STP); (4) the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program (CMAQ); (5) the Bridge Program; (6) the Federal Lands Highway Program (FLHP); (7) infrastructure safety; (8) the Integrated Safety Fund; (9) the Recreational Trails Program; and (10) university transportation centers. (Sec. 1003) Includes among eligible NHS projects: (1) specified capital improvements to National Railroad Passenger Corporation or publicly owned intercity passenger rail lines; (2) natural habitat mitigation; and (3) infrastructure-based Intelligent Transportation Systems capital improvements. (Sec. 1004) Revises: (1) the formulas for the NHS, CMAQ, and STP apportionments; (2) the CMAQ formulas to provide apportionment of additional funding to States with carbon monoxide or particulate matter pollution; and (3) the minimum allocation provision. Authorizes: (1) funding for rehabilitation of the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge and for costs related to construction of a new bridge; and (2) the Secretary of Transportation (Secretary) to reimburse the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Transportation (DOT) for conducting annual HTF audits. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 1005) Establishes levels for annual apportionments such that each State is guaranteed to receive at least a certain percentage of total apportionments for each year for specified purposes or programs. (Sec. 1006) Amends provisions regarding Federal and State responsibilities for projects to: (1) repeal a 15 percent cost limitation on estimates for construction engineering; (2) combine the current two-step process for project approval and execution of a project agreement; (3) direct the Secretary to require a financial plan for any project with an estimated total cost of $1 billion or more; and (4) permit States to use phase construction to meet safety considerations. Extends Davis-Bacon Act wage protections applicable to highway construction projects to the same workers employed on any project eligible for funding under title 23 of the U.S. Code, with exceptions. (Sec. 1007) Amends provisions regarding: (1) real property acquisition and corridor preservation; (2) credit for donated lands; and (3) income from airspace rights-of-way. (Sec. 1009) Repeals: (1) requirements for the Secretary to issue Interstate maintenance guidelines and for States to annually certify that they have a maintenance program in place that meets such guidelines; and (2) the separate Interstate System (IS) preventive maintenance eligibility standard. Expands IM eligibility to include certain Interstate highway reconstruction and infrastructure-based capital improvements. (Sec. 1011) Reauthorizes the current Interstate 4R discretionary program. (Sec. 1012) Modifies provisions regarding emergency relief to: (1) reduce the Federal share payable on emergency relief projects; and (2) shorten the time period in which States receive a 100 percent Federal share. (Sec. 1013) Removes prohibitions against Federal participation in the initial construction of a toll highway, bridge, or tunnel on the IS or in the reconstruction of a toll-free highway and its conversion to a toll facility. Eliminates a tolling pilot project. (Sec. 1014) Expands STP eligibility. Eliminates the safety set-aside from the STP program. Replaces the current quarterly, project-by-project State certification and notification requirements with an annual, program-wide approval. Extends the allocation of obligation authority to urbanized areas through the life of the reauthorization. Requires that each State and metropolitan planning organization (MPO) ensure the fair and equitable treatment of central cities of over 200,000 population. (Sec. 1015) Amends metropolitan planning provisions to direct that: (1) MPO transportation plans and programs for urbanized areas provide for integrated management of transportation systems and facilities; and (2) in designating MPOs, local governments represent 51 percent of the affected population. Permits redesignation under procedures established by State law. Directs that policy boards of MPOs include local officials, officials of certain public agencies, and appropriate State officials. Amends provisions regarding: (1) metropolitan planning area boundaries; and (2) the metropolitan transportation improvement program (TIP). Requires the creation of a congestion management system within transportation management areas (TMAs). Prohibits Federal funding for any highway project that will result in a significant increase in single-occupant vehicles (SOVs) for a TMA classified as nonattainment for ozone, carbon monoxide, or particulate matter, with exceptions. (Sec. 1016) Amends statewide planning provisions. Requires the State to: (1) develop a transportation plan, with a minimum 20-year forecast period, that provides for the development and implementation of the State's intermodal transportation System, in cooperation or consultation with MPOs and local elected transportation officials; and (2) identify transportation strategies. (Sec. 1017) Encourages States to: (1) reserve training slots on their Federal-aid contracts for welfare recipients; and (2) implement preferences for employment of welfare recipients and persons residing in Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities. Declares that the Virgin Islands should implement a preference for employment of local workers. Authorizes the Secretary to develop, conduct, and administer technology training and to develop and fund Summer Transportation Institutes. Directs the Secretary to establish an assistance program to increase participation by certain minority institutions of higher education in grants and cooperative agreements awarded for research and planning. (Sec. 1018) Requires that: (1) at least ten percent of the funds authorized to be appropriated for specified programs under this Act be expended with small business concerns owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals; (2) each State annually survey and compile a list of such concerns; and (3) the Secretary establish minimum uniform criteria for State government use in certifying whether a concern qualifies. (Sec. 1019) Modifies the Highway Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Program. Expands eligibility to include scour countermeasures. Reauthorizes the bridge discretionary program. (Sec. 1020) Expands CMAQ eligibility to include projects in nonattainment areas for particulate matter. Limits CMAQ eligibility to nonattainment and maintenance areas that were classified as such under the Clean Air Act. Excludes projects funded with CMAQ apportionments from the list of safety projects eligible for 100 percent Federal participation. (Sec. 1021) Reauthorizes provisions regarding IS reimbursement. Makes permanent the State Infrastructure Bank Pilot Program authorized for FY 1996 and 1997 in the National Highway System Designation Act of 1995. (Sec. 1023) Directs the Secretary to carry out a National Scenic Byways Program. (Sec. 1024) Sets forth: (1) eligible railway-highway crossing uses of apportioned funds; and (2) a new apportionment formula for railway-highway crossing funds. Requires States to report to DOT on completed railway-highway crossing projects. Expands the protective devices set-aside to include enforcement and education efforts. (Sec. 1025) Repeals: (1) a restriction which applies the Federal-non-Federal matching rate to each payment that a State receives; (2) a provision concerning the use of motor vehicle taxes to fund highway construction projects; and (3) a law relating to bridge commissions and Federal approval of their membership. Permits reimbursement of eligible indirect costs to State and local governments. (Sec. 1026) Amends planning and agency coordination provisions to direct the Secretary, in cooperation with the Secretary of the appropriate Federal land managing agency, to develop transportation planning procedures which are consistent with the metropolitan and Statewide planning processes. Establishes a national bridge program for replacing or rehabilitating deficient Indian reservation road bridges. (Sec. 1027) Includes the construction of pedestrian walkways as an eligible use of States' NHS apportionments under the same criteria by which bicycle transportation facilities are eligible. Removes a restriction against safely accommodating bicycles on highway bridges located on fully access-controlled highways. Amends planning provisions to require that: (1) consideration be given to bicyclists and pedestrians in the comprehensive statewide and metropolitan planning processes; and (2) the inclusion of bicycle transportation facilities and pedestrian walkways be considered in conjunction with all new construction and reconstruction of transportation facilities, with exceptions. (Sec. 1028) Incorporates the Recreational Trails Program (enacted into law as the National Recreational Trails Fund Act, Title I of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA)), into the Federal-aid highway program, but repeals provisions regarding the National Recreational Trails Advisory Committee. Requires States to establish State trail advisory committees. Requires that: (1) at least 50 percent of the funds received annually by a State be used to facilitate the use of trails for diverse recreational purposes; and (2) States give priority to project proposals that provide for the redesign, reconstruction, nonroutine maintenance, or relocation of existing trails to benefit, or mitigate the impact on, the environment. Limits the Federal share payable for Recreational Trails Program projects to 50 percent, with exceptions. (Sec. 1029) Amends provisions regarding the international highway transportation outreach program to authorize: (1) the Secretary to engage in activities to promote U.S. highway transportation goods and services internationally and to gather and disseminate information on foreign transportation markets and industries; and (2) the use of certain funds to reimburse the Federal Highway Administration for employee salaries and benefits. (Sec. 1030) Directs the Secretary, subject to specified limitations, to: (1) make incentive grants to States and MPOs that share a common border with Canada or Mexico; and (2) make grants to States for the purpose of performing planning for the efficient movement of goods along and within international and interstate trade corridors. Authorizes multistate agreements for trade corridor planning. Establishes a border gateway pilot program. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 1031) Amends the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965 to: (1) authorize appropriations and to limit eligibility for such funds to the development highway system authorized as of September 30, 1996; (2) provide for reallocation of funds not expended by a State within four years; (3) raise the Federal share payable regarding any pre-financed development highway project; and (4) authorize the deduction of up to 3.75 percent of funds authorized for Appalachian Regional Commission expenses in administering such funds. (Sec. 1032) Amends ISTEA to: (1) increase the number of value (formerly, congestion) pricing pilot programs eligible for funding and the Federal share payable on any project funded under the program; (2) require the Secretary to fund pre-implementation costs; (3) make the three-year funding limitation inapplicable to the pre-implementation stage; (4) authorize the use of toll revenues generated by pilot projects for any surface transportation purpose; (5) remove the three-program cap on the number of value pricing programs on which the Secretary shall allow the use of tolls on the IS; (6) require any value pricing pilot program to fully consider the potential effects of such projects on drivers of all income levels and develop mitigation measures to deal with potential adverse effects on low income drivers; and (7) eliminate requirements for the Secretary to annually report to the Congress on motor fuel tax enforcement activities and the expenditure of funds regarding highway use tax evasion projects and on increased enforcement activities to be financed with funds allocated by the Secretary to the Internal Revenue Service. Title II: Highway Safety - Highway Safety Act of 1997 - Amends highway safety program provisions to: (1) raise the minimum annual apportionment to the Secretary of the Interior; (2) allow program grants to be made to Indian tribes in Indian country; and (3) authorize the Secretary to periodically conduct a rulemaking process to identify highway safety programs that are highly effective and direct the States to consider such programs when developing their programs. Modifies safety incentive grant provisions. Establishes a drunk and impaired driving incentive program (which replaces a similar program when its terms expire at the end of FY 1997). Sets forth provisions regarding basic and supplemental grants. Establishes incentive programs to: (1) increase safety belt and child safety seat use; and (2) improve data systems and identify priorities for State and local highway and traffic safety programs and State drugged driving laws and related programs. (Sec. 2003) Adds provisions to the National Driver Register (NDR) statute to: (1) authorize the Secretary to decide whether to enter into an agreement with an organization representing State interests to manage, administer, and operate NDR's computer timeshare and user assistance functions; (2) extend participation to specified other Federal departments or agencies, such as the State Department; and (3) allow Federal agencies authorized to receive NDR information to make their requests and receive the information directly from NDR. (Sec. 2004) Authorizes appropriations out of the HTF for: (1) consolidated State highway safety programs; (2) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration operations and research; and (3) NDR. Title III: Federal Mass Transportation Amendments of 1997 - Federal Mass Transportation Amendments of 1997 - Amends Federal mass transportation law to redefine the term "capital project" to include as eligible project costs for Federal mass transportation project grant assistance: (1) pre-revenue startup costs and environmental mitigation associated with the acquisition or construction of mass transportation facilities; (2) Intelligent Transportation Systems; (3) preventive maintenance; (4) leasing of equipment and facilities; (5) joint mass transportation development projects; (6) mass transportation projects that meet the special needs of the elderly and disabled individuals; (7) new and extended fixed guideway systems, as well as the development of corridors to support them; (8) vehicles and facilities that are used to provide intercity passenger service by bus or rail; (9) access for bicycles to mass transportation facilities; (10) the repayment of the principal and interest of bonds used for capital projects; (11) crime prevention and security; and (12) acquiring non-fixed route paratransit transportation service to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. (Sec. 3004) Requires metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to develop, in a fair and equitable manner, transportation plans and programs for State urbanized areas that provide for the development and integrated management and operation of transportation systems and facilities that will function as an intermodal transportation system for the metropolitan area, the State, and the United States. Reduces the threshold for designating an MPO for an urbanized area with a population of over 50,000, by requiring that representatives of local governments with only 51 percent (currently, 75 percent) of the affected area must support such designation. (Sec. 3006) Requires the transfer of certain highway and mass transportation funds to the Secretary of Transportation. (Sec. 3007) Makes changes to certain State transportation planning requirements to conform to this Act. Excludes the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the Virgin Islands from such requirements. (Sec. 3008) Authorizes the Secretary to make urbanized area formula grants (formerly block grants) for: (1) capital projects; (2) planning; (3) financing operating costs of equipment and facilities used in mass transportation in urbanized areas with a population of less than 200,000; (4) the transportation cooperative research program; (5) university transportation centers; (6) training; (7) research; and (8) technology transfer. (Sec. 3009) Repeals the mass transit account block grant program. (Sec. 3010) Authorizes the Secretary to make major capital investment grants (formerly discretionary grants and loans) to assist State and local governmental authorities in financing capital projects for new fixed guideway systems and extensions to existing systems. Terminates: (1) other discretionary capital transportation projects, including the bus program; and (2) the Secretary's authority to make loans for such projects. (Sec. 3011) Converts the grant and loan program for the special needs of elderly individuals and disabled individuals into a program of formula grants for such purposes to a State's chief executive officer for allocation to private nonprofit entities and governmental authorities. Terminates the Secretary's current authority to make loans for such projects. (Sec. 3012) Declares that four percent of rural formula program funds shall be available for the Rural Transportation Assistance Program (RTAP) (thereby moving RTAP from the Transit Planning and Research Program to the formula program for other than urbanized areas). Authorizes States to use certain earmarked rural formula funds for the Transit Cooperative Research Program (TCRP) and for training. Includes intercity rail as an eligible activity for rural formula program funds. Terminates the intercity bus services set-aside program. (Sec. 3013) Terminates the Industry Technical Panel. (Sec. 3014) Revises the composition of the governing board of the TCRP to include one member from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). (Sec. 3015) Authorizes the Secretary to enter into grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements with consortia (public or private organizations which provide mass transportation service to the public) to promote the early deployment of innovation in mass transportation technology, services, management, or operational practices. Authorizes the Secretary to engage in activities to: (1) inform the U.S. mass transportation community about technological innovations available in the international marketplace; and (2) afford domestic businesses the opportunity to become globally competitive in the export of mass transportation products and services. (Sec. 3016) Changes the name of the National Mass Transportation Institute to the National Transit Institute (an institute established by Rutgers University). Revises the course instruction provided by the Institute to Federal, State, and local transportation employees. (Sec. 3021) Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States, local governmental authorities, and private non-profit organizations to finance transportation services to transport economically disadvantaged persons to jobs and employment-related activities. (Sec. 3024) Makes surplus U.S. real property available for a transit purpose or as a source of materials for the construction of transit facilities. (Sec. 3025) Requires financial assistance under this Act to be obtained on a competitive basis. (Sec. 3027) Increases the amount of capital project funds that can be used for project oversight activities. (Sec. 3032) Authorizes the Secretary, among other things, to: (1) charge amounts to cover the costs of training or conferences sponsored by the FTA to promote mass transportation; and (2) perform by contract engineering or other services in connection with capital projects for States, local governmental authorities, recipients of Federal funding, or cooperating foreign countries. (Sec. 3034) Apportions a specified amount of formula grant funds for the access to jobs and training program. Earmarks specified percentages of funds for: (1) urbanized area formula grants; (2) formula grants for special needs of elderly and disabled individuals; (3) the formula program for other than urbanized areas; and (4) fixed guideway systems modernization. (Sec. 3036) Authorizes appropriations for: (1) the formula grant program; (2) major capital investments; (3) metropolitan planning; (4) Statewide planning; (5) national transit research; (6) university transportation centers; and (7) administrative expenses. (Sec. 3037) Amends the National Capital Transportation Act of 1969, as added by the National Capital Transportation Amendments of 1990, to decrease the authorization of appropriations for grants to complete the Adopted Regional System. Authorizes appropriations from the Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund for FY 1998 and 1999 for such project (effectively repealing the FY 1998 and 1999 general fund authorization of appropriations). Title IV: Motor Carrier Safety - Amends Federal commercial motor vehicle safety law to revise the current program. Declares as the primary objective of this title is to help States improve commercial motor vehicle (including hazardous materials transportation safety) and driver safety through enforcement activities and the use of performance-based grants. (Sec. 4001) Revises requirements for the Commercial Vehicle Information System. Authorizes the Secretary to establish a program which focuses on improving commercial motor vehicle safety. Authorizes appropriations. Title V: Infrastructure Credit Enhancement - Transportation Infrastructure Credit Enhancement Act of 1997 - Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to one or more Project Sponsors to capitalize Revenue Stabilization Funds for nationally significant surface transportation facility projects which cannot obtain financing from other sources. (Sec. 5007) Authorizes appropriations. Title VI: Research - Part A: Programs and Activities - Authorizes the Secretary to establish: (1) a national strategic planning process which encompasses Federal, State, and local planning activities for intermodal, multimodal, and modal transportation research and technology; and (2) the Intermodal Transportation Research and Development Program. (Sec. 6001) Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to nonprofit institutions of higher learning to establish one university transportation center (thereby combining the existing university research institute and transportation centers programs) in each of the ten U.S. Government regions that compose the Standard Federal Regional Boundary System to conduct transportation research and education and training to qualified graduate and undergraduate students, with special attention to women and minorities. (Sec. 6002) Revises the duties of the Director of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics with respect to long term data collection program to require, among other things, that it be coordinated with efforts to measure outputs and outcomes of the Department of Transportation (DOT) and the nation's transportation systems under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA). Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to, or enter into cooperative contracts with, public and nonprofit entities to conduct research and development in support of the Bureau's activities, including the Transportation Statistics Annual Report, data collection, the National Transportation Library, and the National Transportation Atlas Data Base. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 6003) Revises Federal highway law to direct the Secretary to develop programs to facilitate application of the products of research and technical innovations that will improve the safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of the highway system. (Sec. 6004) Directs the Secretary to develop a National Technology Deployment Initiatives program, and access domestic and international technology to achieve certain deployment goals which will expand the adoption of innovative technologies by the surface transportation community. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 6005) Directs the Secretary to carry out a transportation assistance program that will provide access to modern highway technology to: (1) highway and transportation agencies and tribal governments in urbanized as well as rural areas; and (2) contractors doing work for such agencies. Authorizes appropriations. Increases the set-aside of Federal highway funds for the surface transportation program for the State transportation agencies' payment of the cost of their employees' education and training expenses. Requires that the education and training of Federal, State, and local transportation employees be provided: (1) by the Secretary at no cost if it is in the best interests of the United States (currently, for those subject areas which are a Federal program responsibility); or (2) in any case in which it is to be paid by the State through grants and contracts with public and private agencies, institutions, individuals, and the National Highway Institute, except that international or foreign entities shall pay full cost of such education and training unless a lower cost is determined to be in the best interest of the United States. Authorizes appropriations. Authorizes appropriations for: (1) the Dwight David Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship Program; and (2) the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP). (Sec. 6006) Requires the Secretary to continue to completion the Long Term Pavement Performance Program (LTPP) initiated under the SHRP and advanced by ISTEA through the mid-point of its 20-year schedule. Authorizes appropriations. Directs the Secretary to establish, through grants and contracts, an advanced research program that addresses longer-term, higher-risk research that shows benefits for improving the durability, efficiency, environmental impact, and safety of highway and intermodal transportation systems. Authorizes appropriations. Part B: Intelligent Transportation Systems Act of 1997 - Intelligent Transportation Systems Act of 1997 (ITS Act) - Directs the Secretary to conduct an ongoing program to research, develop, and operationally test intelligent transportation systems and advance the deployment of such systems as a component of the Nation's surface transportation systems (in effect, extending the expiring ITS Act of 1991). (Sec. 6053) Defines "intelligent transportation systems" as the application of electronics, communications, or information processing to improve the efficiency and safety of surface transportation systems. (Sec. 6055) Directs the Secretary to update the National ITS Program Plan as necessary. (Sec. 6056) Authorizes the Secretary to provide: (1) planning and technical assistance, training, and information to State and local governments seeking to implement ITS technologies and services; and (2) funding to Federal agencies and make grants to non-Federal entities (including State and local governments, universities, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and other persons) for ITS research. (Sec. 6057) Directs the Secretary to conduct an intelligent transportation infrastructure deployment incentives program (ITI) to promote deployment of integrated, multimodal transportation systems throughout the Nation (thereby replacing the IVHS Corridors Program). (Sec. 6058) Authorizes appropriations. Title VII: Revenue - Surface Transportation Revenue Act of 1997 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend HTF fuel taxes at current rates, as well as existing refunds and exemptions. Terminates the National Recreational Trails Trust Fund. Extends and makes permanent the authority for the transfer of HTF motorboat fuel taxes to the Boat Safety Account to carry out the State Recreational Boating Safety grant program. (Sec. 7003) Revises eligibility requirements for the exclusion of qualified transportation fringe benefits (employer payment of employee parking and commercial vanpool services) from an employee's gross income. (Sec. 7004) Extends the Mass Transit Account. (Sec. 7005) Authorizes expenditures from the HTF for certain motor vehicle safety and cost savings programs. (Sec. 7006) Directs the Secretary to transfer amounts from the HTF to the general fund of the Treasury for specified transportation-related programs. Title VIII: Rail Passenger Programs - Amends Federal transportation law to authorize appropriations from the HTF to make grants to AMTRAK for: (1) operating expenses; (2) capital programs; and (3) certain supplemental capital investments.
Bill· SS. 456 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 18 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: School Construction Assistance Program Title II: General Provisions Partnership to Rebuild America's Schools Act of 1997 - Title I: School Construction Assistance Program - Part 1: Program Authorized - Establishes a program to provide Federal funds to help States and local school districts finance the repair, renovation, modernization, and construction of their school facilities. (Sec. 104) Makes appropriations and specifies their allocation. Part 2: Grants to States - Provides for allocation of funds for formula grants to States by the Secretary of Education, on a proportional basis similar to that for Basic Grants for disadvantaged students under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Sets forth requirements relating to: (1) eligible State agencies; (2) allowable uses of funds; (3) eligible construction projects; (4) period for project initiation; (5) selection of localities and projects; (6) State applications; (7) amount of Federal subsidy; (8) separate funds or accounts; (9) prudent investment; and (10) State reports. Part 3: Direct Grants to Local Educational Agencies - Provides for direct grants both formula and competitive) to local educational agencies (LEAs) by the Secretary of Education. (Sec. 121) Makes eligible for grants the LEAs with the largest numbers of children aged five through 17 from families living below the poverty level. Makes LEAs for Hawaii and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ineligible for such grants. Sets forth requirements relating to: (1) grantees; (2) allowable uses of funds; (3) eligible construction projects; (4) redistribution of funds; (5) local applications; (6) formula grants; (7) competitive grants; (8) amount of Federal subsidy; (9) separate funds or accounts; (10) prudent investment; and (11) local reports. Title II: General Provisions - Sets forth requirements relating to: (1) technical employees; (2) wage rates; (3) no liability of the Federal Government; and (4) consultation with Secretary of the Treasury by the Secretary of Education.
Bill· HRH.R. 1104 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 18 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: School Construction Assistance Program Title II: General Provisions Partnership to Rebuild America's Schools Act of 1997 - Title I: School Construction Assistance Program - Part 1: Program Authorized - Establishes a program to provide Federal funds to help States and local school districts finance the repair, renovation, modernization, and construction of their school facilities. (Sec. 104) Makes appropriations and specifies their allocation. Part 2: Grants to States - Provides for allocation of funds for formula grants to States by the Secretary of Education, on a proportional basis similar to that for Basic Grants for disadvantaged students under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Sets forth requirements relating to: (1) eligible State agencies; (2) allowable uses of funds; (3) eligible construction projects; (4) period for project initiation; (5) selection of localities and projects; (6) State applications; (7) amount of Federal subsidy; (8) separate funds or accounts; (9) prudent investment; and (10) State reports. Part 3: Direct Grants to Local Educational Agencies - Provides for direct grants both formula and competitive) to local educational agencies (LEAs) by the Secretary of Education. (Sec. 121) Makes eligible for grants the LEAs with the largest numbers of children aged five through 17 from families living below the poverty level. Makes LEAs for Hawaii and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ineligible for such grants. Sets forth requirements relating to: (1) grantees; (2) allowable uses of funds; (3) eligible construction projects; (4) redistribution of funds; (5) local applications; (6) formula grants; (7) competitive grants; (8) amount of Federal subsidy; (9) separate funds or accounts; (10) prudent investment; and (11) local reports. Title II: General Provisions - Sets forth requirements relating to: (1) technical employees; (2) wage rates; (3) no liability of the Federal Government; and (4) consultation with Secretary of the Treasury by the Secretary of Education.
Bill· HRH.R. 1115 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 18 March 1997
Opportunity-to-Learn Standards Implementation Act - Amends the Goals 2000: Educate America Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to restore provisions relating to opportunity-to-learn standards, including authority for the Secretary of Labor to make opportunity-to-learn development grants. Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· SS. 450 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 17 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Procurement Title II: Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation Title III: Operation and Maintenance Subtitle A: Authorization of Appropriations Subtitle B: Environmental Provisions Subtitle C: Other Matters Title IV: Military Personnel Authorizations Subtitle A: Active Forces Subtitle B: Reserve Forces Title V: Military Personnel Policy Subtitle A: Officer Personnel Policy Subtitle B: Enlisted Personnel Policy Subtitle C: Reserve Personnel Policy Subtitle D: Education Policy Title VI: Compensation and Other Personnel Benefits Subtitle A: Pay and Allowances Subtitle B: Bonuses and Special Pays Subtitle C: Allowances Subtitle D: Other Matters Title VII: Health Care Provisions Title VIII: Repeal of Certain Acquisition Reports and Acquisition Policy Subtitle A: Repeal of Certain Acquisition Reports Subtitle B: Acquisition Policy Title IX: Department of Defense Organization and Management Title X: General Provisions Subtitle A: Financial Matters Subtitle B: Naval Vessels Subtitle C: Other Matters Subtitle D: Military Construction Provisions Title XI: Department of Defense Civilian Personnel National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999 - Title I: Procurement - Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 and 1999 to the Army, Navy and Marine Corps, and Air Force for aircraft, missiles, weapons and tracked combat vehicles, ammunition, shipbuilding and conversion, and other procurement. (Sec. 104) Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 and 1999 for: (1) defense-wide procurement; (2) the Defense Inspector General; (3) the Defense Health Program; and (4) the chemical demilitarization program. (Sec. 108) Authorizes the transfer of up to $400 million from the National Defense Stockpile Transaction (NDST) Fund to specified aircraft procurement accounts for FY 1998. Title II: Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation - Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 and 1999 for the armed forces for research, development, test, and evaluation. (Sec. 202) Extends permanently (currently terminates on September 30, 1998) the authority of the Secretary of Defense to contract with commercial entities to conduct commercial test and evaluation activities at a major range and test facility installation. Title III: Operation and Maintenance - Subtitle A: Authorization of Appropriations - Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 and 1999 for operation and maintenance (O&M) for the armed forces and specified activities and agencies of the Department of Defense (DOD). (Sec. 302) Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 and 1999 for: (1) working capital and revolving funds; (2) the Armed Forces Retirement Home; and (3) O&M of Fisher houses, to be derived from the Fisher House Trust Fund. (Sec. 305) Authorizes the transfer of up to $150 million from the NDST Fund to specified O&M accounts. (Sec. 306) Repeals the Defense Business Operations Fund. Authorizes the Secretary to award contracts for capital assets of a working capital fund in advance of the availability of such funds. Subtitle B: Environmental Provisions - Amends the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 to authorize the Secretary to enter into a cooperative agreement with an Indian tribe to obtain assistance in certifying environmental technologies. (Sec. 312) Allows the use of a DOD facility for the storage and disposal of nondefense toxic and hazardous materials when such materials will or have been used in connection with a DOD activity or a service to be performed for the benefit of DOD. Provides as exceptions to the general prohibition against the use of DOD facilities for such storage and disposal the use of: (1) a space launch facility; and (2) DOD facilities for testing materials or training personnel. Subtitle C: Other Matters - Directs the Secretary to conduct programs to commemorate the 50th anniversaries of the Marshall Plan and the Korean War, using Army O&M funds. Establishes in the Treasury the Department of Defense 50th Anniversary of the Marshall Plan and Korean War Commemoration Account. Requires a report from the Secretary to the congressional defense committees on the use of Account funds. (Sec. 322) Authorizes the Superintendent of the Naval Postgraduate School (currently, the Secretary of the Navy) to enter into an agreement with an accredited higher educational institution for an exchange of students. Title IV: Military Personnel Authorizations - Subtitle A: Active Forces - Sets forth the authorized end strengths for active- duty forces as of the end of FY 1998 and 1999. Subtitle B: Reserve Forces - Sets forth the authorized end strengths as of the end of FY 1998 and 1999 for members of the Selected Reserve and reserve personnel on active duty in support of the reserves. Title V: Military Personnel Policy - Subtitle A: Officer Personnel Policy - Authorizes the Secretary of the military department concerned to allow military personnel of that department, or the Department of Transportation when the Coast Guard is not operating as a service in the Navy, to serve in the management of a military welfare society and other designated entities. (Sec. 504) Revises generally the authority for the promotion of officers through promotion boards. (Sec. 505) Excludes chaplains, health care professionals, and officers assigned to duty with the American Battle Monuments Commission from current limitations on the period of recall to active duty. Subtitle B: Enlisted Personnel Policy - Authorizes the Superintendent of the Naval Postgraduate School to permit enlisted members of the armed forces and Coast Guard who are assigned to such School to receive instruction there on a space-available basis. (Sec. 512) Directs the Community College of the Air Force to prescribe programs for enlisted members of the armed forces, other than the Air Force, whose jobs are closely related to Air Force jobs and for enlisted personnel who are serving as instructors at Air Force training schools. Subtitle C: Reserve Personnel Policy - Allows lieutenant colonels (currently, only grades above lieutenant colonel) to serve on boards of inquiry for the involuntary separation of military personnel. Subtitle D: Education Policy - Protects educational assistance entitlements for those members of the Selected Reserve who are ordered to serve on active duty (current law) or in support of a contingency operation. Removes references to the entitlement period for such personnel who served on active duty during the Persian Gulf War. Title VI: Compensation and Other Personnel Benefits - Subtitle A: Pay and Allowances - Waives any FY 1998 military pay increases tied to increases in the General Schedule of Compensation for Government employees. Increases by 2.8 percent, effective on January 1, 1998, the rates of basic pay and basic allowance for quarters. (Sec. 602) Allows the Ready Reserve muster duty allowance to be paid before such duty is actually performed, while requiring such payment within 30 days after such duty. Subtitle B: Bonuses and Special Pays - Increases and extends through FY 2002 certain bonuses and special pay provided to nuclear-qualified officers. (Sec. 612) Provides a special pay incentive for enlisted personnel who enter into an agreement with the Secretary concerned to extend their tour of duty overseas. (Sec. 613) Increases the special pay for Selected Reserve personnel who: (1) extend their enlistments for either three or six years; and (2) reenlist in a critical military skill position after completing their initial service obligation. Subtitle C: Allowances - Authorizes the Secretary concerned to pay a variable housing allowance to military personnel without dependents who make a close-proximity move within the United States. Subtitle D: Other Matters - Authorizes the Secretary to use amounts appropriated for FY 1997 and thereafter for payments to participants in the F. Edward Hebert Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program. Authorizes the payment of supplemental stipends to such participants. Title VII: Health Care Provisions - Repeals a Federal provision which prohibits DOD funds from being used to perform abortions except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term. (Sec. 702) Authorizes the provision of prosthetic devices to military health care beneficiaries when determined necessary due to significant conditions resulting from trauma, congenital anomalies, or disease. Title VIII: Repeal of Acquisition Reports and Acquisition Policy - Subtitle A: Repeal of Certain Acquisition Reports - Amends prior defense authorization Acts to repeal various defense acquisition reporting requirements. Subtitle B: Acquisition Policy - Authorizes the use of a single payment due date for mixed invoices of a defense contractor. (Sec. 812) Authorizes the retention of amounts collected from a contractor under the Contract Disputes Act of 1978 during the pendency of any further litigation or appeals. (Sec. 813) Authorizes the Secretary or the Secretary concerned to contract for the procurement of severable services for periods which overlap fiscal years. (Sec. 814) Revises the quantity requirements for certain small arms weapons procurement objectives of the Secretary of the Army under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995. (Sec. 816) Eliminates certain time and qualifying requirements concerning acquisition unit cost reports. (Sec. 817) Repeals: (1) an additional competition documentation requirement with respect to international agreements; and (2) a certification requirement under the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988. (Sec. 819) Requires, under a contract in which property vests to the United States, that such title vest regardless of any prior or subsequently asserted security interest in the property. (Sec. 820) Authorizes the head of an agency to enter into an undefinitized contract action with respect to: (1) contingency operations; (2) peacekeeping or peace enforcement operations; (3) disaster relief operations; and (4) humanitarian assistance. (Sec. 821) Authorizes a defense agency director, when considered advantageous, to lease personal property that is under the control of the defense agency, not needed for public use, and not excess property. Title IX: Department of Defense Organization and Management - Reduces from annually to every two years or as needed the required frequency of written policy guidance from the Secretary to defense agency heads concerning contingency plans. (Sec. 902) Changes from three to no less than two or more than four years the term for members of the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program Scientific Advisory Board. (Sec. 903) Directs the Secretary to phase out the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, beginning in FY 1998 and ending with its closure no later than September 30, 2001. Prohibits the entry of any new class of students there after September 30, 1997, and the awarding of degrees after September 30, 2001. (Sec. 904) Amends the Military Construction Authorization Act, 1968 to repeal the requirement to operate the Naval Academy Dairy Farm in Gambrills, Maryland. (Sec. 905) Includes the Information Resources Management College within the National Defense University. Title X: General Provisions - Subtitle A: Financial Matters - Amends the Weapons of Mass Destruction Act of 1992 to extend through FY 1999 the authority of the Secretary to provide assistance in support of international nonproliferation activities. Subtitle B: Other Matters (sic) - Sets forth procedures for the sale of naval vessels stricken from the Naval Register and not subject to disposal under any other laws. (Sec. 1011) Authorizes the Secretary of the Navy to charter a vessel in support of the Surveillance Towed Array Sensor Program. (Sec. 1012) Repeals Federal provisions providing shipbuilding contract adjustment limitations. Subtitle C: Other Matters - Authorizes a special agent of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service to: (1) carry firearms; (2) execute and serve warrants or other Federal process; and (3) make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in the officer's presence or for any Federal felony if such agent has probable cause to believe that a person has committed or is committing such felony. (Sec. 1022) Amends the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 to extend through FY 1998 the authority of the Secretary to provide Mexico with specified support in connection with counter-drug activities. (Sec. 1023) Authorizes the Secretary to accept foreign gifts or donations in order to defray the costs of, or enhance the operation of, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies. Requires the Secretary to notify the Congress if total contributions exceed $2 million in any fiscal year. Requires a report identifying the foreign governments permitted to participate in Center programs during the preceding year. (Sec. 1024) Includes imagery, imagery intelligence, or geospatial information among the geodetic data authorized to be sold by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. (Sec. 1025) Extends through FY 1999 the authority to carry out the National Guard civilian youth opportunities pilot program as authorized under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1993. (Sec. 1026) Repeals requirements for: (1) an annual DOD conventional standoff weapons master plan and report on standoff munitions under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991; and (2) annual reports concerning special operations training conducted with friendly foreign forces. (Sec. 1027) Revises general policy objectives and goals under the Ballistic Missile Defense Act of 1995. Subtitle D: Military Construction Provisions - Authorizes the Secretary of the Army to construct a heliport at Fort Irwin, California, using prior authorized and appropriated funds. (Sec. 1032) Amends prior military construction authorization Acts to repeal report requirements concerning: (1) the procurement of overseas family housing from a U.S. contractor; (2) funding for naval strategic homeporting; and (3) a proposed contract for the sale of Gregg Circle Area, Fort Jackson, South Carolina. (Sec. 1033) Provides for the crediting of financial incentives received by military departments or defense agencies for energy savings or water conservation. (Sec. 1035) Authorizes the Secretary concerned to convey any U.S. interest in a utility system under the control of that department to another utility company or other entity, under specified conditions and requirements, including congressional notification. Title XI: Department of Defense Civilian Personnel - Extends through FY 2001 the authority of the Secretary to provide voluntary separation incentive pay to DOD civilian personnel. (Sec. 1104) Amends the Intelligence Authorization Act, Fiscal Year 1990 to state that no prior admission for permanent U.S. residence shall be required of staff and faculty of the George C. Marshall Center for Security Studies. (Sec. 1105) Preserves certain civil service benefits and protections for certain former employees of the Defense Mapping Agency who became employees of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.
Bill· HRH.R. 1054 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 13 March 1997
Internet Tax Freedom Act - Prohibits a State or local government from imposing, assessing, or attempting to collect any tax or fee on the Internet or interactive computer services (ICs) or on their use. Preserves State and local taxing authority with respect to income, license, and sales taxes. Directs the Secretaries of the Treasury, Commerce, or State to: (1) undertake an examination of U.S. and international taxation of the Internet and ICs, as well as commerce conducted thereon; and (2) jointly submit to the President appropriate policy recommendations concerning such taxation. Directs the President to transmit to the appropriate congressional committees policy recommendations on the taxation of sales and other transactions effected on the Internet or through ICs. Requires all such recommendations to be consistent with policy statements of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to state that the Federal Communications Commission or any equivalent State commission shall have no regulatory authority or jurisdiction with respect to charges paid by subscribers for ICs or information services transmitted through the Internet, except for the requirement that such services be provided at affordable rates to rural health care providers, schools, and libraries. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the President should seek bilateral and multilateral agreements through various international forums to establish that activity on the Internet and ICs be free from tariff and taxation.
Bill· HRH.R. 1071 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 March 1997
Workplace Violence Prevention Tax Credit Act of 1997 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a workplace safety program credit to an employer for 40 percent of the safety and education costs paid or incurred by such employer to implement workplace safety programs to combat violence against women.
Bill· SS. 432 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 12 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Designation and Evaluation of Renewal Communities Title II: Tax Provisions Subtitle A: Tax Incentives for Renewal Communities Subtitle B: Charitable Contribution Credit Title III: Low-Income Educational Opportunity Scholarship Program Title IV: Additional Provisions American Community Renewal Act of 1997 - Title I: Designation and Evaluation of Renewal Communities - Renewing American Communities Act of 1997 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to create a new subchapter on renewal communities (RCs), authorizing designation of not more than 100 areas (with the first 50 being from areas which are enterprise zones or empowerment communities) as RCs if: (1) the areas have pervasive poverty, unemployment, and general distress and meet other requirements; and (2) State and local governments agree to take actions such as tax reduction, crime reduction strategies, and reducing, repealing, or not enforcing within the area certain governmental requirements such as licensing, zoning, and permits. Provides for: (1) coordination of RCs with empowerment zones and enterprise communities; and (2) interaction of the provisions of this Act with other Federal programs. Directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to report to the Congress concerning such designations. Title II: Tax Provisions - Subtitle A: Tax Incentives for Renewal Communities - Excludes from gross income the capital gain from an RC stock, business property, or partnership interest held more than five years. Allows a deduction to any qualified individual or other person for amounts paid in cash to a family development account for the individual's benefit. Allows account use for postsecondary education, first home purchase, business capitalization, medical expenses, and qualified rollovers. Excludes such accounts from taxation. Requires that the individual resided in an RC and was allowed an earned income credit for the preceding taxable year. Authorizes designation of not more than 25 RCs as account matching matching demonstration areas. Provides, to the extent provided in appropriations Acts, for matching contributions to accounts. Sets the commercial revitalization credit (established below) at 20 to 50 percent of the revitalization expenditures regarding a revitalization building. Increases, for an RC business, the dollar limit on expensing certain depreciable business assets. Permits a taxpayer to treat any RC environmental remediation cost as an expense which is not chargeable to capital account. Allows any cost so treated as a deduction. (Sec. 202) Provides a special work opportunity credit rule for RCs. (Sec. 203) Provides for the commercial revitalization credit. Subtitle B: Charitable Contributions Credit - Allows an individual a credit for 75 percent of the contributions (of up to $100 annually for a taxpayer) to an organization described in Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3) (charitable, etc., organizations) for which the taxpayer has done more than ten hours of volunteer service and which: (1) is primarily assisting poor individuals; (2) spends all of its resources providing services to the poor; and (3) has limited political activity. Terminates such credit after December 31, 1999. Title III : Low-Income Educational Opportunity Scholarship Program - Low-Income Educational Opportunity Act of 1997 - Requires an RC to establish and operate a Low-Income Educational Opportunity Scholarship program to: (1) provide RC families a choice of schools; and (2) provide assistance for attending public and private elementary and secondary schools, including religious schools. (Sec. 309) Requires that children attending: (1) private schools receive assistance for tuition, fees, and transportation; and (2) alternative public schools receive assistance for transportation. (Sec. 310) Sets forth school eligibility requirements. (Sec. 311) Declares that a scholarship under this title is an award of aid to a family, not to a school. Prohibits: (1) a Federal, State, or local agency taking into account Federal funds provided to a renewal community, school, or parent in determining whether to provide any other funds; and (2) deeming scholarships as parental income for Federal income tax purposes or for determining eligibility for other Federal programs. States that nothing in this title shall be construed to supersede any State law prohibiting the expenditure of public funds by sectarian schools, except that no State law may prohibit the expenditure by sectarian schools of Federal funds under this title. (Sec. 316) Requires that any constitutional challenge to the program be tried in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Permits an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Sec. 317) Authorizes appropriations. Title IV: Additional Provisions - Provides for the transfer of ownership of any qualified Department of Housing and Urban Development property to the unit of local government having jurisdiction, if such unit of local government agrees to dispose such qualified property as specified, including granting to a community development corporation the right of first refusal. (Sec. 402) Amends the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) to declare that the provisions of this section apply to each program under the PHSA that makes Federal awards to prevent or treat substance abuse. Allows, notwithstanding any other provision of law, a religious organization (RO) to be an award recipient, make subawards, provide services through vouchers, or accept vouchers for providing services. Makes ROs eligible on the same basis as any other nonprofit private organization. Prohibits Federal or State: (1) discrimination against an organization on the basis that the organization has a religious character; and (2) requirements that an RO, in order to be a program participant, remove religious art, icons, scripture, or other symbols. Requires an RO to arrange for services through an alternative entity if an individual objects to the RO. Allows an RO to require a beneficiary who has elected to receive services from the organization to actively participate in religious practice, worship, and instruction. Prohibits using funds for sectarian worship or instruction, unless the beneficiary may choose where the assistance is redeemed or allocated. Declares that assistance to or on behalf of a beneficiary is aid to the beneficiary and not to the organization. Requires, if a State law or constitution would prevent the expenditure of State or local funds by ROs, that the Federal funds shall be segregated from State or other public funds. Requires, for personnel working in RO drug treatment programs, giving credit for religious education and training equivalent to credit given for secular course work. Mandates waiver of educational requirements if the RO has a record of successful drug treatment and the State or local government fails to demonstrate empirically that the educational qualifications are necessary. (Sec. 403) Amends the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 to allow the appropriate Federal financial supervisory agency, in assessing the record of a financial institution, to consider the institution's ventures with any community development organization in an RC.
Bill· SS. 426 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 12 March 1997
Better Financial Aid for Working Students Act of 1997 - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 with respect to the student contribution from available income component of the student aid needs analysis formula. Revises the adjustment to student income (which is subtracted from the student contribution) to: (1) increase the income protection allowance from $1,750 to $3,500; and (2) reduce assessment of the student's available income from 50 percent to 35 percent for the first $1,500 of such income.
Bill· HRH.R. 1048 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 12 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Block Grants for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Title II: Supplemental Security Income Subtitle A: Conforming and Technical Amendments Subtitle B: Additional Amendments Title III: Child Support Title IV: Restricting Welfare and Public Benefits for Aliens Subtitle A: Eligibility for Federal Benefits Subtitle B: Eligibility for State and Local Public Benefits Programs; Attribution of Income and Affidavits of Support Subtitle C: General Provisions Subtitle D: Miscellaneous Clerical and Technical Amendments; Effective Date Title V: Child Protection Title VI: Child Care Welfare Reform Technical Corrections Act of 1997 - Title I: Block Grants for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families - Amends part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSA) to make various specified technical as well as substantive amendments with regard to sundry (welfare reform) provisions added by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRAWORA). (Sec. 102) Provides for a later deadline for submission of State TANF plans. (Sec. 103) Revises the computation of bonus grants to States for a decrease in illegitimacy, requiring: (1) use of calendar year instead of fiscal year data; (2) use of the ratio of out-of-wedlock births to all births instead of the number of out-of-wedlock births; and (3) that certain territories be taken into account. (Sec. 105) Revises specified mandatory work requirements. States that a family with a disabled parent shall not treated as a two-parent family. Allows the minimum 35-hour work requirement for a two-parent family to be shared between both parents. Deems the caretaker relative of a child under age six to meet work requirements if he or she is engaged in work for 20 hours per week. Allows 12 weeks of job search to count as work in a needy State. Extends to married teens the rule that receipt of sufficient education is enough to meet work participation requirements. (Sec. 106) Reinstates certain special rules applicable to aliens (non-213A aliens) who entered the country under affidavits of support formerly used (before PRAWORA added section 213A to the Immigration and Nationality Act, requiring such affidavits to be contracts enforceable against the sponsor by the alien or by the Federal Government for recovery of any public assistance paid the alien). (Sec. 107) Changes from one month to 45 days the deadline for States to file quarterly reports before incurring a penalty. Conforms TANF penalties to those under SSA title IV part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity). (Sec. 108) Requires State quarterly reports to specify: (1) any disability benefits a child is receiving; (2) whether or not a family member under age 20 is also a parent of a child in the family; and (3) the number of families and individuals receiving TANF, and the total dollar value of TANF received by all families. (Sec. 109) Reduces appropriations for tribal work activities programs. (Sec. 110) Revises requirements for the methodology for determining child poverty rates to require county-by-county estimates of children in poverty only to the extent available. (Sec. 113) Amends SSA title XI to: (1) revise the limitation on total payments to each territory under TANF and other specified SSA programs to require the disregard of certain payments under TANF in determining such limitation; and (2) treat certain child care and social services expenditures by territories as SSA title IV part A expenditures for matching grant purposes. (Sec. 114) Makes conforming amendments to SSA title IV parts D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) and E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance). (Sec. 116) Amends the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 with regard to the denial of assistance and benefits for drug-related convictions. Revises the exemption from benefit denial for convictions on or before enactment of PRAWORA to specify convictions relating to conduct one or before such enactment date. Title II: Supplemental Security Income -Subtitle A: Conforming and Technical Amendments - Amends SSA title XVI (Supplemental Security Income) (SSI) and PRAWORA to make conforming and technical amendments relating to certain eligibility restrictions on prisoners and eligibility redeterminations and continuing disability reviews with respect to SSI benefits for disabled children. (Sec. 203) Makes technical amendments to SSA title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) and the Social Security Independence and Program Improvements Act of 1994. Subtitle B: Additional Amendments - Amends the Contract with America Advancement Act of 1996 with respect to the effective date: (1) of the denial of OASDI disability and SSI benefits to drug addicts and alcoholics; and (2) of other OASDI and SSI provisions concerning representative payees and treatment referrals of drug addicts and alcoholics. (Sec. 222) Amends the Social Security Disability Amendments of 1980 to extend disability insurance program demonstration project authority. (Sec. 223) Makes perfecting amendments related to withholding from social security benefits under SSA title II, and the allocation of costs of withholding between the OASDI and Medicare trust funds and the general fund in the Treasury. (Sec. 224) Applies to the payment of OASDI benefits to prisoners the same requirements as enacted by PRAWORA with respect to SSI payments for agreements between the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration and State or local correctional institutions for monthly identifying information, and the exchange of such information among Federal or federally-assisted cash, food, or medical assistance programs. Extends to all prisoners, regardless of offense or length of sentence, the current prohibition against the payment of social security benefits, by repealing its limitation to offenses punishable by imprisonment for more than one year. Amends PRAWORA to require inclusion of prisoners receiving OASDI benefits in certain required studies and reports to the Congress. (Sec. 225) Amends SSA title VII (Administration) to reinstate personnel provisions for the Social Security Advisory Board as they were before enactment of PRAWORA, although slightly modified. Title III: Child Support - Amends SSA to modify child support requirements affecting: (1) individuals subject to fee for child support enforcement services; (2) distribution of State-collected support and State options for applicability of certain rules; (3) distribution of collections with respect to families receiving assistance and families under certain agreements; (4) civil penalties for failure to report required information to a State Directory of New Hires; (5) uses of the Federal Parent Locator Service, including access to its registry data for research purposes; (6) collection and use of social security numbers for child support enforcement purposes in State certificates and licenses for marriage, occupational, professional and commercial activities; (7) availability of funds earmarked for the Federal Parent Locator Service; (8) authority to collect child support from Federal employees; (9) direct Federal grants to Indian tribes for child support enforcement; (10) State retention of child support amounts collected on behalf of a child for whom a public agency is making foster care maintenance payments to the extent necessary to reimburse it for such payments; (11) statutory timeframes for administrative enforcement in interstate cases; and (12) statutory procedures to ensure that persons with child support arrearages have a work or payment plan. Title IV: Restructuring Welfare and Public Benefits for Aliens - Subtitle A: Eligibility for Federal Benefits - Amends PRAWORA to make certain aliens eligible for Medicare and Railroad Retirement Act benefits. (Sec. 402) Makes technical corrections with respect to: (1) aliens under withheld deportation; (2) Cuban and Haitian entrants; and (3) notification of unlawfully present aliens. (Sec. 403) Requires alien veterans to have fulfilled minimum active duty service requirements to be eligible for specified Federal and State public assistance programs. Extends assistance eligibility to the unremarried surviving spouse of such a veteran. Subtitle B: Eligibility for State and Local Public Benefits Programs; Attribution of Income and Affidavits of Support - Amends PRAWORA to make lawfully present aliens eligible for State and local benefits. Subtitle C: General Provisions - Amends PRAWORA with respect to the treatment of certain battered aliens as "qualified aliens" to: (1) transfer determination authority from the Attorney General to the providing agency; and (2) include the alien child of a battered parent under such definition and under the special income attribution rule. (Sec. 433) Amends provisions concerning qualifying social security quarters. Subtitle D: Miscellaneous Clerical and Technical Amendments; Effective Date - Makes technical corrections to PRAWORA and SSA. Title V: Child Protection - Amends SSA to make technical and conforming amendments relating to child protection. Title VI: Child Care - Amends SSA to make technical and conforming amendments relating to child care. Repeals: (1) the Child Development Associate Scholarship Assistance Act of 1985; and (2) the State Dependent Care Development Grants Act. Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to repeal the eligibility of specified activities for Federal grants. Amends the Native Hawaiian Education Act to repeal the authority to make direct grants to Native Hawaiian Family-Based Education Centers.
Bill· HRH.R. 1050 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 12 March 1997
A Living Wage, Jobs for All Act - Declares that the Congress affirms the basic economic rights and responsibilities under the 1944 "Economic Bill of Rights," while updating and extending it to include certain rights to: (1) decent jobs; (2) income security for individuals unable to work for pay; (3) a decent living for farm families; (4) freedom from monopolies; (5) decent housing; (6) adequate health services; (7) social security in old age, sickness, accidental injury, and unemployment; (8) education and work training; and (7) certain other rights relating to collective bargaining, a safe working environment, information on trends in pollution sources and products and processes that affect the well-being of workers throughout the world, voting and campaigning, and personal security. Recognizes specified personal responsibilities of persons benefitting from such rights. (Sec. 3) Sets forth requirements relating to corporate responsibility. Requires each corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to include in its annual reports to the SEC a full and fair disclosure of the impact of its activities in the United States and other countries on environmental quality and on the rights of other stakeholders, including employees, consumers, and communities. Requires each State, in order to be entitled to receive any Federal grants or enter into any Federal contracts, to have initiated a time-phased program to require that all State-chartered corporations submit annual reports including such disclosures of information. Requires the Secretary of Labor and the Director of the Environmental Protection Agency to: (1) identify corporations that have gone the furthest in managing their enterprises with responsible action toward environmental quality and the rights of other stakeholders, including employees, consumers, and communities; and (2) recommend to the President a special annual award to those chief executives and boards of directors that have made the greatest progress in this direction. Directs the Attorney General, with the assistance of business leaders and organizations, to establish an ongoing computerized registration program of all corporations found guilty of violating a Federal or State law. Authorizes the President, in the absence of clear and convincing evidence of rehabilitation, to deny Federal contracts, loans, or loan guarantees to non-compliant corporations. Makes it the responsibility of each Federal agency and commission, including the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, to perform so as to help establish and maintain conditions under which all adult Americans may freely exercise the economic rights specified in 1944 and in this Act. Prohibits Federal agencies or commissions from directly or indirectly promoting recession, stagnation, or unemployment as a means of reducing wages and salaries or inflation. (Sec. 4) Directs the President to establish a framework for the annual budget submitted to the Congress that meets specified goals with respect to: (1) quality of life and environment; (2) responsible and sustainable growth; (3) reduction of officially measured unemployment; and (4) support for international human rights declarations. Requires such framework also to include specific legislative proposals, budgets, and executive policies and initiatives such as: (1) conversion from military to civilian economy; (2) truth in budgets; (3) improved indicators of progress and regress; (4) anti-inflation policies; (5) lower real interest rates; (6) public works and services; (7) international economic policy; (8) international conferences on reducing unemployment and underemployment; (9) reductions in work hours; (10) part-time employment with social benefits; (11) insurance protection for pension fund investments; and (12) other specified matters. (Sec. 5) Mandates Joint Economic Committee oversight of actions taken or proposed to be taken under this Act. Requires the Joint Economic Committee to submit an annual Concurrent Resolution on Economic Policy setting forth both in aggregate terms and in detail its proposed goals for employment by type of employment, with special attention to hours, wages, and social benefits, and for reducing unemployment, underemployment, and poverty in urban, suburban and rural areas. Requires these goals to serve as the framework for any concurrent resolutions on the Federal budget. (Sec. 6) Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· HRH.R. 1031 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 12 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Designation and Evaluation of Renewal Communities Title II: Tax Provisions Subtitle A: Tax Incentives for Renewal Communities Subtitle B: Charitable Contribution Credit Title III: Low-Income Educational Opportunity Scholarship Program Title IV: Additional Provisions American Community Renewal Act of 1997 - Title I: Designation and Evaluation of Renewal Communities - Renewing American Communities Act of 1997 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to create a new subchapter on renewal communities (RCs), authorizing designation of not more than 100 areas (with the first 50 being from areas which are enterprise zones or empowerment communities) as RCs if: (1) the areas have pervasive poverty, unemployment, and general distress and meet other requirements; and (2) State and local governments agree to take actions such as tax reduction, crime reduction strategies, and reducing, repealing, or not enforcing within the area certain governmental requirements such as licensing, zoning, and permits. Provides for: (1) coordination of RCs with empowerment zones and enterprise communities; and (2) interaction of the provisions of this Act with other Federal programs. Directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to report to the Congress concerning such designations. Title II: Tax Provisions - Subtitle A: Tax Incentives for Renewal Communities - Excludes from gross income the capital gain from an RC stock, business property, or partnership interest held more than five years. Allows a deduction to any qualified individual or other person for amounts paid in cash to a family development account for the individual's benefit. Allows account use for postsecondary education, first home purchase, business capitalization, medical expenses, and qualified rollovers. Excludes such accounts from taxation. Requires that the individual resided in an RC and was allowed an earned income credit for the preceding taxable year. Authorizes designation of not more than 25 RCs as account matching demonstration areas. Provides, to the extent provided in appropriations Acts, for matching contributions to accounts. Sets the commercial revitalization credit (established below) at 20 to 50 percent of the revitalization expenditures regarding a revitalization building. Increases, for an RC business, the dollar limit on expensing certain depreciable business assets. Permits a taxpayer to treat any RC environmental remediation cost as an expense which is not chargeable to capital account. Allows any cost so treated as a deduction. (Sec. 202) Provides a special work opportunity credit rule for RCs. (Sec. 203) Provides for the commercial revitalization credit. Subtitle B: Charitable Contributions Credit - Allows an individual a credit for 75 percent of the contributions (of up to $100 annually for a taxpayer) to an organization described in Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(3) (charitable, etc., organizations) for which the taxpayer has done more than ten hours of volunteer service and which: (1) is primarily assisting poor individuals; (2) spends all of its resources providing services to the poor; and (3) has limited political activity. Terminates such credit after December 31, 1999. Title III : Low-Income Educational Opportunity Scholarship Program - Low-Income Educational Opportunity Act of 1997 - Requires an RC to establish and operate a Low-Income Educational Opportunity Scholarship program to: (1) provide RC families a choice of schools; and (2) provide assistance for attending public and private elementary and secondary schools, including religious schools. (Sec. 309) Requires that children attending: (1) private schools receive assistance for tuition, fees, and transportation; and (2) alternative public schools receive assistance for transportation. (Sec. 310) Sets forth school eligibility requirements. (Sec. 311) Declares that a scholarship under this title is an award of aid to a family, not to a school. Prohibits: (1) a Federal, State, or local agency taking into account Federal funds provided to a renewal community, school, or parent in determining whether to provide any other funds; and (2) deeming scholarships as parental income for Federal income tax purposes or for determining eligibility for other Federal programs. States that nothing in this title shall be construed to supersede any State law prohibiting the expenditure of public funds by sectarian schools, except that no State law may prohibit the expenditure by sectarian schools of Federal funds under this title. (Sec. 316) Requires that any constitutional challenge to the program be tried in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Permits an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. (Sec. 317) Authorizes appropriations. Title IV: Additional Provisions - Provides for the transfer of ownership of any qualified Department of Housing and Urban Development property to the unit of local government having jurisdiction, if such unit of local government agrees to dispose such qualified property as specified, including granting to a community development corporation the right of first refusal. (Sec. 402) Amends the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) to declare that the provisions of this section apply to each program under the PHSA that makes Federal awards to prevent or treat substance abuse. Allows, notwithstanding any other provision of law, a religious organization (RO) to be an award recipient, make subawards, provide services through vouchers, or accept vouchers for providing services. Makes ROs eligible on the same basis as any other nonprofit private organization. Prohibits Federal or State: (1) discrimination against an organization on the basis that the organization has a religious character; and (2) requirements that an RO, in order to be a program participant, remove religious art, icons, scripture, or other symbols. Requires an RO to arrange for services through an alternative entity if an individual objects to the RO. Allows an RO to require a beneficiary who has elected to receive services from the organization to actively participate in religious practice, worship, and instruction. Prohibits using funds for sectarian worship or instruction, unless the beneficiary may choose where the assistance is redeemed or allocated. Declares that assistance to or on behalf of a beneficiary is aid to the beneficiary and not to the organization. Requires, if a State law or constitution would prevent the expenditure of State or local funds by ROs, that the Federal funds shall be segregated from State or other public funds. Requires, for personnel working in RO drug treatment programs, giving credit for religious education and training equivalent to credit given for secular course work. Mandates waiver of educational requirements if the RO has a record of successful drug treatment and the State or local government fails to demonstrate empirically that the educational qualifications are necessary. (Sec. 403) Amends the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 to allow the appropriate Federal financial supervisory agency, in assessing the record of a financial institution, to consider the institution's ventures with any community development organization in an RC.
Bill· HRH.R. 1041 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 12 March 1997
Tire Pile Improvement and Remediation Effectiveness Act - Amends the Solid Waste Disposal Act to provide State grants for fire lane construction in, and removal of, certain scrap tire piles. Gives priority to piles near community water systems, schools or retirement communities, or National Priorities List facilities. Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· HRH.R. 1008 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 11 March 1997
Authorizes the Court of Veterans Appeals to provide funds (where possible, through a nonprofit organization) for financial assistance to legal assistance entities to assist financially needy veterans in connection with proceedings before such Court. Permits legal assistance activities in connection with such proceedings to include: (1) financial assistance to defray the expenses of legal advice or representation (other than payment of attorney's fees); (2) case screening and referral services; (3) education and training of attorneys and other legal personnel who may appear before the Court; and (4) encouragement and facilitation of pro bono representation by attorneys, clinical law programs of law schools, and veterans' service organizations. Sets forth provisions regarding: (1) contributions by legal assistance entities receiving financial assistance; (2) a prohibition against such entities requiring or requesting the payment of a charge or fee in connection with the program; and (3) administrative and reporting requirements. Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· HRH.R. 1005 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 11 March 1997
National Language Act of 1997 - Makes English the official language of the U.S. Government. Requires the Government to conduct its official business in English, including publications, income tax forms, and informational materials. Provides that this Act shall not apply to the use of a language other than English for religious purposes, for training in foreign languages for international communication, to programs in schools designed to encourage students to learn foreign languages, or by persons over age 62. Permits the Government to provide interpreters for persons over age 62. Repeals the Bilingual Education Act. Terminates the Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs in the Department of Education. Sets forth provisions regarding the recapture of unexpended funds and transitional provisions. Repeals provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 regarding bilingual election requirements and regarding congressional findings of voting discrimination against language minorities, prohibition of English-only elections, and other remedial measures. Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to require that all public ceremonies in which the oath of allegiance is administered pursuant to such Act be conducted solely in English. Specifies that this Act shall not preempt the law of any State.
Resolution· HRESH.Res. 91 (105th)passed
United States · United States Congress · 11 March 1997
Makes amounts available for expenses, including expenses of staff salaries, of the following committees of the House of Representatives in the 105th Congress: (1) Agriculture; (2) Banking and Financial Services; (3) Budget; (4) Commerce; (5) Education and the Workforce; (6) Government Reform and Oversight; (7) House Oversight; (8) Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; (9) International Relations; (10) Judiciary; (11) National Security; (12) Resources; (13) Rules; (14) Science; (15) Small Business; (16) Standards of Official Conduct; (17) Transportation and Infrastructure; (18) Veterans' Affairs; and (19) Ways and Means. Sets forth first and second session limitations on such amounts. Establishes a reserve fund for unanticipated expenses of committees for the 105th Congress to be paid to them pursuant to allocations approved by the Committee on House Oversight.
Law· SS. 417 (105th)enacted
United States · United States Congress · 10 March 1997
Amends the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to repeal: (1) certain restrictions on the sale or other disposal of the Federal share of crude oil in Naval Petroleum Reserve Numbered 1 (Elk Hills); and (2) the automatic waiver of such restrictions as well as fill operations requirements in a presidentially declared emergency situation. Authorizes appropriations for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for FY 1998 through 2002. Authorizes the Secretary of Energy to store foreign-owned petroleum products in underutilized Strategic Petroleum Reserve facilities. Permits exportation of such product. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 through 2002 to implement the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Extends to 2002 all authorities governing domestic supply availability. States that the requirements of this Act shall be the sole procedures applicable to international emergency response provisions. Revises prescriptions governing the international energy program and attendant international voluntary agreements. Redefines international emergency response provisions to include: (1) international energy program provisions relating to international allocation of petroleum products and to the information system provided in the program; and (2) certain emergency response measures adopted by the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency. Cites circumstances under which certain antitrust defenses shall extend to the international allocation of petroleum products during an international energy supply emergency. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 through 2002 for the international energy program. Extends all standby energy authorities to September 30, 2002. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 through 2002 for: (1) State energy conservation programs; (2) energy conservation projects for schools and hospitals; and (3) the alternative fuels truck commercial application program. Amends the Energy Conservation and Production Act to authorize appropriations for FY 1998 through 2002 for its weatherization assistance program for low-income persons.
Bill· SS. 416 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 10 March 1997
Energy Policy and Conservation Act Amendments of 1997 - Amends the Energy Policy and Conservation Act to: (1) authorize appropriations for FY 1998 to implement the Strategic Petroleum Reserve; (2) extend all authorities governing domestic supply availability to September 30, 1998; and (3) declare that the requirements of the Act shall be the sole procedures applicable to international emergency response provisions. Revises prescriptions governing the international energy program and attendant international voluntary agreements. Redefines international emergency response provisions to include: (1) international energy program provisions relating to international allocation of petroleum products and to the information system provided in the program; and (2) certain emergency response measures adopted by the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency. Cites circumstances under which certain antitrust defenses shall extend to the international allocation of petroleum products during an international energy supply emergency. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 for the international energy program. Extends all standby energy authorities to September 30, 1998. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1998 for: (1) State energy conservation programs; (2) energy conservation projects for schools and hospitals; and (3) the alternative fuels truck commercial application program. Amends the Energy Conservation and Production Act to authorize appropriations for FY 1998 for its weatherization assistance program for low-income persons.
Bill· HRH.R. 980 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1997
Freedom of Speech and Association on Campus Act of 1997 - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to provide that no students at higher education institutions shall, on the basis of their exercise of constitutionally-protected speech and association, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination or official sanction under any education program, activity, or division directly or indirectly receiving financial assistance under HEA, whether or not such program, activity, or division is sponsored or officially-sanctioned by the institution. Prohibits the availability of HEA funds to any such institution that the Secretary of Education finds has violated this Act. Makes such prohibition inapplicable to: (1) HEA funds for student assistance; and (2) higher education institutions controlled by religious or military organizations, if such speech or association is not consistent with the institutions' religious tenets or military training. Provides that such prohibition shall not be construed to prevent imposition of an official sanction on a student determined to have willfully participated in the disruption or attempted disruption of a lecture, class, speech, presentation, or performance made or scheduled to be made under the auspices of the institution of higher education.
Bill· HRH.R. 966 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Medicare Reimbursement for Telehealth Services Title II: Telehealth Licensure Title III: Periodic Reports to Congress from the Joint Working Group on Telehealth Title IV: Development of Telehealth Networks Improved Access for Telehealth Act of 1997 - Title I: Medicare Reimbursement for Telehealth Services - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make payments from the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund under part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance) of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) in accordance with a specified payment methodology for professional consultation via telecommunications systems with an individual or entity furnishing a service for which payment may be made to a Medicare beneficiary residing in a rural or an underserved area, notwithstanding that the individual health care provider providing the professional consultation is not at the same location as the individual furnishing the service to that beneficiary. (Sec. 101) Directs the Secretary to report to the Congress: (1) a detailed analysis of how telemedicine and telehealth (T&T) systems are expanding access to health care services, clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of T&T applications, quality of T&T services delivered, and the reasonable cost of telecommunications charges incurred in practicing T&T in rural, frontier, and underserved areas; and (2) an examination of the possibility (including the potential costs to the Medicare program) of making similar payments for such services to Medicare beneficiaries who do not reside in a rural or an underserved area, are homebound or nursing homebound, and for whom being transferred for health care services imposes a serious hardship. Title II: Telehealth Licensure - Directs the Secretary to report to the appropriate congressional committees on: (1) providers licensed to provide telehealth services across State lines, including the number and types of providers licensed to provide them in more than three States; (2) any reciprocal or other licensure agreements between or among various States; (3) any efforts to develop uniform national sets of licensure standards for interstate telehealth services; (4) a projection of future interstate telehealth consultations; (5) State efforts to increase or reduce licensure as a burden to interstate telehealth practice; and (6) any State licensure requirements that appear to constitute unnecessary barriers to interstate telehealth services. (Sec. 202) Directs the Secretary to report annually to the appropriate congressional committees on relevant developments concerning such matters. Provides that, if States are not making progress in facilitating interstate telehealth services by eliminating unnecessary requirements, adopting reciprocal licensing arrangements, implementing uniform licensure requirements, or other means, the Secretary must include in the report recommendations on the Federal actions required to reduce licensure as a barrier to the interstate provision of telehealth services. Title III: Periodic Reports to Congress from the Joint Working Group on Telehealth - Redesignates the Joint Working Group on Telemedicine as the Joint Working Group on Telehealth, with the chairperson designated by the Director of the Office of Rural Health Policy. Makes it the mission of the Joint Working Group on Telehealth to: (1) identify, monitor, coordinate, and analyze Federal telehealth projects, data sets, and programs; and (2) make further recommendations for coordination of Federal and State efforts to increase access to health services, education, and information in rural and underserved areas. Requires the Joint Working Group to report annually to the Congress on mission status and the state of the telehealth field generally. (Sec. 301) Authorizes appropriations. Title IV: Development of Telehealth Networks - Directs the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Office of Rural Health Policy, to provide specified financial assistance to eligible providers to expand access to health care services for individuals in rural and frontier areas through the use of telehealth. Authorizes appropriations.
Resolution· HRESH.Res. 84 (105th)passed
United States · United States Congress · 6 March 1997
Elects Earl Blumenauer to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Dennis J. Kucinich to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Jim McDermott to the Committee on the Budget.
Bill· HRH.R. 950 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Department of Commerce Grants Title II: Public Works and Job Restoration Subtitle A: Jobs 2000 Subtitle B: Employment in Support of Community Renewal Subtitle C: Employment Activities; Repair and Renovation of Educational Facilities Title III: General Provisions Job Creation and Infrastructure Restoration Act of 1997 - Title I: Department of Commerce Grants - Authorizes the Secretary of Commerce to make grants to any State or local government for construction, renovation, repair, restoration, or other improvement of local public works projects, including those for which Federal financial assistance is authorized under other titles or Acts. Limits the Federal share to not more than 90 percent of project cost. Prohibits any new grants after the expiration of any three-month period during which the national unemployment rate remains below five percent for each such month, or after September 30, 2001, whichever occurs first. (Sec. 103) Provides for allocation of funds and for preferences. Gives priority to State or local governments with unemployment rates higher than the national average. Requires State and local prioritization of applications. Allows localization of unemployment determinations. (Sec. 105) Sets forth general limitations, including Buy American and minority participation requirements and applicability of laws regarding individuals with disabilities. Requires public authorities, as part of the process of competitive bidding for contract awards under this Act, to: (1) seek to obtain Project Agreements with Building Trades Councils, including the establishment of Project Committees; and (2) assign to each project an enforcement official to enforce standards under this Act and Project Committee orders. (Sec. 106) Authorizes appropriations and deems them to be emergency spending. Title II: Public Works and Job Restoration - Subtitle A: Jobs 2000 - Jobs 2000 Act of 1997 - Provides for jobs for the unemployed and underemployed, especially youth, through payments for labor and related costs for: (1) construction, repair, or rehabilitation of community and educational facilities; (2) reclamation and conservation of public lands; and (3) creation, repair, rehabilitation, and restoration of public safety, public transportation, health, social services, and recreation facilities and other activities necessary to the public welfare. (Sec. 203) Sets forth participant eligibility and certification requirements, duration and extent of subsidized employment, participation priorities, special considerations for welfare recipients and veterans, and equal employment opportunities for traditionally underrepresented groups. (Sec. 204) Requires that at least 75 percent of funds made available to any recipient under subtitles B and C be used for wages and related employment benefits for work which the recipient certifies has been performed in authorized activities. Sets forth other limitations on use of funds, except training costs in specified circumstances. Subtitle B: Employment in Support of Community Renewal - Part A: Community Improvement Projects - Requires participants to be employed in community improvement projects in various specified activities under the categories of: (1) repair, rehabilitation, or improvement of public facilities; (2) conservation, restoration, rehabilitation, or improvement of public lands; and (3) public safety, health, social service, and other activities necessary to public welfare. (Sec. 210) Provides for joint programs, public lands projects limitations, eligibility and qualification of administrative entities, allotment of funds, requirements for receipt of funds, reports, and project design priorities and coordination. Requires, in the case of projects or activities that involve construction, reconstruction, repair, or renovation of physical structures, that: (1) each project for which a grant is made under this title be performed by contract on the basis of competitive bidding, unless the Secretary finds that an alternative method is in the public interest under circumstances related to the project; and (2) public authorities awarding such contracts seek Project Agreements with Building Trades Councils, including establishing Project Committees, and assign project enforcement officers. Part B: Community Improvement and Renewal Activities for Youth Trainees - Authorizes use of funds for wages and benefits for eligible youth for part-time employment up to 32 hours per week in authorized youth trainee activities at a work site of a public or private nonprofit or for-profit employer, in a manner which requires and is consistent with enrollment in high school, an equivalency program, or a program of basic skills, skills training, or employability development for at least eight hours per week. (Sec. 221) Provides for joint programs, youth eligibility requirements, exemption from unemployment duration requirements, priority for the economically disadvantaged, and equitable service for school dropouts. Part C: State Job Programs - Reserves five percent of State allotments for: (1) authorized State-administered programs and activities; (2) special assistance for areas with sudden or severe economic dislocations; (3) State-directed emergency aid to cope with natural disasters; and (4) special assistance to seasonal farmworkers and small farmers in areas with severe economic disruption. (Sec. 231) Sets forth requirements for program and activity selection and design. Subtitle C: Employment Activities; Repair and Renovation of Educational Facilities - Part A: Elementary and Secondary School Facility Improvement Jobs - Requires making funds under this part available to any eligible local education agency in an eligible jurisdiction to provide employment to eligible participants in repair, renovation, restoration, or rehabilitation of public school facilities. (Sec. 241) Provides for use of quick-start projects, permitted uses of funds, tribal school projects, allotment of funds, and receipt requirements. Part B: Higher Education Facility Improvement Projects - Requires funds under this part to be made available to higher education institutions in eligible jurisdictions to provide employment to eligible participants in work on repair, restoration, renovation, or rehabilitation of academic facilities. (Sec. 251) Provides for use of quick-start projects, permitted uses of funds, selection of projects, allotment of funds, and receipt requirements. Part C: Special Definitions for Subtitle C - Sets forth special definitions for subtitle C. Part D: Authorization of Appropriations - Authorizes appropriations. Title III: General Provisions - Sets forth general requirements, including wage rates, labor standards, fiscal controls and sanctions, and judicial review procedures.
Bill· HRH.R. 952 (105th)open
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1997
Theodore Roosevelt Wildlife Legacy Act of 1997 - Declares the mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System to be to preserve a network of lands and waters for the conservation and management of U.S. fish, wildlife, and plants for present and future generations. Establishes as the System's priority public uses: (1) wildlife observation and photography; (2) hunting; (3) fishing; and (4) environmental education and interpretation. Directs the Secretary of the Interior, in administering the System, to: (1) resolve any conflict between the primary purpose of a National Wildlife Refuge and any purpose of the System in a manner that first fulfills the primary purpose of the refuge; (2) plan, propose, and direct System expansion to accomplish the mission and purposes of the System and of each refuge and to contribute to the conservation of U.S. ecosystems; and (3) inventory and monitor the status and trends of fish, wildlife, and plants in each refuge. Prohibits the Secretary, effective three years after enactment of this Act, from initiating or permitting a new use of a refuge or an expansion of an existing allowed use unless such use is compatible with the primary purposes of the refuge and the mission and purposes of the System. Directs the Secretary to: (1) propose within 15 years and revise every 15 years comprehensive conservation plans for each refuge in the System, except refuges in Alaska; (2) develop and implement a process to ensure an opportunity for active public involvement in the preparation and revision of such plans; (3) manage each refuge in a manner consistent with its conservation plan; and (4) prepare a conservation plan for a refuge established after enactment of this Act not later than two years after the Secretary determines that sufficient land has been acquired to warrant comprehensive planning.
Bill· HRH.R. 953 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1997
Ovarian Cancer Research and Information Amendments of 1997 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize appropriations for research on ovarian cancer. Specifies material to be included in ovarian cancer information and education programs.
Bill· HRH.R. 957 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Termination of Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in the House of Representatives Title II: Establishment of Commission Title III: General Provisions Ethics Reform Act of 1997 - Title I: Termination of Committee on Standards of Official Conduct in the House of Representatives - Amends: (1) rule X of the Rules of the House of Representatives to terminate the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct; (2) the Ethics Reform Act of 1989 to repeal provisions regarding that Committee; and (3) specified Rules and laws to replace references to the Committee with references to the Independent Commission on House Ethics established in title II. Title II: Establishment of Commission - Establishes within the legislative branch the Independent Commission on House Ethics. Prescribes as duties of the Commission: (1) recommending to the House appropriate administrative actions to establish or enforce standards of official conduct for Members, officers, and employees of the House; (2) investigating alleged violations of such standards and reporting its findings and recommendations to the House; (3) reporting to appropriate Federal or State authorities, with House approval, any substantial evidence of violations of law applicable to the performance of duties or the discharge of responsibilities by such persons; (4) considering requests of such persons for, and publishing, advisory opinions; and (5) providing information and guidance to such persons regarding standards of conduct. Sets forth procedural requirements for undertaking an investigation and disclosing results. Directs the Commission to establish an Office on Advice and Education to: (1) provide information and guidance to, and to conduct educational briefings for, such persons regarding standards of conduct; and (2) recommend to the Commission advisory opinions of general applicability. Title III: General Provisions - Requires investigations pending before the Committee on the day before the enactment of this Act to be continued by the Commission. Sets forth provisions regarding: (1) publication in the Congressional Record of the Commission's reports to the House; and (2) House consideration of Commission recommendations for action.
Resolution· HCONRESH.Con.Res. 36 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 5 March 1997
Calls for the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to: (1) ensure the fair treatment of all of its citizens regardless of ethnic background; and (2) consider all means by which higher education conducted in the Albanian language can be provided, including the establishment of an Albanian-language university. Commends the efforts by the High Commissioner for National Minorities of the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and the Working Group on Ethnic Minorities of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia to offer guidance and mediation to the Macedonian Government and representatives of the Albanian minority in resolving the issue of higher education in the Albanian language. Urges the President to: (1) express to that Government strong U.S. support for measures that will contribute to democracy and stability in Macedonia; and (2) offer appropriate support for the efforts of the High Commissioner and the Macedonian Government to ensure access to higher education in the Albanian language.
Bill· SS. 390 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 4 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Performance Partnerships Title II: Other Amendments to the Older Americans Act of 1965 Subtitle A: Administration on Aging Subtitle B: State and Community Programs on Aging Subtitle C: Research, Development, and Demonstrations Subtitle D: Community Service Employment for Older Americans Subtitle E: Grants for Native Americans Subtitle F: Vulnerable Elder Rights Protection Subtitle G: Technical Amendments Subtitle H: Effective Date Title III: White House Conference on Aging Older Americans Act Amendments of 1997 - Title I: Performance Partnerships - Amends the Older Americans Act of 1965 (OAA) to direct the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Aging (Assistant Secretary) to negotiate and enter into performance partnership agreements with the States. Requires each State to propose and include such an agreement as part of its State plan, specifying certain objectives for accomplishing the goals of the basic State grants program and the vulnerable elder rights protection program. (Sec. 101) Authorizes the Assistant Secretary to make incentive awards to States which have performed effectively under a performance partnership agreement. (Sec. 103) Requires each State agency to establish an Advisory Council to: (1) review and comment on the State's proposed agreement; and (2) evaluate and report on the State's performance under the final agreement negotiated and entered into with the Assistant Secretary. (Sec. 104) Revises area and State plan provisions, among other changes, incorporating requirements for performance partnerships. (Sec. 106) Provides for reimbursement of State administrative costs related to performance partnerships. Title II: Other Amendments to the Older Americans Act of 1965 - Subtitle A: Administration on Aging - Reauthorizes and extends OAA's Administration on Aging. Requires the Administration to develop and operate a National Eldercare Locator Service, providing nationwide toll-free information and assistance services to identify community resources for older individuals. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle B: State and Community Programs on Aging - Reauthorizes, revises, and extends OAA's basic State grant program's supportive services and senior centers program, as well as the congregate nutrition services and home-delivered nutrition services program. (Sec. 211) States that nothing in such Act prohibits State and area agencies on aging from engaging in activities or providing services to benefit individuals who are not older individuals, using non-Federal cash or in-kind contributions (other than those required to match the Federal program share). (Sec. 215) Requires area plans to provide assurances that the area agency on aging will coordinate pertinent planning and services with the activities of agencies that develop or provide services for individuals with disabilities. (Sec. 216) Makes various specified changes, technical and otherwise, with regard to: (1) a new State option to require cost-sharing under their State grant program plan; (2) the transfer of funds between different State grant programs; (3) the availability of disaster relief funds for tribal organizations; (4) a new nutrition services incentive program to replace the current surplus commodities program; (5) waivers of certain requirements for State grant programs; (6) consolidation of authorities for supportive services and senior centers and for nutrition services; and (7) the in-home services for frail older individuals, additional assistance for special needs of older individuals, disease prevention and health promotion services, and supportive activities for certain caretakers. Subtitle C: Research, Development, and Demonstrations - Revises basic OAA authority for training, research, development, and demonstrations. Replaces specified current grant programs with grants and contracts for certain centers to improve the quality of services for older individuals, including: (1) national centers providing support to administrators of grant programs; (2) national education and training centers; and (3) multifaceted policy centers. Provides for information dissemination and related activities. Reauthorizes appropriations. Subtitle D: Community Service Employment for Older Americans - Transfers the community service employment program from the Department of Labor to the Department of Health and Human Services. Authorizes appropriations. Provides for a phased-in reduction of the Federal share of funding under such program from 90 percent to 84 percent by FY 2002. Subtitle E: Grants for Native Americans - Reauthorizes and extends OAA's Native Americans program. Subtitle F: Vulnerable Elder Rights Protection -Reauthorizes and extends OAA's vulnerable elder rights protection program. Subtitle G: Technical Amendments - Makes various specified technical amendments to OAA and other related Acts, such as the National School Lunch Act. Subtitle H: Effective Date - Sets forth the effective date for the amendments made by this title. Title III: White House Conference on Aging - Directs the President to convene, by a certain deadline, a White House Conference on Aging for developing recommendations for additional research and action in the fields related to aging. (Sec. 304) Establishes a policy committee and other related committees. (Sec. 306) Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· HRH.R. 914 (105th)passed
United States · United States Congress · 4 March 1997
Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make certain technical corrections relating to graduation rates data disclosures.
Bill· SS. 385 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 3 March 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Title I: Medicare Reimbursement for Telehealth Services Title II: Telehealth Licensure Title III: Periodic Reports to Congress from the Joint Working Group on Telehealth Title IV: Development of Telehealth Networks Comprehensive Telehealth Act of 1997 - Title I: Medicare Reimbursement for Telehealth Services - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to make payments from the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund under part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance) of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) in accordance with a specified payment methodology for professional consultation via telecommunications systems with an individual or entity furnishing a service for which payment may be made to a Medicare beneficiary residing in a rural or an underserved area, notwithstanding that the individual health care provider providing the professional consultation is not at the same location as the individual furnishing the service to that beneficiary. (Sec. 101) Directs the Secretary to report to the Congress: (1) a detailed analysis of how telemedicine and telehealth (T&T) systems are expanding access to health care services, clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness of T&T applications, quality of T&T services delivered, and the reasonable cost of telecommunications charges incurred in practicing T&T in rural, frontier, and underserved areas; and (2) an examination of the possibility (including the potential costs to the Medicare program) of making similar payments for such services to Medicare beneficiaries who do not reside in a rural or an underserved area, are homebound or nursing homebound, and for whom being transferred for health care services imposes a serious hardship. Title II: Telehealth Licensure - Directs the Secretary to report to the appropriate congressional committees on: (1) providers licensed to provide telehealth services across State lines, including the number and types of providers licensed to provide them in more than three States; (2) any reciprocal or other licensure agreements between or among various States; (3) any efforts to develop uniform national sets of licensure standards for interstate telehealth services; (4) a projection of future interstate telehealth consultations; (5) State efforts to increase or reduce licensure as a burden to interstate telehealth practice; and (6) any State licensure requirements that appear to constitute unnecessary barriers to interstate telehealth services. (Sec. 202) Directs the Secretary to report annually to the appropriate congressional committees on relevant developments concerning such matters. Provides that, if States are not making progress in facilitating interstate telehealth services by eliminating unnecessary requirements, adopting reciprocal licensing arrangements, implementing uniform licensure requirements, or other means, the Secretary must include in the report recommendations on the Federal actions required to reduce licensure as a barrier to the interstate provision of telehealth services. Title III: Periodic Reports to Congress from the Joint Working Group on Telehealth - Redesignates the Joint Working Group on Telemedicine as the Joint Working Group on Telehealth, with the chairperson designated by the Director of the Office of Rural Health Policy. Makes it the mission of the Joint Working Group on Telehealth to: (1) identify, monitor, coordinate, and analyze Federal telehealth projects, data sets, and programs; and (2) make further recommendations for coordination of Federal and State efforts to increase access to health services, education, and information in rural and underserved areas. Requires the Joint Working Group to report annually to the Congress on mission status and the state of the telehealth field generally. (Sec. 301) Authorizes appropriations. Title IV: Development of Telehealth Networks - Directs the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Office of Rural Health Policy, to provide specified financial assistance to eligible providers to expand access to health care services for individuals in rural and frontier areas through the use of telehealth. Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· HRH.R. 884 (105th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 27 February 1997
Domestic Violence Identification and Referral Act of 1997 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to give preference, in making grants or contracts under provisions relating to health professions education and provisions relating to nurse education, to certain health professions entities that train students in the identification, examination, treatment, and referral of victims of domestic violence.