Records whose title is actually about this topic. Use a country filter if the list is still too broad.
Records
Bill· HRH.R. 4377 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 4 May 2000
Conservation and Reinvestment Act of 2000 - Requires: (1) Governors of each State receiving monies from the Conservation and Reinvestment Act Fund (established under this Act) to report on June 15 of each year to the Secretaries of the Interior or of Agriculture, as appropriate, accounting for the money received for the previous fiscal year, including the funded projects and activities; and (2) the Secretary of the Interior to report annually to Congress on monies the Departments of the Interior and of Agriculture have spent out of the Fund, including a summary of such Governors' reports. (Sec. 5) Establishes the Conservation and Reinvestment Act Fund (CRAF). Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to deposit into CRAF certain Outer Continental Shelf revenues, undisbursed amounts under title I of this Act, and certain interest earned on CRAF investments. Transfers all amounts deposited into the CRAF as follows: (1) to the Secretary of the Interior for payment of $1 billion to States for impact assistance and coastal conservation, $125 million for the Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Act of 1978, $100 million for the National Historic Preservation Act, and $50 million to develop and implement Endangered and Threatened Species Recovery Agreements; (2) to the Secretaries of the Interior and of Agriculture for payment of $200 million for Federal and Indian land restoration; (3) to the Secretary of Agriculture $100 million to carry out the farmland protection program under the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, and the Urban and Community Forestry Assistance Program and the Forest Legacy Program established under the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978; (4) to the Land and Water Conservation Fund in the amount of $900 million; and (5) to the Federal Aid to Wildlife Restoration Fund (FAWRF) established under the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act in the amount of $350 million. Provides that any shortfalls less than $2.825 billion in a fiscal year, after FY 2000, proportionally reduce such sums for that fiscal year. (Sec. 6) Limits the amount available for administrative expenses to two percent. Provides that nothing in this Act shall affect the prohibition contained in the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (as amended by this Act) that bars the use of funds transferred to the FAWRF by this Act for administrative or execution of program expenses. (Sec. 8) States that it is the intent of Congress that States not use this Act as an opportunity to reduce State or local resources for the programs funded by this Act. Prohibits a State or local government from receiving funds under this Act during any fiscal year: (1) when its expenditures of non-Federal funds for recurrent expenditures for programs for which such funding is provided will be less than its expenditures were for such programs during the preceding fiscal year; or (2) for a program unless the Secretary of the Interior is satisfied that such a grant will be used to supplement and, to the extent practicable, increase the level of State, local, or other non-Federal funds available for such program. Exempts a State or local government from such prohibition if the Secretary determines that a reduction in expenditures is: (1) attributable to a non-selective reduction in the expenditures in the programs of all executive branch agencies of such entity; or (2) a result of reductions in State or local revenue as a result of a downturn in the economy. Treats all funds received by a State or local government under this Act as Federal funds for purposes of compliance with provisions in effect under other law requiring that non-Federal funds be used to provide a portion of the funding for any program or project. (Sec. 10) Prohibits: (1) the taking of private property in whole or in part, without just compensation; and (2) Federal agencies, using funds appropriated by this Act, from applying any regulation on any lands until the lands or water or an interest therein is acquired, unless authorized to do so by another Act of Congress. (Sec. 11) Requires the Secretary of the Interior to design a standardized sign and, where appropriate, require its installation at sites receiving funds under this Act. Title I: Impact Assistance and Coastal Conservation - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to allocate such transferred CRAF payments to coastal States for impact assistance and coastal conservation only if such States have: (1) a Secretary-approved Coastal State Conservation and Impact Assistance Plan; (2) agreed to provide specified reports; and (3) certain necessary fiscal control and fund accounting procedures. (Sec. 101) Sets forth the formula for allocating such funds to coastal States and coastal political subdivisions. (Sec. 102) Requires the development and submission of a Coastal State Conservation and Impact Assistance Plan by each coastal State seeking to receive grants under this title (and in the case of a producing State, the Governor) to incorporate the plans of the coastal political subdivisions into the Statewide plan for transmittal to the Secretary of the Interior for approval or disapproval before the disbursement of CRAF funds. Specifies authorized uses of the CRAF funds. Title II: Land and Water Conservation Fund Revitalization - Amends the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 to provide that all CRAF funds transferred to the Land and Water Conservation Fund shall be covered into the Fund. (Sec. 203) Makes $900 million available each fiscal year after FY 2001 for expenditure without further appropriation, to be allocated as follows: (1) 50 percent for Federal purposes; and (2) 50 percent for State grants. (Sec. 205) Prohibits the obligation or expenditure of the Federal portion of such funds for any land or water interest acquisition except those specified and approved by Congress in the appropriate appropriations Act. Prescribes: (1) a procedure for preparing and transmitting to Congress of a list of proposed Federal acquisitions; and (2) notification to specified officials of affected areas with respect to such proposed acquisitions. (Sec. 206) Revises the formula used to allocate amounts made available for State purposes from the Fund each fiscal year. Requires reapportionment of such funds to other States. Makes all federally recognized Indian tribes, or in the case of Alaska, Native Corporations eligible to receive shares of such apportionment in accordance with a competitive grant program established by the Secretary of the Interior. Requires each State, with an exception, to make available as grants to local governments at least 50 percent of its annual apportionment or an equivalent amount made available from other sources. (Sec. 207) Revises the requirement that a State have a comprehensive statewide outdoor recreation plan as a prerequisite to consideration by the Secretary of the Interior of financial assistance for acquisition or development projects. Allows each State to define its own priorities and criteria for selection of outdoor conservation and recreation acquisition and development projects eligible for grants under this Act if the priorities and criteria defined are consistent with the purposes of this Act, the State provides for public involvement in this process, and publishes an accurate and current State Action Agenda for Community Conservation and Recreation, within five years after enactment of this Act, indicating the needs it has identified and the priorities and criteria it has established. Allows an existing Comprehensive State Plan to remain in effect until the appropriate State adopts a State Action Agenda. (Sec. 209) Requires the Secretary to approve, subject to certain conditions, the conversion of property (other than for public outdoor recreation use) acquired or developed with assistance under the Act only if the State demonstrates no prudent or feasible alternative exists. Exempts from such requirement those properties that no longer meet the criteria within the State Plan or Agenda as an outdoor conservation and recreation facility due to changes in demographics, or that must be abandoned because of environmental contamination which endangers public health and safety. (Sec. 210) Provides that nothing in this title shall affect any State or Federal water law or an interstate compact governing water, alter any allocations of water rights, or create any new water rights. Title III: Wildlife Conservation and Restoration - Amends the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (FAWRA) to require CRAF funds transferred for FAWRA purposes to be deposited in a new subaccount in the FAWRF, to be made available without further appropriation, for apportionment in each fiscal year for State wildlife conservation and restoration programs. (Sec. 304) Sets forth requirements for: (1) apportionment of such subaccount funds; (2) applications for approval of, and development grants for, State wildlife conservation and restoration programs; and (3) coordination. Prohibits such funds from being used for expenses incurred in the administration and execution of programs. Limits to ten percent the use of such funds for wildlife-associated recreation. (Sec. 305) Allows the subaccount funds to be used for a wildlife conservation education program. Exempts education efforts, projects, or programs that promote or encourage opposition to the regulated taking of wildlife. (Sec. 306) Prohibits a State from receiving FAWRA matching funds if it diverts any funds from wildlife conservation purposes. Title IV: Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Program Amendments - Amends the Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Act of 1978 to make transferred CRAF funds available to the Secretary of the Interior, without further appropriation, to assist local governments in improving their park and recreation systems. Sets forth limits on the use of such funds. (Sec. 404) Provides for the development of new recreation areas and facilities (including the acquisition of lands for such development) under the urban park and recreation recovery program. (Sec. 406) Revises requirements for: (1) Federal assistance grant eligibility; (2) matching grants to local governments for rehabilitation, development, acquisition, and innovation purposes; (3) local park and recreation recovery action programs; (4) State action incentives; and (5) conversion of recreation property for any other purposes other than public recreation purposes. (Sec. 411) Repeals sunset provisions and congressional reporting requirements with respect to: (1) the impact of the urban park and recreation recovery program; and (2) the annual achievements of the innovation grant program. Title V: Historic Preservation Fund - Amends the National Historic Preservation Act to provide that amounts transferred from the CRAF each fiscal year shall be deposited into the Historic Preservation Fund to be available without further appropriation to carry out the Act. (Sec. 501) Requires at least one half of the funds obligated or expended each fiscal year under this Act to be used for preservation projects on historic properties (giving priority to the preservation of endangered historic properties). (Sec. 502) Authorizes a State to provide financial assistance to the management entity for any national heritage area or national heritage corridor to support cooperative historic preservation planning and development. Title VI: Federal and Indian Lands Restoration - Makes CRAF funds transferred to the Secretaries of the Interior and of Agriculture available to be used as a dedicated source of funding for a coordinated program on Federal and Indian lands to restore degraded lands, protect resources that are threatened with degradation, and protect public health and safety. Allocates: (1) 60 percent to the Secretary of the Interior for lands within the National Park System, National Wildlife Refuge System, and public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management; (2) 30 percent to the Secretary of Agriculture for lands within the National Forest System; and (3) ten percent to the Secretary of the Interior for competitive grants to qualified Indian tribes (giving priority to projects based upon the protection of significant resources, the severity of damages or threats to resources, and the protection of public health). (Sec. 603) Requires the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to: (1) each establish priority lists for the use of funds (giving priority to projects based upon the protection of significant resources, the severity of damages or threats to resources, and the protection of public health or safety); and (2) jointly establish a coordinated program for tracking the progress of activities carried out with amounts made available by this title and determining the extent to which demonstrable results are being achieved. Title VII: Farmland Protection Program and Endangered and Threatened Species Recovery - Subtitle A: Farmland Protection Program - Amends the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 to revise requirements for the farmland protection program. Repeals the mandate that the Secretary purchase conservation easements or other interests in lands with prime, unique, or other productive soil subject to a pending offer from a State or local government. Authorizes the Secretary, instead, to provide matching grants, under specified conditions, to State or local governments, Indian tribes, or certain private organizations to provide the Federal share of up to 50 percent of the total cost of purchasing permanent conservation easements in such lands or conservation easements or other interests in such lands when they are subject to a pending offer from a State or local government. (Sec. 702) Provides that CRAF funds transferred to the Secretary under this Act in a fiscal year shall be available to the Secretary, without further appropriations, to carry out the programs specified in section five of this Act. Subtitle B: Endangered and Threatened Species Recovery - Makes CRAF funds transferred from the CRAF for this title in a fiscal year available to the Secretary of the Interior without further appropriations, in that fiscal year, to provide financial assistance to persons for development and implementation of Endangered and Threatened Species Recovery Agreements entered into under this title. Requires the Secretary to give priority to the development and implementation of Agreements that: (1) implement actions identified under recovery plans approved by the Secretary; (2) have the greatest potential for contributing to the recovery of an endangered or threatened species; and (3) require use of the assistance on land owned by a small landowner. (Sec. 713) Prohibits the Secretary from providing financial assistance for any action that is required by a permit or an incidental take statement issued under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 or that is otherwise required under Federal law. (Sec. 714) Authorizes the Secretary to enter into such Agreements and sets forth Agreement requirements, including: (1) requiring activities not otherwise mandated by law that contribute to species recovery; and (2) specifying species recovery goals. Requires the Secretary to review Agreements in compliance, periodically monitor the implementation of each Agreement, and disburse financial assistance to implement the Agreement.
Law· HRH.R. 4365 (106th)enacted
United States · United States Congress · 3 May 2000
Children's Health Act of 2000 - Title I: Autism - Subtitle A: Surveillance and Research Regarding Prevalence and Pattern of Autism - Autism Statistics, Surveillance, Research, and Epidemiology Act of 2000 (ASSURE) - Amends the Public Health Service Act to authorize grants and cooperative agreements for the collection, analysis, and reporting of data on autism and pervasive developmental disorders. Mandates establishment, through grants or cooperative agreements, of three to five centers of excellence in autism and pervasive developmental disorders epidemiology to collect and analyze autism information. Requires that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) serve as the coordinating agency for autism and pervasive development disorders surveillance through the establishment of a clearinghouse for data generated from the monitoring programs created under this subtitle. Mandates establishment of an Advisory Committee for Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders Epidemiology Research. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle B: Expansion, Intensification, and Coordination of Autism Activities of National Institutes of Health With Respect to Autism - Advancement in Pediatric Autism Research Act of 2000 - Directs the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to expand, intensify, and coordinate NIH activities regarding autism. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to ensure that there is in operation an interagency Autism Coordinating Committee to coordinate all Department of Health and Human Services efforts concerning autism, including activities carried out through the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Requires the Director, among other things, to make awards of grants or contracts to public or nonprofit entities for centers of excellence regarding research on autism. Requires the Director to establish a program to provide information and education on autism to health professionals and the general public. Authorizes appropriations to carry out this subtitle. Title II: Research and Development Regarding Fragile X - Fragile X Research Breakthrough Act of 2000 - Requires the Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to: (1) expand, intensify, and coordinate the Institute's activities respecting research on the mental retardation disease known as fragile X; and (2) make grants to, and enter into contracts with, public or private nonprofit entities for the development and operation of at least three centers for fragile X research. Requires each center to conduct basic and clinical research, which may include clinical trials of new or improved diagnostic methods and drugs or other treatment approaches. Allows such centers to use grant funds to provide fees to individuals serving as subjects in clinical trials. Requires the Director to provide for the coordination of the centers' activities, including the exchange of information. Requires each center to use the facilities of a single institution, or be formed from a consortium of cooperating institutions. Allows support to be provided to a center for up to five years, with authorized extensions. Authorizes appropriations. Requires the Secretary to enter into contracts with qualified health professionals who agree to conduct fragile X research in return for repayment (up to $35,000 for each year of service) of such health professionals' educational loans. Authorizes appropriations. Title III: Juvenile Arthritis and Related Conditions - Requires the Directors of the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases to expand and intensify their respective programs of research and related activities concerning juvenile arthritis and related conditions. Directs the Secretary, through the appropriate agencies of the Public Health Service, to develop a coordinated effort to help ensure that a national infrastructure is in place to train and develop pediatric rheumatologists. Authorizes appropriations. Title IV: Reducing Burden of Diabetes Among Children and Youth - Directs the Secretary to: (1) develop a system to collect data on juvenile diabetes, including its incidence and prevalence, and to establish a national database for such data; and (2) implement a national public health effort to address type 2 diabetes in youth. Authorizes appropriations. Requires the Director of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to conduct or support long-term epidemiological studies concerning type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. Directs the Secretary to: (1) support regional clinical centers for the cure of juvenile diabetes; and (2) provide for a national effort to develop a vaccine for type 1 diabetes. Authorizes appropriations. Title V: Asthma Treatment Services for Children - Children's Asthma Relief Act of 2000 - Subtitle A: Treatment - Directs the Secretary to award grants to: (1) provide access to medical care for children who live in areas with a high asthma prevalence and lack access to medical care; (2) provide on-site education to parents, children, health care providers, and medical teams to recognize the signs and symptoms of asthma and to train them in the use of medications to treat asthma and prevent its exacerbations; (3) decrease preventable trips to the emergency room by making medication available to individuals who have not previously had access to treatment or education in asthma management; and (4) provide other direct and support services that ameliorate conditions that exacerbate or induce asthma. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle B: Prevention Activities - Amends the Act to include, within the preventive health and health services block grant, any system for reducing asthma and asthma-related illnesses, especially with regard to children, through urban cockroach pest management in public facilities through a combination of biological, cultural, physical, and chemical tools that minimizes economic, health, and environmental risks. Subtitle C: Coordination of Federal Activities - Requires the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's Director to: (1) identify all Federal programs carrying out asthma-related activities; (2) develop a Federal plan for responding to asthma; and (3) submit recommendations to appropriate congressional committees on ways to strengthen and improve Federal coordination of such activities. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle D: Compilation of Data - Requires the Secretary to: (1) conduct local asthma surveillance activities to collect data on the prevalence and severity of asthma and the quality of asthma management; and (2) compile and publish annually data on the prevalence of children suffering from asthma in each State and the childhood mortality rate associated with asthma nationally. Title VI: Birth Defects Prevention Activities - Subtitle A: Folic Acid - Folic Acid Promotion and Birth Defects Prevention Act of 2000 - Directs the Secretary to carry out a program, directly or through grants or contracts, for professional and public education and training, research, and epidemiological activities regarding folic acid and birth defects. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle B: National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities - Establishes a National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities to: (1) collect, analyze, and make available data on birth defects; (2) operate centers for the conduct of applied epidemiological research on prevention of those defects; and (3) provide birth defect prevention information and education to the public. Transfers to such Center all activities, budgets, and personnel of the National Center for Environmental Health that relate to birth defects, folic acid, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, child development, newborn screening, autism, fragile X syndrome, fetal alcohol syndrome, pediatric genetics, and disability prevention. Title VII: Early Detection, Diagnosis, and Treatment Regarding Hearing Loss in Infants - Newborn and Infant Hearing Screening and Intervention Act of 2000 - Mandates grants or cooperative agreements to: (1) develop statewide newborn and infant hearing screening, evaluation, and intervention programs and systems; and (2) provide technical assistance to State agencies to complement an intramural program and to conduct applied research related to newborn and infant hearing screening, evaluation, and intervention programs and systems. Requires NIH to continue a program of research and development on the efficacy of new screening techniques and technology. Mandates Federal coordination and collaboration with State and local agencies, consumer groups, national medical, health, and education specialty organizations, deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals and their families, qualified professional personnel, and related commercial industries. Authorizes appropriations. Title VIII: Children and Epilepsy - Directs the Secretary, directly or through grants or contracts, to develop and implement public health surveillance, education, research, and intervention strategies to improve the lives of persons with epilepsy, with emphasis on children. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to State and local governments for demonstration projects to improve access to health and other services regarding seizures to encourage early detection and treatment in children and others residing in medically underserved areas. Authorizes appropriations. Title IX: Safe Motherhood; Infant Health Promotion - Subtitle A: Safe Motherhood Monitoring and Prevention Research - Safe Motherhood Monitoring and Prevention Research Act - Authorizes the Secretary to: (1) establish a national monitoring and surveillance program to identify and promote the investigation of deaths and severe pregnancy complications; (2) expand the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System to provide surveillance and collect data in each State; and (3) expand the Maternal and Child Health Epidemiology Program to provide technical support, financial assistance, or the time-limited assignment of senior epidemiologists to maternal and child health programs in each State. Permits the Secretary to carry out specified activities to promote safe motherhood. Authorizes appropriations to carry out this subtitle. Subtitle B: Pregnant Mothers and Infants Health Promotion - Pregnant Mothers and Infants Health Protection Act - Requires the Secretary to: (1) collect, analyze, and make available data on prenatal smoking and alcohol and illegal drug usage; (2) conduct applied epidemiological research on the prevention of prenatal and postnatal smoking and alcohol and illegal drug usage; (3) support, conduct, and evaluate the effectiveness of educational and cessation programs; and (4) provide information and education to the public on the prevention and implications of prenatal and postnatal smoking and alcohol and illegal drug usage. Authorizes appropriations. Title X: Revision and Extension of Programs - Subtitle A: Pediatric Research Initiative - Pediatric Research Initiative Act of 2000 - Amends the Public Health Service Act (the Act) to mandate establishment, in the National Institutes of Health (NIH), of a Pediatric Research Initiative. Authorizes appropriations. Requires the Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to support activities to increase: (1) the number and size of institutional training grants to pediatric departments of medical schools and to children's hospitals; and (2) the number of career development awards for health professionals who are in pediatric specialties or subspecialties and intend to build careers in pediatric basic and clinical research. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle B: Other Programs - Extends through FY 2003 programs under the Act for: (1) immunizations; and (2) screenings, referrals, and education regarding lead poisoning. Title XI: Childhood Skeletal Malignancies - Directs the Secretary to: (1) study environmental and other risk factors for childhood skeletal cancers; (2) carry out projects to improve outcomes among children with such cancers and related secondary conditions; and (3) ensure that such activities are coordinated with other Public Health Service activities focused on childhood cancers and limb loss. Authorizes the Secretary to revise, for this title, the definition of "childhood skeletal cancer" as the Secretary determines appropriate. Authorizes appropriations. Title XII: Adoption Awareness - Subtitle A: Infant Adoption Awareness - Infant Adoption Awareness Act of 2000 - Directs the Secretary to make grants to national, regional, or local adoption organizations to develop and implement programs to train health center staff in providing adoption information and referrals to pregnant women on an equal basis with all other courses of action included in nondirective counseling. Provides for the development of related best practices guidelines. Allows a grantee to spend the grant for development of a training curriculum. Requires grantees, in the training they provide, to make reasonable efforts to include voluntary family planning projects, community health centers, migrant health centers, centers regarding homeless individuals and residents of public housing, and health centers that receive grants under the Public Health Service Act to provide services in schools. Directs the Secretary to require that each program providing voluntary family planning services with a grant from the Secretary provide nondirective counseling and referrals on all the options, including adoption. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle B: Special Needs Adoption Awareness - Directs the Secretary: (1) to make grants for planning, developing, and carrying out a national campaign to provide information to the public regarding the adoption of special needs children; (2) directly or though grant or contract, to carry out a program that, through toll-free telecommunications, makes available to the public information regarding the adoption of special needs children; and (3) to make grants for assistance to support groups for adoptive parents, adopted children, and siblings of adopted children, and for studies to identify the reasons for adoption disruptions. Authorizes appropriations. Title XIII: Traumatic Brain Injury - Traumatic Brain Injury Act Amendments of 2000 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to include in the allowed uses of currently-authorized grants to reduce the incidence of traumatic brain injury the implementation of a national education and awareness campaign on such injury. Includes brain dysfunction caused by anoxia (currently, caused by anoxia due to near drowning) in the definition of "traumatic brain injury." Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States or their designees to operate the State's traumatic brain injury registry, and to academic institutions to conduct applied research that will support registry development, to collect specified types of traumatic brain injury data. (Sec. 1303) Amends provisions relating to the NIH program of trauma research to include brain dysfunction caused by anoxia (currently, caused by anoxia due to near drowning) in the definition of "traumatic brain injury." Authorizes appropriations to carry out the program. (Sec. 1304) Removes, with respect to grants for demonstration projects to improve access to health and other services regarding traumatic brain injury, a requirement that State matching funds be in cash. Revises other matching fund requirements for those grants and sets forth required and allowed uses for grant funds. Includes brain dysfunction caused by anoxia (currently, caused by anoxia due to near drowning) in the definition of "traumatic brain injury." Authorizes appropriations. Title XIV: Prevention and Control of Injuries - Authorizes appropriations to carry out provisions relating to the prevention and control of injuries. Title XV: Healthy Start Initiative - Healthy Start Initiative Continuation Act - Directs the Secretary to continue in effect the Healthy Start Initiative, a current demonstration project of grants for areas with high rates of infant mortality. Authorizes the Secretary to carry out the program nationally. Authorizes additional grants to States to assist communities with technical assistance, replication of successful projects, and State policy formation. Authorizes grants to health care entities to provide: (1) health services for pregnant women or infants (up to one year) that are medically appropriate to prevent or mitigate congenital defects or other serious obstetric complications, allowing grant funds to be used for transportation and subsistence expenses for a pregnant woman; and (2) ultrasound for pregnant women on medical indication. Authorizes appropriations to carry out this title. Title XVI: Oral Health Promotion and Disease Prevention - Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States and Indian tribes to increase the resources available for community water fluoridation, allowing grants to be used to purchase equipment, train engineers, develop educational materials, or support the monitoring and quality maintenance infrastructure. Directs the Secretary to establish a demonstration project to assist rural water systems in implementing specified water fluoridation guidelines. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to States and Indian tribes for the development of school-based dental sealant programs to improve children's access to sealants, with grantees using the amounts received to provide children in second and sixth grades with access to dental care and dental sealant services. Requires, for eligibility, that: (1) urban schools be in an area where more than half the student population is participating in Federal or State free or reduced meal programs; and (2) rural schools be in a district with a median income below a specified level. Authorizes appropriations to carry out this title. Title XVII: Vaccine Compensation Program - Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Amendments of 2000 - Requires a petition for compensation for a vaccine-related injury or death, in addition to current matters, to demonstrate that administration of a qualified vaccine resulted in inpatient hospitalization and surgical intervention. Makes the previous sentence effective on enactment, including regarding pending petitions. Title XVIII: Hepatitis C - Hepatitis C and Children Act of 2000 - Authorizes the Secretary to provide for programs relating to hepatitis C and: (1) implementation of a national system to determine incidence and prevalence of infection; (2) the identification, contacting, and referral of individuals infected by blood transfusions before July 1992 when they were infants, small children, or adolescents; (3) public information and education; and (4) the education, training, and skills of health professionals. Authorizes the Secretary, directly or through grants, to provide for improvements in the quality of clinical laboratory procedures regarding hepatitis C. Authorizes appropriations to carry out this title. Title XIX: NIH Initiative on Autoimmune Diseases - NIH Autoimmune Diseases Initiative Act of 2000 - Requires the NIH director to expand, intensify, and coordinate research and other NIH activities regarding juvenile-onset diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erthematosus, multiple sclerosis, Sjogren's syndrome, scleroderma, chronic fatigue syndrome, Crohn's disease, colitis, and other diseases or disorders as the Secretary determines appropriate (autoimmune diseases). Directs the Secretary to establish the Autoimmune Diseases Coordinating Committee and the Autoimmune Diseases Public Advisory Council. Requires the Committee to develop, and at least annually review (and revise as appropriate), a plan for conducting and supporting research and education on autoimmune diseases through the national research institutes. Requires the NIH director to ensure that NIH activities are implemented in accordance with the plan. Authorizes appropriations to carry out this title. Title XX: Graduate Medical Education Programs in Children's Hospitals - Authorizes appropriations for payments to children's hospitals for direct expenses associated with operating approved graduate medical residency training programs. Title XXI: Special Needs of Children Regarding Organ Transplantation - Pediatric Organ Transplantation Improvement Act of 2000 - Requires the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to: (1) recognize the differences in health and organ transplantation issues between children (individuals under the age of 18) and adults and adopt criteria, policies, and procedures that address children's unique health care needs; and (2) carry out studies and demonstration projects to improve procedures for organ donation procurement and allocation. Directs the Secretary to study and report to Congress on the costs of immunosuppressive drugs provided to children pursuant to organ transplants and the extent to which health plans and health insurance cover such costs, including recommendations on issues particular to the special health and transplantation needs of children. Title XXII: Miscellaneous Provisions - Requires the NIH director to report to Congress on activities that in FY2000 were, or in the next five fiscal years are planned to be, conducted or supported by NIH regarding rare diseases in children, including (in FY2000) Friedreich's ataxia. Title XXIII: Effective Date - Sets forth the effective date for this Act and its amendments.
Report· Rapport d'information1999-320introduced
France · Senate · 2 May 2000
L'adéquation du traité Euratom à la situation et aux perspectives de l'énergie nucléaire en Europe
Bill· HRH.R. 4355 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 2 May 2000
Provides that the city of Tullahoma, Tennessee, is not required to repay any funds received under specified Environmental Protection Agency construction grants and shall not be liable for any penalties or interest on such funds.
Bill· HRH.R. 4346 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 2 May 2000
Safe and Successful Schools Act - Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to reauthorize through FY 2005, and revise or establish requirements for, assistance for various programs, including: (1) reading and literacy; (2) technology for education; (3) safe and drug-free schools and communities; (4) class size reduction through hiring more teachers; (5) higher standards and higher pay for teachers and principals in public schools of low-income local educational agencies (LEAs); (6) the Fund for the Improvement of Education; (7) public charter schools; (8) arts in education; (9) civic education; (10) Ellender fellowships; (11) early learning; (12) Holocaust education; (13) 21st Century Learning Centers for after-school programs; (14) parental information and resource centers; (15) urban educational assistance; (16) coordinated services, including child opportunity zone family centers; (17) public school repair and renovation; and (18) support and assistance programs to improve education and establish America's educational goals. (Sec. 1) Prohibits any services under ESEA from being provided through voucher or certificate. (Sec. 2) Revises ESEA title I (Helping Disadvantaged Children Meet High Standards) part A (Improving Basic Programs Operated by Local Educational Agencies) (IA) to require State plans to describe: (1) specific steps the State educational agency (SEA) will take to assist schools and local educational agencies (LEAs) that receive IA funds (IA LEAs) to ensure that all their students reach a minimum proficient level of performance; (2) actions the State will take to ensure that critical education services and resources are available in IA LEAs to the extent that they are available in non-IA LEAs; and (3) annual measures and reports comparing IA LEAs and non-IA LEAs in terms of services, teachers, curricula, and instructional materials and resources. Requires each IA LEA to obtain SEA approval of a comprehensive plan to ensure comparability in use of State and local funds and educational services among its IA schools and its other schools with respect to: (1) teacher experience and qualifications; (2) curriculum range and opportunity to take rigorous courses, including advanced placement; and (3) quality and availability of instructional materials and resources including technology. Requires IA LEAs to update annually records relating to compliance with such comparability requirements. (Sec. 3) Extends the authorization of appropriations for the Reading and Literacy Grants program (part C of ESEA title II Dwight D. Eisenhower Professional Development Program). (Sec. 4) Revises, redesignates, and reauthorizes certain programs under ESEA title III (Technology for Education). Revises and renames part A as National Long-Range Technology Plans and Activities. Eliminates programs of: (1) national challenge grants for technology in education (but establishes a similar program, the Next-Generation Technology Innovation Awards program, as the new subpart 2 of part B); and (2) regional technical support and development (but establishes a similar program, Regional Technology in Education Consortium, as the new subpart 1 of part F). Redesignates as part B State and Local Programs for School Technology Resources (currently subpart 2 of part A). Eliminates the current part B Star Schools Program. Establishes the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund as a new subpart 1 of part B. Provides for grants to support State and local activities relating to education technology to improve student achievement, particularly in high-poverty, low-performing schools, and teachers' ability to integrate technology into the curriculum. Establishes the Next-Generation Technology Innovation Awards program as a new subpart 2 of part B. Authorizes the Secretary, through OET, to award competitive grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements for up to 50 percent of costs to eligible applicants, which are consortia that include: (1) at least one SEA or LEA; and (2) at least one institution of higher education (IHE), for-profit entity, museum, library, other public or private entity with appropriate expertise. Establishes a new part C, Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology. Authorizes the Secretary, through OET, to award competitive grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to develop or redesign teacher preparation programs to enable prospective teachers to use technology effectively in their classrooms. Requires applicants to be consortia that include at least one IHE that offers a baccalaureate degree and prepares teachers for their initial entry into teaching, at least one SEA or LEA, and at least one other of specified types of entities with the capacity to contribute to the technology-related reform of teacher preparation programs. Establishes a new part D, Getting Our Girls Ready for the 21st Century Act (Go Girl). Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to, and contracts and cooperative agreements with, LEAs to provide subgrants to elementary and secondary schools for services that: (1) encourage the ongoing interest of girls in science, mathematics, and technology; and (2) prepare girls to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees and careers in those fields. Establishes a new part E, Library Resources. Eliminates the current part E Elementary Mathematics and Science Equipment program. Directs the Secretary, under a part E subpart 1 Library Media Resources program, to make allotments to States for library media resources and discretionary grants for school library access during non-school hours. Requires SEAs to make allocations to applicant LEAs that have: (1) the greatest need for school library media improvement; and (2) the highest percentages of poverty. Authorizes the Secretary, under a part E subpart 2 School Library Access Program, to make grants to applicant LEAs to provide students with access to libraries in elementary schools and secondary schools during non-school hours, including the hours before and after school, weekends, and summer vacation periods. Requires that priority be given to LEAs that: (1) seek to provide activities that will increase reading skills and student achievement; (2) have effectively coordinated services and funding with entities involved in other Federal, State, and local efforts to provide programs and activities for students during non-school hours; and (3) have a high level of community support. Sets forth a new part F, Special Projects of National Significance, with a subpart 1 Regional Technology in Education Consortium which revises and replaces a similar regional technical support and development program currently under subpart 3 of part A. Establishes a program for Community Technology Centers, as subpart 2 of part F. Authorizes the Secretary, through OET, to award grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to eligible applicants to create or expand community technology centers that expand access to information technology and related training for disadvantaged residents of distressed urban or rural communities or to provide technical assistance and support to such centers. Redesignates and renames as subpart 3 of part F, Ready-to-Learn-Digital-Television (currently part C, Ready-To-Learn Television), including provisions for Special Projects of National Significance. Redesignates and renames as subpart 4 part F, Telecommunications Project for Mathematics (currently part D, Telecommunications Demonstration Project for Mathematics). Establishes a program for Future Math and Science Teacher Recruitment, as subpart 5 of part F. Makes available 500 scholarship grants and stipends to outstanding students enrolled in nationally accredited teacher training graduate programs who are committed to pursuing teaching careers in secondary school mathematics and science teaching. Authorizes the Secretary to award funds for such National Math and Science Teacher Scholarships on a competitive basis to qualifying IHEs with graduate programs in teacher training. Makes an institution eligible for such funds only if it is ranked by the Secretary in the top 25 percent of schools in its State with the highest percentage of graduates passing the State teacher qualification assessment for new teachers. Directs the Secretary to give priority to eligible IHEs that have one or more of these: (1) a year-long internship program in a professional development school; (2) mentoring programs for novice teachers in their first three years; (3) a history of placing graduates in rural and urban schools; and (4) a high retention rate of teachers that the institution places in teaching positions. Requires scholarship recipients to agree to teach in an urban or rural public secondary school for at least three full academic years, or (with specified exceptions) repay the pro rata amount of awards received, plus interest, for any failure to fulfill such obligation. (Sec. 5) Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act - Revises ESEA title IV to change the short title (currently, Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994). Extends the authorization of appropriations for title IV Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) programs. Eliminates provisions relating to a National Trust for Drug-Free Youth. Sets forth title IV part A subpart 1 provisions for State grants for drug and violence prevention programs. Establishes principles of effectiveness to be applied to title IV programs. Sets forth title IV part A subpart 2 provisions for National Programs. Directs the Secretary to carry out national programs to promote: (1) drug-free, safe, and orderly learning environments for students at all educational levels, from preschool through postsecondary; and (2) lifelong physical activity for such students. Requires the Secretary to reserve a specified amount of national program funds to make competitive grants to LEAS and community organizations for hate crime prevention activities. Establishes a title IV part B Technical Assistance program of comprehensive prevention technical assistance grants. Authorizes the Secretary to provide such grants to SEAs that meet specified requirements to implement prevention programs that meet a high scientific standard of program effectiveness. Establishes a title IV part C Alternative Education program to assist SEAs and LEAs in providing: (1) sound and equitable policies that ensure a safe, orderly, and drug-free learning environment for all children, while reducing the need to suspend or expel students and the number of such suspensions and expulsions; and (2) educational supports, services, and programs, using trained and qualified staff, for children aged five through 21 who have been suspended or expelled, so such children make continuing progress toward meeting the State's challenging academic standards. Establishes a title IV part D Resource Staff for Students program of establish a grants program to assist States and local educational agencies (LEAs) to recruit, train, and hire 100,000 school-based resource staff to work with students to: (1) reduce the student-to-counselor ratios nationally, in grades six through 12, to an average of one such staff for every 250 students; (2) help address the mental, emotional, and developmental needs of public school students; and (3) support other school staff and teachers in reaching students early before problems arise, conducting behavioral interventions to improve school discipline, and developing the awareness and skills to identify early warning signs of violence and the need for mental health services. Directs the Secretary to make such grants, for up to three years for each grant, to establish or expand the number of resource staff available for students' needs. Provides that resource staff means an individual with a specified kind of licensure, certification, or educational qualifications who has documented competence and training in mental health to be able to provide services to children and adolescents in a school setting. Establishes a title IV part E program, Project SERV (School Emergency Response to Violence) under which the Secretary to carry out Project SERV directly, or through contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements shall provide education-related services to LEAs in which the learning environment has been disrupted due to a violent or traumatic crisis, such as a shooting or major accident. Requires the establishment of a Federal Coordinating Committee on school crises, to coordinate Federal responses to crises that occur in schools or directly affect the learning environment in schools. Gun-Free Schools Act - Revises and transfers to title IV part F the provisions of the Gun-Free Schools Act (currently under title XIV part F). Requires each State receiving Federal funds under ESEA to have in effect a State law that: (1) requires LEAs to expel from school, for at least one year, any student determined to have possessed a firearm at school under the jurisdiction of the LEA in that State; and (2) allows the chief administering officer of that LEA to modify the expulsion requirement for a student on a case-by-case basis. Prohibits awarding ESEA funds to any LEA unless it has a policy ensuring that: (1) any student who possesses a firearm at a school served by such agency is referred to the criminal justice or juvenile delinquency system; (2) students who possess a firearm at school are referred to mental health professionals for assessment as to whether they pose an imminent threat of harm to themselves or others; and (2) any student determined to pose such a threat receives appropriate mental health services, in addition to other services, before being permitted to return to school. Requires each SEA and LEA that receives title IV funds to have a policy that prohibits cigarette vending machines, and the illegal possession or use of drugs and alcohol, in any form, at any time, and by any person, in school buildings, on school grounds, or at any school-sponsored event. (Sec. 6) Revises and reauthorizes ESEA title VI, Innovative Educational Strategies. Extends the authorization of appropriations for: (1) title VI programs; and (2) additional allotments to States of funds for LEAs demonstrating adequate yearly progress. Establishes, as a new part E under title VI, a Class Size Reduction program. Authorizes appropriations. Establishes, as a new part F of title VI, a Higher Standards, Higher Pay program. Authorizes the Secretary to make competitive grants to high-poverty LEAs to attract and retain fully qualified teachers and high-quality principals through better pay and benefits. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 7) Revises ESEA title X Programs of National Significance. Revises and reauthorizes title X part A (Fund for the Improvement of Education) (FIE). Includes among authorized uses of assistance: (1) senior mentoring of at-risk students; (2) student community service programs; (3) assisting all students to meet challenging State standards; (4) cultural education centers; (5) museum-operated Indian education programs in public schools; (6) improving academic achievement through innovative partnerships between LEAs and teachers unions; and (7) hiring and supporting school nurses. Extends the authorization of appropriations for FIE. Revises part A provisions for character education. Authorizes the Secretary to carry out programs of: (1) grants for State and local character education; and (2) grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements for character education research, dissemination, and evaluation. Authorizes appropriations. Extends the authorization of appropriations for the Smaller Learning Communities grants program under part A. Includes among authorized uses of such funds design and construction of improvements to the learning environment, including daylighting, energy conservation technologies, and renewable energy. Eliminates part A provisions for: (1) elementary school counseling demonstration programs; (2) Promoting Scholar Athlete Competitions; (3) National Student and Parent Mock Election; and (4) Model Projects. (Sec. 8) Extends the authorization of appropriations for title X part C, Public Charter Schools. (Sec. 9) Extends the authorization of appropriations for title X part D, Arts in Education, including: (1) Arts Education; and (2) Cultural Partnerships for At- Risk Children and Youth. Includes, among authorized uses of Arts Education funds, supporting model programs and projects in the performing arts for children and youth through arrangements with the Division of Cultural History of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. (Sec. 9 (sic)) Education for Democracy Act - Revises ESEA title X, part F, Civic Education to provide for grants or contracts for the Center for Civic Education (CCE) to carry out civic education activities under: (1) (as under current law) (the We the People...) The Citizen and the Constitution program; and (2) (the We the People...) The Project Citizen program. Includes among program requirements: (1) civic education materials and services to address specific problems such as prevention of school violence and drug and alcohol abuse; and (2) optional simulated hearings of Congress (Citizen and Constitution) and State legislatures (Project Citizen). Extends the authorization of appropriations. (Sec. 10) Reauthorizes ESEA title X part G, the Allen J. Ellender Fellowship Program (which is administered by the Close Up Foundation, provides financial aid to enable economically disadvantaged middle and secondary students, their teachers, economically disadvantaged older Americans, recent immigrants, and students of migrant parents to come to Washington, D.C., to study the operations of the Federal Government). Extends the authorization of appropriations. (Sec. 11) Establishes a new ESEA title X part H, Early Learning Program to improve educational opportunities for young children, from birth through age five. Authorizes appropriations. Sets forth allowable program activities under categories of promoting: (1) children's learning at home, through parenting education; (2) quality teaching in child care settings; and (3) quality child care. (Sec. 12) Holocaust Education Assistance Act - Establishes a new ESEA title X part L, Holocaust Education. Authorizes the Secretary to make competitive grants to LEAs to carry out educational programs about the Holocaust. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 13) Revises ESEA title X part H, 21st Century Learning Centers program (known as the 21st Century Learning Centers Act) for program grants to SEAs for after-school center projects addressing educational, health, social service, cultural, and recreational needs of inner and small cities and rural and disadvantaged suburban communities. Extends the authorization of appropriations. (Sec. 14) Establishes a new ESEA title X part M for grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements for Parental Information and Resource Centers. Authorizes appropriations. Eliminating Educational Disparities and Promoting Learning for Urban Students Act of 1999 (sic) - Establishes a new ESEA title X part N, Urban Education Assistance, for urban school grants to eligible LEAs serving urban areas (or to SEAs which are LEAs) for activities to assist schools with high concentrations of students from racial and language minority groups to improve schoolwide academic achievement. Requires particular attention to be given to narrowing or overcoming disparities in achievement scores and school completion: (1) between minority and nonminority group students; and (2) between urban and nonurban public school students. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 15) Revises ESEA title XI, Coordinated Services, to: (1) continue certain coordinated services provisions; and (2) provide for coordinated services through child opportunity zone family centers (school-based or school-linked community service centers that provide and link children and their families with comprehensive information, support, services, and activities to improve the children's and families' education, health, mental health, safety, and economic well-being). Authorizes the Secretary to award competitive grants to eligible partnerships for the Federal share of costs of establishing and expanding such child opportunity zone family centers. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 15 (sic)) Establishes a new ESEA title XII, Public School Repair and Renovation, which authorizes Federal financial assistance for the urgent repair and renovation of public elementary and secondary schools in high-need areas. (Replaces the current title XII, School Facilities Infrastructure Improvement, which is also known as the Education Infrastructure Act of 1994.) Requires high-need LEAs to use the title XII grants or loans they receive for repairs and renovations to reduce health and safety problems, and to improve the learning environment. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 16) Revises and renames ESEA title XIII as Support and Assistance Programs to Improve Education and Establish America's Educational Goals (currently Support and Assistance Programs to Improve Education). Extends the authorization of appropriations for: (1) part A, Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers; and (2) part B (currently part C), Eisenhower Regional Mathematics and Science Education Consortia. Eliminates the current part B, National Diffusion Network, and part D, Technology-Based Technical Assistance. Establishes a new part C, America's Educational Goals Panel and America's Educational Goals. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 17) Revises ESEA title XIV, General Provisions, to revise part E, Uniform Provisions, to prohibit any services under ESEA from being provided through voucher or certificate. Requires all SEAs that receive ESEA funds to have plans in place to have all teachers fully qualified by September 30, 2003. Prohibits any funds authorized under ESEA from being used to allow a third party to monitor, receive, gather, or obtain information intended for commercial purposes from any student under age 18 without prior, written, informed consent of the student's parent. Requires a school, LEA, or SEA, before entering into a contract with a third party, to inquire as to: (1) whether the third party intends to gather, collect, or store information on students; (2) the nature of the information to be gathered; (3) how the information will be used; (4) whether the information will be sold, distributed, or transferred to other parties; and (5) the amount of class time that will be consumed by such activity. Authorizes one-time grants to ESEA funds recipients to develop their data systems to help them make continuous program improvement. Authorizes the Secretary: (1) establish performance measures for each program under ESEA and subtitle B of title VII of the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act; and (2) require applicants for funds under such Acts to include information on how they will use such measures, and report data relating to such measures. Requires collaboration with SEAs, LEAs, and other ESEA funds recipients in establishing such measures. Revises part G, Sense of Congress, to eliminate provisions expressing the sense of Congress with respect to increasing the total share of Federal spending on education.
Resolution· HRESH.Res. 483 (106th)passed
United States · United States Congress · 2 May 2000
Sets forth the rule (open) for the consideration of H.R. 673 (authorizing grants to the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority for water quality control).
Resolution· HRESH.Res. 485 (106th)passed
United States · United States Congress · 2 May 2000
Sets forth the rule (open) for the consideration of H.R. 1106 (alternative water sources).
Bill· SS. 2487 (106th)open
United States · United States Congress · 1 May 2000
Maritime Administration Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2001 to the Secretary of Transportation for the Maritime Administration. Amends the Merchant Marine Act, 1936 to declare that certain restrictions concerning a vessel built in a foreign country shall not apply to a drybulk or breakbulk vessel over 7,500 deadweight tons that has been delivered from a foreign shipyard or contracted for construction in a foreign shipyard before the earlier of specified dates. Deems U.S.-built any vessel timely contracted for or delivered and documented under U.S. law, if certain conditions are met. Names vessels of the National Defense Reserve Fleet that may be scrapped in foreign countries under terms and conditions prescribed by the Secretary. Authorizes the scrapping of additional vessels in the Fleet if the Secretary determines that they will become hazards to navigation or the environment.
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage723/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 28 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Peter Keppelmüller, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Justiz betreffend Räumung Berger Deponie <i>(in Weikersdorf bei Wiener Neustadt)</i>
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage722/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 28 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Mag. Dr. Udo Grollitsch, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundeskanzler betreffend tierschutzrechtliche <i>(Art.)</i> 15a <i>(B-VG)</i> -Verträge
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage717/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 27 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Peter Keppelmüller, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft betreffend die Sanierung der Berger-Deponie
Resolution· Selbständiger Entschließungsantrag144/A(E)selbständiger entschließungsantrag
Austria · National Council · 27 April 2000
Antrag der Abgeordneten Mag. Dr. Udo Grollitsch, Georg Schwarzenberger, Kolleginnen und Kollegen betreffend Verbesserung des strafrechtlichen Schutzes für Tiere
Bill· SS. 2481 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 27 April 2000
National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2001 - Title I: Procurement - Subtitle A: Authorization of Appropriations - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2001 for 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 2001 for: (1) defense-wide procurement; (2) the Defense Inspector General; (3) the Defense Health Program; and (4) the chemical demilitarization program. Subtitle B: Multi-Year Contract Authorizations - Authorizes the Secretary of the: (1) Army to enter into multiyear procurement contracts for the M2A3 Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the UH/60-CH/60 helicopter; and (2) Navy to enter into a multiyear procurement contract for the DDG-51 (destroyer). Title II: Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2001 for research, development, test, and evaluation for the armed forces. Title III: Operation and Maintenance - Subtitle A: Authorization of Appropriations - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2001 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 2001 for: (1) working capital and revolving funds; and (2) the Armed Forces Retirement Home. (Sec. 304) Authorizes the transfer of up to $150 million from the National Defense Stockpile Transaction Fund to specified military O&M accounts for FY 2001. Subtitle B: Environmental Provisions - Authorizes the Secretary of Defense (Secretary) to use specified O&M funds to reimburse the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for certain costs incurred in connection with the former Nansemond Ordnance Depot Site in Suffolk, Virginia. (Sec. 312) Authorizes the Secretary of the military department concerned to pay from any available funds certain fines or penalties imposed by the EPA or a State in connection with environmental violations at specified sites. Subtitle C: Other Matters - Authorizes the Secretary of the Air Force to require payment by civil air carriers for support provided by the United States at Johnston Atoll that is either requested by such carrier or required to accommodate the carrier's use of the Atoll. Prohibits landing fees from being charged if support costs are charged. (Sec. 322) Authorizes the Secretary to transfer excess titanium sponge from the National Defense Stockpile to a military department or defense agency for use in manufacturing defense equipment. (Sec. 323) Amends the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999 to extend through FY 2003 a pilot program for the acceptance and use of landing fees charged for the use of domestic military airfields by civilian aircraft. Extends related report requirements. (Sec. 324) Repeals a provision requiring a nonappropriated fund instrumentality, under certain conditions, to be the most economical method of distribution of alcoholic beverages within the commissary system. 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 2001. Subtitle B: Reserve Forces - Sets forth the authorized end strengths as of the end of FY 2001 for the Selected Reserve and reserve personnel on active duty in support of the reserves, as well as reserve military technicians. (Sec. 414) Increases the number of certain officers and enlisted personnel authorized to serve on active duty in support of the reserves. (Sec. 415) Excludes from active-duty end strength limitations reserve personnel on active duty, or members performing full-time National Guard duty, to perform funeral honors functions. (Sec. 416) Excludes from the above limitations reserve personnel serving on active duty for more than 180 days to perform special work in support of the armed forces and combatant commands, except that such number may not exceed two tenths of one percent of the end strength for all active-duty personnel. (Sec. 417) Authorizes the Secretary to suspend grade strength limitations in times of war or national emergency declared by Congress or the President with respect to senior enlisted personnel and senior reserve officers on active duty for full-time National Guard or reserve administrative duty. Limits such suspension to two years from the suspension or one year after the declaration of war or national emergency, whichever occurs first. Title V: Military Personnel Policy - Subtitle A: Officer Personnel Policy - Authorizes the Secretary of the Air Force to retain Medical Service Corps officers in an active status until 67 years of age. (Sec. 503) Authorizes the release to the armed force concerned of the names of active-duty and reserve active-status list officers recommended for promotion upon transmittal to the President of the report of the selection board that considers such officers for promotion. Subtitle B: Reserve Component Personnel Policy - Makes certain active-duty list promotion, separation, and involuntary retirement authorities inapplicable to reserve general and flag officers serving in certain positions designated by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). (Sec. 512) Authorizes the Secretary, in the national interest, to increase the number of officers and enlisted personnel serving on active duty or full-time National Guard duty in specified grades. (Sec. 514) Excludes medical and dental officers from reserve commissioned officer end strength limitations. (Sec. 515) Makes certain active-duty promotion, separation, and retirement authorities inapplicable to members on the reserve active status list ordered to active duty for a period of three years or less. (Sec. 516) Removes an application requirement for the continuation of officers on the reserve active-status list. Subtitle C: Education and Training - Repeals a provision authorizing a certain funding increase to be used for the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. (Sec. 522) Removes an annual funding limit with respect to the National Guard Challenge Program. Subtitle D: Medal of Honor Recipients - Authorizes the President to award the Medal of Honor to Ed W. Freeman for service during the Vietnam conflict and to Andrew J. Smith for service during the Civil War. Subtitle E: Joint Management - Requires an officer, in order to qualify for a joint specialty designation, to: (1) have successfully completed an accredited program from a joint professional military education institution and a full tour of duty in a joint duty assignment; or (2) have successfully completed two full tours of duty in a joint duty assignment. Authorizes the Secretary to waive such qualifications for an officer who, due to unusual circumstances, has one or more qualifications comparable to the qualifications waived. Allows such qualifications to be waived in the case of a general or flag officer when determined necessary to meet a critical need. Requires the: (1) Secretary to designate joint duty assignments for general and flag officers that must be filled by joint specialty officers; and (2) JCS Chairman to accredit joint professional military education institutions. (Sec. 542) Revises promotion policy objectives for joint officers. Requires the appropriate military department Secretary to validate the qualifications of officers for eligibility for joint duty assignments, including satisfaction of requirements for promotion to brigadier general or rear admiral (lower half). Directs the Secretary to prescribe policies to ensure that promotion-eligible joint specialty officers are appropriately considered for such promotion. (Sec. 543) Repeals the requirement that an officer graduating from an accredited joint professional military education school be assigned to a joint duty assignment as that officer's next duty assignment. Decreases to two (currently three) months the minimum duration of a principal course of instruction provided by the Armed Forces Staff College. (Sec. 544) Repeals provisions specifying the length of joint duty assignments. Requires such length to mirror the standard length established by the Secretary for each installation or location at which joint duty assignments are authorized. Allows the Secretary to: (1) waive such requirement when critical to meet military personnel management requirements; and (2) curtail a joint duty assignment for an officer who has served in that assignment for at least two years. Provides conditions under which an officer shall be considered to have completed a full tour of duty in a joint duty assignment. (Sec. 545) Directs the Secretary to enhance the capabilities of the Joint Staff to monitor the personnel issues of officers with the joint specialty designation and other officers who have served in joint duty assignments. (Sec. 546) Revises, generally, information required in an annual report from the Secretary to Congress on joint specialty officers and assignments. Subtitle F: Selection Board Appeals - Makes ineligible for judicial relief a person challenging the action or recommendation of a military selection board unless such person has first been considered by a special board or denied such consideration by the Secretary concerned. Authorizes the Secretary concerned to correct a person's military records in accordance with a recommendation made by a special board. Requires the appropriate relief associated with such correction (restoration to duty status; eligibility for additional pay). Makes such provisions inapplicable to the Coast Guard when not operating as a service in the Navy. Authorizes judicial review of a decision not to convene a special selection board for consideration of a corrective action taken. Subtitle G: Other Matters - Exempts from recalled retiree limits those officers assigned to the Army, Navy, or Air Force Retiree Council. (Sec. 562) Requires the following defense acquisition positions to be assigned for at least a three-year period: program manager or deputy program managers for a significant nonmajor defense acquisition program, program executive officers, general or flag officers or their civilian equivalent, and senior contracting officials. Title VI: Compensation and Personnel Benefits - Subtitle A: Bonuses and Special and Incentive Pays - Authorizes the Secretary concerned to delegate (with a limitation) the authority to waive operational flying duty requirements prior to the award of aviation career incentive pay. (Sec. 602) Includes as eligible activities for the payment of special pay currently provided for reserve medical and dental officers active duty for training, annual training, or special work. (Sec. 603) Authorizes members performing funeral honors duty to receive either the allowance for such duty or the rate of pay for members of the reserves or National Guard performing inactive-duty training. (Sec. 604) Extends through FY 2002 specified authorities currently scheduled to expire at the end of 2000 with respect to certain special pay and bonus programs within the regular and reserve armed forces. (Sec. 607) Authorizes special pay for Coast Guard physician assistants. Subtitle B: Travel and Transportation Allowances - Authorizes the advance payment of temporary lodging expenses incurred by a member and his or her dependents while making a change in permanent duty stations. (Sec. 612) Authorizes the Secretary concerned to pay to a member a share of the savings resulting from less-than-average shipping and storage costs of the member's baggage and household effects in connection with a change of duty station. (Sec. 614) Authorizes the Secretary concerned to pay a member a share of the savings realized from not having a vehicle transported or stored overseas. Authorizes a member to elect to have a vehicle stored at Government expense in lieu of a transportation allowance for an unaccompanied assignment. Subtitle C: Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance and Survivors Benefit Plan - Entitles to Servicemembers' Group Life Insurance a person who volunteers for assignment to a category in the Individual Ready Reserve that is subject to an involuntary call to active duty. Subtitle D: Other Matters - Entitles to appointment to a service academy the children of members of the reserves who: (1) are currently so serving and have earned at least 2,880 retirement credit points; or (2) would be, or who died while they would have been, entitled to retired pay except for not having attained 60 years of age. (Sec. 632) Authorizes the annual payment of a $2,000 personal money allowance for individuals serving as the senior enlisted member of an armed force. (Sec. 633) Increases the initial and annual allowance for officers for the purchase of required uniforms and equipment. (Sec. 634) Authorizes the Secretary (currently, the President) and the Secretary of Transportation with respect to the Coast Guard when not operating as a service in the Navy to prescribe requirements and allowances for clothing for enlisted personnel. Title VII: Health Care Provisions - Entitles Medal of Honor recipients and their dependents to medical and dental care under the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS). Title VIII: Acquisition Policy, Acquisition Management, and Related Matters - Subtitle A: Amendments to General Contracting Authorities, Procedures, and Limitations - Prohibits the head of an agency, unless certain congressional reporting requirements are first met, from entering into or extending a multiyear contract for any defense system if the value of such contract would exceed $500 million. (Sec. 802) Repeals the requirement for certain contractor assurances regarding the completeness, accuracy, and contractual sufficiency of contractor-provided technical data. (Sec. 803) Exempts cost and cost-plus-a-fixed-fee contracts with a contractor that maintains an approved purchasing system from certain subcontract notification requirements. (Sec. 805) Authorizes the Secretary to allow participation by defense contractor employees in the analytical and logistic support for the operational test and evaluation of a system. Places limitations with respect to participation in the establishment of operational test and evaluation criteria for contractors that have participated in the development or production of a system. (Sec. 806) Authorizes DOD acquisition pilot programs to be continued through the end of program production. (Sec. 807) Amends the Small Business Act to reduce from ten to five days the wait period after posting notice of a solicitation from an executive agency for a contract for property or services exceeding $25,000, when such notice is accessible electronically. States that providing widespread electronic public notice of contract solicitation in a convenient form that allows user access through a single Government-wide point of entry shall satisfy Federal contract solicitation publication requirements. Makes identical amendments to the Office of Federal Procurement Policy Act with respect to required notice of solicitation for Federal procurement contracts. Changes from annually to biennially a report requirement under the latter Act with respect to implementation of the use of electronic commerce in Federal procurement. Makes this section inapplicable when the President determines such application would be inconsistent with any international agreement to which the United States is a party. (Sec. 808) Authorizes the Secretary to have orders made under DOD indefinite-delivery contracts for gloves, boots, humanitarian and operational rations, and toxicological agent protection clothing for States, territories, State or territory departments or agencies, the government of an Indian tribe, the District of Columbia, and qualified, non-profit agencies for the blind and severely handicapped. Authorizes the Secretary to require the appropriate entity to reimburse DOD for administrative costs in connection with such orders. Subtitle B: Other Matters - Amends provisions concerning defense procurement contract goals for small disadvantaged businesses and certain minority educational institutions to prohibit the suspension of the authority to enter into a contract for a price exceeding fair market value when the President or his designee determines that such contracts are necessary to remedy demonstrated discrimination in an industry category. (Sec. 812) Amends the Strom Thurmond National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999 to redefine "conventional ammunition" as that ammunition managed by DOD's Single Manager for Conventional Ammunition (includes a list of qualifying conventional ammunition). (Sec. 813) Extends through the end of production the authority for the Joint Direct Attack Munition pilot program. (Sec. 814) Amends provisions concerning rights to equipment technical data developed exclusively at private expense to authorize DOD rights to such data when operation, maintenance, or installation services are to be provided by other than the original contractor or subcontractor. Requires such rights to be negotiated between the Government and the contractors involved. Prohibits any private-only rights to such data when the information is necessary for critical operation, maintenance, or installation of deployed equipment and such services are to be provided by other than the original contractor or subcontractor. (Sec. 815) Waives live-fire survivability requirements with respect to the MH-47E/MH-60K helicopter modification programs. Requires any waiver granted to be included in program reporting requirements. (Sec. 816) Repeals the requirement that, before a multiyear contract may be entered into for a defense acquisition program, the Secretary must certify to Congress that the current future-years defense program fully funds the support costs associated with the multiyear program. Title IX: Department of Defense Organization and Management - Subtitle A: Department of Defense Organization - Redesignates as deputy commandants the chief and deputy and assistant chiefs of staff within the Marine Corps headquarters. (Sec. 902) Includes within the definition of an Inspector General, for purposes of general investigations, an officer of the armed forces or DOD employee assigned or detailed to serve as an inspector general at any level in DOD. (Sec. 903) Authorizes the Secretary, the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating, and the Secretary of Energy to withhold from otherwise required public disclosure certain sensitive information of foreign governments and international organizations if such Secretary determines that the release of such information would have an adverse effect on the ability of the U.S. Government to obtain the same or similar information in the future. Provides limitations and exceptions. Subtitle B: Other Matters - Authorizes the Secretary of the Navy to accept gifts intended for the Naval Academy or the Naval Academy Museum and to deposit such gifts into the United States Naval Academy Gift and Museum Fund. Repeals the Naval Academy Museum Fund and the Naval Historical Center Fund and requires amounts in such funds to be transferred to the Naval Academy Gift and Museum Fund and the Navy General Gift Fund, respectively. (Sec. 912) Authorizes the Secretary of the Navy, during FY 2000, to disburse to an entity designated by a gift donor the current cash value of gifts previously accepted for the Naval Academy Gift Fund. (Sec. 913) Revises the maximum size of parcel post packages authorized to be mailed from postal services at U.S. military installations, at no cost to the sender, by U.S. military personnel and forces of friendly foreign nations. (Sec. 914) Authorizes the Secretary to establish a pilot program for the temporary assignment (detail) at a DOD laboratory of up to 100 individuals previously employed by private commercial entities to conduct science and engineering. (Sec. 915) Authorizes the Secretary to establish a pilot program for the payment of retraining and relocation expenses to facilitate the reemployment of DOD employees being separated due to a reduction in force or transfer of functions at a DOD facility or installation. Title X: General Provisions - Subtitle A: Financial Matters - Provides DOD administrative offsets for overpayments made to carriers supporting DOD or for liquidated damages due under DOD transportation services contracts. (Sec. 1002) Requires the annual joint Office of Management and Budget/Congressional Budget Office report on the scoring of budget outlays to reflect and include specified information on the differences between the relevant defense budget outlay rates or assumptions used by the two offices. (Sec. 1003) Repeals a provision of the Department of Defense Authorization Act, 1986 requiring a two-year defense budget cycle. (Sec. 1004) Codifies a recurring appropriations Act provision concerning the use of O&M funds for reimbursements related to certain reserve intelligence or counterintelligence support. Subtitle B: Humanitarian and Civic Assistance - Authorizes the Secretary to provide humanitarian and civic assistance in connection with military operations for areas of a country that are underserved by medical, dental, and veterinary professionals. Authorizes the use of up to ten percent of such assistance for pay and allowances of special operations command reserves providing training and activities related to the clearing of land mines for humanitarian purposes. Subtitle C: Miscellaneous Reporting Requirements and Repeals - Amends the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1990 and 1991 to repeal a required annual report on the B-2 bomber aircraft program. (Sec. 1016) Revises an annual report deadline from the Secretary to Congress with respect to National Guard and reserve equipment. Requires the Coast Guard Reserve to be included in such reports and requires additional report information. Subtitle D: Other Matters - Exempts a military testamentary instrument from State testamentary laws. Accords such instruments the same legal effect as State testamentary instruments presented for probate. Outlines requirements for the legal execution of such instruments. Makes such instrument self-proving upon such execution, signature, and witnessing. (Sec. 1022) Authorizes the Secretary concerned to charge and retain fees for providing historical material or research assistance to public requesters from the Army Military History Institute, the Naval or Marine Corps Historical Center, or Air Force Historical Research Agency. Requires such fees to be used to offset the cost of such material or assistance. (Sec. 1023) Amends provisions concerning cooperative military airlift agreements to remove a provision which requires the Secretary to enter into such agreements only under the authority provided therein. (Sec. 1024) Repeals a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2000 which prohibits any Cooperative Threat Reduction funds from being used for the planning, design, or construction of a chemical weapons destruction facility in Russia. Title XI: Base Realignment and Closure Act of 2000 - Defense Base Closure and Realignment Act of 2000 - Establishes the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. Authorizes Commission appropriations. Terminates the Commission on December 31, 2005. (Sec. 1103) Requires the Secretary, as part of the budget documents submitted to Congress for each of FY 2004 and 2006, to include a military force structure plan assessing probable threats to national security for the proceeding six-year period and the anticipated levels of funding needed to address such threats. Requires each plan to be submitted to the Commission. Requires the Secretary to: (1) publish in the Federal Register and transmit to the defense and appropriations committees the proposed and final criteria to be used in making recommendations for the closure or realignment of military installations inside the United States; and (2) publish and transmit to such committees a list of recommended installations based on the force structure plan. Prohibits the Secretary, in considering installations, from taking into account whether an installation has previously been considered or proposed for closure or realignment, or whether any advance conversion planning has been undertaken by a community in anticipation of a closure or realignment. Directs the Commission, after receiving the Secretary's recommendations, to conduct public hearings and report to the President its findings and conclusions with respect to such recommendations. Authorizes the Commission to make recommendations different from the Secretary if it determines that the Secretary deviated substantially from the force structure plan. Requires prior publication of such changes, together with public hearings. Requires Commission report copies to be transmitted to the defense and appropriations committees. Requires the President, by specified dates, to approve or disapprove Commission recommendations by way of reports to the Commission and Congress. Requires the Commission to submit a revised list if any recommendations are disapproved, subject to presidential certification. (Sec. 1104) Directs the Secretary, after a final list is approved, to: (1) begin to close or realign all recommended installations within two years after the date of approval; and (2) complete all closures and realignments within six years after such approval. Prohibits the Secretary from carrying out any closure or realignment if a joint congressional resolution is enacted which disapproves such recommendation. (Sec. 1105) Authorizes the Secretary to take all necessary actions to implement such closure or realignment recommendations, including required transfers or disposals of property. Requires appropriate consideration of any redevelopment plan for the community within or surrounding such an installation. Directs the Secretary to consult with the entity responsible for the redevelopment plan to identify items (nonmilitary) of personal property on an installation that the entity desires to be retained for installation reuse or redevelopment. Authorizes the Secretary to transfer real and personal property on such an installation to the redevelopment authority concerned for job generation purposes. Requires all property transferred to support the economic redevelopment of the installation. Directs the Secretary, after taking appropriate action with an entity with respect to a redevelopment plan, to determine whether another Federal department or agency has identified a use for, or will accept transfer of, any remaining portion of an installation. Outlines procedures for property transfers to a redevelopment authority or another Federal department or agency. Expresses the sense of Congress that, as soon as practicable after the date of approval of a closure or realignment, the appropriate redevelopment authority should begin to conduct outreach efforts to provide information on the availability of an installation's buildings and property to representatives of the homeless or other entities interested in assisting the homeless. Outlines procedures for State and local governments, representatives of the homeless, and other interested parties to notify a redevelopment authority of interest in, and plans for, buildings and property for such purpose. Requires the redevelopment authority, after such notification, to develop a redevelopment plan (with opportunity for public comment). Requires such plan to be submitted to the Secretaries of Defense and Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Requires the HUD Secretary to review such plan, taking into consideration the predominant views of the local communities, and to notify the Secretary and the redevelopment authority of plan approval or disapproval. Requires submission of a revised plan if the original plan is disapproved. Provides for implementation of an approved plan. Requires the Secretary to carry out an environmental impact analysis of the closure or realignment of each installation. Authorizes the Secretary, when it is determined to be in the best interests of DOD, to enter into agreements with local governments for the provision at such installations of police or security, fire protection, airfield operation, or other community services. Outlines required actions for closed or realigned installations under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and other environmental compliance laws. Authorizes the Secretary to enter into agreements for the transfer of property or facilities located at or near an installation to any person who agrees to transfer to the Secretary housing units located at or near a military installation at which there is a shortage of suitable military housing. Requires a report to the defense and appropriations committees on each agreement. Authorizes the Secretary to purchase from military personnel any interests in manufactured housing located at a manufactured housing park at an installation to be closed or realigned, or to make a payment to a member to relocate such housing, if the Secretary determines that: (1) it is in the best interests of the Federal Government to eliminate or relocate the housing park; and (2) such elimination or relocation would result in unreasonable financial hardship to the housing owners. Limits such payments to 90 percent of the purchase price of such housing, plus the costs of any permanent improvements. (Sec. 1106) Establishes the Department of Defense Base Closure Account 2000 for use in connection with all closures or realignments under this Title. Requires annual Account financial reports from the Secretary to the defense and appropriations committees. Provides for the disposal or transfer of commissary stores and property purchased with nonappropriated funds located on a military installation to be closed or realigned. (Sec. 1107) Directs the Secretary, as part of the DOD budget request for FY 2005 and each subsequent year in which the Secretary carries out activities under this Title, to report to the defense and appropriations committees: (1) a schedule of the closures and realignments to be carried out, together with costs incurred and savings to be achieved; and (2) a description of the military installations to which functions are to be transferred as a result of such closures and realignments, as well as the environmental effects of such transfers. (Sec. 1108) Outlines procedures for the congressional consideration of a joint resolution disapproving the recommendations of the Commission under this Title. (Sec. 1109) Makes this Title the exclusive military base closure and realignment authority during the period beginning on the date of enactment of this Act and ending on December 31, 2005. Prohibits any DOD funds other than those provided herein from being used to select, close, or realign any military installation (with exceptions for those authorized under prior law).
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage661/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 26 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Dr. Eva Glawischnig, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft betreffend Atomausstieg in Deutschland
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage647/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 26 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Dr. Günther Kräuter, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft betreffend die ökologische Dimension der Kormoranproblematik am Beispiel der aussterbenden Äschenpopulation der Enns
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage692/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 26 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Dr. Eva Glawischnig, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft betreffend ökotoxikologische Neubewertung von glyphosathältigen Herbiziden
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage675/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 26 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Dr. Eva Glawischnig, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft betreffend Aarhus-Konvention (Übereinkommen über den Zugang zu Informationen, die Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung an Entscheidungsverfahren und den Zugang zu Gerichten in Umweltangelegenheiten)
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage668/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 26 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Dr. Eva Glawischnig, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft betreffend aktuelle rechtswidrige Abfallverbrennung in Arnoldstein
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage658/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 26 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Bernd Brugger, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Wirtschaft und Arbeit betreffend Bergabbruch am "Eiblschrofen" in Schwaz in Tirol: Stand des Verfahrens nach dem Mineralrohstoffgesetz - Entschädigungen für die betroffene Bevölkerung
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage644/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 26 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Dr. Günther Kräuter, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft betreffend Errichtung einer Asphaltmischanlage in Eggersdorf bei Graz <i>(ökologische Auswirkungen)</i>
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage642/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 25 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Mag. Ulrike Sima, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft betreffend ökologische Mindeststandards bei Agrarförderungen und der Umsetzung von Natura 2000
Bill· SS. 2462 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 25 April 2000
Establishes, as a unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System (System), the Cat Island National Wildlife Refuge in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, for the purposes of: (1) conserving, enhancing, and restoring the native bottomland community characteristics of the lower Mississippi alluvial valley, habitat to maintain and assist in the recovery of animals and plants that are endangered or threatened species, and habitats as necessary to contribute to the migratory bird population goals and habitat objectives as established through the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture; (2) achieving the habitat objectives of the Lower Mississippi River Aquatic Resources Management Plan; (3) authorizing the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), to assist in the restoration of forest habitat linkages between refuge land and other land to reverse past impacts associated with habitat fragmentation on wildlife and plant species; (4) providing compatible opportunities for hunting, fishing, wildlife observation and photography, and environmental education and interpretation; and (5) encouraging the use of volunteers and facilitating partnerships among the Service, local communities, conservation organizations, and other non-Federal entities to promote public awareness of the resources of the Refuge and the System (including public participation in the conservation of those resources). Directs the Secretary to seek to acquire specified land and adjacent waters of Cat Island for inclusion in the Refuge. Permits the Secretary to conduct projects and activities at the Refuge in accordance with this Act, including projects or activities to conserve or develop wildlife and natural resources, water supplies, water control structures, outdoor recreational activity programs, and interpretive education programs. Authorizes appropriations.
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage640/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 18 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Mag. Ulrike Sima, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Wirtschaft und Arbeit betreffend Atomstromimporte des tschechischen <i>(Elektrizitätserzeugers)</i> CEZ nach Österreich
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage639/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 18 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Mag. Ulrike Sima, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Wirtschaft und Arbeit betreffend Umsetzung des Kyoto-Zieles <i>(als Basis für die österreichische Klimaschutzpolitik)</i>
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage638/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 17 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Mag. Ulrike Sima, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Inneres betreffend Umweltkriminalität
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage633/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 13 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Mag. Ulrike Sima, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft betreffend Umsetzung des Kyoto-Zieles <i>(als Basis für die österreichische Klimaschutzpolitik)</i>
Bill· SS. 2417 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Water Pollution Program Enhancements Act of 2000 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to reauthorize appropriations for grants to States and interstate agencies for pollution control programs for FY 2001 through 2007. Makes $50 million of such funds available to States for the: (1) collection of reliable monitoring data; (2) the improvement of specified lists regarding waters with insufficient controls and maximum daily loads; (3) preparation of total maximum daily load allocations for such waters; and (4) development of watershed management strategies. Reauthorizes appropriations for FY 2001 through 2007 for grants to States for: (1) implementation of nonpoint source pollution control management programs; and (2) groundwater quality protection activities to advance States toward implementation of comprehensive nonpoint source pollution control programs. Makes $200 million available from funds appropriated for such management programs for States to provide grants to landowners to develop and implement nonpoint source control projects to restore or improve water quality of impaired waters that have been identified as a priority for restoration. Limits such grants to 90 percent of project costs. (Sec. 4) Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to contract with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to conduct a study on the: (1) scientific basis underlying the development and implementation of total maximum daily loads; (2) costs of implementing measures to comply with such loads; and (3) availability of alternative programs or mechanisms to reduce the discharge of pollutants from point sources and nonpoint source pollution to achieve water quality standards. Authorizes appropriations. Requires the Administrator to submit such study to specified congressional committees. (Sec. 5) Directs the Administrator to establish jointly with the States a watershed management pilot program to evaluate the relative water quality improvements resulting from up to five State watershed management programs or strategies that incorporate non-Federal water quality control programs, innovative technologies, and incentives to reduce the discharge of pollutants or total maximum daily load allocations under the Act. Provides that a strategy, to be eligible for consideration in the program, must be expected to achieve environmental results comparable to those of the Federal total maximum daily load program. Requires reports to Congress on the program. Terminates the program after three years after a State is accepted in the program. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 6) Requires the Administrator, prior to finalizing the Proposed Revisions to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program and Federal Antidegradation Policy and the Proposed Revisions to the Water Quality Planning and Management Regulations Concerning Total Maximum Daily Loads of August 1999, to: (1) review the NAS study prepared under this Act; and (2) take into consideration NAS recommendations in issuing any final regulations. Directs the Administrator, if provisions are included in any final regulation that are not consistent with NAS recommendations, to publish an explanation with the final rule of why such recommendations were not included in the regulation.
Bill· SS. 2438 (106th)passed
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
King and Tsiorvas Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2000 - Directs the Secretary of Transportation to: (1) implement the oil and gas pipeline safety improvement recommendations provided for in the Department of Transportation (DOT) Inspector General's Report (RT-2000-069); and (2) report every 90 days to specified congressional committees on the specific actions taken to implement them. Requires the DOT Inspector General to assess periodically for the same committees the Secretary's progress in doing so. (Sec. 3) Directs the Secretary, the Administrator of Research and Special Program Administration, and the Director of the Office of Pipeline Safety to: (1) comply fully with certain Federal transportation law requirements to ensure timely responsiveness to National Transportation Safety Board recommendations about pipeline safety; (2) make a copy of each recommendation on pipeline safety and response available to the public at reasonable cost; and (3) report annually to Congress on each pipeline safety recommendation made by the Board during the prior year, and a copy of the response to each such recommendation. (Sec. 4) Requires each pipeline operator to submit to the Secretary a training plan designed to enhance training (and periodic retraining) for pipeline personnel and reduce the likelihood of accidents and injuries. Requires the plan to include criteria to demonstrate an individual's ability to safely and properly perform assigned tasks. Authorizes the Secretary to: (1) review the submitted plans, initially and on a continuing basis, to determine if they are sufficient to provide a safe operating environment; and (2) establish minimum standards for operators to include in such plans. (Sec. 5) Requires the Secretary to issue regulations requiring pipeline operators to: (1) periodically determine the adequacy of pipelines to operate safely in unusually sensitive areas and high-density population areas; and (2) perform periodic inspections or tests capable of identifying corrosion, mechanical damage, or other structural or operational defects that could be detrimental to safety and the environment. (Sec. 6) Amends Federal transportation law to grant shutdown authority to the Secretary to take necessary action to prevent the operation for 30 days (including additional 30-day periods) of any hazardous liquid or natural gas pipeline whose continuing operation creates an imminent safety hazard to persons, property, or the environment. (Sec. 7) Revises the public education program requirements for gas pipeline facility owners or operators. Applies such requirements to owners or operators of a hazardous liquid pipeline facility. Includes among the items for public education: (1) damage prevention activities in addition to the use of a one-call notification system before excavation; (2) the physical indications that an unintended release may have occurred; (3) what steps should be taken for public safety in the event of a pipeline release; (4) how to report such an event; and (5) activities to advise municipalities, school districts, businesses, and residents of pipeline facility locations. Repeals the specific requirement of education on the importance of reporting gas odors to the appropriate authority. Requires submission to and review of such programs by the Secretary. Requires pipeline facility owners and operators to review their public education programs annually and make necessary revisions. Authorizes the Secretary to: (1) issue standards prescribing the elements of an effective public education program; and (2) provide technical assistance to the pipeline industry on developing public safety and public education program content and best practices for program delivery, and on evaluating program effectiveness. Requires an operator of a gas transmission or hazardous liquid pipeline facility to initiate and maintain liaison with the State emergency response commissions, and local emergency planning committees (or local fire, police, and other emergency response agencies in the absence of a committee) in the areas of pipeline right-of-way, established under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act of 1986 in each State in which it operates. Requires the operator, when requested, to make specified information available to such State emergency response commissions and local emergency planning committees. Requires the owner or operator of each gas or hazardous liquid pipeline facility to provide annually to the governing body of each municipality in which the pipeline facility is located a map identifying the facility's location. Requires the Secretary to make available to the public any safety-related condition report and any report of a pipeline incident filed by an operator. (Sec. 8) Increases from $25,000 to $100,000 the civil penalty for each facility operator failure to: (1) mark accurately the location of pipeline facilities in the vicinity of a demolition, excavation, tunneling, or construction; or (2) comply with safety standards, prepare and carry out an inspection and maintenance plan, allow access to records, or allow required entries or inspections. Increases the maximum civil penalty for a related series of violations to $1 million. (Sec. 9) Authorizes the Secretary, if a State pipeline safety program certification is accepted, to make an agreement with a State authority authorizing it to participate in the oversight of interstate pipeline transportation, including a plan for the State authority to participate in special investigations involving new construction or incidents, as well as (subject to specified requirements) other activities overseeing interstate pipeline transportation that supplement the Secretary's program and address issues of local concern. Allows the Secretary to end an agreement for the oversight of interstate pipeline transportation when significant gaps are found in the State authority's regulatory authority over intrastate pipeline transportation, or when the State authority's continued participation in the oversight of interstate pipeline transportation: (1) is found inconsistent with the Secretary's program; (2) would adversely affect oversight of intrastate pipeline transportation; or (3) the State is not promoting activities that enable communities to live safely with pipelines. (Sec. 10) Directs the Secretary to develop and implement a comprehensive plan for the collection and use of gas and hazardous liquid pipeline data to revise the causal categories on the accident report forms to eliminate overlapping and confusing categories and include subcategories. Requires the plan to include components to provide the capability to perform sound accident trend analysis and evaluations of pipeline operator performance using normalized accident data. (Sec. 11) Requires the Secretary, as part of the DOT research and development program, to direct research attention to the development of alternative technologies: (1) to expand the defect detection capabilities of internal inspection devices; (2) to inspect pipelines that cannot accommodate internal inspection devices available on the date of enactment; and (3) to develop innovative techniques measuring the structural integrity of pipelines. (Sec. 12) Authorizes appropriations with respect to gas and hazardous liquid and State grants. Requires the transfer of specified amounts from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to carry out authorized programs.
Bill· SS. 2437 (106th)open
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Water Resources Development Act of 2000 - Approves the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan to modify the Central and Southern Florida (CSF) Project to restore, preserve, and protect the South Florida ecosystem. Authorizes implementation, at specified total costs, of certain pilot projects and other projects included in the Plan. Authorizes the Secretary of the Army to implement modifications to the CSF Project that are consistent with the Plan and that will produce independent and substantial restoration, preservation, or protection benefits to the ecosystem, provided that the total cost of each project accomplished under such authority shall not exceed $35 million and the total Federal cost of all such projects shall not exceed $250 million. Requires a specific authorization of Congress for all other future projects included the Plan. Directs the Secretary to establish a program to ensure that socially and economically disadvantaged individuals within the South Florida ecosystem are informed of the Plan, given the opportunity to review and comment on each project feature, provided opportunities to participate as a small business concern contractor, and given opportunities for employment or internships in emerging industry sectors. Requires the Secretary to establish a goal that not less than ten percent of the amounts made available for construction of projects be expended with small business concerns owned and controlled by such individuals within the ecosystem. Requires the Secretary: (1) to dedicate and manage the water made available from project features for the temporal and spatial needs of the natural system; and (2) after notice and opportunity for public comment and with the concurrence of the Secretary of the Interior, to issue programmatic regulations identifying the amount of water to be dedicated and managed. Requires that such regulations be completed within two years of the date of enactment of this Act. Requires the Secretary, after notice and opportunity for public comment, to develop project feature specific regulations to ensure that the benefits anticipated from each feature are achieved and maintained. Requires Secretary to ensure that Plan implementation, including physical or operational modifications to the CSF Project, does not cause substantial adverse impacts on existing legal water uses, including annual water deliveries to Everglades National Park, water for the preservation of fish and wildlife in the natural system, and other legal uses. Prohibits the Secretary from eliminating existing legal sources of water supply until new sources of comparable quantity and quality are available. Requires the Secretary and the Secretary of Interior to jointly submit to Congress a report on Plan implementation beginning on October 1, 2005 and periodically thereafter (but at least every five years) until October 1, 2036. (Sec. 4) Amends the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 to replace provisions for the study of water resources needs of river basins and regions with provisions for the assessment of such needs, including cost sharing requirements. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 5) Directs the Secretary to carry out a program to provide assistance to non-Federal interests in the remediation and restoration of abandoned or idled industrial and commercial sites where such assistance will improve the quality, conservation, and sustainable use of the nation's streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, and floodplains. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 6) Authorizes the Secretary, in cooperation with federally recognized Indian tribes and other Federal agencies, to study and determine the feasibility of implementing water resources development projects that will substantially benefit Indian tribes and that are located primarily within Indian country or in proximity to Alaska Native villages. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 7) Amends the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 to apply ability to pay requirements relating to flood control or agricultural water supply projects to cost sharing agreements for a feasibility study or for construction of an environmental protection and restoration project. (Sec. 8) Authorizes the Secretary to implement a program to reduce vandalism and destruction of property at water resources development projects. (Sec. 9) Authorizes the Secretary to participate in the National Recreation Reservation Service on an interagency basis and fund the Department of the Army's share of those activities required for implementing, operating, and maintaining such Service. (Sec. 10) Amends the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 to: (1) provide that activities currently performed by personnel under the direction of the Secretary in connection with the operation and maintenance of hydroelectric power generating facilities at Army Corps of Engineers water resources projects are to be considered as inherently governmental functions and not as commercial activities where such activities require specialized training related to hydroelectric power generation; and (2) subject such activities to specified labor standards. (Sec. 11) Amends such Act to increase funding for the Secretary to engage in interagency and international support activities to address problems of national significance to the United States. (Sec. 12) Authorizes the Secretary: (1) to identify and set aside areas at civil works projects that may be used to re-inter Native American remains that have been discovered on project lands and which have been rightfully claimed by a lineal descendant or Indian tribe; (2) in consultation and consent with the lineal descendant or the respective Indian tribe, to recover and re-bury the remains at such sites at full Federal expense; and (3) to transfer to such Indian Tribe the land for use as a cemetery. (Sec. 13) Amends the Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act of 1899 to provide that the approval required of the location and plans, or any modification of plans, for any dam or dike, applies only to any dam or dike that would completely span a waterway currently used to transport interstate or foreign commerce when existing commerce could be adversely affected. (Sec. 14) Amends the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 to revise cost sharing requirements with respect to the non-Federal share of the cost of a structural project assigned to flood control. (Sec. 15) Authorizes the Secretary to participate with the appropriate Federal and State agencies in the planning and management activities associated with the CALFED Bay Delta Program and to integrate the activities of the Corps of Engineers in the San Joaquin and Sacramento River basins with the long-term goals of the Program. Allows the Secretary to accept and expend funds from other Federal agencies and non- Federal public, private, and non-profit entities to carry out ecosystem restoration projects and activities associated with such Program and to enter into contracts, cooperative research and development agreements, and cooperative agreements with Federal agencies and such entities in carrying out these projects and activities. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 16) Amends the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 to revise provisions governing water resources project de-authorizations. Requires the Secretary to transmit to Congress annually a list of projects that have been authorized for construction: (1) but for which no appropriations have been obligated during the four preceding fiscal years; and (2) for which construction funds have been obligated in the past but for which no appropriations have been obligated for construction during the two previous consecutive fiscal years. Requires any authorized project to be de-authorized: (1) after seven years after its most recent authorization unless construction funds have been obligated; or (2) if construction funds have been obligated but no new construction appropriations have been obligated during five subsequent fiscal years. (Sec. 17) Requires that the guidelines for the preparation of floodplain management plans also require non-Federal interests to take measures to preserve the level of flood protection provided by the project for which required compliance with Federal floodplain management and flood insurance programs applies. (Sec. 18) Authorizes the Secretary to conduct a feasibility study in cooperation with the Secretary of the Interior, the States of South and North Dakota of the affected interest, and with the affected Indian tribes, for the transfer of land that was acquired by the Secretary for the implementation of the Pick-Sloan Missouri River basin program and that is located within the reservations of the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation, ND, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota, the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation, SD, the Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, to the Secretary of the Interior to be held in trust for the benefit of such Indian tribes. (Sec. 19) Authorizes the Secretary to participate in Critical Restoration Projects in the area of Puget Sound and its adjacent waters, including the watersheds that drain directly into the Sound, Admiralty Inlet, Hood Canal, Rosario Strait, and the eastern portion of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· SS. 2441 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Fishable Waters Act of 2000 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to add that it is the national policy to achieve: (1) the protection and restoration of sustained fish production and fisheries habitat; and (2) the enhancement of access for fisheries use through voluntary watershed planning and incentives for site-specific projects. Provides for the establishment of federally- assisted State programs for fisheries habitat protection and access enhancement. Requires States to: (1) establish advisory councils to provide recommendations with respect to program decisions; and (2) maintain a fisheries habitat account. Allows the Secretary of Agriculture to make grants to approved State programs. Sets forth processes for watershed planning, including: (1) data collection; (2) evaluation of geomorphological characteristics; (3) short- and long-term objectives; (4) identification of existing threats to the fisheries habitat; and (5) monitoring for water quality and quantity. Provides processes for plan approval, public participation, and use of funds. Directs the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to establish a communities fisheries habitat revitalization program for funding to approved project sponsors for watershed restoration, creation of flood plain riparian zones, creation of wetlands, stormwater management, and other revitalization projects. Requires the establishment by the Secretary of an electronic database of community fisheries habitat clearinghouse information. Requires compilation of other scientific fisheries-related indicators and habitat characteristics. Directs the Secretary to make grants to State for approved projects. Authorizes funding for restricting livestock access to water within a designated watershed. Gives grant priority to States exceeding other States in certain categories, including hydroelectric instream use, sales of fishing and migratory bird hunting licenses, and the degree of degraded water in the State.
Bill· SS. 2433 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Red River National Wildlife Refuge Act - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to: (1) seek to acquire up to 50,000 acres of land, water, or interests (including permanent conservation easements or servitudes) within the boundaries of a selection area consisting of Caddo, Bossier, Red River, DeSoto, and Natchitoches Parishes, Louisiana; and (2) establish such lands, waters, and interests as the Red River National Wildlife Refuge at such time as the Secretary determines that sufficient property has been acquired to constitute an area that can be effectively managed as a national wildlife refuge for specified purposes, including to restore and preserve native Red River ecosystems, provide habitat for migratory birds, and maximize fisheries on the Red River and its tributaries, natural lakes, and man-made reservoirs. Requires the Secretary to issue a management plan for the Refuge which includes provisions that provide for: (1) the planning and design of trails and access points; (2) the planning of wildlife and habitat restoration, including reforestation; and (3) permanent exhibits and facilities and regular educational programs throughout the Refuge. Requires that the Secretary: (1) provide an opportunity for public participation in developing such plan; and (2) give special consideration to views by local public and private entities and individuals. Directs the Secretary to construct, administer, and maintain within the Refuge, a wildlife interpretation and education center to promote environmental education and to provide an opportunity for the study and enjoyment of wildlife in its natural habitat. Sets forth requirements for the designation of boundaries for the Refuge. Declares that nothing in this Act shall be construed as prohibiting or preventing, and the Secretary shall not prohibit or prevent: (1) the continuation or development of commercial or recreational navigation on the Red River Waterway; (2) necessary construction, operation, or maintenance activities associated with the Red River Waterway project; (3) the construction, improvement, or expansion of public port or recreational facilities on such Waterway; or (4) the construction, improvement, or replacement of railroads or interstate highways within the selection area, or bridges that cross the Red River. Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· SS. 2436 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to repeal the targeted area limitation on the expense deduction for environmental remediation costs and to extend the termination date of such deduction from December 31, 2001, to June 30, 2004.
Law· HRH.R. 4281 (106th)enacted
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
ICCVAM Authorization Act of 2000 - States that the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM) shall be sustained as a permanent standing committee administered by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Sets forth ICCVAM objectives, including: (1) increasing the efficiency of Federal test method review; and (2) reducing animal testing. Directs the Institute to establish a Scientific Advisory Committee. Requires each Federal agency to: (1) identify and forward to ICCVAM those guidelines or regulations it follows requiring or recommending animal testing; (2) promote valid alternatives to animal testing; and (3) adopt ICCVAM recommendations unless such recommendations are inadequate or unsatisfactory.
Law· HRH.R. 4318 (106th)enacted
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Red River National Wildlife Refuge Act - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to: (1) seek to acquire up to 50,000 acres of land, water, or interests (including permanent conservation easements or servitudes) within the boundaries of a selection area consisting of Caddo, Bossier, Red River, DeSoto, and Natchitoches Parishes, Louisiana; and (2) establish such lands, waters, and interests as the Red River National Wildlife Refuge at such time as the Secretary determines that sufficient property has been acquired to constitute an area that can be effectively managed as a national wildlife refuge for specified purposes, including to restore and preserve native Red River ecosystems, provide habitat for migratory birds, and maximize fisheries on the Red River and its tributaries, natural lakes, and man-made reservoirs. Requires the Secretary to issue a management plan for the Refuge which includes provisions that provide for: (1) the planning and design of trails and access points; (2) the planning of wildlife and habitat restoration, including reforestation; and (3) permanent exhibits and facilities and regular educational programs throughout the Refuge. Requires that the Secretary: (1) provide an opportunity for public participation in developing such plan; and (2) give special consideration to views by local public and private entities and individuals. Directs the Secretary to construct, administer, and maintain within the Refuge, a wildlife interpretation and education center to promote environmental education and to provide an opportunity for the study and enjoyment of wildlife in its natural habitat. Sets forth requirements for the designation of boundaries for the Refuge. Declares that nothing in this Act shall be construed as prohibiting or preventing, and the Secretary shall not prohibit or prevent: (1) the continuation or development of commercial or recreational navigation on the Red River Waterway; (2) necessary construction, operation, or maintenance activities associated with the Red River Waterway project; (3) the construction, improvement, or expansion of public port or recreational facilities on such Waterway; or (4) the construction, improvement, or replacement of railroads or interstate highways within the selection area, or bridges that cross the Red River. Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· HRH.R. 4288 (106th)open
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Amends the National Nuclear Security Administration Act to direct the Administrator for Nuclear Security to ensure that the operations and activities of the National Nuclear Security Administration are executed in full compliance with Federal and State environmental, safety, and health laws and regulations (including any directives issued thereunder, and waivers of Federal sovereign immunity). States that all environmental protection, safety, and health provisions applicable to Department of Energy functions or facilities immediately before the effective date of this Act shall continue to apply to corresponding functions or facilities of the Administration.
Bill· HRH.R. 4283 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Great Lakes Protection and Restoration Act of 2000 - Title I: Sediment Remediation Grant Program - Great Lakes Legacy Act of 2000 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to authorize the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, acting through the Great Lakes National Program Office, to make grants to States, Indian tribes, regional agencies, and local governments to carry out qualified projects that: (1) remediate contaminated sediment; (2) prevent further or renewed contamination of sediment; or (3) monitor or evaluate contaminated sediment. Sets forth limitations on projects. Requires the non-Federal share of project costs to be at least 35 percent and 100 percent for project operation and maintenance costs. Conditions grants on a grantee achieving a specified maintenance of effort requirement with respect to expenditures from other sources for remediation programs. Requires grant applicants to demonstrate that project remedial actions have been selected only after consideration of specified health and environmental risks, benefits, impacts, implementation likelihood, and costs. Authorizes appropriations. Title II: Moratorium on Exports of Bulk Fresh Water - Prohibits the export from the United States of bulk fresh water from the Great Lakes Basin. Makes such prohibition inapplicable on the earlier of: (1) December 31, 2001; or (2) the effective date of an Act of Congress approving an agreement among the Great Lakes States to implement a mechanism that provides for a common conservation standard to make decisions concerning the withdrawal and use of water from the Basin. Defines "bulk fresh water" as fresh water extracted in amounts intended for transportation by tanker or similar form of mass transportation without further processing.
Bill· HRH.R. 4278 (106th)open
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Fishable Waters Act of 2000 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (the Act) to require States, in order to be eligible for assistance under the Fishable Waters Act of 2000, to establish programs for the protection and restoration of fresh water, estuarine, and marine fisheries habitat and for the enhancement of access for fisheries uses through watershed planning and the implementation of projects and measures that meet such Act's requirements. Establishes minimum program requirements. Authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture (the Secretary), upon approval of a program submitted by a State, to: (1) make grants to the State for program administration; and (2) enter into a memorandum of understanding with the State under which the State may make grants to designated watershed councils for development of comprehensive fisheries habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement plans and interim recommendations that address high priority factors causing imminent adverse impacts or threats to fisheries habitat located in high priority portions of waters within a watershed. Permits States to designate watershed councils to carry out comprehensive fisheries habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement plans that meet specified minimum requirements. Sets forth council requirements. Requires States, in designating such councils, to give preference to existing councils or similar bodies organized under other authorities for purposes similar to those under this Act. Makes designated councils eligible to receive funding to carry out planning functions. Requires councils to collect and consider the best available scientific information and develop additional data and information as necessary. Provides for revisions or updates of comprehensive fisheries plans at least once every five years. Requires submission of plans or interim recommendations to the State for approval. Makes projects and measures that support or implement specific recommendations contained in a plan or interim recommendation eligible for financial support from a State's fisheries habitat account established pursuant to this Act. Authorizes States to provide funds from a fisheries habitat account to persons who enter into binding contracts for implementation of projects and measures recommended by councils pursuant to approved plans or interim recommendations. Prohibits expenditures from such accounts for the planning, engineering, design, or construction of dams or of roads on public lands. Requires States to establish a system of limits on the maximum percentage of total costs for a project that may be provided from such accounts based on a priority ranking of recommendations. Permits expenditures from such accounts for the payment of up to 15 percent of required non-Federal shares under certain Federal environmental, agriculture, forestry, wildlife, flood control, and water resources programs if recommended in a plan or interim recommendations. Authorizes, if specifically recommended in a plan or interim recommendations, increases in expenditures pursuant to Federal programs for flood damage compensation for loss of crops, livestock, or structures with respect to specifically designated lands within a watershed that would be subject to increased flooding due to certain recommended projects. Requires the baseline jurisdictional status of any agricultural lands on which wetlands may be created or expanded as a result of flooding or altered drainage pursuant to such projects to revert to their baseline jurisdictional status upon termination of any project agreement. Provides that a permit under the Act shall not be required for discharges from any wetlands created or expanded for agricultural pollution control purposes if pollutants entering such wetlands result only from normal agricultural practices such as crop production, raising of livestock, or silvicultural activities. Directs the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, to establish a community fisheries habitat revitalization program. Requires the Secretary of the Interior, pursuant to such program, to provide funding and technical assistance to State fish and wildlife agencies for development and construction of projects designed to improve urban watersheds and public access to the waters of such watersheds in order to restore fisheries habitat or enhance fisheries uses and to provide recreational opportunities. Describes eligible projects and project priorities. Requires the Secretary of the Interior to report annually to Congress on the program. Directs the Secretary of the Interior to establish a community fisheries habitat clearinghouse to support local implementation of projects under the program. Sets forth limitations on funding under the program. Authorizes appropriations. Requires the Secretary to publish a report at least biennially on the progress of watershed council programs. Directs the Secretary of the Interior to publish a report at least biennially describing the state of the Nation's fishery habitats as well as the overall progress being achieved in protecting and restoring such habitats. Requires the Secretary of the Interior to compile and provide scientific information for consideration by State fish and wildlife agencies in developing fisheries-related indicators and associated habitat characteristics and for consideration by councils in characterizing waters and establishing watershed objectives pursuant to this Act. Authorizes such factors to be established by such agencies to set forth the appropriate factors, indicators, measurements, and other considerations which will be indicative of a healthy, resilient, diverse, and productive aquatic system and may distinguish among general categories of fisheries based upon natural variations. Requires the Secretary to make grants to States for fisheries programs approved under this Act. Authorizes appropriations. Requires States with approved programs to establish fisheries habitat accounts for providing financial support for projects and measures recommended by watershed councils. Authorizes appropriations for grants to States to enable States to provide funds to any person, through a fisheries habitat account, for implementation of: (1) any measures for restricting livestock access to waters within a designated watershed and for providing alternative water supplies for such livestock; and (2) approved recommendations. Requires the Secretary to provide Congress with an annual survey of projected funding needs for States with approved fisheries programs. Authorizes appropriations to the Secretary, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to carry out responsibilities under this Act. Requires the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Directors of the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Geological Survey, to establish a national planning program for protection and restoration of fisheries habitat through improved floodplain management practices on major waterways. Directs the Secretary of the Interior to issue information describing methodologies for identifying instream flows necessary to protect fisheries habitat. Requires the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Directors of the Geological Survey and the Fish and Wildlife Service, to provide technical assistance and prepare and disseminate technical information on fisheries-related needs for instream flows to the public. Authorizes appropriations for expenditures related to support the maintenance of designated instream flows or volumes. Treats Indian tribes as States for purposes of this Act. (Sec. 4) Reauthorizes appropriations for FY 2002 through 2006 under the Act for grants for: (1) implementation of nonpoint source pollution control management programs; and (2) groundwater quality protection activities to advance States toward implementation of comprehensive nonpoint source pollution control programs. Authorizes appropriations for such years to carry out this Act as well.
Bill· HRH.R. 4276 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Pipeline Safety and Community Protection Act of 2000 - Amends Federal transportation law with respect to gas and hazardous liquid pipeline facilities in high-density population areas and environmentally sensitive areas. (Sec. 2) Requires the operator of a natural gas transmission pipeline facility or hazardous liquid pipeline facility to: (1) evaluate the risks to the operator's pipeline facility in such areas (as identified by specified criteria established by the Secretary of Transportation); and (2) adopt and implement a program for integrity management that reduces the risks in those areas. Specifies minimum standards, according to certain criteria, for an operator's program for integrity management, including: (1) internal inspection or another equally protective method for periodic assessment of pipeline integrity; (2) prompt actions to address integrity issues; and (3) measures that prevent and mitigate the consequences of a release of a hazardous substance or a discharge of oil. Requires the Secretary to prescribe additional standards, addressing specified issues, to direct an operator's conduct of a risk analysis or adoption or implementation of a program for integrity management. Excludes tanks incidental to pipeline transportation from the mandatory pipe inventory of a hazardous pipeline facility. Directs the Secretary to issue regulations for the implementation of an integrity management program by operators of more than 500 miles of hazardous liquid pipelines, and ultimately by all operators of such pipelines or natural gas transmission pipelines. (Sec. 3) Revises requirements for owner or operator public education programs on the use of a one-call notification system before excavation and other damage prevention activities, the possible hazards of unintended pipeline facility releases, and public detection and reporting of such an event. Requires each owner or operator to: (1) review its existing public education program for effectiveness and modify it as necessary; and (2) initiate and maintain liaison with the State emergency response commissions, and local emergency planning committees in the areas of pipeline right-of-way in each State in which it operates. Directs the Secretary to prescribe requirements for public access to integrity management program information prepared under this Act. Requires the owner or operator of each interstate gas pipeline facility to provide, at least annually, to the governing body of each municipality in which the interstate gas pipeline facility is located, a map identifying the location of the facility. Requires the Secretary, in issuing standards for public education programs and public safety programs, to consider the results of a required survey and assessment of such programs. Requires that notice of a hazardous condition be given, concurrently with a safety report to the Secretary, to local emergency responders, and appropriate On-scene Coordinators for the Area Contingency Plan-Sub-area Contingency Plan. (Sec. 4) Revises requirements for the Secretary's decision that a pipeline facility is hazardous to life, property, or the environment to include decisions that a facility or its construction or operation would be hazardous. Authorizes the Secretary to waive notice and hearing requirements, upon deciding a facility may present a hazard, and request the Attorney General to bring suit to restrain facility operation on behalf of the United States in the appropriate district court. Increases the general administrative civil penalty for violations: (1) from the minimum penalty of $25,000 to $100,000; and (2) from the maximum penalty of $500,000 to $1 million. States that such maximum civil penalty for a related series of violations does not apply to a judicial enforcement action brought by the Attorney General or by a private person. Revises considerations for determining the amount of a civil penalty to allow the Secretary to consider the economic benefit gained from the violation without any discount because of subsequent damages. Revises requirements with respect to the penalty for an excavator's not using the one-call notification system or not heeding location information or markings. Allows a court in which the Attorney General brings suit to award (in addition to punitive damages) a temporary or permanent injunction and civil penalties. Revises requirements for injunctive actions by private persons. Repeals authorization to bring a civil action against the United States and other governmental authorities. Limits such an action to a compliance enforcement action, and the defendant to a person owning or operating a pipeline facility. (Sec. 5) Declares that regulations prescribed by the Secretary do not apply to a State that has a one-call notification program accepted by the Secretary as meeting certain minimum standards, or approved by the Secretary as an alternative program. Applies safety program requirements to operators of hazardous liquid pipeline facilities (as well as operators of gas pipeline facilities). Authorizes a State to enforce a requirement of a one-call notification law satisfying specified Federal requirements against an operator of an interstate natural gas pipeline facility or an interstate hazardous liquid pipeline facility, provided that the requirement sought to be enforced is compatible with Federal minimum standards. Establishes a misdemeanor for any person who knowingly engages in an excavation activity without first using an available one-call notification system to establish the location of underground facilities in the excavation area. (Sec. 6) Authorizes the Secretary, after accepting a State's pipeline safety program certification, to: (1) make an agreement authorizing the State authority to participate in the oversight of interstate pipeline transportation; but (2) end such an agreement upon finding significant gaps in the State authority's regulatory authority. Authorizes the Secretary to pay up to 100 percent of the cost of the personnel, equipment, and activities of a State authority acting as the Secretary's agent in conducting a special investigation involved in monitoring new construction or investigating an incident on an interstate gas pipeline facility or an interstate hazardous liquid pipeline facility. (Sec. 7) Requires any person owning or operating a hazardous liquid pipeline facility to: (1) report to the Secretary each release to the environment greater than five gallons of the hazardous liquid or carbon dioxide transported; and (2) make available to the Secretary within prescribed time limits, during an incident investigation, any records, reports, and information relevant to such investigation. Directs the Secretary to establish a national depository of data on events and conditions, including spill histories and corrective actions for specific incidents, that can be used to evaluate the risk of, and to prevent, pipeline failures and releases. (Sec. 8) Revises the Secretary's entry and inspection authority. Authorizes the Secretary to establish procedures to recover travel, contract support, and related costs incurred because of investigation of incidents from the operators of the pipeline facilities involved in the incidents. (Sec. 9) Directs the Secretary to support international efforts to share information about the risks to the public and the environment from pipelines and the means of protecting against those risks. (Sec. 10) Revises requirements for the risk management demonstration grant program to authorize the Secretary, by order, to allow the continuation of an individual project beyond the program's termination, subject to specified conditions and time limits. (Sec. 11) Directs the Secretary to participate in the development of innovative alternative technologies to: (1) identify outside force damage using internal inspection devices, as well as monitor outside-force damage to pipelines; and (2) inspect pipelines that cannot accommodate internal inspection devices available on the date of the enactment of this Act. (Sec. 12) Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· HRH.R. 4303 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
MTBE Elimination Act - Expresses the sense of Congress that the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should provide technical assistance, information, and matching funds to help local communities test drinking water supplies and remediate drinking water contaminated with methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). Amends the Toxic Substances Control Act to prohibit, three years after the enactment of the MTBE Elimination Act, the use of MTBE as a fuel additive. Requires persons selling oxygenated gasoline containing MTBE at retail to be required under regulations promulgated by the Administrator to label the fuel dispensing system with a notice that specifies that the gasoline contains MTBE and provides other information concerning MTBE as determined appropriate by the Administrator. Directs the Administrator to establish a schedule that provides for an annual phased reduction in the quantity of MTBE that may be used as a fuel additive during the three-year period beginning on this Act's enactment date. Requires the Administrator to establish an MTBE research grants program within EPA. Authorizes grants to eligible grantees to pay the Federal cost share of research on: (1) the development of more cost-effective and accurate MTBE groundwater testing methods; (2) the development of more efficient and cost-effective remediation procedures for water sources contaminated with MTBE; or (3) the potential effects of MTBE on human health. Makes eligible for such grants Federal research agencies, national laboratories, colleges or universities, certain private research organizations, and State environmental research facilities. Authorizes appropriations. Directs the Administrator to promulgate rules requiring a .5 pounds per square inch Reid vapor pressure allowance for all reformulated gasoline containing 3.5 percent oxygen by weight. Provides that any additional volatile organic compound emissions resulting from the use of such gasoline should be deemed to be fully offset and not calculated in determining compliance with certain Clean Air Act provisions dealing with reasonable further progress plans or demonstrations.
Bill· HRH.R. 4322 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exempt from certain ticket taxes helicopter transport of persons and cargo in order to conduct removal and environmental restoration activities related to unexploded ordnance.
Bill· HRH.R. 4314 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Anthracite Region Redevelopment Act of 2000 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide a tax credit of 25 percent of the outstanding bond face amount for holders of qualified anthracite region development bonds (bonds having a 30-year term limit and issued by an approved entity for the restoration and redevelopment of abandoned mine land in the anthracite region, which covers certain portions of Pennsylvania). Limits to $1.2 billion the maximum aggregate face value of such bonds. Allows bond funds to be deposited into an approved segregated program fund for such purposes. Allows such bonds to be held by regulated investment companies, with the tax credit passing to company shareholders. Terminates the credit for any bond issued after the ten-year period following issuance of the first qualified bond. Requires the reporting of credits received. Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to act within 30 days after any request for bond approval under this Act.
Resolution· HRESH.Res. 479 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 13 April 2000
Global Sustainable Development Resolution - Expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States and the people of the United States, and the people and governments of the other Nations of the world, should take actions to establish democratic control over the global economy. (Sec. 3) Makes findings with respect to unregulated economic globalization and deleterious consequences that it tends to generate, including destructive competition (in which nations are forced to cut labor, social, and environmental costs in order to attract mobile capital), economic inequality, and degradation of democracy. (Sec. 4) Expresses the sense of the House that the United States should adopt specified policies with respect to: (1) global economic goals (reconstructing the global economy to achieve democracy, human rights, environmental sustainability, and economic advancement for the most oppressed and exploited parts of the population); (2) a democratic multilevel global economy; (3) reduction of financial volatility; (4) sustainable development; and (5) democracy. (Sec. 5) Expresses the sense of the House that, to develop the broadest possible dialog by the people of the United States among themselves and with the other peoples of the world regarding the future of the global economy, the United States should establish a United States Commission on the Global Economy which shall: (1) hold hearings to investigate the effect of globalization on the workers, industry, and environment of the United States; and (2) establish a Global Economy Truth Commission. (Sec. 6) Expresses the sense of the House that the United States should enter into negotiations with other members of the United Nations to develop and implement a sustainable development strategy aimed at restructuring the international financial system to avoid global recessions, protect the environment, ensure full employment, reverse the polarization of wealth and poverty, and support the efforts of polities at all levels to mobilize and coordinate their economic resources. Declares that the United States should: (1) work with other Nations to achieve specified goals such as encouraging economic policies based on domestic economic growth and development, not domestic austerity in the interest of export-led growth, and encouraging a return to more stable exchange rates in order to achieve the original purposes of the Bretton Woods agreement; (2) in cooperation with other Nations, establish levies on all foreign currency transactions and establish the mechanisms for implementing such levies on such transactions for specified purposes, establish one or more public international investment funds, develop international institutions to perform functions of monetary regulation that are performed inadequately by national central banks, and establish, for highly indebted nations, an insolvency or bankruptcy mechanism; and (3) take specified actions with respect to debt cancellation. (Sec. 7) Expresses the sense of the House that the United States should impose on any U.S. funding of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or any other international financial institution specified conditions with respect to worker rights, environmental conditions, social conditions, democracy and human rights conditions, international financial institution governance, participation by certain sectors of civil society, and IMF missions. (Sec. 8) Expresses the sense of the House that, to help establish public control and citizen sovereignty over global corporations and reduce the ability of such corporations to evade local and national law: (1) the United States should enter into negotiations with other countries to establish a binding Code of Conduct for Transnational Corporations, which should impose on each corporation that operates in more than one country requirements regarding toxic substance emissions, facilities, and hazardous materials disclosures, worker rights, environmental standards, termination of operations, unions, financial disclosures, investment, education and job training, and social and environmental standards; (2) there should be established a mechanism of adjudication and sanctions to enforce the code of conduct which allows both governments and citizens to initiate complaints of noncompliance by global corporations and which operates in a transparent manner; (3) Governments should not be subject to trade or other reprisals for efforts to enforce the code of conduct; (4) corporations based in the United States should immediately follow certain standards in their overseas operations, pending the implementation of the code of conduct; and (5) U.S. laws should be amended such that corporations incorporated or operating in the United States are held liable for harms caused abroad and that persons aggrieved by such harms can pursue actions for relief in the U.S. courts. (Sec. 9) Expresses the sense of the House that the President should begin the process of renegotiating all agreements regulating international trade, including the World Trade Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and bilateral investment treaties, with objectives of: (1) reorienting trade and investment to be means of carrying out just and sustainable development; (2) removing labor and environmental rights and conditions and social protections as factors of competition; and (3) incorporating in market prices the long-term costs of industrial production, including resource depletion, waste, and disposal or recycling of final product. Sets forth provisions regarding reporting requirements, withdrawal provisions, and trade agreement negotiating authority.
Bill· SS. 2409 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 12 April 2000
Pipeline Safety and Community Protection Act of 2000 - Amends Federal transportation law with respect to gas and hazardous liquid pipeline facilities in high-density population areas and environmentally sensitive areas. (Sec. 2) Requires the operator of a natural gas transmission pipeline facility or hazardous liquid pipeline facility to: (1) evaluate the risks to the operator's pipeline facility in such areas (as identified by specified criteria established by the Secretary of Transportation); and (2) adopt and implement a program for integrity management that reduces the risks in those areas. Specifies minimum standards, according to certain criteria, for an operator's program for integrity management, including: (1) internal inspection or another equally protective method for periodic assessment of pipeline integrity; (2) prompt actions to address integrity issues; and (3) measures that prevent and mitigate the consequences of a release of a hazardous substance or a discharge of oil. Requires the Secretary to prescribe additional standards, addressing specified issues, to direct an operator's conduct of a risk analysis or adoption or implementation of a program for integrity management. Excludes tanks incidental to pipeline transportation from the mandatory pipe inventory of a hazardous pipeline facility. Directs the Secretary to issue regulations for the implementation of an integrity management program by operators of more than 500 miles of hazardous liquid pipelines, and ultimately by all operators of such pipelines or natural gas transmission pipelines. (Sec. 3) Revises requirements for owner or operator public education programs on the use of a one-call notification system before excavation and other damage prevention activities, the possible hazards of unintended pipeline facility releases, and public detection and reporting of such an event. Requires each owner or operator to: (1) review its existing public education program for effectiveness and modify it as necessary; and (2) initiate and maintain liaison with the State emergency response commissions, and local emergency planning committees in the areas of pipeline right-of-way in each State in which it operates. Directs the Secretary to prescribe requirements for public access to integrity management program information prepared under this Act. Requires the owner or operator of each interstate gas pipeline facility to provide, at least annually, to the governing body of each municipality in which the interstate gas pipeline facility is located, a map identifying the location of the facility. Requires the Secretary to: (1) survey and assess public education programs and public safety programs; and (2) determine their effectiveness and applicability as components of a model program. Requires that notice of a hazardous condition be given, concurrently with a safety report to the Secretary, to local emergency responders, and appropriate on-scene coordinators for the area contingency plan or sub-area contingency plan. (Sec. 4) Revises requirements for the Secretary's decision that a pipeline facility is hazardous to life, property, or the environment to include decisions that a facility or its construction or operation would be hazardous. Authorizes the Secretary to waive notice and hearing requirements, upon deciding a facility may present a hazard, and request the Attorney General to bring suit to restrain facility operation on behalf of the United States in the appropriate district court. Increases the general administrative civil penalty for violations: (1) from the minimum penalty of $25,000 to $100,000; and (2) from the maximum penalty of $500,000 to $1 million. States that such maximum civil penalty for a related series of violations does not apply to a judicial enforcement action brought by the Attorney General or by a private person. Revises considerations for determining the amount of a civil penalty to allow the Secretary to consider the economic benefit gained from the violation without any discount because of subsequent damages. Revises requirements with respect to the penalty for an excavator's not using the one-call notification system or not heeding location information or markings. Allows a court in which the Attorney General brings suit to award (in addition to punitive damages) a temporary or permanent injunction and civil penalties. Revises requirements for injunctive actions by private persons. Repeals authorization to bring a civil action against the United States and other governmental authorities. Limits such an action to a compliance enforcement action, and the defendant to a person owning or operating a pipeline facility. (Sec. 5) Declares that regulations prescribed by the Secretary do not apply to a State that has a one-call notification program accepted by the Secretary as meeting certain minimum standards, or approved by the Secretary as an alternative program. Applies safety program requirements to operators of hazardous liquid pipeline facilities (as well as operators of gas pipeline facilities). Authorizes a State to enforce a requirement of a one-call notification law satisfying specified Federal requirements against an operator of an interstate natural gas pipeline facility or an interstate hazardous liquid pipeline facility, provided that the requirement sought to be enforced is compatible with Federal minimum standards. Establishes a misdemeanor for any person who knowingly engages in an excavation activity without first using an available one-call notification system to establish the location of underground facilities in the excavation area. (Sec. 6) Authorizes the Secretary, after accepting a State's pipeline safety program certification, to: (1) make an agreement authorizing the State authority to participate in the oversight of interstate pipeline transportation; but (2) end such an agreement upon finding significant gaps in the State authority's regulatory authority. Authorizes the Secretary to pay up to 100 percent of the cost of the personnel, equipment, and activities of a State authority acting as the Secretary's agent in conducting a special investigation involved in monitoring new construction or investigating an incident on an interstate gas pipeline facility or an interstate hazardous liquid pipeline facility. (Sec. 7) Requires any person owning or operating a hazardous liquid pipeline facility to: (1) report to the Secretary each release to the environment greater than five gallons of the hazardous liquid or carbon dioxide transported; and (2) make available to the Secretary within prescribed time limits, during an incident investigation, any records, reports, and information relevant to such investigation. Directs the Secretary to establish a national depository of data on events and conditions, including spill histories and corrective actions for specific incidents, that can be used to evaluate the risk of, and to prevent, pipeline failures and releases. (Sec. 8) Revises the Secretary's entry and inspection authority. Authorizes the Secretary to establish procedures to recover travel, contract support, and related costs incurred because of investigation of incidents from the operators of the pipeline facilities involved in the incidents. (Sec. 9) Directs the Secretary to support international efforts to share information about the risks to the public and the environment from pipelines and the means of protecting against those risks. (Sec. 10) Revises requirements for the risk management demonstration grant program to authorize the Secretary, by order, to allow the continuation of an individual project beyond the program's termination, subject to specified conditions and time limits. (Sec. 11) Directs the Secretary to participate in the development of innovative alternative technologies to: (1) identify outside force damage using internal inspection devices, as well as monitor outside-force damage to pipelines; and (2) inspect pipelines that cannot accommodate internal inspection devices available on the date of the enactment of this Act. (Sec. 12) Authorizes appropriations.
Law· HRH.R. 4249 (106th)enacted
United States · United States Congress · 12 April 2000
Cross-Border Cooperation and Environmental Safety in Northern Europe Act of 2000 - Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the United States Northern Europe Initiative is a sound framework for future United States involvement in Northern Europe; (2) the European Union should move expeditiously to authorize and fund the proposed "Northern Dimension" Initiative at appropriate yet substantial levels of assistance; (3) the United States should continue to support a wide-ranging strengthening of democratic and civic institutions on a regional basis to provide a foundation for political stability and investment opportunities, including cross-border exchanges, in Northern Europe; (4) the United States should demonstrate continued commitment to address environmental security challenges in Northwest Russia, in cooperation with partners in the region; and (5) recently-elected Russian President Vladimir Putin should rapidly conclude pending nuclear waste management agreements to enable assistance programs to go forward. Allocates specified sums from previously authorized appropriations for assistance and related programs for Eastern Europe and the Baltic States for the United States Northern Europe Initiative projects relating to environmental cleanup, law enforcement, public health, energy, business and trade promotion. Instructs the Secretary of State to report to Congress on: (1) the threat to environmental security presented by Russian marine nuclear reactor, waste, and contamination; and (2) possibilities for expanded United States and multilateral assistance programs for environmental clean-up in Northwest Russia, including technical exchanges and private- public partnerships.
Bill· HRH.R. 4248 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 12 April 2000
Working and Reacting (WAR) Against Meth Act of 2000 - Amends the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (CSIEA) to make current penalties with respect to violations involving the manufacturing, distribution, importation, and exportation of specified amounts of methamphetamine applicable to such amounts of amphetamine. (Sec. 4) Modifies CSA provisions regarding endangering human life while illegally manufacturing a controlled substance to: (1) set penalties for harm to the environment, if the controlled substance consists of methamphetamine; (2) provide for imprisonment for up to 40 years, as well as a possible fine, for violations; and (3) make any penalty under provisions regarding the establishment of controlled substance manufacturing operations in addition to any penalty under such provisions regarding harm to human life or to the environment. Specifies that in any case where the conduct at issue is, relates to, or involves the manufacture of amphetamine or methamphetamine, such conduct shall, by itself, be rebuttably presumed to constitute the creation of a substantial risk of harm to human life or to the environment. (Sec. 5) Provides that the El Paso Intelligence Center (EPIC) and the Los Angeles County Regional Criminal Information Clearinghouse (LA Clearinghouse), at the direction of the Attorney General, shall jointly and in concert constitute the National Center for Methamphetamine Clandestine Laboratory Information. Requires: (1) EPIC's National Clandestine Laboratory Seizure Intelligence database to provide for the nationwide electronic reporting, capture, and retrieval of clandestine laboratory seizure information; and (2) such information to be analyzed by the LA Clearinghouse, in concert and coordination with EPIC, and disseminated to appropriate law enforcement agencies in a timely manner. Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· HRH.R. 4260 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 12 April 2000
Farm Income Fairness Act of 2000 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from net earnings from self-employment: (1) certain farm rental income; and (2) payments under the environmental conservation acreage reserve program.
Bill· SS. 2385 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 11 April 2000
Dredged Material Reuse Act - Directs the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, to establish a program to allow the direct marketing of dredged material to public agencies and private entities, by authorizing each of the eight regional offices of the Corps of Engineers to market to such agencies and entities any dredged material from projects under its jurisdiction. Authorizes appropriations.
Bill· SS. 2382 (106th)referred
United States · United States Congress · 7 April 2000
Technical Assistance, Trade Promotion, and Anti-Corruption Act of 2000 - Title I: Promoting Trade and Protecting United States Jobs - Subtitle A: Private Sector Development - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to authorize the President to designate a private, nonprofit organization as eligible to receive Enterprise Funds with respect to any country for promoting: (1) development of the private sectors of eligible countries, including small businesses, the agricultural sector, and joint ventures with United States and host country participants; and (2) policies and practices conducive to private sector development in such countries on the same basis as Enterprise Funds are provided for Poland and Hungary under the Support for East European Democracy (SEED) Act of 1989. Subtitle B: Protection of United States Jobs and Exports - Prohibits: (1) U.S. bilateral assistance (including direct and guaranteed loans and credit and insurance programs by the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC)) to finance any loan to establish or expand production of any commodity for export by any country other than the United States, if such commodity is likely to be in surplus on world markets and such assistance will cause substantial injury to U.S. producers of the same, similar, or competing commodity; and (2) U.S. development assistance for any testing or breeding feasibility study, variety improvement or introduction, consultancy, publication, conference, or training in connection with the growth or production in a foreign country of an agricultural commodity grown or produced in the United States, with specified exceptions. (Sec. 112) Amends the International Financial Institutions Act to direct the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the U.S. Executive Directors of specified international financial institutions to use the U.S. vote to oppose any assistance by them for the production or extraction of any commodity or mineral for export, if it is in surplus on world markets and such assistance will cause substantial injury to U.S. producers of the same, similar, or competing commodity. (Sec. 113) Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to prohibit U.S. assistance (other than direct and guaranteed loans and credit and insurance programs by OPIC) to provide: (1) financial incentive to a business enterprise located in the United States to relocate outside the United States if such incentive is likely to reduce the number of employees of such enterprise because U.S. production is being replaced by it outside the United States; (2) assistance to establish or develop in a foreign country any export processing zone in which the tax, tariff, labor, environment, and safety laws of such country do not apply to activities within the zone, unless the President determines and certifies that such assistance is not likely to cause a loss of jobs within the United States; or (3) assistance for any project that contributes to the violation of internationally recognized workers rights within a recipient country or zone, except that such assistance shall not be precluded for the informal sector of such country, micro and small-scale enterprise, and smallholder agriculture. (Sec. 114) Declares that assistance under this Act should make full use of American resources, including commodities, products, and services, to the maximum extent possible. Expresses the sense of Congress that, to the greatest extent practicable, all agricultural commodities, equipment, and products purchased with funds made available in this Act should be American-made. Requires Federal agency heads, in providing financial assistance to or entering into any contract with any entity using funds made available in this Act, to notify such entity of this intention. Subtitle C: Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement - Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 - Sets forth provisions respecting presidential and congressional authorities and procedures for the imposition of new, and termination of existing, unilateral agricultural and medical sanctions. (Sec. 125) Requires prohibitions on certain U.S. assistance to a country supporting international terrorism to remain in effect until the Secretary of State determines that such country has repeatedly provided support for such terrorism. Title II: Economic Assistance - Subtitle A: Assistance Authorities - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to revise certain principles in the provision of U.S. bilateral development assistance to a foreign country to state that the successful transition of a developing country is dependent upon the economic reform and development of its institutions of democratic governance and its adherence to the rule of law. (Sec. 202) Increases from 25 million to $50 million the amount of foreign assistance funds that the President is authorized to use for emergency contingencies during any fiscal year. (Sec. 203) Provides for a waiver of restrictions on foreign assistance for narcotics-related assistance to foreign countries. (Sec. 204) Establishes a working capital fund for the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) which shall be available without fiscal year limitation for expenses of personal and nonpersonal services, equipment, and supplies for international cooperative administrative support services, and rebates from the use of U.S. Government credit cards. (Sec. 205) Provides that an organization shall be eligible for population planning assistance in a fiscal year if the AID Administrator determines and certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that it has not used such assistance for abortions or involuntary sterilizations. (Sec. 206) Authorizes appropriations for development assistance to foreign countries. Earmarks specified amounts from such appropriations for: (1) certain activities of the Global Environment Center of the AID; (2) certain water and coastal resources activities; and (3) assistance to East Timor. (Sec. 208) Amends the Horn of Africa Recovery and Food Security Act to make Economic Support Fund (ESF) assistance available for certain activities to aid the poor majority in the Horn of Africa. (Sec. 209) Declares that the total amount of development assistance made available for FY 2001 for sub-Saharan Africa shall bear the same proportion to the total amount of development assistance made available for that fiscal year as the total amount of development assistance for such region made available for FY 2000 bears to the total amount of development assistance made available for FY 2000. (Sec. 210) Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to make U.S. foreign assistance funds available for nonmilitary education programs and for anticorruption programs. Subtitle B: International Disaster Assistance - Authorizes the President to provide, through international disaster assistance, for the reconstruction of foreign countries affected by natural disasters. (Sec. 212) Requires the Administrator of AID, in processing applications for the transportation of humanitarian assistance abroad, to afford priority to applications for the transportation of disaster relief assistance. Subtitle C: Sudan Peace Act - Sudan Peace Act - Declares that Congress: (1) condemns violations of human rights on all sides of the conflict in Sudan (including the Government of Sudan), the ongoing slave trade there, and the Government's increasing use and organization of "murahalliin" or "mujahadeen", Popular Defense Forces (PDF), and regular Sudanese Army units into raiding and slaving parties in Bahr al Ghazal, the Nuba Mountains, Upper Nile, and Blue Nile regions; and (2) recognizes that the use of raiding and slaving parties is a tool for creating food shortages as a systematic means to destroy the societies, culture, and economies of the Dinka and Nuba peoples in a policy of low-intensity ethnic cleansing. (Sec. 225) Expresses the sense of Congress that it: (1) declares its support for the efforts by U.S. executive branch officials and the President's Special Envoy for Sudan to lead in a reinvigoration of the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD)-sponsored peace process; (2) calls on IGAD member states, the European Union, the Organization of African Unity, Egypt, and other key states to support such process; (3) urges Kenya's leadership in the implementation of the process; and (4) declares that any such diplomatic efforts toward resolution of the conflict in Sudan are best made through a peace process based on the Declaration of Principles reached in Nairobi, Kenya, on July 20, 1994, and that the President should not create any process which could be viewed as a parallel or competing diplomatic track. (Sec. 226) Expresses the sense of Congress that the President, acting through the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations, should take specified actions to increase pressure on the combatants involved in the war in Sudan. (Sec. 227) Directs the President to report to Congress on: (1) the specified sources (including any U.S. sources) and current status of Sudan's financing and construction of oil exploitation infrastructure and pipelines; (2) such financing's relation to sanctions contained in the Executive Order of November 4, 1997; (3) the extent of aerial bombardment by the Government of Sudan forces in areas outside its control; (4) the number, duration, and locations of air strips or other humanitarian relief facilities to which access is denied by any party to the conflict; and (5) the status of the IGAD-sponsored peace process or any other ongoing effort to end the conflict, including specific and verifiable steps taken by the parties to the conflict, the members of the IGAD Partners Forum, and the members of IGAD toward a comprehensive solution to the war. (Sec. 228) Expresses the sense of Congress that the President should organize and maintain a formal consultative process with the European Union, the United Nations Security Council, and other relevant parties on coordinating an effort within the UN to revise the terms of Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) to end the Government of Sudan's veto power over OLS plans for air transport relief flights. (Sec. 229) Expresses the sense of Congress that the President should continue to increase the use of non-OLS agencies in the distribution of relief supplies in southern Sudan. (Sec. 230) Directs the President to develop and report to Congress on a contingency plan to provide, outside UN auspices, the greatest amount of U.S. Government and privately donated relief to all affected areas in Sudan, including the Nuba Mountains, Upper Nile, and Blue Nile, in the event the Government of Sudan imposes a ban on OLS air transport relief flights. (Sec. 231) Supports the President's ongoing efforts to diversify and increase the effectiveness of U.S. assistance to populations in areas of Sudan outside the control of the Government of Sudan, especially the long-term focus shown in the Sudan Transition Assistance for Rehabilitation (STAR) program with its emphasis on promoting democracy, self-reliance, and actively supporting people-to-people reconciliation efforts. Authorizes appropriations. Grants the President authority to undertake any appropriate programs using Federal agencies, contractual arrangements, or direct support of indigenous groups, agencies, or organizations in areas outside the control of the Government of Sudan (including northern, southern, and eastern regions) in an effort to provide emergency relief, economic self-sufficiency, build civil authority, provide education, enhance rule of law and the development of the judiciary, support people-to-people reconciliation efforts, or implementation of any programs in support of any viable peace agreement. Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the President should immediately and to the fullest extent possible utilize the Office of Transition Initiatives at the Agency for International Development to pursue such programs in the Sudan; and (2) priority should be given in current and future development or transition programs undertaken by the U.S. Government to rebuilding and supporting the Rumbek Secondary School in the Sudan. (Sec. 232) Expresses the sense of Congress that the President should assess the humanitarian needs in the Nuba Mountains, Red Sea Hills, and Blue Nile regions of Sudan, and respond appropriately to those needs. (Sec. 233) Directs the President to report to the appropriate congressional committees detailing possible options or plans of the U.S. Government for the provision of nonlethal assistance to participants of the National Democratic Alliance. Subtitle D: Assistance to Countries With Large Populations Having HIV/AIDS - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to revise requirements for assistance for health programs in developing countries to declare that Congress recognizes: (1) the growing international dilemma of children with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); and (2) that mother-to-child transmission prevention strategies can serve as a major force for change in developing regions, and that it is therefore a major objective of the foreign assistance program to control the acquired immune deficiency syndrom (AIDS) epidemic. Provides that Congress expects the agency primarily responsible for administering this Act to make the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS a priority in the foreign assistance program for developing countries. Authorizes appropriations (earmarking amounts for training and training facilities in sub-Saharan Africa and U.S. contributions to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative). (Sec. 245) Directs the President to enter into negotiations with foreign government officials and other interested parties to establish an international vaccine purchase fund that would: (1) accept contributions from governments to purchase and distribute in developing countries vaccines for malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, and any infectious disease which causes the deaths of over one million people worldwide each year; and (2) be a significant market incentive for private sector vaccine research. (Sec. 246) Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to enter into negotiations with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) or the International Development Association (IDA), and with their member nations and other interested parties, for the creation of two trust funds which would accept contributions from governments, the private sector, and nongovernmental entities to: (1) address the AIDS epidemic in countries eligible to borrow from the IDA; and (2) provide support for or the establishment of programs which provide primary and secondary education for orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 248) Directs the President to coordinate the development of multidonor strategy to provide for the support and education of AIDS orphans and the families, communities, and institutions most affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Requires the United States to ensure that classroom training under the African Crisis Response Initiative includes military-based education on the prevention of the spread of AIDS. Subtitle E: International Tuberculosis Control - International Tuberculosis Control Act of 2000 - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to revise requirements for assistance for health programs in developing countries to declare that Congress recognizes: (1) the growing international problem of tuberculosis; and (2) that the means exist to control and treat it, and that it is therefore a major objective of the foreign assistance program to control the disease. (Sec. 253) Declares that Congress expects the agency primarily responsible for administering this Act to: (1) coordinate with the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institutes of Health, and other organizations toward the development and implementation of a comprehensive tuberculosis control program; and (2) set as a goal the detection of at least 70 percent of the cases of infectious tuberculosis, and the cure of at least 85 percent of the cases detected, in those countries in which the agency has established development programs, by December 31, 2010. Authorizes appropriations. Subtitle F: Global Opportunities for Biotechnology in Agriculture - Advancing the Global Opportunities for Biotechnology in Agriculture Act of 2000 - Authorizes the appropriation of certain foreign assistance funds to the President for programs and projects designed, through the establishment of technical exchange programs for foreign officials and U.S. biotechnology experts, to educate government officials in developing countries regarding the use of biotechnology in the agricultural sector and the regulatory procedures used by the United States with respect to agricultural products using biotechnology. Declares that such programs shall encourage acceptance by such countries of products approved under the U.S. regulatory system or, in the case of countries which choose to establish a national regulatory system based on science, to encourage adoption of domestic approval processes based on objective scientific principles. (Sec. 265) Directs the President to establish an interagency process for all relevant executive branch agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, the Office of the U.S. Trade of Representative, the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID), the Department of Commerce, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency, to coordinate efforts and to generate support for the acceptance of agricultural biotechnology. Urges U.S. policies to stress the prominence of science as the foundation for regulatory decision-making and work aggressively in international fora such as the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, including its CODEX Alimentarius, and the United Nations, to advocate for science-based decision-making. Urges AID and the Department of Agriculture to ensure that all food and grain products that meet U.S. health and safety requirements are acceptable to foreign countries under relevant food aid programs. (Sec. 266) Expresses the sense of Congress that the Secretary of State should work with U.S. embassies abroad to develop bilateral support from foreign governments for the approval of science-based trading regimes in multilateral forums and organizations. Title III: Peace Corps of the United States - Amends the Peace Corps Act to redesignate the Peace Corps as the Peace Corps of the United States. Title IV: Strengthening Anticorruption Measures and Accountability - Amends the Bretton Woods Agreement Act to authorize appropriations through FY 2003 for U.S. contributions to the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Trust Fund of the World Bank. (Sec. 402) Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to instruct the U.S. Executive Director of each multilateral development bank to exert U.S. influence to strengthen each bank's procedures and management controls to ensure that funds disbursed by it to borrowing countries are used as intended and in a manner that complies with the conditions of the bank's loan to such country. (Sec. 403) Directs the Comptroller General to report annually to the appropriate congressional committees on the sufficiency of audits of the financial operations of each multilateral development bank conducted by persons or entities outside of such bank. (Sec. 404) Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to repeal the President's discretionary authority to transfer certain funds to certain international financial institutions for the purpose of bilateral funding. Title V: Serbia Democratization Act - Serbia Democratization Act of 2000 - Subtitle A: Support for the Democratic Forces - Authorizes the President to furnish assistance and other support to promote and strengthen institutions of democratic government and the growth of an independent civil society in Serbia, including ethnic tolerance and respect for internationally recognized human rights. Authorizes appropriations. Urges the President to take all necessary steps to ensure that such assistance shall not be provided to the Government of Yugoslavia or the Government of Serbia. (Sec. 512) Authorizes the President to provide assistance to the Government of Montenegro, unless the President determines, and reports to the appropriate congressional committees, that the leadership of such government is not committed to, or is not taking steps to promote, democratic principles, the rule of law, or respect for internationally recognized human rights. (Sec. 513) Directs the Broadcasting Board of Governors to further the open communication of information and ideas through the increased use of radio and television broadcasting (Voice of America and Radio Free Europe-Radio Liberty, Incorporated) to Yugoslavia in both the Serbo-Croatian and Albanian languages. Subtitle B: Assistance to the Victims of Oppression - Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the Government of Yugoslavia and the Government of Serbia bear responsibility to the victims of the conflict in Kosovo, including refugees and internally displaced persons, and for property damage in Kosovo; (2) under President Milosevic's direction neither government has provided the resources to assist innocent, civilian victims of oppression in Kosovo; and (3) because neither government has fulfilled the responsibilities of a sovereign government toward the Kosovar people, the international community offers the only course for humanitarian assistance to victims of oppression in Kosovo. (Sec. 523) Authorizes the President to furnish assistance (including economic support funds) under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962 for: (1) relief, rehabilitation, and reconstruction in Kosovo; and (2) refugees and persons displaced by the conflict there. Prohibits assistance to any organization that has been designated as a terrorist organization. Subtitle C: "Outer Wall" Sanctions - Imposes certain economic and non-economic ("Outer Wall") sanctions against Yugoslavia until the President determines, and certifies to the appropriate congressional committees, that the Government of Yugoslavia has made significant progress in meeting certain conditions, including: (1) agreement on a lasting settlement in Kosovo; (2) compliance with the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina; (3) implementation of internal democratic reform; (4) settlement of all succession issues with the other republics that emerged from the break-up of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia; and (5) cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, including the transfer to the Hague of all individuals in Yugoslavia indicted by the Tribunal. (Sec. 531) Sets forth such sanctions, including instructing: (1) the U.S. executive directors of the international financial institutions to oppose, and vote against, any extension of any financial assistance of any kind to the Government of Yugoslavia; (2) the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to oppose and block any consensus to allow the participation of Yugoslavia in the OSCE; (3) the U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) to oppose any resolution in the UN Security Council to admit Yugoslavia to the UN, including any proposal to allow it to assume the membership of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the UN General Assembly; (4) the U.S. Permanent Representative to the North Atlantic Council to oppose the extension to Yugoslavia of membership in the Partnership for Peace program or any other affiliated NATO organization; and (5) the U.S. Representatives to the Southeast European Cooperation Initiative (SECI) to actively oppose the extension of SECI membership to Yugoslavia. Expresses the sense of Congress that the President: (1) should not restore full diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia until the President has determined, and reported to the appropriate congressional committees, that Yugoslavia has met the aforementioned conditions; and (2) should encourage all other European countries to diminish their level of diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia. (Sec. 532) Expresses the sense of Congress that if any international financial institution approves a loan or other financial assistance to the Government of Yugoslavia over the opposition of the United States, then the Secretary of the Treasury should withhold from payment the U.S. share of any increase in the paid-in capital of such institution in an amount equal to the amount of such loan or other assistance. Subtitle D: Other Measures Against Yugoslavia - Blocks all property of the Government of Serbia or the Government of Yugoslavia (including commercial, industrial, or public utility or entities) that is in the United States. (Sec. 542) Directs the President to use the authorities under the Immigration and Nationality Act to suspend the entry into the United States of any alien who: (1) holds a position in the senior leadership of the Government of Yugoslavia or the Government of Serbia; or (2) is a spouse, minor child, or agent of such person. (Sec. 543) Prohibits the export of computers, computer software, or goods or technology intended to manufacture or service computers to or for use by the Government of Yugoslavia or by the Government of Serbia (including the military, the police, the prison system, and the national security agencies of such republics). Declares that nothing in this section shall prevent the issuance of licenses to ensure the safety of civil aviation and safe operation of U.S.-origin commercial passenger aircraft and to ensure the safety of ocean-going maritime traffic in international waters. (Sec. 544) Prohibits: (1) any Government agency (including the Export-Import Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation) from extending any loan, credit guarantee, insurance, financing, or other similar financial assistance to the Government of Yugoslavia or the Government of Serbia; and (2) any funds being made available for activities of the Trade and Development Agency in or for Serbia. Urges all other countries, particularly European countries, to suspend any of their programs that provide similar financial assistance to the Government of Yugoslavia or the Government of Serbia, including rescheduling either government's debt under more favorable conditions. Prohibits any U.S. national from making or approving any loan or other extension of credit (unless it is for housing, education, or humanitarian benefit to assist the victims of repression in Kosovo), directly or indirectly, to the Government of Yugoslavia or to the Government of Serbia. (Sec. 545) Prohibits the U.S. Government (including any Federal agency or entity) from providing assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 or the Arms Export Control Act (including the provision of Foreign Military Financing or international military education and training (IMET)) or providing any defense articles or defense services under such Acts, to the armed forces of the Government of Yugoslavia or of the Government of Serbia. (Sec. 546) Expresses the sense of Congress that the President should continue to seek to coordinate with other countries, particularly European countries, a comprehensive, multilateral strategy to further the purposes of this Act, including, as appropriate, encouraging other countries to take similar measures contained in this title. (Sec. 547) Exempts from the sanctions imposed in this Act both Kosovo and Montenegro (unless the President determines and certifies to the appropriate congressional committees that the leadership of the Government of Montenegro is not committed to, or is not taking steps to promote, democratic principles, the rule of law, or respect for internationally recognized human rights). Provides for a waiver and termination of sanctions imposed against Yugoslavia. Subtitle E: Miscellaneous Provisions - Declares it is U.S. policy to support the investigation of President Slobodan Milosevic by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention. (Sec. 552) Expresses the sense of Congress that the President should call on NATO allies in negotiating the future of Kosovo to establish guarantees for the rights of the ethnic Hungarian community of Vojvodina. (Sec. 553) Declares it is U.S. policy to insist that the Government of Yugoslavia has the responsibility to engage in good faith negotiations with the Governments of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Slovenia for resolution of outstanding property issues and disposition of specified properties located in the United States. Expresses the sense of Congress that if the Government of Yugoslavia refuses to negotiate in good faith, the President should take steps to return such properties to such governments. (Sec. 554) Authorizes the President to furnish assistance to Yugoslavia if he determines, and certifies to the appropriate congressional committees, that the Government of Yugoslavia is committed to democratic principles and the rule of law and respects internationally recognized human rights. Title VI: Microenterprise Assistance - Microenterprise for Self-Reliance Act of 2000 - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to set forth congressional findings and policy, including that: (1) the development of microenterprise (including micro- and small enterprises) is a vital factor in the growth of developing countries and in the development of free, open, and equitable international economic systems; (2) it is in the best interest of the United States to assist the development of microenterprises and of enterprises of the poor in developing countries; and (3) the support of microenterprise can be served by programs that provide credit, savings, training, technical assistance, and business development services. (Sec. 604) Authorizes the President to provide grants and other assistance for programs to increase the availability of credit and other services to microenterprises (including micro- and small enterprises) lacking full access to capital training, technical assistance, and business development services through: (1) grants to microfinance institutions; (2) loans and guarantees to credit institutions (with a limit of $30 million per borrower); (3) grants to microenterprise institutions for training, technical assistance, and business development services; and (4) policy and regulatory programs at the country level. (Sec. 606) Directs the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) to establish: (1) a monitoring system that provides, among other things, for performance goals for microenterprise development grant assistance; (2) eligibility criteria for determining which entities shall carry out activities receiving credit assistance; and (3) a U.S. Microfinance Loan Facility to prevent the bankruptcy of microfinance institutions caused by natural disasters, war or civil conflict, national financial crisis, or other short-term financial movements that threaten the long-term development of such institutions. Authorizes appropriations. (Sec. 607) Directs the President to report to the appropriate congressional committees on the most cost-effective methods and measurements for increasing the access of poor people overseas to credit, other financial services, and related training. (Sec. 608) Expresses the sense of the Congress that: (1) the administrator of AID and the Secretary of State should seek to support and strengthen the effectiveness of microfinance activities in United Nations (UN) agencies, such as the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the UN Development Program, which have provided key leadership in developing the microenterprise sector; and (2) the Secretary of the Treasury should instruct each U.S. Executive Director of the multilateral development banks to advocate the development of a coherent and coordinated strategy to support the microenterprise sector, including an increase of multilateral resource flows for building microenterprise retail and wholesale intermediaries. Title VII: Defense and Security Assistance - Subtitle A: Military and Related Assistance - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2001 for foreign military financing grants and direct loans. (Sec. 711) Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to increase the aggregate value of the emergency drawdown of defense articles from the stocks of the Department of Defense (DOD), defense services of DOD, and international military education and training (IMET) to foreign countries in any fiscal year. Authorizes the drawdown of such articles, services, and training for counterterrorism and nonproliferation purposes. (Sec. 712) Authorizes the President to provide for the transportation of excess defense articles without charge to a country for the costs of such transportation if, among other things, the total weight of such transfer does not exceed 50,000 pounds (currently, 25,000 pounds). Subtitle B: International Military Education and Training - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2001 for IMET assistance to foreign countries. Sets forth certain additional requirements with respect to the provision of such assistance. Subtitle C: Nonproliferation and Export Control Assistance - Authorizes the President to furnish assistance to foreign countries in order to enhance their ability to halt the proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, and advanced conventional weaponry. (Sec. 731) Authorizes appropriations for FY 2001 (earmarking amounts for training and education of personnel from friendly countries in the United States, science and technology centers in the independent states of the former Soviet Union, and static cargo x-ray facility in Malta). Subtitle D: Antiterrorism Assistance - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2001 for antiterrorism assistance to foreign countries. Subtitle E: Integrated Security Assistance Planning - Requires the Secretary of State to report annually to the appropriate congressional committees on a National Security Assistance Strategy for the United States. (Sec. 752) Authorizes appropriations for FY 2001 for security assistance surveys used in preparing the Strategy. (Sec. 761) Authorizes appropriations for FY 2001 for foreign military financing grants for the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Earmarks specified amounts of IMET assistance funds for such countries, including Greece and turkey. (Sec. 763) Earmarks specified amounts for FY 2001 for foreign military financing grants for Israel and Egypt. Earmarks specified amounts for such grants (including IMET assistance) for: (1) Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania; (2) Philippines; (3) Georgia; (4) Malta; (5) Slovenia; (6) Slovakia; (7) Romania; and (8) Bulgaria. (Sec. 765) Earmarks certain funds for FY 2001 to assist GUUAM countries (group of countries that signed a protocol on quadrilateral cooperation on November 25, 1997) and Armenia to: (1) strengthen national control of their borders (including to prevent the trafficking of illegal narcotics and the proliferation of technology and materials related to weapons of mass destruction, and to contain and inhibit transnational organized criminal activities); and (2) promote the independence and territorial sovereignty of such countries. Subtitle F: Other Provisions - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to authorize the use of defense articles and defense services made available through the provision of U.S. military assistance to foreign countries for antiterrorism and nonproliferation purposes. (Sec. 772) Amends the Arms Export Control Act to authorize the President to reduce the price for the sale of DOD and Coast Guard defense articles to eligible foreign countries if certain conditions are met. (Sec. 773) Repeals certain congressional reporting and certification requirements with respect to cooperative projects with North American Treaty Organization countries. (Sec. 774) Exempts a prohibition on U.S. assistance to the Government of Azerbaijan from certain congressional oversight provisions under the National Security Act of 1947. (Sec. 775) Sets forth the maximum value of additions to stockpiles in foreign countries for FY 2001. Makes amounts available for such stockpiles in the Republic of Korea. (Sec. 776) Authorizes the President to transfer to Israel certain obsolete or surplus defense articles in return for concessions to be negotiated by the Secretary of Defense. (Sec. 777) Prohibits US sale of Stinger missiles in the Persian Gulf, with certain exceptions. (Sec. 778) Amends Federal law to increase: (1) the bond required to be filed with the Secretary of the Treasury in cases where certain required export information may be filed with the Secretary by a carrier in connection with the exportation or transportation of cargo after the departure of such carrier from the port or place of exportation or transportation; and (2) the penalty for a carrier's failure to file such information within the prescribed period. Subjects a person who knowingly fails to file, or knowingly files false or misleading, export information through the Shipper's Export Declaration (SED) or the Automated Export System (AES) to a fine not to exceed $10,000, or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both. Increases the civil penalty with respect to the violation of the other reporting requirements under this Act. (Sec. 779) Authorizes for FY 2001 the use of DOD funds for crating, packing, handling, and transporting excess defense articles to Mongolia. (Sec. 780) Directs the President to certify annually to the appropriate congressional committees that any Russian person engaged in a commercial operation involving Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) equipment or technology with a U.S. person pursuant to an arms export license issued within the 36 months preceding the certification is not suspected of contributing to the acquisition, design, development, or production of MTCR-class ballistic missiles in Iran at any time since January 1, 2000. Authorizes the President to terminate such license if it is determined that the foreign person has engaged in the transfer of any MTCR equipment or technology. (Sec. 781) Makes specified amounts of economic support fund (ESF) and foreign military financing funds available only to Israel for FY 2001 through 2008. Subtitle G: Transfers of Naval Vessels - Authorizes the President to transfer certain naval vessels to: (1) Australia; (2) Brazil; (3) Chile; (4) Egypt; (5) Greece; and (6) Turkey. (Sec. 792) Sets forth requirements with respect to: (1) the inapplicability of aggregate annual limitation on the value of transferred excess defense articles; (2) who should be charged the costs related to such transfers; (3) conditions related to the transfer of naval vessels on a combined lease-sale basis; and (4) the funding of costs related to such transfers. Subtitle H: Definition - Defines "appropriate committees of Congress". Title VIII: Special Authorities and Other Provisions - Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to set forth additional authority under the Arms Export Control Act for the prohibition on assistance to any foreign government that provides lethal military equipment to a country that the Secretary of State has determined has a terrorist government, unless the President determines that furnishing such assistance is in the U.S. national interest. (Sec. 802) Authorizes the Administrator of the agency primarily responsible for administering development assistance to foreign countries to provide program and management oversight for activities that are funded by such assistance in countries in which such agency does not have a field mission or office. (Sec. 803) Sets forth revised requirements with respect to the availability of foreign assistance funds for the winding up of programs that have been terminated. (Sec. 804) Authorizes the President to furnish foreign assistance to support or strengthen the administration of justice in countries in Latin American and the Caribbean. Repeals the prohibition against the participation of DOD personnel and members of the U.S. armed forces in the provision of training with respect to the administration of justice in such countries. (Sec. 805) Amends the International Financial Institutions Act to require the annual reporting of environmental impact of multilateral development bank assistance proposals (currently made semi-annually). (Sec. 806) Expresses the sense of the Senate on environmental contamination and health effects emanating from former U.S. military facilities in the Philippines. (Sec. 807) Repeals obsolete provisions of specified Federal laws.
Record· Mündliche Anfrage - BR1085/M-BR/2000mündliche anfrage - br
Austria · Federal Council · 6 April 2000
Mündliche Anfrage von BR Erhard Meier an den Bundesminister für Land- und Forstwirtschaft Mag. Wilhelm Molterer betreffend Verringerung der Grundwasserbelastung seit Einführung des Österreichischen Programms für umweltgerechte Landwirtschaft
Question· Schriftliche Anfrage607/Jschriftliche anfrage
Austria · National Council · 6 April 2000
Schriftliche Anfrage der Abgeordneten Dr. Eva Glawischnig, Kolleginnen und Kollegen an den Bundesminister für Inneres betreffend Bekämpfung der Umweltkriminalität
PreviousPage 10 of 11Next