Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989

Summary

Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 - Title I: Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry - Agricultural Reconciliation Act of 1989 - Subtitle A: Agricultural Commodity Programs - Amends the Agricultural Act of 1949 to: (1) prescribe new acreage reductions for the 1990 crops of cotton and feed grains; (2) reduce deficiency payments for the 1990 crops of wheat, feed grains, cotton, and rice; (3) set price supports for butter and nonfat dry milk; and (4) permit the planting of soybeans, sunflowers, and safflowers on 1990 commodity crop acreage. Revises the formula in the Disaster Assistance Act of 1989 for the reduction of 1989 disaster payments. Subtitle B: Agricultural Trade Programs - Reduces the dollar amount of commodities the Commodity Credit Corporation shall make available under the export enhancement program during FY 1990. Directs the Corporation to promote the export of U.S. meat to military installations in the European Community during FY 1990 through 1992. Reduces the amount of FY 1990 funds for targeted export assistance under the Food Security Act of 1985. Makes any person ineligible for participation in certain agricultural export programs with respect to any commodity or product used as the basis for a Federal import duty refund or drawback claim. Subtitle C: General Provisions - Amends the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 with respect to the prepayment and interest rate adjustment of Federal Financing Bank loans. Amends the National Agricultural Research, Extension, and Teaching Policy Act of 1977 to authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to conduct research into new commercial products derived from natural plant materials. Delays until October 1, 1992, the requirement that Farm Credit System (FCS) institutions purchase Financial Assistance Corporation Stock. Prescribes the number, timing and calculation of certain payments by the corporation to stock-purchasing FCS institutions. Amends the Farm Credit Act of 1971 to prescribe the annual premium due from any insured FCS bank for any calendar year. Subtitle D: Promotion Programs - Chapter 1: Soybeans - Soybean Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to issue an order (subject to producer referendum) creating a soybean promotion, research, and consumer education program. Requires any such order to provide for the establishment of: (1) a United Soybean Board; (2) State soybean boards; and (3) a Soybean Program Coordinating Committee. Funds such program through producer assessments. Authorizes appropriations. Chapter 2: Cotton - Cotton Research and Promotion Act Amendments of 1989 - Amends the Cotton Research and Promotion Act to require the Secretary of Agriculture to propose alternative cotton handler orders upon request by a cotton producer or producer organization, and to implement such orders, subject to producer referenda of approval. Requires each alternative order to establish a Cotton Board to administer the order. Chapter 3: Pecans - Pecan Promotion and Research Act of 1989 - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to issue orders to pecan growers, handlers, and importers with respect to pecan promotion and research. Requires any such order to establish a Pecan Marketing Board to carry out a coordinated program of research and promotion to strengthen the pecan industry's domestic and foreign market position. Funds such program through assessments on all pecans produced in, or imported into, the United States. Provides for a pecan producer referendum of program approval. Authorizes appropriations. Chapter 4: Mushrooms - Mushroom Promotion, Research and Consumer Information Act - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to issue orders to mushroom producers, importers, and first handlers with respect to mushroom promotion, research, and consumer information. Requires such an order to establish a Mushroom Council to administer the orders and support mushroom promotion, research, and consumer information projects. Funds such activities through assessments on producers and importers. Provides for mushroom producer referenda for approval of such orders. Authorizes appropriations. Chapter 5: Limes - Lime Research, Promotion, and Consumer Information Act - Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to issue orders to lime producers, handlers, and importers with respect to lime promotion, research, and consumer information. Requires such an order to establish a Lime Board to administer such orders. Funds such activities through assessments on producers and importers. Provides for lime producer referenda for approval of such orders. Authorizes appropriations. Chapter 6: Potatoes - Potato Research and Promotion Act Amendments of 1989- Amends the Potato Research and Promotion Act to extend coverage to all domestic and foreign potatoes. Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to propose an alternative potato research and promotion plan, if requested by a potato producer or producer organization, and to implement it, subject to approval by a producer referendum. Requires such alternative plan to establish a National Potato Promotion Board including importer representatives as well as producer and consumer representatives. Provides for producer and importer assessments. Chapter 7: Honey - Honey Research, Promotion, and Consumer Information Act Amendments of 1989 - Amends the Honey Research, Promotion, and Consumer Information Act to permit one of the two current Honey Board importer seats to be filled by an exporter. Exempts from honey assessments an importer, producer, or producer-handler who handles less than 6000 pounds of honey annually all of which is used at home, donated, or distributed directly through retail outlets. Provides that: (1) patents, copyrights, inventions, publications, or product formulations developed with Board funds shall belong to the Board; and (2) any funds derived therefrom shall inure to the benefit of the Board. Provides for assessments to be deducted directly from honey price support loans. Chapter 8: Kiwifruit and Other Fruit - Amends the Agricultural Adjustment Act, as reenacted by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1932, to require imported kiwifruit, nectarines, and plums to meet standards set in marketing orders for domestic varieties of such fruits. Chapter 9: Papaya - Amends the Agricultural Adjustment Act, as reenacted by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, to require imported papaya to meet standards set in marketing orders for domestic papaya. Chapter 10: Eggs - Amends the Egg Research and Consumer Information Act to exempt from its specific provisions: (1) any egg producer with 30,000 or fewer laying hens at any time during a three-consecutive-month period immediately before assessments are due; and (2) any flock of breeding hens whose egg production is primarily used for hatching baby chicks. Chapter 11: Peanuts - Amends the Agricultural Adjustment Act, as reenacted by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, to subject to inspection all peanuts handled by persons who have not entered a marketing agreement with the Secretary. Prohibits sale or other disposition of any such peanuts failing to meet standards. Establishes an administrative penalty for any person who violates these requirements. Chapter 12: Vidalia Onions - Prohibits the labeling of any onions as Vidalia onions unless they meet specified standards. Title II: Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs - Amends the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968 to extend the national flood insurance program from FY 1989 through FY 1991. Prohibits the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency from implementing the program through Federal facilities until nine months after reporting the need for such action to the Congress unless it would be impossible to continue to carry out the regular flood insurance program effectively during that time. Extends the authorization of appropriations for required studies through FY 1991. Requires the Director to study the impact of relative sea level rise on the flood insurance rate maps and report the results to the Congress. Title III: Proposed Budget Reconciliation Provisions of the Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation Relating to FCC User Fees and Penalties - Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to adjust the Schedule of Charges assessed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the provision of the following services: (1) private radio services; (2) equipment approval services/experimental radio; (3) mass media services; (4) common carrier services; and (5) miscellaneous charges. Changes to every two years after October 1, 1991, the date upon which such Schedule shall be reviewed by the FCC and adjusted to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index. Increases fines and penalties for various failures and noncompliance under the Communications Act of 1934 (the Act). Increases the fines assessed against those who receive from a common carrier a rebate or offset against the regular charges for the transmission of messages or signals. Makes such finds higher for broadcast station licensees or permittees, cable television operators, or applicants for cable television operation. States penalty amounts if the violator is a common carrier subject to the provisions of the Act or an applicant for a common carrier license. Requires the FCC to assess such forfeiture penalty amount via written notice. Requires the Secretary of Transportation to collect a fee of $3.00 for each passenger on a commercial aircraft departing the United States on international flights during FY 1990. Requires deposit of such fees in the Treasury to offset the Department of Transportation's activities relating to international air transportation operations, including air traffic control operations and aviation security and safety inspections. Amends Federal law to require the Secretary to collect a $3.00 per passenger fee for each covered voyage of a: (1) passenger vessel (with certain exceptions) having specified accommodations on a voyage that extends over one or more nights; or (2) vessel transporting passengers engaged in gambling aboard such vessel beyond the territorial limits of the United States. Targets the use of such fees for harbor maintenance and Coast Guard activities. Requires the Secretary (the Secretary) of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating to establish a system for the collection of $50,000,000 in FY 1990 from users of Coast Guard services other than those related to emergency search and rescue. Requires the system to include collection of payments from: (1) sales of support of services stamps; and (2) fees charged to users of such specified services who have not purchased such stamps. Requires the Secretary to ensure that such system minimizes adverse economic effects upon commercial towing services and other segments of the maritime industry. Requires a report to the Congress on measures taken to establish such system. Requires the Secretary of Transportation to establish a schedule of fees to be collected: (1) for each slot issued by the Federal Aviation Administration and held by an air carrier, other than a commuter operator, at high density traffic airports; and (2) for each slot held by a foreign air carrier at such airports, consistent with international law and U.S. treaties. Requires the total of fees collected for FY 1990 to be at least $239,000,000. Title IV: Environment and Public Works - Subtitle A: Atmospheric, Pollution Fees - Stratospheric Ozone and Climate Protection Act of 1989 - Part A: Control of Chlorofluorocarbons and Other Manufactured Substances - Directs the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to publish a priority list of manufactured substances known or reasonably anticipated to cause atmospheric modification, including stratospheric ozone depletion, and to assign an ozone depletion potential to each substance. Requires the Administrator to list simultaneously and update annually other manufactured substances meeting the same criteria, assigning ozone depletion potentials for each. Includes specified chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) on each list. Requires producers, importers, or distributors of substances on either list to report initially and annually to the Administrator on such production, importation, or distribution until it ceases. Requires the Administrator to promulgate regulations requiring an accelerated reduction schedule if such schedule is necessary to protect human health and the environment, the reduction is attainable, based on the availability of substitutes for such substances, or the Montreal Protocol is modified to include a more accelerated schedule. Limits production of substances on the priority list to 1986 levels effective July 1, 1989. Requires further scheduled reductions by July 1, 1993, and July 1, 1998. Prohibits the production, effective July 1, 2000, of any quantity of a listed substance unless the Administrator authorizes limited production of such substance for medical purposes. Deems importers of such substances to be producers for purposes of reduction requirements. Authorizes the President to issue orders regarding the use of specified CFCs and halons if the use of such substances is necessary to protect national security interests. Exempts such orders from the requirements of this Act. Requires the Administrator to promulgate regulations regarding: (1) the use, recapture, recycling, and safe disposing of substances covered by this Act; and (2) the use of any manufactured substance that may exacerbate the problem of human induced global climate change. Makes it unlawful, after 1991, to knowingly vent or release into the environment any listed substance in the course of servicing or disposal household appliances, or commercial refrigeration or air conditioning units. Prohibits, effective July 1, 2000, the introduction into interstate commerce or use of a priority-listed substance except for medical purposes and, for a period not to exceed ten years after such date, except to maintain and service household appliances and commercial refrigeration and air-conditioning units. Directs the Administrator to issue regulations prohibiting the maintenance, and repair of motor vehicle air conditioners after 1991, unless equipment certified as meeting standards set by the Society of Automotive Engineers for the extraction and reclamation of refrigerants is used. Requires service entities to document the number of air conditioners serviced and the amount of chlorofluorocarbons purchased and sold by such entities. Makes it unlawful, after 1990, to sell any refrigerant in a container holding less than 20 pounds of such refrigerant. Prohibits the sale to a U.S. consumer or dealer, or export for sale outside of the United States, of any motor vehicle manufactured after model year 1993 if such vehicle's air conditioner is dependent on CFC-12 as a refrigerant (or any other refrigerant with a comparable ozone depletion factor). Makes it unlawful, after 1993, to install or sell any motor vehicle air conditioner dependent on such refrigerants. Authorizes the Administrator to propose alternative deadlines for such prohibitions, as necessary. Requires certain regulations issued under this Act to provide for the reduction of releases from fire prevention or extinguishing equipment. Makes it unlawful to sell or distribute portable fire extinguishers containing specified halons. Prohibits the sale or distribution of nonessential consumer products releasing substances covered by this Act into the atmosphere. Requires the Administrator to promulgate regulations establishing production limitations for substances covered by this Act that yield not less than a 95 percent reduction in total ozone depletion in 2010. Provides that if the Administrator fails to promulgate such regulations, it shall be unlawful, effective July 1, 2000, to produce such substances in quantities yielding an ozone depletion potential greater than five percent of the 1986 level of depletion for any such substance. Prohibits imports of such substances or products manufactured using such substances, unless the exporting nation has an equivalent or more stringent production reduction program. Requires the Administrator to certify national programs, such certification to be reviewed annually. Requires the President to prohibit: (1) the export of technologies used to produce or use a priority-listed substance; (2) investments in facilities capable of producing or using such substances in uncertified nations; and (3) foreign aid for the purpose of producing such substances. Requires containers of listed substances to carry labeling stating the contents and potential damaging effects. Directs the Administrator to recommend Federal activities for identifying alternatives to substances covered by this Act and to promote the development and use of such substances. Requires persons producing chemical substitutes for such substances to provide to the Administrator all health and safety studies on such substitutes and to notify the Administrator prior to the introduction into commerce of such substitutes. Authorizes the Administrator to assess civil penalties or seek injunctive relief for violations and to revoke any permit for continued noncompliance. Establishes criminal penalties for knowing violations. Sets forth procedures for review of regulations promulgated under this Act. Part B: Methane Assessment - Authorizes the Administrator to collect information from persons releasing methane for purposes of carrying out this Act. Provides that failures or refusals to provide such information shall constitute violations of this Act. Requires the Administrator to report to the Congress on activities or substances that could reduce methane emissions and are economically justified. Directs the Administrator to report to the Congress on methane emissions associated with: (1) natural gas; (2) coal; (3) solid waste; (4) agriculture; (5) biomass burning; and (6) other human activities. Requires the Administrator to report to the Congress on: (1) a plan to stop the growth in atmospheric concentrations of methane from U.S. sources; (2) methane emissions from foreign countries and the potential for preventing increases in such emissions; and (3) methane emissions from biogenic sources and the changes in such emissions that may occur as a result of predicted increases in temperatures and atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. Part C: Offset of Government Expenses Associated With Implementation of Regulatory Controls and Imposition of Production, Importation and Distribution Fees on Ozone-Depleting Chemicals - Directs the Administrator to impose fees on producers, importers, and distributors of specified ozone-depleting chemicals. Exempts from such fees ozone-depleting chemicals that have been recovered and recycled. Provides for the annual adjustment of such fees. Requires producers or importers of such chemicals to pay base fees for the right to produce or import such chemicals. Sets forth a schedule for the computation of such fees. Authorizes the Administrator to collect fees for other chemicals known or anticipated to contribute to stratospheric ozone depletion, as appropriate. Permits persons subject to such fees to apply for a fee refund attributable to the quantity of an ozone-depleting chemical exported during the assessment period to a developing country which is a party to the Montreal Protocol. Provides for the deposit of such fees into the Ozone Layer and Climate Protection Trust Fund. Requires the Administrator to establish advisory committees in connection with the use or development of chemical substitutes or technological innovations to reduce ozone-depleting chemicals. Authorizes the Administrator to establish and carry out a grant program for purposes of examining such substitutes and technological innovations. Establishes the Ozone Layer and Climate Protection Trust Fund. Makes the Fund available to implement the Montreal Protocol and to carry out this Act and specified EPA activities. Authorizes and allocates appropriations. Subtitle B: Nuclear Regulatory Commission User Fees - Amends the Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1985 to remove provisions concerning Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) annual user fee reporting requirements. Raises the maximum amount of such fees that may be charged during FY 1990. Amends the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 to grant the NRC the power to reduce penalties for violations of such Act by an amount equal to the amount agreed to be paid by a violator to a nonprofit educational institution for the protection of public radiological health and safety. Subtitle C: Payments to the Offshore Oil Pollution Compensation Fund - Amends the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1978 to require fees of three cents (currently, not to exceed such amount) on each barrel of oil from the Outer Continental Shelf. Requires the Offshore Oil Pollution Compensation Fund to be maintained at a specified level. Directs the Administrator and the Governor of New York to convene a management conference for the restoration, conservation, and management of Onondaga Lake, New York. Requires the development and coordinated implementation of a plan with corrective action priorities and compliance schedules. Authorizes grants for research and other plan activities. Limits the Federal share of the total cost of such activities. Authorizes appropriations. Directs the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, to carry out a reconnaissance and feasibility study for an environmental restoration project for the Lake. Subtitle E (SIC): Magnetic Levitation Technology - Authorizes appropriations to the Secretary of the Army to construct a high-speed magnetic levitation ground transportation system to be located along the interstate highway rights-of-way. Directs the Secretary, acting through the Chief of Engineers, to complete such program by May 30, 1990, and to report to the Congress and the President on such program. Title V: Social Security Provisions - Subtitle A: Income Security - Part I: Supplemental Security Income - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a Commission on the Evaluation of Disability in Children which shall conduct a study and report to the Congress by September 1, 1991, on the appropriateness of the process employed in determining whether a child is eligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits under title XVI of the Social Security Act by reason of a disability. Terminates the Commission on September 1, 1991. Directs the Secretary to: (1) review State childhood SSI disability determinations; (2) involve an individual who specializes in a field of medicine appropriate to the child's disability in childhood SSI disability determinations; and (3) conduct an ongoing outreach program for children who are potentially eligible for SSI benefits by reason of disability or blindness. Excludes parental income and resources from the determination of a disabled child's SSI eligibility if such child was receiving SSI benefits and Medicaid (title XIX of the Social Security Act) home care plan benefits while in a hospital, extended care, nursing, or intermediate care facility. Specifies the SSI benefit rate to which such children are entitled. Makes the U.S. residency requirement for SSI eligibility inapplicable to a disabled child who resides with a parent who is serving overseas with the U.S. armed forces if such child was an SSI recipient prior to such parent's overseas assignment. Treats royalties and honoraria as earned income for SSI eligibility purposes. Deems disability beneficiaries under title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) of the Social Security Act who lose disability benefits due to their performance of substantial gainful activity to have been eligible for SSI benefits and thus qualified to participate in the SSI work incentive program if yet disabled. Excludes impairment-related work expenses from a disabled SSI beneficiary's income. Reimburses States for vocational rehabilitation services furnished to individuals who are ineligible for SSI benefits for up to 13 consecutive months for reasons other than cessation of disability or blindness. Directs the Secretary to conduct an SSI outreach program to notify certain OASDI beneficiaries of their possible eligibility for SSI benefits and encourage them to contact a Social Security Administration office. Excludes interest accrued on the value of the purchase of a burial space from the buyer's income and resources for SSI purposes. Eliminates the six-month period of separation required before the income and resources of separated couples are considered separately for SSI purposes. Directs the Secretary and the Secretary of Agriculture to develop a procedure whereby individuals who apply for SSI benefits may apply for food stamps at the same time. Provides that when SSI benefits are increased for a month the value of in-kind support and maintenance received by an beneficiary in the proceeding month shall be calculated as a percentage of the new benefit amount for purposes of determining the amount of the new benefit payable to such beneficiary. Excludes Agent Orange settlement payments from income or resources in determining eligibility for benefits under certain Federal or federally assisted programs. Part II: Aid to Families with Dependent Children - Prohibits the Secretary from implementing specified proposed regulations concerning the use of emergency assistance under part A (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) (AFDC) of title IV of the Social Security Act, though permits the issuance of a revised proposed regulation on such subject incorporating certain recommendations submitted by the Secretary to the Congress on July 3, 1989. Prohibits the Secretary from establishing an effective date occurring before April 1, 1991, for any final regulations changing current policy regarding the use of emergency assistance or special needs funds under the AFDC program. Requires States to report, on a quarterly basis, any AFDC emergency assistance and special needs funds spent by the State to house welfare recipients in temporary living arrangements. Authorizes Minnesota to conduct a demonstration project to determine whether the State family investment plan helps families become self-supporting and enhances the ability of families to care for their children more effectively than does the AFDC program. Sets forth project requirements, including the requirement that family assistance under such project be no less than the family would have received under the AFDC and Food Stamp programs. Pays Minnesota the amount it would have been paid under the AFDC program in the absence of such project plus 50 percent of its expenses in evaluating the project. Sets forth reporting requirements. Cuts off Federal funding under the AFDC program or part F (Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program) of title IV of the Social Security Act if a State does not submit and is not operating under a plan that meets the requirements of such programs concerning the provision of employment-related activities to welfare dependents. Part III: Child Welfare and Foster Care - Requires the: (1) Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services to report to the Congress on State administrative costs incurred in implementing the foster care maintenance payments program under part E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance) of title IV of the Social Security Act; and (2) the Comptroller General to report to the Congress on possible alternatives for imposing limits on Federal funding for such costs. Prohibits States from claiming increased foster care expenditures from one fiscal year to the next unless they have increased expenditures under part B (Child Welfare Services) of title IV of the Social Security Act. Amends the Foster Care and Adoption Assistance program to extend through FY 1992: (1) the ceiling on Federal payments to States for foster care expenditures; and (2) the authority for States to use such payments to cover expenditures under the Child Welfare Services program. (Currently, such ceiling and authorization run through FY 1989.) Increases the appropriations level which triggers the foster care ceiling. Increases authorized appropriations under the Child Welfare Services program. Amends the Foster Care and Adoption Assistance program to set the Federal share of short-term foster and adoptive parent training at 75 percent for FY 1990 through 1992. Requires that the written case plan developed for each foster care child include specified health and eduction records which are to be reviewed and updated when the child is placed in foster care and to be supplied to the foster care parent or provider. Extends, through FY 1992, Federal funding for State programs (Independent Living Initiatives program) to assist children who have attained age 16 in making the transition from foster care to independent living. Extends, from six months to one year, the period during which children who have attained age 16 and whose foster care or foster care maintenance payments have been discontinued may continue to participate in an Independent Living Initiatives program. Increases payments to States for such programs. Directs the Comptroller General to submit an evaluation of the effectiveness of such programs to the Congress. Directs the Secretary to issue proposed regulations by December 1, 1989, and final regulations by May 1, 1990, providing for the full implementation of an adoption and foster care data collection system by October 1, 1992. Authorizes States to use funds under the Child Welfare Services program and the Foster Care and Adoption Assistance program in implementing such system. Part IV: Child Support Enforcement - Amends part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) of title IV of the Social Security Act to extend the authority of States to request the withholding of Federal tax refunds from persons owning past due child support from January 1, 1991, to January 10, 1996. Authorizes States to set the threshold of past-due support amounts at which such support will be deducted from an individual's Federal tax refunds higher when such individual's family is not on the AFDC roll. Makes the collection of past-due support from Federal tax refunds applicable to: (1) past-due support owed to anyone who was determined to be disabled under the OASDI or SSI programs when he or she was a minor; and (2) support for the parent when the family receives neither foster care maintenance or AFDC payments, but the support order includes both support for the child and the parent. Amends the AFDC program to preserve the transitional child care provided to an individual who is no longer eligible for AFDC benefits and requires such services to remain employed if such individual's failure to cooperate with the State in establishing and enforcing his or her child support obligations was not without good cause. Part V: Unemployment Compensation - Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 to raise the ceiling on costs which States may incur for demonstration programs providing individuals with self-employment allowances rather than unemployment compensation. Amends title III (Unemployment Compensation) of the Social Security Act to allow States to withhold from an individual's unemployment compensation the unpaid contributions owed by the individual to the State's unemployment fund. Subtitle B: Medicare - Part I: Provisions Relating to Part A of Medicare - Subpart A: Payment for Inpatient Hospital Services - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to increase Medicare payments for the operating costs of inpatient hospital services in FY 1990 by the market basket percentage increase in such costs: (1) plus two percent for rural hospitals; (2) minus 1.25 percent for hospitals in large urban areas; and (3) minus two percent for hospitals located in other urban areas. Reduces the Medicare payment to hospitals for indirect costs of medical education. Reduces payments for the capital-related costs of inpatient hospital services for FY 1990 by 20 percent. Directs the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission to conduct a study and report to the Congress on the effect of Medicare payments for a hospital's capital-related costs. Requires that Medicare payments for blood clotting factors administered to inpatient hemophiliacs be made on the basis of a predetermined price per unit consumed. Directs the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission and the Health Care Financing Administration to submit recommendations to the Congress on payment for blood clotting factors provided to hemophiliac Medicare beneficiaries. Exempts certain cancer treatment or cancer research hospitals from Medicare's prospective payment system. Provides that when the treatment of a rural hospital as being located in an urban area reduces the wage index (used to determine a hospital's wage-related costs) in such urban area the rural hospital shall be excluded from the calculation and application of the urban wage index. Makes such provision permanent. Directs the Secretary to adjust the proportion of hospitals' costs which are attributable to wage-related costs: (1) annually, rather than every three years; (2) in a budget-neutral manner; and (3) in a manner which reflects differences in State hospital codes and requirements. Alters the basis for judging the effectiveness of a waiver of Medicare hospital reimbursement mechanisms in favor of a State hospital reimbursement control system. Directs the General Accounting Office to report to the Congress by October 1, 1991, on the status of such waiver. Authorizes the Secretary to assign a new base period to a hospital in determining Medicare hospital payment amounts when such hospital's costs are skewed by events beyond the hospital's control or extraordinary circumstances. Directs the Secretary to issue instructions for hospitals applying for exceptions or adjustments to Medicare reimbursement methods when their costs are skewed by events beyond their control or extraordinary circumstances. Requires the Secretary to give effect to corrected erroneous wage index determinations on both a retrospective and prospective basis. Directs the Secretary to submit a legislative proposal to the Congress by October 1, 1990, for eliminating the differences in average standardized Medicare payments to hospitals located in rural, large urban, and other urban areas. Requires the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission and the Congressional Budget Office to submit an impact analysis of such proposal to the Congress by April 1, 1991. Extends the regional referral center classification of certain hospitals through FY 1992. Establishes the Medicare Geographical Classification Review Board to decide on a hospital request to be classified as being located in a rural, large urban, or other urban area for Medicare payment purposes. Directs the Secretary to publish specified guidelines for the Board to follow in rendering such decisions. Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 to extend, through FY 1992, the program providing grants to small rural hospitals so that they may modify the type or extent of health care they provide. Extends, from two to three years, the term of such grants. Increases authorized appropriations for such program. Directs the Secretary to make grants to from five to ten hospitals for the conduct of three-year demonstration projects providing instruction and consultation via telecommunications to physicians in rural manpower shortage areas. Requires the Secretary to provide additional payments to Medicare-dependent small rural hospitals through FY 1991 to ensure that Medicare payments to such hospitals at least equal such hospitals' reasonable operating costs for inpatient services. Directs the Secretary to report to the Congress by January 1, 1991, on the feasibility and advisability of modifying the hospital wage index to reflect definitions of labor markets on a regional, rather than on an urban or rural basis. Requires the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission to submit an analysis of such report to the Congress by July 1, 1991. Increases Medicare payments to rural sole community hospitals which serve a disproportionate number of low income patients. Lowers the disproportionate patient percentage such hospitals must meet to qualify for such increase in payments. Permits a disabled individual who has not attained age 65 and has not completed the period of OASDI entitlement required for Medicare eligibility or otherwise become eligible for benefits under part A (Hospital Insurance) of the Medicare program to enroll in the Hospital Insurance program. Subpart B: Other Provisions - Directs the Comptroller General to report to the Congress within one year after this Act's enactment on the appropriateness of the differences between the limits on routine service costs of extended care services for hospital-based and freestanding skilled nursing facilities. Requires the Secretary, at the request of a State, to permit qualified Medicare beneficiaries in the State (enrolled under part B of the Medicare program) to enroll in the Hospital Insurance program. Establishes intermediate Medicare sanctions to be applied against psychiatric hospitals whose deficiencies do not immediately jeopardize patient health and safety. Increases Medicare payment rates for hospice care. Directs the Secretary to report to the Congress by October 1, 1990, on methods of compensating hospices for high-cost care. Deems an individual who chooses to participate in a Medicare hospice care program not to have waived Medicare home intravenous drug therapy services or in-home care unless such services are included in the hospice program. Requires a hospice care beneficiary to be certified as terminally ill no later than eight days (or verbally no later than two days) after the initiation of such care. Permits nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists to certify an individuals need for Medicare extended care and hospice services. Authorizes the Secretary to reduce payment levels to ensure that this Act is implemented in a budget neutral manner. Directs the Secretary to transmit a legislative proposal to the Congress for paying for skilled nursing facility and home health services under prospective payment systems. Treats a hospital as a sole community hospital for Medicare payment purposes if it is located: (1) more than 35 miles from other hospitals furnishing short-term, acute care; (2) 25 to 35 miles from other hospitals furnishing short-term, acute care and not more than 50 percent of part A (Hospital Insurance) Medicare beneficiaries in such hospital's service area are admitted to other hospitals within 35 miles of such hospital or, if larger, within such hospital's service area; or (3) 15 to 35 miles from other hospitals furnishing short-term, acute care, if such other hospitals are inaccessible for at least one month each year due to local topography or severe weather conditions. Requires the Secretary to take into account the time needed to travel to the nearest alternative source of appropriate inpatient care and the number of patients who seek health services unavailable in a hospital's area in determining whether such hospital should be designated as a sole community hospital. Maintains a sole community hospital classification until there is a change in the circumstances giving rise to such classification or the hospital requests a cancellation of such classification. Alters the formula for determining the amount of payments to be made to sole community hospitals. Extends, indefinitely, the payment adjustment for sole community hospitals which experience a decrease of more than five percent of their inpatient cases due to circumstances beyond their control. Permits dentists to serve as hospital medical directors. Part II: Provisions Relating to Part B of Medicare - Subpart A: Payment for Physicians' Services - Freezes physician payments for non-primary services through the first quarter of 1990. Amends part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance) of the Medicare program to reduce Medicare payments for a specified list of physicians' services furnished during 1990 after April 1. Reduces payments for radiology services. Directs the Secretary to conduct a study and report to the Congress, within six months of this Act's enactment, on whether payments for portable X-ray services should be made in the same manner as they are made for radiologists' services or on the basis of a separate fee schedule. Prohibits the rounding of fractional time units in calculating Medicare payments for anesthesia services. Establishes separate uniform national fee schedule conversion factors for nurse anesthetist services furnished under the direction of a physician and for other nurse anesthetist services. Prohibits Medicare payments for a surgeon's direction of a nurse anesthetist. Requires the Secretary to set the customary charge for new physicians' services for the last three quarters of 1990 at 85 percent of the prevailing charge for such services. Limits payments for physician services furnished by more than one speciality. Provides for the gradual transition, from 1992 through 1995, to the determination of Medicare payments for physician services pursuant to a fee schedule which takes into account the relative value of the work, overhead, and malpractice risks associated with each physician service. Allows for geographic variations in resource values. Sets Medicare payments for nonparticipating physicians' services at 95 percent of the fee schedule amount. Prohibits payments for the same physician service from varying on the basis of whether or not the physician is a specialist. Sets forth sumptuary provisions. Limits nonparticipating physicians' actual charges for unassigned claims. Requires that payments for physician services to Medicaid-eligible Medicare beneficiaries be made on an assignment-related basis. Increases the incentive payment for physicians' services furnished in a manpower shortage area from five to ten percent of the payment for such services. Sets forth miscellaneous study and reporting requirements. Directs the Secretary to establish: (1) a patient outcomes assessment research and education program, focusing primarily on the study of the management of health conditions; and (2) a practice parameters development program providing health care professionals with information regarding the health care practices found to be most effective. Directs the Secretary to establish the Independent Advisory Committee on Managing Patient Outcomes and enter into a contract with the National Academy of Sciences for assistance in conducting such programs and reviewing outcomes research. Sets forth reporting requirements. Authorizes appropriations for such programs through FY 1992. Includes certified nurse-midwife services as covered rural health clinic services. Requires rural health clinics to meet Public Health Service Act requirements for funding as a health center and have a nurse practitioner, physician assistant, or certified nurse-midwife available to furnish patient care services at least 50 percent of the time the clinic operates. Permits rural health clinics to operate in medically underserved areas. Conditions rural health clinic coverage on such a clinic's location in an area designated by the State Governor and approved by the Secretary as being an area with a shortage of personal health services. Provides direct coverage of nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist services provided in rural areas. Furnishes payments for such services on an assignment-related basis only and in an amount equal to 80 percent of 75 percent of the prevailing charge in the area for participating physicians. Subpart B: Payment for Other Services - Updates the fee schedule for clinical diagnostic laboratory tests for the final three quarters of 1990 by two percent. Lowers the limitation on Medicare payments for such tests in the absence of a nationwide fee schedule. Eliminates the requirement that physician office laboratories conduct more than 5,000 tests per year to receive coverage for such tests. Treats two or more laboratories which are under common ownership as one for application of the requirement that a laboratory collect test samples from at least 20 percent of the nursing facilities in a State before qualifying for reimbursement for miles traveled and personnel costs in collecting such samples. Extends, through 1990, the moratorium on demonstration projects relating to competitive bidding as a method of purchasing Medicare laboratory services. Directs the Secretary to report to the Congress by May 1, 1990, on a proposed methodology for implementing a demonstration project relating to competitive bidding as a method of purchasing such services. Delays, until April 1990, and reduces to two percent, the 1990 cost-of-living increase in payments for durable medical equipment. Reduces the payment rate for oxygen and oxygen equipment for the final three quarters of 1990. Sets a cap on payment amounts for durable medical equipment for the final three quarters of 1990. Eliminates regional fee schedules for durable medical equipment, oxygen, and oxygen equipment. Reduces payments for seat-lift chairs or transcutaneous electric nerve stimulators furnished on or after April 1, 1990, by 15 percent. Treats power driven wheelchairs as routinely purchased durable medical equipment for Medicare payment purposes. Requires the Secretary to specify criteria to be used by carriers in deciding on a case by case basis whether to classify power-driven wheelchairs as customized items for payment purposes. Covers ostomy supplies as home health services rather than durable medical equipment. Directs the Secretary to report to the Congress by June 1, 1990, concerning the effect coverage of physician assistants has had on the employment of registered nurses as assistants at surgery and whether Medicare payments to hospitals and skilled nursing facilities have been reduced to take into account coverage of physician assistants. Clarifies the coverage of certified nurse-midwife services. Covers erythropoietin for home dialysis patients competent to use such drug without supervision. Permits the coverage of additional inserts for therapeutic shoes for individuals with severe diabetic foot disease and the substitution of shoe modifications for inserts. Reduces payments for FY 1990 outpatient hospital services by two percent. Reduces payments for the capital-related costs of such services by 20 percent. Covers psychologist services on a reasonable charge basis. Eliminates the dollar limitation on covered mental health services. Directs the Secretary to report to the limit for Medicare inpatient psychiatric hospital care. Covers nurse practitioner services furnished in collaboration with a physician in a skilled nursing facility. Makes Medicare payments for such services to the nurse practitioner's employer. Requires Medicare carriers to permit routine part B payments or up to 1.5 monthly visits per resident of a nursing facility by a member of a team which includes a physician and physician assistant and/or nurse practitioner. Directs the Secretary to establish at least one demonstration project applying such limitation on visits on an average basis over the aggregate total of nursing facility residents served by team members. Directs the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission to report to the Congress by July 1, 1990, on Medicare payments for outpatient hospital services. Amends the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 to terminate four specified municipal health service demonstration projects six months after the Secretary submits a report to the Congress concerning such projects. Covers clinical social worker services pertaining to the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses. Directs the Secretary to develop and implement a process under which interested parties may request review of the appropriate reimbursement for a class of new technology intraocular lenses. Expresses the sense of the Senate that four additional members should be appointed to the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission with experience in providing or developing rural health services and that in the future at least 25 percent of the Commissioners should have such experience. Gives the Secretary guidelines to consider in distributing remaining payment amounts to end stage renal disease network organizations after covering their administrative costs. Makes liability limitations and information disclosure prohibitions established under part B (Peer Review) of title IX of the Social Security Act applicable to network organizations. Part III: Provisions Relating to Parts A and B of Medicare - Phases-in, by January 1, 1993, the establishment of a per capita rate of payment for each class of health maintenance organization (HMO) enrollee equal to the adjusted average per capita cost for that class, rather than 95 percent of such cost. Requires the Secretary to give HMOs annual notice of proposed changes in the methodology used or assumptions made in calculating payment rates for each class of HMO enrollee. Prohibits HMO payment rate increases until the adjusted average per capita cost is certified as being actuarially equivalent to Medicare amounts which would have been spent on HMO enrollees in the absence of their enrollment and recommendations for changes in the Medicare HMO payment methodology are submitted to the Congress. Authorizes the Secretary to provide a three-year waiver of the requirement that HMOs have an enrolled population of which not more than 50 percent are Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries to certain HMOs which exhibit specified indicia of stability, measure their enrollee's satisfaction, and provide special targeted services to the elderly. Subjects Medicare and Medicaid HMOs which knowingly make direct and specific individual payment to a physician as an inducement to withhold or limit a specific medically necessary service to a patient to a civil money penalty. Waives the application of the current penalty against HMOs for directly or indirectly making such a payment. Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 to extend, through 1993, the application of a waiver of the Medicare requirement that HMOs have an enrolled population of which not more than 50 percent are Medicare or Medicaid beneficiaries to HMOs which had a pre-existing waiver of such requirement and received specified grants in FY 1987. Amends the Deficit Reduction Act of 1984 to make the authority for the HMO benefit stabilization funds permanent. Extends through June 30, 1992, a Medicaid enrollment waiver provided to the Tennessee Primary Care Network, Inc. Requires the Secretary to approve other waivers of the requirement that no more than 75percent of a Medicaid HMO's enrollees be Medicaid or Medicare beneficiaries after publishing standards such HMOs must follow. Waives the application of certain Medicare HMO enrollment requirements to a medical group affiliated with Long Island Jewish Medical Center which includes the enrollees of a State licensed HMO for whom the group assumes full financial risk. Amends the Medicare program to limit physician charges for emergency services or out-of-area coverage provided to an HMO enrollee by a person who is not under contract with such HMO. Authorizes the Secretary to combine the enrollments of two related HMOs when one of them would otherwise fail Medicare's 50 percent enrollment requirement. Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 to maintain the current base rate for routine dialysis treatment through FY 1991. Directs the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission to conduct a study to determine the costs, services, and profits associated with various modalities of dialysis treatment and make recommendations to the Congress regarding the methods by, and levels at, which payments should be set. Amends part B (Peer Review) of title XI of the Social Security Act to require peer review organizations to give providers whose services are denied Medicare coverage an opportunity for reconsideration of the determination before patients and organizations responsible for paying claims are notified of such determination. Amends the Medicare program to extend the periods of days within which claims must be paid under parts A and B of the Medicare program in FY 1990. Exempts any transfer of Federal outlays, receipts, or revenues from FY 1990 to FY 1991 by reason of such extension from the prohibition against counting as savings for deficit reduction purposes the transfer of government actions from one year to another. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide for the disclosure of taxpayer identification information regarding a Medicare beneficiary for the determination of the extent to which such beneficiary is covered under a group health plan. Amends the Medicare program to require employers to disclose information concerning the status and nature of a beneficiary's coverage under a group health plan of the employer. Prohibits group health plans of employers of 20 or more employees from discriminating in the provision of benefits against individuals who are entitled to Medicare benefits by reason of their eligibility for old-age insurance benefits under the OASDI program. Prohibits large group health plans from discriminating against individuals who are entitled to Medicare benefits by reason of their eligibility for disability or disability-based insurance benefits under the OASDI program. Prohibits group health plans, for 12 months, from discriminating in the provision of benefits against individuals who are entitled to Medicare benefits by reason of their affliction with end stage renal disease. Makes such group health plans primary payers against whom the Federal government may bring action to recover Medicare payments. Establishes a private cause of action against primary payers who fail to pay. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to impose a penalty excise tax against nonconforming group health plans. Repeals the denial of a tax deduction to nonconforming group health plans. Directs the Comptroller General of the Government Accounting Office to conduct a study and report to the Congress by August 1, 1990, on issues related to the protection of beneficiaries' rights in cases where Medicare is the secondary payer. Prohibits the Secretary from recovering, prior to September 30, 1990, alleged Medicare hospital overpayments attributable to nursing and allied health education. Directs the Secretary to issue regulations by June 30, 1990, regarding when costs for nursing and allied health education shall be considered a hospital's allowable costs or operating costs of inpatient hospital services. Permits hospitals which did not have an approved medical residency training program for a cost reporting period beginning during FY 1984, but which made a commitment to substantially expand its program that was not fully reflected in its costs, to request the use of an cost reporting period other than that which began during FY 1984 for purposes of determining its average reasonable medical residency training costs. Requires the Prospective Payment Review Commission and the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission to each conduct a study and report to the Congress by October 1, 1990, on recommended reforms in Medicare payments for indirect and direct costs of medical education to identify and encourage graduate medical residencies and fellowships in priority practices and practice locations. Continues the use of the home health services wage index in effect prior to July 1, 1989, until after July 1, 1990, in determining Medicare payment amounts for such services. Directs the Government Accounting Office to conduct a study and report to the Congress by June 1, 1990, on information collection and paperwork required of Medicare home health agencies, including recommendations on the feasibility of eliminating dual reporting requirements under the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Amends the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 to require the Advisory Committee on Medicare Home Health Claims to evaluate the implementation of: (1) its recommendations and the effectiveness of changes in the home health claims denial process; and (2) revised Medicare home health coverage policies. Directs the Secretary to submit an appraisal of the Committee's recommendations and a statement of actions taken to implement them to the Congress by January 31, 1990. Terminates the Advisory Committee on October 1, 1990. Directs the Secretary to make four-year grants to from ten to 15 hospitals covering 90 percent of the costs of planning, implementing, and evaluating the transformation of a rural hospital into an essential care hospital. Defines an essential care hospital as a small rural hospital located at least 30 miles from another hospital and providing emergency care, stabilization care, and basic inpatient care for limited periods of time. Imposes additional service requirements on such hospitals. Waives the application of certain Medicare hospital staffing requirements to essential care hospitals. Allows Medicaid payments for the costs of Essential Community Hospital Services. Sets forth reporting requirements. Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987 to increase the number of hospitals participating in a demonstration program to assist resident physicians in developing field clinical experience in rural areas. Amends title VII (Administration) of the Social Security Act to direct the Secretary to implement a grant program to establish and support rural health research centers at public or nonprofit entities which will provide a rural health information base and policy analysis capacity. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1990 through 1991 for such centers and the Office of Rural Health Policy. Establishes the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health to advise the Secretary concerning the provision and financing of rural health care services. Requires the Director of the Office of Rural Health Policy to make matching grants to States to establish State Offices of Rural Health which shall: (1) coordinate their activities with the rural development activities of the Agricultural Extension Service; (2) make recommendations on improving the quality and cost-effectiveness of rural health care delivery; (3) report periodically to the Office of Rural Health Policy on their activities; (4) communicate and cooperate with rural health research centers established pursuant to this Act; and (5) provide rural health leadership and advocacy for rural residents. Specifies optional activities each State Office of Rural Health may undertake. Prohibits States from using more than 20 percent of a grant for research. Authorizes appropriations for such grant program from FY 1990 through 1992. Requires an annual meeting between representatives of each State Office of Rural Health and representatives from the Office of Rural Health Policy to share information and coordinate strategies for improving the quality and effectiveness of rural health care delivery. Expresses the sense of the Senate that at least four additional members with demonstrated experience in providing or developing rural health care services should be appointed to the Prospective Payment Assessment Commission and that in the future at least 25 percent of the Commissioners should have such experience. Part IV: Medicare Part B Basic Premium - Amends part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance) of the Medicare program to extend the basic part B premium through FY 1990. Part V: Physician Referrals - Amends part B of the Medicare program to require that requests or bills for payment for an item or service (other than a physicians' service) covered under part B include the name and provider number of the physician. Requires entities making claims for payments to include such information for each physician having an ownership or investment interest in the entity. Directs Medicare carriers to monitor and report to peer review organizations suspected instances of service overutilization with respect to physicians having a financial interest in an entity. Provides payments to laboratories which refer a clinical diagnostic laboratory test to another laboratory only if the referring laboratory is located in, or part of, a rural hospital, or no more than 30 percent of the tests for which such laboratory requests payments are performed by another laboratory. Subtitle C: Medicaid and Maternal and Child Health Block Grant - Amends title XIX (Medicaid) of the Social Security Act to exclude from a person's income for Medicaid-eligibility purposes cost-of-living increases in OASDI benefits through the month following the month in which the annual revision of the official poverty line is published. Prohibits the Secretary from withholding Federal financial participation in a State's Medicaid coverage of day habilitation and related services for beneficiaries with mental retardation or a related condition pending the Secretary's issuance of a final regulation concerning such coverage. Amends Medicaid waivers providing home and community-based care to individuals who would otherwise require the level of care provided in hospitals or skilled nursing or intermediate care facilities by: (1) covering the food and rent attributable to an unrelated personal caregiver who resides with the beneficiary; (2) including decertified intermediate care facilities for the mentally retarded among the facilities whose care a beneficiary may otherwise require for waiver eligibility; (3) removing the restriction of covered habilitation services to services following discharge from a facility; and (4) prohibiting the Secretary from limiting the number of days of respite care that may be provided. Prohibits: (1) aggregate donations by hospitals to State Medicaid matching payments from exceeding ten percent of non-Federal Medicaid expenditures; or (2) the donations of any particular hospital to State Medicaid matching payments from exceeding ten percent of the hospital's non-Federal revenues. Amends the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988 to delay, from May 1, 1989, to May 1, 1991, the issuance of final regulations concerning the use by States of provider-paid taxes for State Medicaid matching payments. Amends the Medicaid program to exclude from countable income the veterans benefits received by an individual for unreimbursed medical expenses. Establishes a demonstration project in New York State allowing individuals who are not otherwise eligible for Medicaid benefits to receive Medicaid long-term care benefits if they purchase a State approved long-term care insurance policy covering such care for a period preceding their Medicaid eligibility. Sets forth reporting requirements. Directs the Secretary to establish a ten-State, three year demonstration program in which mental health facilities may be deemed by accrediting bodies as being in compliance with Medicaid standards. Requires the Secretary to establish criteria by which such bodies shall conduct quality assurance activities, including among such activities the conduct of unannounced facility inspections and the receipt and prompt investigation of resident grievances. Amends the Family Support Act of 1988 to extend from June 30, 1990, to June 30, 1995, a waiver granted to Minnesota to conduct a prepaid Medicaid demonstration project. Amends the Medicare program to include Minnesota in a project providing HMO payments on a capitated rather than fee-for-service basis. Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 to extend the New Jersey Medicaid respite care demonstration project through March of 1992. Provides that if the Minnesota State family investment plan demonstration project is approved the State must treat each family: (1) that is participating in the project as being eligible for Medicaid benefits; (2) whose employment income terminates their eligibility under the project as being ineligible for AFDC benefits; and (3) whose eligibility under the project is terminated by reason of the collection of child support under part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) of title IV of the Social Security Act as being an AFDC recipient for Medicaid purposes for 12 additional months. Makes payments to project participants in the same manner as they are made under the Medicaid program, but prohibits payments from exceeding the amount of payments that would have been made in the absence of such project. Authorizes Oregon to conduct a Medicaid demonstration program to test the effectiveness of expansion of eligibility and modification of benefits under Oregon Senate Bill 27 in meeting the health care needs of low-income individuals. Treats individuals as qualified Medicare beneficiaries for the first nine months of 1989 for Medicaid eligibility purposes if they were determined to be such beneficiaries in one of those months but the State did not begin such determinations prior to 1989. Amends the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 to extend from January 1, 1990, to January 1, 1993, a Texas Medicaid long-term care demonstration project. Amends the Medicaid program to set a floor on Medicaid payments for hospice care. Makes Medicaid payment for all of the costs of rural health clinic services determined to be reasonable costs by the fiscal intermediary determining such costs under the Medicare program. Provides for the automatic certification of rural health clinics qualified as rural health clinics under the Medicare program or the Public Health Service Act. Directs States to provide Medicaid coverage to pregnant women and children under age six whose family income is below 133 percent of the Federal poverty level. Authorizes States to provide Medicaid coverage to children under age 19 whose family income is below the Federal poverty level. Requires States to continue the Medicaid coverage of a woman and her infant for 60 days after delivery regardless of fluctuations in her income during such period. Prohibits the redetermination of the Medicaid eligibility of a child under age three who has been deemed eligible less than six months previously, unless such eligibility is due to his or her receipt of aid under part A (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) (AFDC) or E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance) of title IV of the Act or under title XVI (Supplemental Security Income) (SSI) of the Act. Preserves the Medicaid eligibility of a child under age six who loses such aid until it is determined that he or she is not eligible for Medicaid on some other basis. Amends the Child Support Enforcement Amendments of 1984 to make permanent the four-month continuation of Medicaid eligibility for children who lose AFDC eligibility due to collection of child or spousal support payments under part D (Child Support and Establishment of Paternity) of title IV of the Social Security Act. Requires that Medicaid coverage of inpatient hospital services provided to children under age six at hospitals serving a disproportionate share of low-income patients or at Childrens' hospitals: (1) make an outlier adjustment in payment amounts for exceptionally long or costly cases if such payments are made on a prospective basis; (2) not impose durational limitations on such services; and (3) not set dollar limits on the delivery of services to individuals who enter the hospital prior to their first birthday. Directs States to pay for the care of a child under age 19 in an out-of-State hospital at the receiving State's rate, unless the involved States have an alternative payment agreement. Requires States to provide Medicaid coverage of services furnished by certified pediatric or family nurse practitioners. Permits States to cover home and community-based services for children under age 18 who have acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) or are medically dependent on a ventilator for life support. Allows States to cover home visitor services furnished by registered nurses to infants, during the first six months of life, who require treatment with life sustaining medication or equipment or technically-assisted feeding. Prohibits the Secretary from limiting to fewer than 350 (currently, 200) the number of individuals in a State who may receive home and community-based services under a waiver of certain Medicaid requirements. Amends title V (Maternal and Child Health Services) of the Act to increase authorized appropriations for such program for FY 1990. Requires the Secretary to set-aside 15 percent of appropriated amounts for special Federal projects which include: (1) projects promoting the use of outpatient and community-based services for children with special health care needs; (2) demonstration projects utilizing alternative approaches to providing health insurance coverage to children under age 19 who are not covered by other public or private programs; and (3) demonstration programs in five States offering home visiting services to high risk pregnant women and infants. Directs States to use at least 30 percent of their title V allotments on services for children with special health care needs, and at least five percent of such allotments for projects in sickle-cell anemia and genetic disorders screening, the development of community-based service networks and case management services for children with special health care needs, and programs providing primary health care services to children. Requires each State to: (1) conduct a statewide maternal and child health care needs assessment; (2) establish a State maternal child health advisory board to participate in the planning and development of services; (3) develop a system of family centered community-based coordinated care for children with special care needs in collaboration with other programs; (4) develop and maintain a consolidated data base containing information about providers available to meet the needs of chronically ill children and establish a toll-free number for parents to access such information; (5) include in the annual title V report information on the extent to which needs have been met with respect to specific services and the amount of funds allotted for family centered community-based coordinated care; and (6) maintain its title V funding at at least 1989 levels. Amends part A (General Provisions) of title XI of the Act to direct the Secretary to publish an annual report on the health status of U.S. children. Requires the Secretary to make available to States, by January 1, 1991, a model uniform Medicaid application for individuals who are neither institutionalized nor receiving AFDC cash assistance. Directs the Secretary to: (1) develop definitions of medically high risk pregnancy and children at a high risk of medical problems; (2) develop alternative definitions of medically uninsurable children; and (3) study different methodologies to improve the coordination between various public health programs. Sets forth reporting requirements. Amends the Medicaid program to set forth the required components of Medicaid early and periodic screening, diagnostic, and treatment services. Requires Medicaid coverage of the measures which need to be taken to correct or ameliorate defects or conditions discovered by the screening services. Directs the Secretary to establish annual participation goals for each State to increase participation in Medicaid early and periodic screening and diagnostic services. Requires States to provide Medicaid coverage to all children under age 18 who are SSI recipients. Requires that Medicaid payment rates for obstetric and pediatric services be set at levels which are sufficient to induce enough providers of such services to participate in the Medicaid program so that such services are available to beneficiaries to at least the same extent that they are available to the general population. Requires the Secretary to report to the Congress by January 1, 1990, on the adequacy and timeliness of Medicaid payments to providers of obstetric and pediatric services. Amends part E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance) of title IV of the Social Security Act to require that a preplacement health care record for a child be provided to such child's foster care provider and be completed before he or she is placed in foster care or within 30 days after an emergency foster care placement. Requires the maintenance of a health care plan and record for such child while he or she is in foster care, and notification of the provider concerning such child's eligibility for Medicaid early and periodic screening, diagnosis, and treatment services. Amends part A (General Provisions) of title XI of the Act to reduce the lag time between the Secretary's calculation of the Federal matching rate under the AFDC, Medicaid, and Foster Care and Adoption Assistance programs and its implementation. Reimburses States, at the Federal Medicaid assistance percentage, for outreach services identifying Medicaid-eligible pregnant women and infants and assisting them in applying for Medicaid coverage. Requires States to: (1) coordinate Medicaid services with the special supplemental food program for women, infants, and children (WIC) under the Child Nutrition Act of 1966; and (2) notify Medicaid-eligible pregnant, breastfeeding, or postpartum women and children under age five of WIC program benefits. Directs the Secretary to develop a maternal and child health handbook which shall be distributed to all pregnant women and new families with young children. Authorizes appropriations, from FY 1991 through 1993, for such handbook and its distribution. Establishes State demonstration projects to reduce infant mortality and childhood morbidity by improving the access of Medicaid-eligible pregnant women, infants, and children to obstetricians and pediatricians. Directs the Secretary to report to the Congress on such projects by March 1, 1992. Authorizes appropriations through FY 1992 for such projects. Requires States to provide Medicaid coverage of all of the reasonable costs for services provided by community health clinics which meet the requirements for receiving a grant under the Public Health Service Act. Directs the Secretary to conduct three-year demonstration projects: (1) in several States to study the effect on access to health care, private insurance coverage, and health care costs of allowing States to extend Medicaid benefits to pregnant women and children under age 20 who are not eligible for Medicaid benefits but whose family income does not exceed 185 percent of the Federal poverty level; and (2) in two States to study the effect on health care access and costs and demonstrate the effect of eliminating categorical Medicaid eligibility when allowing States to extend Medicaid benefits to medically uninsurable individuals who are not otherwise eligible for Medicaid benefits and whose family income is below 150 percent of the Federal poverty level. Permits such States to provide coverage by buying into the health insurance offered by certain employers. Imposes premiums on project beneficiaries whose family income exceeds the Federal poverty level. Caps project expenditures. Sets forth reporting requirements. Terminates extended Medicaid benefits provided to a family which loses AFDC eligibility when such family ceases to include a child whether or not such child is a dependent child under the AFDC program. Requires the Secretary to report to the Congress by October 1, 1990, on the exclusion of individuals in mental institutions from the Medicaid program and how such program might accommodate to any changes which may have occurred in the delivery of inpatient mental health services since 1972. Makes miscellaneous amendments to Medicaid requirements imposed on nursing facilities by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987. Exempts a State Medicaid plan which as of January 1, 1987, provided payment adjustments on the basis of a statewide pooling arrangement involving all acute care hospitals and reimbursing the total amount of each participating hospital's uncompensated care from existing Medicaid arrangements for disproportionate share hospitals. Deems Missouri Medicaid payments to have taken into account the situation of disproportionate share hospitals from July 1, 1988, to June 30, 1990, if hospital payments for such period are no less than the hospital payments otherwise required by law for such period. Establishes intermediate Medicaid sanctions to be applied against psychiatric hospitals whose deficiencies do not immediately jeopardize patient health and safety. Covers Medicare cost-sharing amounts for disabled individuals who are entitled to enroll for Medicare hospital insurance benefits and whose income and resources do not exceed 250 or, at the State's option, 350 percent of the Federal poverty level and twice the SSI resource eligibility limit, respectively. Permits States to impose a Medicaid premium on such individuals pursuant to a sliding scale which increases such percentage from 0 to 100 percent in reasonable increments as incomes move from 150 to 250 percent of the Federal poverty level. Requires States to impose a premium on such individuals whose income lies between 250 to 350 percent of the Federal poverty level. Subtitle D: Miscellaneous Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to permit disclosure to the Department of Veterans Affairs (Department) of income-related tax return information for the purpose of determining eligibility for specified veterans' pension and benefit programs. Amends Federal law to prohibit the Secretary of Veterans Affairs from using this tax return information to terminate, deny, suspend, or reduce a person's benefits or services without first taking appropriate steps to verify independently the amount and accessibility of the income in question. Provides the affected individual with notice of, and an opportunity to respond to, the findings. Restricts the Secretary's right to verify or act upon information relating to disability compensation. Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to notify applicants for, and recipients of, Department benefits that income information they provide may be compared with tax return data. Prohibits the collection of overpayments of black lung benefits paid pursuant to the Black Lung Benefits Act from tax refunds owed to beneficiaries. Makes technical modifications concerning the National Commission on Children and the United States Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care. Designates the latter Commission as the Claude Pepper Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care. Directs the Secretary to enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Public Administration for the conduct of a study and a report to the Congress and the Secretary by December 31, 1990, regarding staffing at the Health Care Financing Administration. Requires the Office of Technology Assessment to conduct a study and report to the Congress by January 1, 1991, on requiring Medicare or Medicaid hospitals and nursing homes to provide closed captioning for their televisions. Title VI: Revenue Measures - Revenue Reconciliation Act of 1989 - Subtitle A: Extension of Expiring Tax Provisions - Part I: Temporary Extensions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend the tax exclusion for educational assistance programs for three years. Provides a tax exclusion for otherwise taxable employer-provided educational assistance that qualifies as a working condition fringe benefit. Provides two year extensions for the following: (1) targeted jobs credit; (2) exclusion for amounts received under qualified group legal services plans; (3) qualified small issue bond exemption; (4) energy investment credit for geothermal property; (5) deduction for health insurance costs of self-employed individuals; (6) waiver of early withdrawal tax for employee stock ownership plans; (7) Internal Revenue Service assistance in undercover operations; (8) certain transfers to railroad retirement accounts; and (9) nonconventional fuels credit. Makes the nonconventional fuels credit applicable to tight sands formation production. Provides for the allocation of research and experimental expenditures with respect to sources of income within and without the United States. Part II: Permanent Extensions - Makes the low-income housing credit permanent with modifications. Exempts the low-income housing credit and rehabilitation credit from the income phaseout of the exemption from passive loss rules. Makes permanent the credit for increasing research activities and makes changes in the computation of the incremental credit. Provides that the trade or business requirement shall be disregarded in the case of in-house research expenses of certain start-up ventures. Disallows a deduction for qualified research expenses which is equal to the credit for increasing research activities. Requires the deduction for research and experimental expenditures to be a reasonable amount. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to report to specified congressional committees every five years on an evaluation of the credit for increasing research activities. Makes permanent: (1) the energy investment credit for solar, geothermal, and ocean thermal property; and (2) the tax-exempt treatment of qualified mortgage bonds. Subtitle B: Corporate Provisions - Disallows the dividend received deduction for dividends on preferred stock of certain subsidiaries. Defers the interest deductions on certain high yield original issue discount obligations. Provides for the treatment of certain transfers to controlled corporations. Increases the percentage of the required distribution of ordinary income of regulated investment companies in the computation of the excise tax on the undistributed income of such companies. Provides for the treatment of certain mutual fund sales charges and dividends with respect to taxation of such companies and their shareholders. Provides a limitation on the threshold requirement for certain built-in gains and losses. Requires distributions on disqualified preferred stock to be treated as extraordinary dividends. Prohibits any reduction in gross income by reason of an excess loss account if such reduction is on account of a reduction in the basis of indebtedness. Sets forth provisions relating to the treatment of stock and debt concerning: (1) regulatory authority over the treatment of stock or indebtedness; and (2) reporting of certain acquisitions or recapitalizations. Directs the Secretary to report to specified congressional committees on: (1) whether the present law distinctions between debt and equity are meaningful and whether it is appropriate to limit interest deductions in certain cases; (2) the policy and revenue implications of proposals to integrate the corporate and individual income tax systems; and (3) the policy and revenue implications of the tax treatment of corporate distributions with respect to debt and equity held by tax-exempt entities and foreign persons. Requires S corporations to make estimated tax payments for certain taxes. Places limitations on refunds due to net operating loss carrybacks or excess interest allocable to corporate equity reduction transactions. Provides small corporations with an exception to gain recognition for gain recognized on certain distributions in complete liquidations. Requires interest income from certain qualified leased property transactions of rural electric cooperatives to be offset by rental expenses of such transactions before allocating income or expense to members and nonmembers of such cooperatives for purposes of the accelerated cost recovery system of the Internal Revenue Code. Subtitle C: Employee Benefit Provisions - Part I: Repeal of Section 89 Nondiscrimination Rules - Repeals provisions relating to benefits provided under certain discriminatory employee benefit plans and restores prior antidiscrimination rules with exceptions. Revises the definition of a leased employee. Revises provisions with respect to the nontaxable benefits of dependent care assistance programs in the case of employees who are highly compensated employees. Part II: Employee Stock Ownership Plans - Provides limitations on partial exclusion of interest on loans used to acquire employer securities. Requires that employer security loans be held only by qualified lenders. Requires employee stock ownership plans to file certain information reports. Part III: Tax Treatment of Retiree Health Accounts - Allows a one-time transfer of excess pension assets to retiree health accounts. Limits the amount of contributions which may be made to such accounts. Subpart B: Coal Industry Plans - Coal Industry Health Benefit Stabilization Act of 1989 - Authorizes the transfer of surplus assets from a coal industry pension plan to a coal industry health benefits plan, under specified conditions, without certain adverse effects in tax treatment under the Internal Revenue Code. Obliges specified employers to continue to contribute to multiemployer coal industry health benefits plans. Provides that nothing in this Act shall diminish or adversely affect any cause of action of such a plan, or its board of trustees, against an employer for contributions based on a collective bargaining agreement between the employer and a labor organization which is a settlor of the plan. Directs the United Mine Workers of America and the Bituminous Coal Operators' Association to report by February 1, 1994, on the effect of this Act on the delivery of retiree health benefits in the bituminous coal industry. Part IV: Alternative Full-Funding Limitation - Establishes an alternative full-funding limitation with respect to employer benefit plans which an employer may elect in lieu of the full-funding limitation. Part V: Other Provisions - Makes tax-exempt organizations eligible for cash or deferred arrangement pension plans. Requires members of voluntary employee beneficiary associations to have an employment-related common bond for tax-exempt status. Increases the tax on the amount of any employer reversion from a qualified pension plan. Allows a tax exclusion for qualified transportation fringe benefits. Provides for determining the tax value of the personal use of airplanes. Subtitle D: Foreign Provisions - Provides for determining the taxable year of a controlled foreign corporation or a foreign personal holding company. Sets forth the deadline for paying dividends after the close of a taxable year in order to be considered as paid during such taxable year. Provides a limitation on the use of deconsolidation to avoid foreign tax credit limitations. Makes reporting requirements for foreign-owned corporations applicable to corporations that are 25-percent foreign-owned. Sets forth U.S. recordkeeping requirements for such corporations and establishes penalties for failure to furnish information or maintain records. Provides for the tax treatment of: (1) nonresident aliens receiving certain educational and training grants; (2) export trade corporations under passive foreign investment company rules; (3) certain leased property under passive foreign investment company rules; and (4) certain holdings of controlled foreign corporations. Provides a tax exclusion for certain overseas allowances received by Department of Defense personnel. Subtitle E: Excise Tax Provisions - Repeals certain automatic reductions in aviation-related taxes. Increases the international air passenger departure tax and establishes a ship passengers international departure tax. Provides for the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund tax to take effect on January 1, 1990. Specifies the schedule for the deposit of taxes on communications services and airline tickets. Provides for one-time filing of telephone excise tax exemption certificates. Makes the telephone excise tax permanent. Establishes an excise tax on the sale of chemicals which deplete the ozone layer and of products containing such chemicals. Establishes an excise tax on offshore oil and offshore natural gas on the person who owns such oil or gas. Establishes the Wetlands Trust Fund for the deposit of such taxes and for the protection of wetlands. Specifies the schedule for the deposit of gasoline excise taxes. Provides for the application of an excise tax on sales by qualified persons of taxable fuels. Reduces the occupational tax on small retail alcoholic beverage distributors and prohibits the assessment or collection of such tax for periods beginning before July 1, 1985. Allows expenditures from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund for essential air services. Provides tolerance limits for blending of gasohol. Revises provisions with respect to gasoline used on farms by crop dusters. Extends the alcohol fuels credit to the product of ethyl tertiary butyl ether (ETBE). Declares that ETBE is not considered an alcohol. Exempts inactivated polio vaccines from the excise tax on vaccines. Authorizes the payment of administrative expenses from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Trust Fund. Subtitle F: Miscellaneous Provisions - Part I: Like Kind Exchanges Between Related Persons - Sets forth limitations on the nonrecognition of gain or loss on the exchange of property with respect to special rules for exchanges between related persons, where there is substantial diminution of risk, and for foreign real property. Part II: Minimum Tax Provisions - Makes modifications to: (1) the corporate minimum tax credit; (2) the treatment of certain dividends; (3) installment sales; and (4) the appreciated property charitable deduction. Part III: Accounting Provisions - Requires that the percentage of completion method be used in determining the taxable income under any long-term contract. Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to report to specified congressional committees on a study of the revenue realization method of accounting for long-term contracts and of improvements to the percentage of completion method of accounting for such contracts. Limits the deductibility of contingent payments in transfers of franchises, trademarks, and trade names. Includes 1989 Disaster Assistance Act payments in the special rule concerning crop insurance proceeds or disaster payments. Provides special limitations for certain solvent farmers under the tax exclusion for discharge of qualified farm indebtedness from gross income. Provides that certain governmental contributions in aid of construction are not included in gross income. Modifies the passive loss material participation rules for timber activities. Provides that any crop with respect to which the corporate taxpayer properly used the annual accrual method of accounting for its last taxable year ending before January 1, 1987, qualifies as a farming trade or business. Modifies provisions requiring interest on installment sales of time-share and residential lots. Allows family corporations to elect not to utilize suspense account rules. Provides for the treatment of asset sales by cooperatives. Revises provisions concerning: (1) qualifying income of real estate investment trusts; and (2) reserves of mutual savings banks and other thrift institutions. Restores income averaging for qualified farmers. Part IV: Employment Tax Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to require income tax withholding for certain agricultural employees. Specifies the schedule and minimum amounts for the deposit of social security taxes and withheld income taxes. Part V: Tax-Exempt Bond Provisions - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide for the treatment of bonds of private nonprofit educational institutions and hospitals in a manner similar to governmental bonds. Provides that the private loan financing test does not apply to refinancings of certain bond issues. Makes bonds used to finance sports facilities tax exempt. Part VI: Insurance Provisions - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to report to specified congressional committees on a study of the tax deduction allowed the Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance organizations. Defines "unearned premiums" for purposes of reserves on minimum premium plans. Part VII: Compliance - Requires the Secretary to provide notice of underreporting in information returns. Establishes a statute of limitations for certain refund claims. Increases the threshold above which refunds must be submitted to the Joint Committee on Taxation for review. Part VIII: Exempt Organizations - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to permit tax-exempt private foundations and community foundations to establish tax-exempt cooperative service organizations to operate exclusively for charitable purposes. Provides an exception from the excise tax on self-dealing for certain tax-exempt organizations which become private foundations. Part IX: Other Provisions - Provides a tax deduction for special needs adoption expenses. Requires the recognition of gain or loss by any partner that contributes property to a partnership if the property is distributed by the partnership to anyone or any entity but the contributing partner. Repeals the net income limitation for percentage depletion on marginal oil and gas production. Provides for the treatment of tuxedos held for rental and the expensing of certain capital expenditures to assist the disabled. Includes the Overseas Private Investment Corporation as a tax-exempt government corporation. Eliminates the retroactive certification of employees for the work incentive jobs credit. Provides that any qualified injury award income shall not be taken into account in determining unearned income. Part X: Estate and Gift Tax Provisions - Repeals provisions concerning transfers with retained life estate. Provides an exemption from the generation-skipping tax for certain transfers to grandchildren. Disallows depreciation for certain term interests in property. Revises the waiver of the right of recovery in the case of certain marital deduction property. Provides for adjustments for gifts made within three years of a decedent's dath. Revises the qualified terminable interest rules with respect to the treatment of certain income distributions. Subtitle G: Revision of Civil Penalties - Part I: Document and Information Return Penalties - Revises penalty provisions in connection with tax return administration. Imposes a uniform penalty of $50 per offense (to a maximum of $250,000 per year) on any person who fails to: (1) file timely and correct information returns; (2) furnish correct payee statements; or (3) comply with other information reporting requirements. Reduces penalties if corrections are made within a specified time period. Allows exceptions for de minimis failures. Lowers the limitations for persons with gross receipts of less than $5,000,000. Increases penalties and removes the annual penalty ceiling in cases of intentional disregard of filing requirements. Revises requirements governing regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury in connection with returns that must be filed on magnetic media or in other machine-readable form. Directs the Comptroller General to study and report to specified congressional committees concerning: (1) ways to resolve discrepancies between taxpayer identity information shown on information returns and that in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) records; and (2) whether persons in the business of transmitting information returns and other documents to the IRS on behalf of others should be subject to registration. Part II: Revision of Accuracy-Related Penalties - Replaces current law governing additions to tax and other additional amounts with respect to tax administration violations with provisions that impose a 20 percent penalty in the form of additional tax in connection with underpayments attributable to at least one of the following: (1) negligence or disregard of relevant rules; (2) any substantial understatement of income tax; (3) any substantial valuation overstatement in connection with income tax; (4) any substantial overstatement of pension liabilities; or (5) any substantial estate or gift tax valuation understatement. Increases the penalty to 40 percent in cases of gross valuation misstatements. Imposes: (1) a 75 percent penalty in the form of additional tax with respect to any underpayment attributable to fraud; and (2) a 50 percent penalty in connection with underpayments of or failure to pay any stamp tax. Part III: Preparer, Promoter, and Protester Penalties - Revises provisions governing damages assessable for offenses related to Tax Court litigation to: (1) grant the Tax Court discretion in requiring a taxpayer to pay the United States a penalty (current law requires the penalty); (2) increase the amount of the permissible penalty from a $5,000 to a $25,000 maximum; and (3) authorize the Tax Court to impose a penalty upon any attorney who unreasonably multiplies the proceedings in question. Authorizes similar sanctions in cases brought before other courts. Modifies penalty provisions associated with understatements of taxpayer liability by income tax return preparers to: (1) increase penalty amounts; and (2) institute penalties for understatements due to unrealistic positions or reckless or intentional disregard of tax laws. Increases from $25 to $50 (to an annual maximum of $25,000) the penalty imposed on income tax return preparers who fail to furnish copies to taxpayers, sign returns, or furnish identifying numbers. Modifies penalties imposed on tax preparers who fail to file correct information returns. Increases the possible penalty imposed on persons who promote abusive tax shelters. Broadens the scope of persons subject to penalties for aiding and abetting understatements of tax liability. Increases from $500 to $1,000 the penalty for filing a frivolous income tax return. Repeals a provision prohibiting injunctions against any income tax return preparer who files a surety bond. Requires that regulations governing disclosure or use of information by tax return preparers permit disclosures for quality or peer reviews. Part IV: Failures to File or Pay - Increases penalties imposed on persons whose failure to file any return is fraudulent or intentional. Revises penalty provisions in connection with failures to make deposits of taxes, varying the penalty rate as a function of the time involved in the deposit delay. Declares that a taxpayer who belatedly pays a tax that should have been deducted and withheld is still liable for interest or applicable penalties or additions. Subtitle H: Technical Corrections - Part I: Amendments Related to Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988 - Makes technical corrections with respect to: (1) corporate tax; (2) minimum tax; (3) accounting methods; (4) foreign tax; (5) estate and gift tax; (6) generation-skipping transfer tax; (7) estimated taxes of trusts and estates; (8) insurance; (9) pensions; (10) excise tax on undernatured distilled spirits; (11) tax-exempt bonds; (12) research tax credit; and (13) low-income housing tax credit. Part II: Amendments Related to Revenue Act of 1987 - Revises: (1) accounting provisions concerning installment sales, the election of taxable years other than required taxable year, corporate earnings and profit adjustments, and treatment of foreign insurance; (2) provisions relating to excise taxes on diesel fuel and aviation fuel; and (3) enforcement authority in the case of flagrant political expenditures. Part III: Amendments Related to Tax Reform Act of 1986 - Revises provisions with respect to: (1) modification of the accelerated cost recovery system; (2) low-income housing credit; (3) capitalization and inclusion in inventory costs of certain expenses; and (4) transitional rules on the application of future legislation to transitioned bonds. Part IV: Miscellaneous Changes - Makes technical amendments to provisions related to transfers incident to divorce or separation and to the special rules for simplified employee pensions. Part V: Amendments Related to Pension Provisions - Revises certain pension and employee benefit provisions of, or relating to, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (Reform Act), the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987, including the Pension Protection Act, the Single-Employer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1986, and the Retirement Equity Act of 1984. Subpart A: Amendments Related to Tax Reform Act of 1986 - Amends the Reform Act, ERISA, and the IRC (as amended by the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988) to revise pension-related provisions. Revises minimum vesting requirements to provide a special vesting rule by which the repeal of class-year vesting does not adversely affect the vesting status of certain plan participants. Applies such exemption rule to certain employees meeting specified hours of service requirements, for whom a plan amendment eliminating class-year vesting would reduce a nonforfeitable right. Amends the Retirement Equity Act of 1984 (as well as the Reform Act and ERISA) to revise plan amendment deadlines. Amends ERISA, the IRC, the Reform Act, and the Technical and Miscellaneous Revenue Act of 1988 to revise continuation coverage requirements for group health plans. Subpart B: Amendments Related to the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 - Amends IRC and ERISA, as if such amendments were included in the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986, to revise the normal retirement age for purposes of minimum vesting standards. Makes technical amendments to the IRC and ERISA, including a repeal of the 133 1/3 percent rule relating to accrued benefit requirements applied to deferred benefit pension plans. Subpart C: Amendments Related to Pension Protection Act - Amends ERISA, IRC, and the Pension Protection Act (which is included under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1987) to revise provisions relating to: (1) the full limitation for multiemployer pension plans; (2) modification of the minimum funding standard for pension plans, including a special transition rule with respect to steel employees; (3) the time for making plan contributions; (4) funding waivers; (5) the interest rate to be used in connection with various plan funding rules; (6) plan terminations; and (7) reporting requirements. Provides that a specified change in the amortization period for experience gains and losses applies to gains and losses beginning after December 31, 1987. Subtitle I: Tax Credit for Certain Health Insurance Premiums and Child Care and Supplemental Earned Income Credit for Families With Young Children - Allows a tax credit for a percentage of the qualified health insurance expenses paid by an individual who qualified for the tax credit for dependent care. Makes the dependent care credit and the health insurance premium credit refundable for low and moderate income taxpayers. Authorizes employers to advance the payment of the dependent care credit. Establishes a supplemental earned income credit for families with young children. Requires the Comptroller General to report to specified congressional committees on a study of the advance payment of earned income credit. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to establish a taxpayer awareness program to inform the public of the dependent care credit and the health insurance premiums credit. Amends the Social Security Act to require demonstration projects to evaluate and extend the provision of health insurance to children not covered by public or private health programs. Subtitle J: Individual Retirement Accounts - Savings and Investment Incentive Act of 1989 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exempt from the ten percent penalty tax on early distributions from qualified retirement plans: (1) first-time homebuyer distributions; and (2) qualified higher education expenses. Allows a deduction for 50 percent of the contributions made to individual retirement plans. Subtitle K: Amendments Related to Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to provide for qualified State housing agency bonds issued to finance purchases of single-family residences or residential rental projects from certain Federal agencies or instrumentalities. Requires that: (1) the single-family residence or residential rental project being acquired or disposed of by the bond be located within the jurisdiction of the bond-issuing State housing agency; and (2) the disposition of a residential rental project provided by the bond be to a purchaser for whom the project is a qualified residential rental project. Makes such bonds private activity bonds whose interest is excluded from taxable income. Subtitle L: Coordination With Budget Act - Declares that, with respect to the public debt limit, any transfer of outlays, receipts, or revenues pursuant to this title is a necessary (but secondary) result of a significant policy change. Title VII: Civil Service and Postal Service Programs - Declares that the receipts and disbursements of the Postal Service Fund: (1) shall not be included in the totals of the Federal budget or the congressional budget; (2) shall be exempt from Federal budget limitations on expenditures and net lending; and (3) shall be exempt from sequestration and shall not be counted for purposes of calculating the Federal deficit. Directs the United States Postal Service to deposit $400,000,000 from available funds into the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund at the end of FY 1990. Requires such payment to be considered as a prior year's loss for purposes of adjusting postal rates under provisions relating to mail matter. Makes the Postal Service liable for unfunded increases in the benefits to be paid from the Fund to: (1) former Postal Service employees who become annuitants upon separation from the Service after September 30, 1990; (2) their survivors; or (3) the survivors of Postal Service employees who died after such date, when such increases result from cost-of-living adjustments. Directs the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to determine such increases. Requires the Postal Service to pay such increases to OPM in 15 annual installments plus interest with the first payment due at the end of the fiscal year in which the cost-of-living adjustment becomes effective. Provides for the funding of health benefit premiums for survivors of Postal Service annuitants or employees who died after September 30, 1986. Provides for partial deferred payments of lump-sum credit according to a specified payment schedule for certain individuals electing alternative forms of annuities if the commencement date of the annuity to be paid falls between September 30, 1989, and October 1, 1990. Provides that nothing in this Act shall affect any aspect of annuity benefits payable under election for alternative forms of annuities. Title VIII: Committee on Labor and Human Resources - Subtitle A: Pension Plans - Chapter 1: Fiduciary Responsibilities Relating to Plan Terminations - Employee Pension Protection Act of 1989 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to revise fiduciary standards applicable to pension plan assets to account for duties with respect to assets of terminated plans. Establishes fiduciary standards to apply to employer reversions upon plan termination, requiring an employer to establish and maintain a complete replacement plan or a substantial replacement plan in connection with the termination. Describes fiduciary duties to govern the distribution of plan assets to participants and beneficiaries upon plan termination in cases when the employer does not set up a replacement or substantial replacement plan. Directs the Comptroller General to study and report to specified congressional committees on the extent to which employers with less than 25 employees terminate defined benefit plans with surplus assets in order for such assets to revert to the employer. Makes an interest in a publicly traded partnership a qualifying employer security for specified purposes under ERISA. Chapter 2: Transfer of Pension Assets to Health Accounts - Amends ERISA to allow the qualified transfer of excess assets in a pension plan to a retiree benefits account under certain circumstances. Chapter 3: Labor-Related Civil Penalties and Premiums - Amends the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to raise from $10,000 to $50,000 the maximum monetary penalty for each of specified violations, and to set a minimum penalty of $5,000 for each willful violation and of $1,000 for each repeated violation. Amends ERISA to revise civil enforcement penalties and premium rates. Requires the Secretary of Labor to assess a civil penalty equal to 20 percent of the assets recovered for the plan by the Secretary in the case of specified prohibited transactions by a plan fiduciary. (Current law authorizes the Secretary to assess such a penalty for up to five percent of the total amount of the transaction involved.) Increases the annual premium paid to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) by single-employer pension plans by $2 (from $16 to $18) per participant. Amends the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 to increase the maximum civil penalty for specified violations from $10,000 to $30,000. Chapter 4: Pension Portability - Pension Portability Act of 1989 - Subchapter A: Rules Generally Applicable to Simplified Employee Pensions - Amends ERISA to direct the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations prescribing an alternative method of compliance with ERISA reporting and disclosure requirements for simplified employee pension plans (SEPs). Exempts SEPs from specified ERISA participation and vesting requirements. Requires SEPs, as a minimum participation requirement, to not require that an individual participant have: (1) attained any age greater than 21; or (2) performed service for the employer during more than three of the immediately preceding five years. Requires SEPs, as a minimum vesting requirement, to provide that an employee's rights in accrued benefit derived from the employer's contributions are nonforfeitable. Subchapter B: Portable Pension Plans - Amends ERISA to provide for utilization of SEPs as portable pension plans. Defines a portable pension plan as one consisting of one or more SEPs, or individual retirement accounts or annuities, which meet specified IRC requirements and ERISA portability requirements. Subtitle B: Education-Chapter 1: Higher Education Amendments - Medical Residents' Student Loan Amendments Act of 1989 - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to revise provisions relating to repayment of student loans by medical residents. Requires lenders to grant borrowers, upon written request, forbearance from student loan repayments, renewable at 12-month intervals, for the time remaining in the borrower's medical or dental internship, residency, or fellowship program. Directs the Department of Education to conduct, and complete within one year, a study examining: (1) indebtedness among graduate and professional students; and (2) the extent to which loan burden affects enrollment and persistence decisions of low-income, disadvantaged, and minority graduate students. Revises HEA provisions for the Supplemental Loans for Students (SLS) program to prohibit the financial aid administrator from certifying a borrower's eligibility for an SLS loan until after certain attendance criteria are met. Authorizes the Secretary to take certain emergency actions to impose sanctions against institutions of higher education and their agents if they violate HEA student aid programs provisions. Prohibits charging any student or parent a fee for supplying supplementary information or documentation to a financial aid administrator for need analysis under specified HEA student aid programs. Chapter 2: Treatment of Bilingual Education Awards - Directs the Secretary of Education to treat certain awards to and expenditures by the Franklin-Northwest Supervisory Union, Vermont, under the Bilingual Education Act as if they were made in accordance with such Act for purposes of any repayment claims asserted by such Secretary. Subtitle C: Low Income Treatment Assistance Program - Low Income Treatment Assistance Program Act of 1989 - Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services, notwithstanding any other provision of law, to make available sums from the Public Health Emergency Fund in FY 1990 through 1992 for allotments to States based on the number of cases of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) reported in a State. Requires matching State funds in certain circumstances. Prohibits a State from using more than five percent of its allotment for administrative costs, which may include costs of outreach services. Requires that applications for allotments include a plan describing the intended use of the payments. Declares that payments under the allotments shall be for the provision of therapeutics determined to prolong life or prevent the serious deterioration of health arising from AIDS or Human Immunodeficiency Virus disease in a low-income individual who has a medical diagnosis of AIDS or related conditions. Requires States to: (1) determine which therapies shall be eligible; (2) permit the assistance to be used to purchase eligible therapies and ancillary devices; (3) assure, subject to exception, that none of the assistance is used for personnel costs associated with the provision of the therapies. Subtitle D: Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act - Amends the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act to allow funds obligated for any fiscal year to be expended during that fiscal year and the next two succeeding fiscal years (currently only one succeeding fiscal year). Subtitle E: Health Services Research - Health Services Research and Policy Act of 1989 - Chapter 1: Agency for Health Research - Amends the Public Health Service Act to create a new title to establish, within the Public Health Service, the Agency for Health Services Research (Agency) to enhance the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of health care services, and access to such services, through improvements in clinical practice and in the organization, financing, and delivery of health care services. Requires that the agency be headed by an Administrator for the Agency for Health Services Research, to be appointed by the Secretary, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services, through the Administrator, to carry out the new title. Sets forth the general authorities and duties of the Administrator, including conducting and supporting research, training, demonstration projects, evaluations and the dissemination of information. Prohibits the Administrator from restricting the publication of data or results from projects conducted or supported under the new title, but prohibits disclosure of identifying data without consent. Directs the Administrator and the Director of the National Library of Medicine (the Library) to enter into an agreement for indexing, abstracting, translating, publishing, and other services leading to a more effective and timely dissemination of information on research, demonstration projects, and evaluations. Directs the Administrator to promote the development and application of appropriate health care technology assessments. Establishes at the Library a clearinghouse for information on health care technologies and health care technology assessment. Directs the Administrator and the Director of the Library to enter into an agreement providing for the clearinghouse. Directs the Administrator to conduct and support research with respect to the outcomes of health care services and procedures to identify how diseases and disorders can most effectively and appropriately be prevented, diagnosed, and treated. Directs the Administrator to establish priorities with respect to the diseases and disorders for which outcome evaluations are to be conducted. Directs the Administrator to conduct and support: (1) research on improvement of the methodologies and criteria utilized in the outcome research; and (2) evaluations of methodologies that utilize large data bases, including claims data and clinical data, in conducting outcome research. Directs the Administrator to: (1) develop and promote uniform standards and formats for information on outcomes; (2) provide for dissemination of research findings and education of providers; and (3) conduct and support evaluations of outcome research activities. Authorizes the Administrator to conduct or support research on improving methods of disseminating information on the effectiveness and appropriateness of health care services and procedures. Requires that technical and scientific peer review be conducted on each application for a grant, cooperative agreement, or contract under the new title of the Public Health Service Act added by this Act. Prohibits application approval by the Assistant Secretary for Health and the Administrator unless the application has been recommended for approval by a peer review group. Allows adjusted peer review procedures for applications involving a direct cost under a specified amount. Directs the Administrator and the Assistant Secretary to establish such technical and scientific peer review groups as may be necessary. Requires that they continue in existence, notwithstanding the Federal Advisory Committee Act, until otherwise provided by law. Requires that the reviews of applications be conducted by different peer review groups than those that conduct review of applications involving dissemination activities or the development of research agendas. Directs the Administrator to establish guidelines for uniform methods of developing and collecting data under the title added by this Act. Authorizes the Administrator or the Assistant Secretary to provide supplies and services in lieu of funds. Declares that contracts may be entered into without regard to specified provisions of Federal law relating to advances and to advertising for Government contracts. Authorizes the Administrator to appoint a deputy administrator for the Agency. Sets forth other administrative authorities. Authorizes the Administrator to make grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts to carry out the title added by this Act. Authorizes the Assistant Secretary and the Administrator to secure the services of experts and consultants, subject to specified Federal law. Exempts not more than 50 experts or consultants from limitations, set forth in the same Federal provisions, relating to duration of service. Allows payment of travel expenses for the exempted experts or consultants if certain requirements are met. Chapter 2: Practice Guidelines - Directs the Assistant Secretary to establish the Office for Quality and Effectiveness in Health Care. Requires the Office to develop, monitor, and update: (1) clinically relevant diagnosis and treatment guidelines for physicians and health care practitioners; and (2) standards of quality, performance measures, and medical review criteria. Authorizes the Assistant Secretary, in establishing the Office and carrying out the Program, to enter into contracts with public or nonprofit private entities. Requires the Assistant Secretary to convene panels of qualified experts, practicing physicians, health care providers, and health care consumers to carry out the development, monitoring, and updating. Authorizes the Assistant Secretary to convene panels of the same composition to develop the standards and criteria and to provide advice to the health care providers. Chapter 3: Advisory Council for Health Services Research, Evaluation, and Policy - Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish the National Advisory Council for Health Services Research, Evaluation, and Policy to advise the Secretary, the Assistant Secretary, and the Administrator with respect to activities of the Agency for Health Services Research and Policy (Agency). Declares that the Council shall, notwithstanding the Federal Advisory Committee Act, continue in existence until otherwise provided by law. Authorizes appropriations for FY 1990 through 1992 to carry out the title added by this Act. Requires, in addition, that a portion of amounts available under specified existing provisions of the Public Health Service Act relating to evaluations of programs be made available for evaluations under the title added by this Act. Chapter 4: General Provisions - Removes from the Public Health Service Act provisions establishing the National Center for Health Services Research and provisions for grants for a council on health care technology. Makes technical and conforming amendments to the Public Health Service Act. Authorizes appropriations for health statistical and epidemiological activities for FY 1989 through 1991. Subtitle F: State Comprehensive Mental Health Services Plan - Authorizes appropriations for FY 1990 and 1991 for grants to States for the development of State comprehensive mental health services plans. Title IX: Veterans Programs - Extends through FY 1990 the authority of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to collect a loan fee from veterans receiving home loans guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Changes from October 1, 1989, to October 1, 1990, the date before which the Secretary is authorized to sell without recourse notes evidencing loans which are in default.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

1. 12 October 1989

   Floor

   Measure laid before Senate by unanimous consent.

   Source: Floor

2. 12 October 1989

   Calendars

   Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 294.

   Source: Calendars

3. 12 October 1989

   Reported

   Committee on Budget. Original measure reported to Senate by Senator Sasser. Without written report.

   Source: Committee

4. 12 October 1989

   Reported

   Committee on Budget ordered to be reported an original measure.

   Source: Committee

5. 12 October 1989

   Introduced

   Introduced in Senate

   Source: IntroReferral

6. 13 October 1989

   Floor

   Considered by Senate.

   Source: Floor

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

• Introduced in Senate · undated · Official file

Documents

3 official files

• Introduced in Senate (text)

  Introduced in Senate · EN

  ViewDownloadOpen at official source

• Indefinitely postponed in Senate

  summary · EN · 13 October 1989

  Open at official source

• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 12 October 1989

  Open at official source

Sponsors

• Sen. Sasser, Jim [D-TN] · D · Sponsor
• · ssbu00 · Standing

Related records

• related to → Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989