SEC. 208. LIMITATIONS.
(a) PROHIBITION OF LOBBYING ACTIVITIES.—None
of the funds authorized by this Act shall be available for
any activity whose purpose is to influence legislation pend-
ing before the Congress, except that this subsection shall
not prevent officers or employees of the United States or
of its departments or agencies from communicating to
Members of Congress on the request of any Member or
to Congress, through the proper channels, requests for leg-
islation or appropriations which they deem necessary for
the efficient conduct of the public business.
(b) LIMITATION
ON
APPROPRIATIONS.—Notwith-
standing any other provision of law, no sums are author-
ized to be appropriated for fiscal years 1998 and 1999
for the activities for which sums are authorized by this
Act, unless such sums are specifically authorized to be ap-
propriated by this Act.
(c) ELIGIBILITY FOR AWARDS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall exclude
from consideration for grant agreements made by
the Foundation after fiscal year 1997 any person
who received funds, other than those described in
paragraph (2), appropriated for a fiscal year after
fiscal year 1997, under a grant agreement from any
Federal funding source for a project that was not
subjected to a competitive, merit-based award proc-
ess. Any exclusion from consideration pursuant to
this subsection shall be effective for a period of 5
years after the person receives such Federal funds.
(2) EXCEPTION.—Paragraph (1) shall not
apply to the receipt of Federal funds by a person
due to the membership of that person in a class
specified by law for which assistance is awarded to
members of the class according to a formula pro-
vided by law.
(3) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this sub-
section, the term ‘‘grant agreement’’ means a legal
instrument whose principal purpose is to transfer a
thing of value to the recipient to carry out a public
purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a
law of the United States, and does not include the
acquisition (by purchase, lease, or barter) of prop-
erty or services for the direct benefit or use of the
United States Government.
SEC. 209. NOTICE.
(a) NOTICE OF REPROGRAMMING.—If any funds au-
thorized by this Act are subject to a reprogramming action
that requires notice to be provided to the Appropriations
Committees of the House of Representatives and the Sen-
ate, notice of such action shall concurrently be provided
to the Committee on Science of the House of Representa-
tives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and
Transportation of the Senate.
(b) NOTICE
OF REORGANIZATION.—The Director
shall provide notice to the Committees on Science and Ap-
propriations of the House of Representatives, and the
Committees on Labor and Human Resources, Commerce,
Science, and Transportation, and Appropriations of the
Senate, not later than 15 days before any major reorga-
nization of any program, project, or activity of the Foun-
dation.
SEC. 210. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON THE YEAR 2000 PROB-
LEM.
With the year 2000 fast approaching, it is the sense
of Congress that the Foundation should—
(1) give high priority to correcting all 2-digit
date-related problems in its computer systems to en-
sure that those systems continue to operate effec-
tively in the year 2000 and beyond;
(2) assess immediately the extent of the risk to
the operations of the Foundation posed by the prob-
lems referred to in paragraph (1), and plan and
budget for achieving Year 2000 compliance for all of
its mission-critical systems; and
(3) develop contingency plans for those systems
that the Foundation is unable to correct in time.
Æ