hyperdemocracy/usc-billstatus huggingface dataset:
A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide that the proceeds of qualified mortgage bonds may be used to provide refinancing for subprime loans, to provide a temporary increase in the volume cap for qualified mortgage bonds, and for other purposes.

Bill: 110-s-2517
Sponsor: Sen. Smith, Gordon H. [R-OR]
Introduced: 2007-12-18 in the Senate
Policy area: Taxation
Subjects: Armed Forces and National Security
Bonds
Finance and Financial Sector
Housing and Community Development
Income tax
Minimum tax
Mortgages
Tax exemption
Veterans' loans

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-18
text: 
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) allow proceeds of qualified mortgage bonds to be used to refinance certain residential subprime loans issued between 2002 and 2008; (2) increase in 2008 limitations on issuance amounts for qualified mortgage bonds; and (3) exempt tax-exempt interest on qualified mortgage or veterans' mortgage bonds issued before 2011 from the alternative minimum tax. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-18
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2007-12-18
text: Introduced in Senate
Freedom to Choose Tax Reform Act of 2007

Bill: 110-s-2518
Sponsor: Sen. Brownback, Sam [R-KS]
Introduced: 2007-12-18 in the Senate
Policy area: Taxation
Subjects: Congress
Congressional reporting requirements
Economics and Public Finance
Expedited congressional procedure
Federal advisory bodies
Government Operations and Politics
Income tax
Legislation
Performance measurement
Tax credits
Tax rates
Tax simplification

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-18
text: 
Freedom to Choose Tax Reform Act of 2007 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow individual taxpayers an election to choose an alternative income tax system, in lieu of the current tax system. Provides for two tax brackets of 10 and 23%. Eliminates all existing tax credits, but allows a $1,000 freedom to choose tax reform individual tax credit and a credit for overpayment of tax.

Establishes the Commission on Congressional Budgetary Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies. Directs the President to: (1) designate two Commission co-chairpersons; (2) establish a systematic method for assessing the effectiveness and accountability of federal agency programs; (3) divide such programs into four equal budgetary parts; (4) submit to the Commission annual assessments of the programs within each part (one each year) that use such method; and (5) identify common performance measures for programs having similar functions and provide the Commission with data on such measures. 

Requires the Commission to: (1) evaluate executive agencies and their programs identified in each assessment; (2) consider submitted assessments in evaluating programs; and (3) submit to Congress each of the next four years a plan recommending agencies and programs that should be realigned or eliminated and proposing implementing legislation. Provides for expedited consideration of such legislation.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-18
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2007-12-18
text: Introduced in Senate
Contracting and Tax Accountability Act of 2007

Bill: 110-s-2519
Sponsor: Sen. Obama, Barack [D-IL]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Collection of accounts
Commerce
Corporations
Debt
Economics and Public Finance
Federal aid programs
Finance and Financial Sector
Fines (Penalties)
Government contractors
Government procurement
Income tax
Law
Partnerships
Subsidies
Tax liens
Taxation

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
Contracting and Tax Accountability Act of 2007 - Prohibits any person who has a seriously delinquent tax debt from obtaining a federal government contract or grant. Requires federal agency heads to require prospective contractors or grantees to: (1) certify that they do not have such a debt; and (2) authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to disclose information describing whether such contractors or grantees have such a debt. 

Defines &quot;seriously delinquent tax debt&quot; and an outstanding tax debt for which a notice of lien has been filed in public records.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate
A bill to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow Indian tribal governments to transfer the credit for electricity produced from renewable resources.

Bill: 110-s-2520
Sponsor: Sen. Johnson, Tim [D-SD]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Taxation
Subjects: Alternative energy sources
Electric power production
Energy
Federal-Indian relations
Income tax
Minorities
Native Americans
Tax credits

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow an Indian tribal government, in the case of a facility that uses a renewable energy resource to produce electricity in which such government has an ownership interest in the gross sales from such facility, to assign to any other person who has such an ownership interest in such facility any portion of the production from the facility that would, but for this Act, be allocated to such government for purposes of the renewable electricity production credit. 

Makes such amendment applicable to electricity produced and sold after December 31, 2006. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate
Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2007

Bill: 110-s-2521
Sponsor: Sen. Lieberman, Joseph I. [ID-CT]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Civil service retirement
Domestic partners
Families
Family leave
Federal employees
Finance and Financial Sector
Government employees' health insurance
Government employees' life insurance
Health
Labor and Employment
Leave of absence
Long-term care insurance
Sick leave
Workers' compensation

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act of 2007 - Provides that a federal employee and his or her domestic partner shall be entitled to benefits available to, and shall be subject to obligations imposed upon, a married federal employee and his or her spouse.

Defines &quot;domestic partner&quot; to mean an adult unmarried person living with another adult unmarried person of the same sex in a committed, intimate relationship. Defines &quot;benefits&quot; to include federal health insurance and enhanced dental and vision benefits, retirement and disability benefits, family, medical, and emergency leave, group life insurance, long-term care insurance, compensation for work injuries, and benefits for disability, death, or captivity. Excludes members of the uniformed services from the definition of &quot;employee.&quot;

Sets forth requirements for filing: (1) an affidavit of eligibility as such a domestic partner, which shall include a certification that the employee and the domestic partner are each other's sole domestic partners and intend to remain so indefinitely; and (2) a statement upon dissolution of such a domestic partnership.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2008-09-24
text: Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Hearings held.
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. (text of measure as introduced: CR S16008-16009)
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S16008)
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate
MediKids Health Insurance Act of 2007

Bill: 110-s-2522
Sponsor: Sen. Rockefeller, John D., IV [D-WV]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Child health
Coinsurance
Comprehensive health care
Drugs
Economics and Public Finance
Executive reorganization
Families
Finance and Financial Sector
Government Operations and Politics
Government trust funds
Health insurance
Income tax
Insurance premiums
Medical economics
Medicare
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission
National health insurance
Prescription pricing
Social Welfare
Tax credits
Tax refunds
Taxation

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
MediKids Health Insurance Act of 2007 - Amends the Social Security Act to add a new title XXII (Medikids Program), which creates a program to guarantee comprehensive health care coverage, including prescription drugs for all children meeting specified age requirements.

Creates the MediKids Trust Fund. 

Expands the membership of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to 19.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) impose a MediKids premium for the taxable year, with an exemption for very low-income taxpayers; and (2) create a refundable tax credit providing a catastrophic limit on MediKids cost-sharing expenses.

Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to propose a gradual schedule of progressive tax changes to fund the Medikids program, as the number of enrollees grows in the out-years.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S16011-16014)
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S16010-16011)
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate
National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007

Bill: 110-s-2523
Sponsor: Sen. Kerry, John F. [D-MA]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Housing and Community Development
Subjects: Affordable housing
Apartment houses
Building construction
Citizen participation
Congressional reporting requirements
Counseling
Crime and Law Enforcement
Data banks
Economics and Public Finance
Education
Electronic government information
Elementary and secondary education
Emergency Management
Energy
Energy conservation
Environmental Protection
Federal aid to Indians
Federal aid to housing
Federally-guaranteed loans
Finance and Financial Sector
Fire fighters
Government Operations and Politics
Government publicity
Government trust funds
Green products
Health
Housing finance
Housing subsidies
Indian housing
Insurance premiums
Law enforcement officers
Local employees
Low-income housing
Minorities
Mortgage guaranty insurance
Native Americans
Paramedical personnel
Police
Public housing
Rental housing
Science, Technology, Communications
Single family housing
Social Welfare
State employees
Teachers
Water Resources Development
Water conservation

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act of 2007 - Amends the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act to establish in the Treasury a National Affordable Housing Trust Fund available to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to provide assistance to states, Indian tribes, insular areas, and participating local jurisdictions to increase the supply of decent quality affordable housing, especially for low-income, extremely low-income, and very poor families.
 
Prohibits the use of appropriations to the Fund for a fiscal year unless the amount equal to the net increase in the negative credit subsidy for specified mortgage insurance programs is first made available for: (1) single family housing mortgage insurance; (2) housing counseling; and (3) mortgage insurance technology, procedures, processes, program performance, and salaries.
 

 
Limits Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance premium increases.
 

 

 

 
Specifies affordable housing eligibility criteria for a rental dwelling unit and one- to four-family owner-occupied housing, including a priority to families on section 8 rental assistance or public housing waiting lists.
 
Requires the Secretary to establish a green housing clearinghouse for Fund grantees and recipients.
 
Declares that nothing in this Act allows any payments under it for any individual or head of household that is not a legal U.S. resident.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S16014-16015)
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate
Davis-Bacon Enforcement Act of 2007

Bill: 110-s-2524
Sponsor: Sen. Clinton, Hillary Rodham [D-NY]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Business records
Commerce
Construction industries
Construction workers
Government contractors
Government paperwork
Labor and Employment
Minimum wages
Wages

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
Davis-Bacon Enforcement Act of 2007 - Amends the Davis-Bacon Act to require that any provisions of federal law that require payment of prevailing wages be construed to include the Act's debarment requirements (prohibiting for three years any award of federal contracts to persons or related firms, corporations, partnerships, or associations listed by the Comptroller General as having disregarded their obligations to employees and subcontractors under the Act).
 
 
Requires each federal agency to make available to the public the complete payroll records (including all information in them except Social Security numbers) established under contracts subject to the Davis-Bacon Act.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate
MRSA Infection Prevention and Patient Protection Act

Bill: 110-s-2525
Sponsor: Sen. Menendez, Robert [D-NJ]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Administrative procedure
Antibiotics
Communicable diseases
Department of Health and Human Services
Drug resistance in microorganisms
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Health information systems
Hospital care
Hospital rates
Hospitals
Law
Medical records
Medical screening
Medical statistics
Medicare
Preventive medicine
Social Welfare

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
MRSA Infection Prevention and Patient Protection Act - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to promulgate regulations that: (1) define &quot;MRSA&quot; (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus); (2) provide a list of best practices for antibiotic resistant staphylococcus; (3) define &quot;high risk hospital departments&quot; for purposes of applying such practices; and (4) provide screening, recordkeeping, and other requirements as they relate to MRSA reductions.
 
Requires acute care hospitals to screen patients entering intensive care units and other high risk hospital departments. Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish a process and a timetable for extending the screening requirements to patients admitted to all hospitals by January 1, 2012, subject to a waiver; and (2) report to Congress, by January 1, 2009, on whether payment adjustments should be made under Medicare to assist certain hospitals in defraying the cost of screening for, and the subsequent treatment of, MRSA or similar infections. 

Requires all hospitals to: (1) comply with specified MRSA best practices, including contact precautions and patient isolation; and (2) report by January 1, 2009, the number of cases of hospital-acquired MRSA and other resistant infection rates that occur in the facility. Requires the Secretary to: (1) develop systems of identifying infected transferred patients and promptly informing any facility that has transferred an infected patient; and (2) promulgate regulations to develop a program to provide technical assistance and educational materials to non-hospital Medicare providers to assist in preventing MRSA infections.

Permits a hospital to apply to the Secretary for a one-year increase in the amount of the capital-related costs payment made to the hospital under the prospective payment system, subject to specified repayment and certification requirements.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate
Worker Infection Protection Act

Bill: 110-s-2526
Sponsor: Sen. Menendez, Robert [D-NJ]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Administrative procedure
Antibiotics
Communicable diseases
Crime and Law Enforcement
Department of Health and Human Services
Department of Labor
Drug resistance in microorganisms
Emergency Management
Emergency medicine
Employee training
Fire fighters
Government Operations and Politics
Health surveys
Influenza
Labor and Employment
Law
Medical personnel
Occupational health and safety
Police
Rescue work
Standards
Vaccines

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
Worker Infection Protection Act - Directs the Secretaries of Labor and of Health and Human Services (HHS) to jointly develop and issue workplace standards, recommendations, and plans to protect health care workers and first responders and other workers at risk of workplace exposure to infectious agents and drug resistant infections, such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and pandemic influenza.

Directs the Secretary of Labor to develop and issue an emergency temporary standard and, not later than six months after such issuance, a permanent standard for the protection of workers at risk of exposure, to prevent occupational exposure to infectious agents and toxins, such as MRSA and pandemic influenza. Sets forth minimum requirements for such standards concerning: (1) influenza exposure; (2) personal protective equipment; (3) training and information; (4) medical surveillance for exposed workers; and (5) immunization against the pandemic influenza virus, if such a vaccine has been approved and is available.

Requires the HHS Secretary to revise the provisions of the HHS pandemic influenza plan to conform with the minimum worker protection requirements described in this Act and with the permanent occupational safety and health exposure standard issued by the Secretary of Labor under this Act.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate
A bill to prohibit the obligation or expenditure of funds for the Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.

Bill: 110-s-2527
Sponsor: Sen. Feingold, Russell D. [D-WI]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: Defense budgets
Defense procurement
Economics and Public Finance
Government Operations and Politics
Military aircraft

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
Prohibits, with a specified exception, the obligation or expenditure of funds for the V-22 or CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft program.
 
Repeals a provision of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 granting multiyear procurement authority for the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft program.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Appropriations.
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S16016)
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate
Full Faith and Credit in Our Communities Act of 2007

Bill: 110-s-2528
Sponsor: Sen. Menendez, Robert [D-NJ]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
Subjects: Bonds
Community development
Community development banking
Depressed areas
Economic development
Economics and Public Finance
Employment of the disadvantaged
Federally-guaranteed loans
Financial services
Home ownership
Housing and Community Development
Income tax
Infrastructure
Interest rates
Job creation
Labor and Employment
Low-income housing
Mortgages
Rural economic development
Social Welfare
Tax exemption
Taxation

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
Full Faith and Credit in Our Communities Act of 2007 - Amends the Community Banking and Financial Institutions Act of 1994 to require the Secretary of the Treasury to guarantee payments on tax-exempt bonds or notes issued by any approved issuer if their proceeds are used to make loans to eligible community development financial institutions: (1) for eligible community or economic development purposes; or (2) to refinance loans or notes issued for such purposes.
 
Lists among such community or economic development purposes, especially in low-income or underserved rural areas, developing or supporting: (1) commercial facilities that promote revitalization, community stability, or job creation or retention; (2) businesses that provide jobs for low-income people or are owned by low-income people, or enhance the availability of products and services to them; (3) community facilities; (4) the provision of basic financial services; and (5) housing that is principally affordable to low-income people. 
 
Specifies that assistance used to facilitate homeownership shall only be used for services and lending products that: (1) serve low-income people; and (2) are not provided by other lenders in the area, or complement the services and lending products provided by other lenders that serve the investment area or targeted population.
 

 

 

 

 
Authorizes an eligible community development financial institution or an issuer to use a bond or note to reduce the interest rate on a loan made by an issuer to an eligible community development financial institution for any community or economic development purpose.
 
Requires each issuer, during the term of a guarantee, to establish a risk-share pool meeting certain criteria.
 

 

 
Requires any issuer receiving a guarantee on a bond or note to pay a specified fee to the Director of the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S16016)
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate
Protecting the Spirit of Giving Act

Bill: 110-s-2529
Sponsor: Sen. Menendez, Robert [D-NJ]
Introduced: 2007-12-19 in the Senate
Policy area: Commerce
Subjects: Charitable contributions
Charities
Consumer education
Manufacturing industries
Marketing
Prices
Retail trade
Social Welfare

Summary:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: 
Protecting the Spirit of Giving Act - Prohibits a manufacturer or retailer from using the name of a charitable organization to solicit donations or to sell or market a product under certain arrangements unless the manufacturer or retailer, for each solicitation, sale, or promotion, notifies the organization, obtains advance written approval, and limits the use of the organization's name to the scope approved.
 
Requires a manufacturer or retailer that sells or markets a product with the intention of remitting a portion of the proceeds to a charitable organization to disclose to the purchaser the portion of the purchase price that will be remitted, the maximum amount that will be remitted, the applicable time period, and the organization's contact information.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
action_date: 2007-12-19
text: Introduced in Senate