hyperdemocracy/usc-billstatus huggingface dataset:
POLAR-C Act

Bill: 112-s-1620
Sponsor: Sen. Begich, Mark [D-AK]
Introduced: 2011-09-22 in the Senate
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works
Subjects: Alaska
Arctic and polar regions
Coast guard
Congressional oversight
Marine and inland water transportation
Navigation, waterways, harbors

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-22
text: 
Preserve Our Large Arctic Response Capability Act or POLAR-C Act - Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the United States should maintain domestic heavy and medium duty icebreaker assets to meet U.S. Coast Guard (CG) statutory requirements and priorities for maritime transportation; and (2) maintaining less than a sufficient number of such assets jeopardizes national security, law enforcement, maritime safety, environmental protection, disaster response, scientific research, and natural resource protection in the polar regions and Alaska.
 
Directs the CG Commandant to submit to Congress its polar icebreaker business case analysis for replacing or performing service life extensions on the CG's 2 heavy polar icebreakers: (1) Cutter POLAR SEA (WAGB 11), and (2) Cutter POLAR STAR (WAGB 10). Prohibits the CG Commandant and the Administrator of the Maritime Administration from disposing or taking any other specified action with respect to such icebreakers until 2 years after such submission. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-09-22
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
action_date: 2011-09-22
text: Introduced in Senate
Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-1622
Sponsor: Sen. Heller, Dean [R-NV]
Introduced: 2011-09-23 in the Senate
Policy area: International Affairs
Subjects: Appropriations
Congressional oversight
Department of State
Diplomacy, foreign officials, Americans abroad
Government buildings, facilities, and property
Government information and archives
Israel
Middle East
Presidents and presidential powers, Vice Presidents
Sovereignty, recognition, national governance and status

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: 
Jerusalem Embassy and Recognition Act of 2011 - States that it is U.S. policy to recognize Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel. 
 
 Amends the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 to eliminate the President's authority to waive certain funding limitations for Department of State acquisition and maintenance of buildings abroad until the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has officially opened.
 
Requires any official U.S. document which lists countries and their capital cities to identify Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
 
Limits appropriations that may be obligated in FY2013 for Department acquisition and maintenance of buildings abroad until the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has officially opened.
 
States that for each of FY2012-FY2013, of funds authorized to be appropriated for Department acquisition and maintenance of buildings abroad, necessary sums should be made available until expended only for construction and other costs associated with the establishment in Jerusalem of the U.S. Embassy in Israel.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Introduced in Senate
A bill to provide a processing extension for emergency mortgage relief payments, and for other purposes.

Bill: 112-s-1623
Sponsor: Sen. Casey, Robert P., Jr. [D-PA]
Introduced: 2011-09-23 in the Senate
Policy area: Housing and Community Development
Subjects: Government lending and loan guarantees
Housing finance and home ownership

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: 
Amends the Emergency Housing Act of 1975, as amended by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, to extend eligibility for loan or advance of credit insurance or emergency mortgage relief payments to mortgagors who: (1) applied for a loan, advance, or emergency mortgage relief payments on or before September 30, 2011; and (2) were approved to receive the benefit of such loan, advance, or emergency mortgage relief on or before December 31, 2011.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Introduced in Senate
Currency Efficiency Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-1624
Sponsor: Sen. Brown, Scott P. [R-MA]
Introduced: 2011-09-23 in the Senate
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
Subjects: Currency
Presidents and presidential powers, Vice Presidents
U.S. history

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: 
Currency Efficiency Act of 2011 - Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to suspend issuance of presidential $1 coins during any period for which the Secretary determines that the surplus supply of $1 coins exceeds the reasonable circulation needs for one year.
 
Prohibits the minting or issuance of $1 coins during any period in which the number of such coins issued, but not in circulation, is more than 10 percent of the number of $1 coins in circulation.
 
Eliminates the requirement that institutions that want unmixed supplies of newly-issued designs of $1 coins be able to obtain such supplies.
 
Requires the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to: (1) determine an inventory level of $1 coins required among member banks to meet reasonable circulation needs, and (2) adjust its inventories of such coins to that level through methods that minimize the need for further storage expenditures. Deems surpluses of coins that can be most efficiently eliminated through destruction to consist of &quot;obsolete and worn coins withdrawn from circulation&quot; for purposes of disposal requirements.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Introduced in Senate
ARRM Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-1626
Sponsor: Sen. Brown, Sherrod [D-OH]
Introduced: 2011-09-23 in the Senate
Policy area: Agriculture and Food
Subjects: Agricultural prices, subsidies, credit

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: 
Aggregate Risk and Revenue Management Act of 2011 or the ARRM Act of 2011 - Amends the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 to direct the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA), regarding all covered commodities and peanuts during each of the 2013-2017 crop years, to give the operator, tenant, or sharecropper on a farm an opportunity to make an annual election for all producers on the farm to receive aggregate risk and revenue management payments for the crop year for which the election is made. (Replaces the average crop revenue election program with the ARRM program.)
 
Repeals the direct and counter-cyclical payment programs for covered commodities and peanuts beginning with the 2013 crop year. 
 
Suspends permanent price support authority through December 31, 2017.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Introduced in Senate
Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-1627
Sponsor: Sen. Nelson, Bill [D-FL]
Introduced: 2011-09-23 in the Senate
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Congressional oversight
Government studies and investigations
Health care coverage and access
Health personnel
Hospital care
Medical education
Medicare
Minority employment
Minority health

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: 
Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2011 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act with respect to distribution of additional resident positions as they affect calculation of payments for direct graduate medical education (DME) costs.
 
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), for each of FY2013-FY2017 (and each succeeding fiscal year if additional residency positions are available to distribute), to increase the otherwise applicable resident limit for each qualifying hospital.
 
Requires the aggregate number of increases in the otherwise applicable resident limit to be 3,000 in each of FY2013-FY2017, of which 1,500 in each such fiscal year shall be used for full-time equivalent residents training in a shortage speciality residency program.
 
Specifies the process for distributing positions.
 
Directs the National Health Care Workforce Commission to study the physician workforce.
 
Directs the Comptroller General to study strategies for increasing the diversity of the health profession workforce.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Introduced in Senate
Federal Hiring Process Improvement Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-1628
Sponsor: Sen. Akaka, Daniel K. [D-HI]
Introduced: 2011-09-23 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Employee hiring
Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Government information and archives
Minority employment
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
Performance measurement
Public contracts and procurement

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: 
Federal Hiring Process Improvement Act of 2011 - Requires the head of each executive agency to develop and submit to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) a strategic workforce plan as part of an agency performance plan, including: (1) hiring projections, (2) strategic human capital planning to address critical skills deficiencies, (3) recruitment strategies to attract highly qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds, (4) streamlining of the hiring process, and (5) a specific analysis of the contractor workforce. 
 
Requires agency heads to: (1) identify highly qualified applicant pools with diverse backgrounds before posting announcements of vacant positions and post such announcements for a reasonable period of time, (2) implement processes to simplify and streamline the job application and notification process, (3) fill a vacancy not later than an average of 80 days after identifying such vacancy, and (4) measure and collect information on indicators of hiring effectiveness. Requires all announcements of vacant positions for competitive positions to be written in plain writing in accordance with the Plain Writing Act of 2010.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. (text of measure as introduced: CR S5948-5950)
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S5947)
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Introduced in Senate
Agent Orange Equity Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-1629
Sponsor: Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY]
Introduced: 2011-09-23 in the Senate
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: Asia
Conflicts and wars
Disability and paralysis
Hazardous wastes and toxic substances
Veterans' medical care
Veterans' pensions and compensation
Vietnam

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: 
Agent Orange Equity Act of 2011 - Includes as part of the Republic of Vietnam its territorial seas for purposes of the presumption of service connection for diseases associated with exposure by veterans to certain herbicide agents while in Vietnam.

Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Introduced in Senate
A bill to authorize the establishment in the Department of Veterans Affairs of a center for technical assistance for non-Department health care providers who furnish care to veterans in rural areas, and for other purposes.

Bill: 112-s-1631
Sponsor: Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT]
Introduced: 2011-09-23 in the Senate
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: Department of Veterans Affairs
Executive agency funding and structure
Health care coverage and access
Health care quality
Health information and medical records
Rural conditions and development
Veterans' medical care

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: 
Authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) a center for technical assistance to assist non-VA health providers who furnish care to veterans in rural areas. Makes the head of such center the Director of the Rural Veterans Health Care Technical Assistance Center. Requires the Secretary, in selecting the center's location, to give preference to a location that, among other things: (1) has a high number of veterans in rural and highly rural areas, and (2) is near one or more entities carrying out programs and activities relating to health care for rural populations.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2012-06-27
text: Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 112-668.
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Introduced in Senate
Tax Relief for Victims of Disasters Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-1632
Sponsor: Sen. Menendez, Robert [D-NJ]
Introduced: 2011-09-23 in the Senate
Policy area: Taxation
Subjects: Disaster relief and insurance
Homelessness and emergency shelter
Income tax credits
Income tax deductions
Poverty and welfare assistance
Tax treatment of families
Wages and earnings

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: 
Tax Relief for Victims of Disasters Act of 2011 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend disaster-related tax provisions relating to the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit, losses, and the individual tax exemption to a qualified federally declared disaster individual (defined to mean, with respect to a federally declared disaster after December 31, 2010, and before January 1, 2013, any individual whose principal place of abode was located in the disaster area, who was displaced by the disaster, and who was performing employment services in the disaster area).


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2011-09-23
text: Introduced in Senate
Selected Reserve Education Enhancement Act

Bill: 112-s-1633
Sponsor: Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT]
Introduced: 2011-09-26 in the Senate
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: National Guard and reserves
Student aid and college costs
Veterans' education, employment, rehabilitation

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-26
text: 
 Selected Reserve Education Enhancement Act - Directs the Secretary of Defense (DOD), each fiscal year, to provide an increase in the rates of educational assistance payable to certain members of the Selected Reserve which is not less than the percentage by which the average cost of undergraduate tuition in the United States for the last academic year exceeds the average cost of such tuition for the year before that academic year. (Currently, such percentage increase is based on increases in the Consumer Price Index over such period.)


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-09-26
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed Services.
action_date: 2011-09-26
text: Introduced in Senate
A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the approval and disapproval of programs of education for purposes of educational benefits under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.

Bill: 112-s-1634
Sponsor: Sen. Tester, Jon [D-MT]
Introduced: 2011-09-26 in the Senate
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: Elementary and secondary education
Higher education
Veterans' education, employment, rehabilitation

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-26
text: 
Amends federal provisions concerning the approval of state programs of education for purposes of the use of veterans' educational assistance provided through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to repeal the constructive approval of: (1) an accredited standard college degree program offered at a public or not-for-profit educational institution that is accredited by an agency or association recognized by the Secretary of Education, or (2) a program leading to a secondary school diploma offered by a secondary school approved in that state.
 
Repeals the authority of the VA Secretary to: (1) approve accredited programs offered by proprietary for-profit educational institutions, or (2) disapprove courses which fail to meet state approving agency requirements.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2012-06-13
text: Committee on Veterans' Affairs. Hearings held. Hearings printed: S.Hrg. 112-567.
action_date: 2011-09-26
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
action_date: 2011-09-26
text: Introduced in Senate
San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-1635
Sponsor: Sen. Udall, Mark [D-CO]
Introduced: 2011-09-26 in the Senate
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources
Subjects: Colorado
Land transfers
Wilderness and natural areas, wildlife refuges, wild rivers, habitats

Summary:
action_date: 2011-09-26
text: 
San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act of 2011- Designates specified lands in the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests and specified land of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Colorado as wilderness areas and components of the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS). 

Designates specified lands in such National Forests and San Juan National Forest as the Sheep Mountain Special Management Area. 
 
Sets forth provisions regarding water rights in the lands designated as wilderness or a special management area by this Act. 
 
Withdraws lands designated as wilderness or a special management area under this Act, as well as land within the Naturita Canyon Mineral Withdrawal Area, from: (1) entry, appropriation, and disposal under public land laws; (2) location, entry, and patent under mining laws; and (3) operation of the mineral leasing, mineral materials, and geothermal leasing laws. 
 
Releases certain parts of the Dominguez Canyon Wilderness Study Area that were not designated as wilderness by this Act from further study for designation as wilderness. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2012-03-22
text: Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 112-642.
action_date: 2011-09-26
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
action_date: 2011-09-26
text: Introduced in Senate
Thurgood Marshall's  Elementary School Study Act

Bill: 112-s-1638
Sponsor: Sen. Cardin, Benjamin L. [D-MD]
Introduced: 2011-10-03 in the Senate
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources
Subjects: Educational facilities and institutions
Elementary and secondary education
Government studies and investigations
Historic sites and heritage areas
Judges
Land use and conservation
Maryland
Parks, recreation areas, trails
Supreme Court

Summary:
action_date: 2011-10-03
text: 
Thurgood Marshall's Elementary School Study Act - Directs the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a special resource study of P.S. 103, the public school located in West Baltimore, Maryland, which former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall attended as a youth (the study area).
 
Requires the Secretary to: (1) evaluate the national significance of the study area and determine its suitability and feasibility as a unit of National Park System, and (2) consider other alternatives for the preservation and interpretation of such area.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-10-03
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. (text of measure as introduced: CR S6052)
action_date: 2011-10-03
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S6051-6052)
action_date: 2011-10-03
text: Introduced in Senate
Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-1640
Sponsor: Sen. Casey, Robert P., Jr. [D-PA]
Introduced: 2011-10-03 in the Senate
Policy area: Agriculture and Food
Subjects: Agricultural marketing and promotion
Agricultural prices, subsidies, credit
Congressional oversight
Food industry and services

Summary:
action_date: 2011-10-03
text: 
Federal Milk Marketing Improvement Act of 2011 - Amends the Agricultural Adjustment Act, reenacted with amendments by the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937, to direct the Secretary of Agriculture (USDA) to base the minimum Class II milk price on the national average cost of production which shall be the difference between: (1) the national average of the operating cost and the allocated overhead cost of producing all milk in the 48 contiguous states, and (2) the opportunity cost for unpaid labor of producing all milk in such states.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) announce the minimum price for Class II milk by November 1 of each year, with specified price adjustment dates; and (2) use the Class II milk price as the basic formula price for all federal and state milk marketing orders and all unregulated milk production areas. 
 
States that the price of Class I (fluid) milk price in all federal and state milk marketing orders and all unregulated milk production areas shall be equal to the basic formula price plus the applicable Class I differential under federal and state milk marketing orders.
 
Directs the Secretary to: (1) identify all dairy products imported into and exported from the United States, and determine each product's quantity of raw milk; (2) identify the total quantity of milk produced by each dairy producer or farming operation during the three preceding years; (3) if the maximum quantity of milk and milk products has been purchased for mandated federal food programs, determine whether an excess quantity of milk and milk products is being produced for the national domestic market; (4) estimate annual milk production and domestic consumption; and (5) upon a determination of a positive dairy trade balance and excess production, provide for a producer price reduction of up to 5% (not to exceed one-half the minimum Class II milk price) of all milk produced in the 48 contiguous states and marketed by producers for commercial use.
 
Provides new dairy producers with a limited exemption from price reductions. 
 
Directs the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) to establish a dairy producer account.
 
 Prohibits imposition of producer charges for the cost of converting raw milk to manufactured products. 
 
States that: (1) disapproval of an amendment to a federal milk order shall not be considered disapproval of the order, and (2) a milk handler that purchases milk from a dairy producer shall assume title for the milk when it is pumped into a milk truck provided by or otherwise delivered to the milk handler.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-10-03
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.
action_date: 2011-10-03
text: Introduced in Senate
Workforce Health Improvement Program Act of 2011

Bill: 112-s-1644
Sponsor: Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX]
Introduced: 2011-10-04 in the Senate
Policy area: Taxation
Subjects: Employee benefits and pensions
Health promotion and preventive care
Income tax deductions
Income tax exclusion
Physical fitness and lifestyle
Sports and recreation facilities
Worker safety and health

Summary:
action_date: 2011-10-04
text: 
Workforce Health Improvement Program Act of 2011 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from the gross income of employees: (1) the value of any on-premises employer-provided athletic facility; and (2) fees, dues, or membership expenses paid to an athletic or fitness facility by an employer for its employees, but not exceeding $900 per employee per year.
 
Allows employers a tax deduction for fees, dues, or membership expenses paid to an athletic or fitness facility. Limits the amount of such deduction to $900 per employee per year. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2011-10-04
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance. (text of measure as introduced: CR S6092)
action_date: 2011-10-04
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR S6091-6092)
action_date: 2011-10-04
text: Introduced in Senate