hyperdemocracy/usc-billstatus huggingface dataset:
Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016

Bill: 114-s-2712
Sponsor: Sen. Boozman, John [R-AR]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: Conflicts and wars
Congressional oversight
Disability and paralysis
Government studies and investigations
Income tax exclusion
Tax administration and collection, taxpayers
Veterans' pensions and compensation

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Combat-Injured Veterans Tax Fairness Act of 2016

 
This bill directs the Department of Defense (DOD) to identify: 
 
 
certain severance payments to veterans with combat-related injuries paid after January 17, 1991, from which DOD withheld amounts for tax purposes, and 
 
the individuals to whom such severance payments were made. 
 
 
DOD shall provide each such veteran with: 
 
 
notice of the amount of improperly withheld severance payments, and 
 
 instructions for filing amended tax returns to recover such amount.
 
 
The period for filing a related claim with the Internal Revenue Service for a credit or refund is extended beyond the three-year limitation to the date that is one year after DOD provides the veteran with the information required by this Act.
 
DOD shall ensure that amounts are not withheld for tax purposes from DOD severance payments to individuals when such payments are not considered gross income.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Security Clearance Oversight and Accountability Act

Bill: 114-s-2714
Sponsor: Sen. McCaskill, Claire [D-MO]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Department of Defense
Executive agency funding and structure
Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Government studies and investigations
Intelligence activities, surveillance, classified information
Office of Personnel Management (OPM)

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Security Clearance Oversight and Accountability Act

 
This bill requires the Inspector General of the Department of Defense, rather than the Inspector General of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), to exercise the duties and responsibilities of an Inspector General under the Inspector General Act of 1978 with respect to OPM's National Background Investigation Bureau. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
National Security Whistleblower Protection Act of 2016

Bill: 114-s-2715
Sponsor: Sen. McCaskill, Claire [D-MO]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Congressional oversight
Department of Justice
Employment discrimination and employee rights
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Government studies and investigations
Intelligence activities, surveillance, classified information

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

National Security Whistleblower Protection Act of 2016

 
This bill extends personnel protections to whistleblowers by classifying the suspension or revocation of access to classified information as a personnel action. This classification also applies to employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 
 
The Inspector General of the Department of Defense shall report to Congress on allegations of retaliation against whistleblowers whose access to classified information was suspended or revoked.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
A bill to update the oil and gas and mining industry guides of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bill: 114-s-2716
Sponsor: Sen. Reed, Jack [D-RI]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Congressional oversight
Government information and archives
Mining
Oil and gas
Securities
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 
This bill directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), within 180 days of enactment of this bill, to update:
 
 
the Securities Act industry guides entitled &quot;Prospectuses relating to interests in oil and gas programs&quot; and &quot;Description of Property by Issuers Engaged or To Be Engaged in Significant Mining Operations,&quot; 
 
the Exchange Act industry guide entitled &quot;Description of Property by Issuers Engaged or To Be Engaged in Significant Mining Operations,&quot; and 
 
regulations concerning disclosure by registrants engaged in oil and gas producing activities.
 
 
In making such updates, the SEC shall work with the Investor Advisory Committee, which shall solicit and consider public input or appropriate disclosures to include and make specific recommendations to the SEC. 
 
If the SEC fails to meet the deadline, it must report to and testify before specified congressional committees explaining why it failed to meet it. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1597)
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Perkins Fund for Equity and Excellence

Bill: 114-s-2718
Sponsor: Sen. Kaine, Tim [D-VA]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Education
Subjects: Education programs funding
Elementary and secondary education
Higher education
Teaching, teachers, curricula
Vocational and technical education

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Perkins Fund for Equity and Excellence

 
This bill amends the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 to replace the existing Tech Prep program with a new competitive grant program to support career and technical education. Under the program, local educational agencies and their partners may apply for grant funding to support:
 
 
career and technical education programs that are aligned with postsecondary education programs,
 
dual or concurrent enrollment programs and early college programs,
 
certain evidence-based strategies and delivery models related to career and technical education,
 
teacher and leader experiential and informational-gathering site visits,
 
professional development of educators and business partners,
 
structured interdisciplinary collaboration and common planning time,
 
teacher and leader externship programs,
 
cross-credentialing for teachers,
 
paid student internships or other paid work-based learning experiences, and
 
guidance counseling.

 
Unless granted a waiver, a grant recipient must provide specified matching funds in the fourth and fifth years of the five-year grant.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1598)
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Brokaw Act

Bill: 114-s-2720
Sponsor: Sen. Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Insurance industry and regulation
Securities
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

 Brokaw Act

 
This bill directs the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to amend specified regulations to reflect a revision the bill makes to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 reducing from 10 to 2 business days the deadline for disclosing to the SEC any acquisition of a direct or indirect short interest in an equity security of a certain kind of voting class that results in a direct or indirect short interest representing more than 5% of that class. 
 
The mandatory disclosures of short interests shall apply to:
 
 
any class of equity security which must be registered,
 
certain equity securities of an insurance company, and 
 
any equity security issued by a closed-end investment company registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940.
 
 
The bill deems a person as having a &quot;short interest in a security&quot; if the person has the opportunity, either directly or indirectly, to profit from, or share in any profit derived from any decrease in the value of the security (including a derivative instrument, or a performance-related fee). 
 
The bill deems a person to have a short interest in a security if the person creates or uses certain instruments, including a trust, proxy, power of attorney, pooling arrangement, or any other contract, arrangement, or device, to divest the person of a short interest in a security or to prevent the vesting of a short interest as part of a plan to evade the reporting requirements of the Act.
 
The bill declares that, with specified exceptions, in calculating the number of shares in which a person has a short interest, regardless of the form of the short interest, all securities of the same class shall be aggregated. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Social Security Caregiver Credit Act of 2016

Bill: 114-s-2721
Sponsor: Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Social Welfare
Subjects: Adult day care
Aging
Child care and development
Disability and paralysis
Family relationships
Social security and elderly assistance
Wages and earnings

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Social Security Caregiver Credit Act of 2016

 
This bill expresses the sense of the Senate that Congress must address the unfair exclusion of professional and hardworking home care providers who are not eligible to receive Social Security or Medicare because they provided paid care to a family member with a disability under programs operated at the state and local level for general health and welfare protection.
 
This bill amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) of the Social Security Act with respect to determining entitlement to and the amount of any monthly benefit, including any lump-sum death payment, payable under OASDI on the basis of the wages and self-employment income of any individual.
 
Such an individual shall be deemed to have been paid a wage (according to a specified formula) during each month during which the individual was engaged for at least 80 hours in providing care to a dependent relative without monetary compensation for up to five years of such service.
 
This bill shall not apply in the case of any monthly benefit or lump-sum death payment if a larger benefit or payment would be payable without its application. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Federal Savings Association Charter Flexibility Act of 2016

Bill: 114-s-2722
Sponsor: Sen. Heitkamp, Heidi [D-ND]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Banking and financial institutions regulation
Department of the Treasury

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Federal Savings Association Charter Flexibility Act of 2016

 
This bill amends the Home Owners' Loan Act to permit a federal savings association to elect to operate subject to supervision by the Comptroller of the Currency with the rights and duties of a national bank. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Congressional Whistleblower Protection Act of 2016

Bill: 114-s-2723
Sponsor: Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Congress
Subjects: Architect of the Capitol
Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
Congressional agencies
Congressional officers and employees
Employment discrimination and employee rights
Government Accountability Office (GAO)
Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
Library of Congress

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Congressional Whistleblower Protection Act of 2016

 
This bill amends the Congressional Accountability Act of 1995 to extend specified whistle-blower protections to employees of congressional offices and committees, the Office of Congressional Accessibility Services, the Capitol Police, the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, the Office of the Attending Physician, the Office of Compliance, the Government Accountability Office, and the Library of Congress.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Separation of Powers Restoration Act of 2016

Bill: 114-s-2724
Sponsor: Sen. Hatch, Orrin G. [R-UT]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures
Constitution and constitutional amendments
Judicial review and appeals

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Separation of Powers Restoration Act of 2016

 
This bill modifies the scope of judicial review of agency actions to authorize courts reviewing agency actions to decide de novo all relevant questions of law, including the interpretation of constitutional and statutory provisions and rules. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to allow preservation leasing as a form of compensatory mitigation for discharges of dredged or fill material affecting State or Indian land, and for other purposes.

Bill: 114-s-2727
Sponsor: Sen. Sullivan, Dan [R-AK]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Environmental Protection
Subjects: Alaska Natives and Hawaiians
Federal-Indian relations
Indian lands and resources rights
Licensing and registrations
Pollution liability
Solid waste and recycling
Water quality
Wetlands

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 
This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to allow a permittee under the Act to satisfy compensatory mitigation requirements for discharging dredged or fill material into the waters of the United States (permitted activity) by entering into a preservation lease with a state or Indian tribe whose wetlands are affected. 
 
A preservation lease is an agreement under which a permittee leases wetlands or other aquatic sites on state or Indian land for the sole purpose of preserving the wetlands or other aquatic sites in an undisturbed state during the term of the lease to mitigate for a permitted activity. The term of the lease must not be less than the life of the permitted activity and must be adjusted to account for the cessation of the impacts caused by such activity. 
 
If a permittee enters into a preservation lease and subsequently ceases to maintain the permitted activity, or seeks to abandon the permitted activity without a good faith transfer, the permittee must obtain a permit modification from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which may require restoration and rehabilitation of the area.

Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Alaska Native Access Card Act

Bill: 114-s-2728
Sponsor: Sen. Sullivan, Dan [R-AK]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Native Americans
Subjects: Alaska Natives and Hawaiians
Licensing and registrations
Mammals
Marine and coastal resources, fisheries
Trade restrictions
Wildlife conservation and habitat protection

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Alaska Native Access Card Act 

 
This bill amends the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 to direct the National Marine Fisheries Serviceand the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop and implement a process for issuing an Alaska Native Access Card.
 
The Alaska Native Access Card authorizes Alaska Natives to import marine mammal products into the United States for noncommercial purposes.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Reform Act of 2016

Bill: 114-s-2729
Sponsor: Sen. Murray, Patty [D-WA]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Transportation and Public Works
Subjects: Government trust funds
Navigation, waterways, harbors
Saint Lawrence Seaway
Sales and excise taxes
Tax administration and collection, taxpayers
Transportation programs funding
User charges and fees
Water resources funding

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund Reform Act of 2016

 
This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to make certain amounts in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund available, without appropriation, for expenditures to pay:
 
 
100% of the eligible operations and maintenance costs of specified portions of the Saint Lawrence Seaway as well as those assigned to commercial navigation of all U.S. harbors and inland harbors;
 
rebates of certain tolls or charges on the Seaway; and 
 
all expenses of administration relating to harbor maintenance tax incurred by the Department of the Treasury, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Commerce.
 
 
The Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014 is amended to:
 
 
require allocation to certain donor ports and energy transfer ports of at least 20% of amounts made available each fiscal year from the Trust Fund, and 
 
authorize the Department of the Army to make the allocations equally between these kinds of ports.
 
 
A "donor port" is a port, subject to the harbor maintenance fee, located in a state in which more than 2 million cargo containers were unloaded from or loaded on to vessels in FY2012, whose total amount of collected harbor maintenance taxes comes to less than $15 million annually, and which received less than 25% of the total amount of harbor maintenance taxes collected at that port in the previous five fiscal years.
 
An &quot;energy transfer port" is one, also subject to the harbor maintenance fee, through which more than 40 million tons of cargo were transported in FY2012, and at which energy commodities constituted more than 25% of all commercial activity by tonnage in that fiscal year.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal Act

Bill: 114-s-2730
Sponsor: Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Armed Forces and National Security
Subjects: Conflicts and wars
Congressional tributes
Military history
Military operations and strategy
Military personnel and dependents
Museums, exhibitions, cultural centers
Smithsonian Institution

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal Act

 
The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate shall award a Congressional Gold Medal to the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known collectively as the &quot;Ghost Army,&quot; in recognition of its service during World War II. 
 
It is the sense of the Congress that the Smithsonian Institution should make the medal available for display elsewhere, particularly at appropriate locations associated with the Ghost Army, and that preference should be given to locations affiliated with the Smithsonian.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (Sponsor introductory remarks on measure: CR S1599)
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
Cape Cod National Seashore Land Exchange Act

Bill: 114-s-2731
Sponsor: Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources
Subjects: Land transfers
Massachusetts
Parks, recreation areas, trails
Seashores and lakeshores

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 

Cape Cod National Seashore Land Exchange Act

 
This bill directs the Department of the Interior, through the National Park Service, to convey 1.09 acres of federal land within the Cape Cod National Seashore in Massachusetts to the owner of 1.02 acres of non-federal land within the Seashore, if the owner conveys the non-federal acres to Interior, subject to acceptable title. 
 
The land acquired by Interior shall be administered as part of the Cape Cod National Seashore. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate
A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to exempt Indian tribes from compensatory mitigation requirements in connection with certain discharges of dredged or fill material, and for other purposes.

Bill: 114-s-2732
Sponsor: Sen. Sullivan, Dan [R-AK]
Introduced: 2016-03-17 in the Senate
Policy area: Environmental Protection
Subjects: Alaska Natives and Hawaiians
Federal-Indian relations
Indian lands and resources rights
Licensing and registrations
Pollution liability
Solid waste and recycling
Water quality

Summary:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: 
This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to exempt Indian tribes from any requirement to provide compensatory mitigation as a condition of a permit to discharge dredged or fill material into waters of the United States when the permitted activity is conducted on Indian land. If the Indian tribe ceases to maintain the permitted activity on that land, or seeks to abandon that activity without a good faith transfer, the Indian tribe must obtain a permit modification from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers may require restoration and rehabilitation of the area. 


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
action_date: 2016-03-17
text: Introduced in Senate