AACCENT Act

Bill: 118-hr-5705
Sponsor: Rep. Dingell, Debbie [D-MI-6]
Introduced: 2023-09-26 in the House
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Advisory bodies
Arizona
Border security and unlawful immigration
Congressional oversight
Disability and health-based discrimination
Disability and paralysis
Disability assistance
Drug trafficking and controlled substances
Government information and archives
Health programs administration and funding
Health promotion and preventive care
Hearing, speech, and vision care
Higher education
Intergovernmental relations
Land transfers
Latin America
Mexico
Smuggling and trafficking
Solid waste and recycling
State and local government operations
Water resources funding

Summary:
action_date: 2023-09-26
text: 

Augmentative and Alternative Communication Centers of Excellence and National Technical Assistance Act or the AACCENT Act

This bill establishes a grant program to create national resource centers on augmentative and alternative communication.

Specifically, the bill requires the Department of Health and Human Services to award three grants in geographically diverse regions to establish a network of these resource centers for individuals with significant expressive communication disabilities, particularly through improved access to tools, technologies, strategies, training, and other methods.

Significant expressive communication disabilities
 are communication disabilities (other than communication disabilities that are primarily visual or auditory in nature) that prevent or significantly limit an individual from understanding or being understood using spoken words.

Nogales Wastewater Improvement Act of 2023

The bill also establishes requirements to address wastewater from the International Outfall Interceptor, which is a pipeline that carries wastewater from the United States-Mexico border to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant. The plant, which is located in Rio Rico, Arizona, treats sewage and wastewater originating from Nogales, Mexico, and Nogales, Arizona.

The bill transfers the ownership, operations, and maintenance of the pipeline from the city of Nogales, Arizona, to the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission. The commission must construct, operate, and maintain a debris screen at the pipeline's Manhole One for intercepting debris and drugs coming into the United States from Nogales, Mexico.

The bill also limits the portion of the costs that the city of Nogales, Arizona, must pay for the Nogales sanitation project.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2023-09-27
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management.
action_date: 2023-09-26
text: Referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2023-09-26
text: Referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.
action_date: 2023-09-26
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2023-09-26
text: Introduced in House