jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Bill 114-S-54 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection

Regulatory Fairness Act of 2015

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to define the period of time in which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is authorized to restrict or deny a permit for the discharge of dredged or fill materials into navigable waters as the period that:

 begins on the date that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers publishes a notice for the discharge of dredged or fill material into navigable waters at specified disposal sites, and ends on the date that the Army Corps issues the permit. The EPA must make all the information and data that it reviewed in making a determination publicly available.

The EPA's authority to withdraw a specification of a defined area as a disposal site for the discharge of dredged or fill materials is eliminated.

Any previous action by the EPA that occurred outside of this period to deny or restrict a permit or to prohibit the specification of any defined area as a disposal site is nullified.
Bill 114-S-106 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection

Ending Legacy Lawsuit Abuse Act

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to allow a defendant to remove from a state court to the U.S. district court a civil action involving a claim of environmental contamination that impacts or threatens to impact waters of the United States subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Bill 114-S-234 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection

Regulatory Fairness Act of 2015

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to define the period of time in which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is authorized to restrict or deny a permit for the discharge of dredged or fill materials into navigable waters as the period that:

 begins on the date that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers publishes a notice for the discharge of dredged or fill material into navigable waters at specified disposal sites, and ends on the date that the Army Corps issues the permit. The EPA must make all the information and data that it reviewed in making a determination publicly available.

The EPA's authority to withdraw a specification of a defined area as a disposal site for the discharge of dredged or fill materials is eliminated.

Any previous action by the EPA that occurred outside of this period to deny or restrict a permit or to prohibit the specification of any defined area as a disposal site is nullified.
Bill 114-S-330 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Taxation

Conservation Easement Incentive Act of 2015

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) make permanent the tax deduction for charitable contributions by individuals and corporations of real property interests for conservation purposes, and (2) allow Native Corporations an increased tax deduction for donations of conservation easements related to lands conveyed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.
Bill 114-S-338 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources

Amends the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 to make permanent the authorization for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Requires not less than 1.5% of the annual authorized funding amount or $10 million, whichever is greater, to be used for projects that secure recreational public access to existing federal public land for hunting, fishing, and other recreational purposes.
Bill 114-S-384 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Taxation

Water and Agriculture Tax Reform Act of 2015

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to permit tax-exempt mutual ditch or irrigation companies to earn income from dispositions of certain real property and stock interests without affecting their tax-exempt status. Requires that such income be used to pay the costs of operations, maintenance, and capital improvements of such a company.
Bill 114-S-390 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources

Making Public Land Public Access Act

Requires the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ensure that a specified portion of the Land and Water Conservation Fund is allocated to secure recreational public access to existing federal public land that has significantly restricted access for hunting, fishing, and other recreational purposes. Requires Interior and USDA to annually develop a priority list for sites for such funds.
Bill 114-S-504 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection

Great Lakes Ecological and Economic Protection Act of 2015

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to expand the purpose of the Act to include achieving the goals established in the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Action Plan and the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy.

This bill reauthorizes through FY2020 the Great Lakes Legacy Act for the remediation of sediment contamination in areas of concern, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Great Lakes National Program Office, and EPA's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

The Initiative must prioritize work done by non-federal partners in specified focus areas. Initiative funding may not be used for a water infrastructure activity that is implemented using funds made available under the clean water or drinking water state revolving fund programs, except green infrastructure projects that improve habitat and other ecosystem functions in the Great Lakes.

Federal agencies must maintain the base level of funding for their Great Lakes activities and identify new activities to support the environmental goals of the Initiative.

The bill codifies the establishment of the Great Lakes Advisory Board and the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force, which were previously established by the EPA. The Board must provide advice and recommendations to the EPA on matters pertaining to Great Lakes restoration and protection. The Task Force must collaborate with Canada and coordinate the development of federal policy on Great Lakes restoration and protection.
Bill 114-S-518 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Transportation and public works

Highway Runoff Management Act

 Requires each state to develop for approval a state highway stormwater management program consisting of management measures to prevent, reduce, or control highway runoff from federal-aid highway projects.

Directs the Secretary of Transportation to publish guidance to assist states in the establishment of such measures.
Bill 114-S-596 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection

San Francisco Bay Restoration Act

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to authorize the Environmental Protection Agency to provide funding for prioritized activities, studies, or projects that advance the goals and objectives of the comprehensive management plan for the San Francisco estuary. Funding may be provided through cooperative agreements, grants, or other means. Funding may not be used for the administration of a management conference for the San Francisco estuary under the National Estuary Program.

Funding amounts provided under this Act may not exceed 75% of the total cost of eligible activities to be carried out using those amounts.

This bill authorizes appropriations for the funding program through FY2019.
Bill 114-S-741 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Water resources development

Water Infrastructure Resiliency and Sustainability Act of 2015

This bill requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish the Water Infrastructure Resiliency and Sustainability Program to provide grants in each of FY2015-FY2019 for programs or projects to increase the resiliency or adaptability of water systems to any ongoing or forecasted changes to the hydrologic conditions of a U.S. region. A water system is a community water system, a treatment works, a decentralized wastewater treatment system for domestic sewage, a groundwater storage and replenishment system, a system for transport and delivery of water for irrigation or conservation, or a natural or engineered system that manages floodwater.

The EPA must give priority to owners or operators of water systems that are at the greatest and most immediate risk of facing significant negative impacts due to changing hydrologic conditions.

The EPA must ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, that the list of grant applications funded includes a substantial number that propose to use innovative approaches that meet at least one of these goals:

 promote more efficient water use, conservation, reuse, or recycling; use decentralized, low-impact development technologies and nonstructural approaches; reduce stormwater runoff or flooding by protecting or enhancing natural ecosystem functions; modify, upgrade, enhance, or replace existing water system infrastructure in response to changing hydrologic conditions; improve water quality or quantity for agricultural and municipal uses; and provide multiple benefits, including water supply enhancement or demand reduction, water quality protection or improvement, increased flood protection, and ecosystem protection or improvement.
Bill 114-S-890 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources

Land and Water Conservation Authorization and Funding Act of 2015

Amends the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 to make permanent the authorization for the Land and Water Conservation Fund(LWCF).

Permits funds deposited into the LWCF to be spent without being subject to the appropriations process. Provides that the funds are in addition to amounts made available by the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 or otherwise appropriated from the LWCF.

Directs the President to submit to Congress specified details regarding the allocation of funds provided by this bill. Permits Congress to provide for alternate allocations using specified procedures.

 Requires at least 1.5% of the annual authorized funds to be used for projects that secure recreational public access to existing federal public land for hunting, fishing, and other recreational purposes.
Bill 114-S-896 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection

Innovative Stormwater Infrastructure Act of 2015

This bill requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide grants to eligible higher education institutions and research institutions to establish and maintain between three and five centers of excellence for innovative stormwater control infrastructure, which is any stormwater management technique that: (1) uses natural systems or engineered systems that mimic natural processes to infiltrate, evapotranspire, or capture stormwater; and (2) preserves, enhances, or mimics natural hydrology to protect or restore water quality. One of the centers must be the national electronic clearinghouse center and operate a website and a public database on the infrastructure.

The EPA must: (1) provide grants to eligible entities that manage stormwater, water resources, or wastewater resources to carry out innovative stormwater control infrastructure projects; and (2) give priority to applications from a community that has combined storm and sanitary sewers in its collection system or is low-income or disadvantaged, or from an eligible entity that will use at least 10% of the grant for a low-income or disadvantaged community.

The EPA must ensure that: (1) EPA's Office of Water, Office of Enforcement and Compliance, Office of Research and Development, and Office of Policy promote the use of the infrastructure in, and coordinate its integration into, permitting programs, planning efforts, research, technical assistance, and funding guidance; and (2) the Office of Water supports establishing innovative financing mechanisms in the implementation of the infrastructure. The EPA must: (1) direct each EPA regional office to promote and integrate the use of the infrastructure within the region, and (2) promote sharing information about the infrastructure approaches.

The EPA must establish the innovative stormwater control infrastructure portfolio standard of voluntary, measurable goals to increase the percentage of annual water managed by entities that use the infrastructure.
Bill 114-S-921 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Water resources development

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Delaware River Basin Conservation Act of 2015

(Sec. 4) This bill requires the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to establish a nonregulatory Delaware River Basin restoration program, under which it shall: (1) draw on management plans for the basin or portions of the basin and work in consultation with applicable management entities, including representatives of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the federal government, other state and local governments, and regional and nonprofit organizations, to identify, prioritize, and implement restoration and protection activities within the basin; (2) adopt a basin-wide strategy that supports the implementation of a shared set of science-based restoration and protection activities, targets cost-effective projects with measurable results, and maximizes conservation outcomes with no net gain of federal full-time equivalent employees; and (3) establish the voluntary grant and technical assistance programs in accordance with this bill.

"Basin" is defined as the four-state Delaware Basin region, including all of Delaware Bay and portions of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania located in the Delaware River watershed.

(Sec. 5) The USFWS shall: (1) establish the Delaware River Basin restoration grant program to provide competitive matching grants to carry out restoration and protection activities within the basin, and (2) develop criteria to ensure that funded activities accomplish specified purposes and advance the implementation of priority actions or needs identified in the strategy adopted under this bill.

The USFWS may contract with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation or another organization that offers grant management services.

(Sec. 6) The USFWS shall submit to Congress annually a report on the implementation of this bill, including a description of each project that has received funding.

(Sec. 7) Appropriations are authorized to carry out this bill for FY2016-FY2021. The USFWS shall use at least 75% of any amount made available for each fiscal year to carry out the grant program and to provide or provide for technical assistance under such program.
Bill 114-S-982 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources

Water Rights Protection Act

 Prohibits the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture from:

 conditioning or withholding the issuance, renewal, amendment, or extension of any permit, approval, license, lease, allotment, easement, right-of-way, or other land use or occupancy agreement (permit) on the limitation or encumbrance of any water right or the transfer of any water right to the United States or any other designee, or any other impairment of any water right under state law by federal or state action; requiring any water user (including a federally recognized Indian tribe) to apply for or acquire a water right in the name of the United States under state law as a condition of such a permit; asserting jurisdiction over groundwater withdrawals or impacts on groundwater resources, unless consistent with state groundwater resource laws, regulations, and policies; or infringing on the rights and obligations of a state in evaluating, allocating, and adjudicating state waters originating on or under, or flowing from, land owned or managed by the federal government.
Bill 114-S-1024 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection

Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2016

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to revise and reauthorize for FY2017-FY2021 the Environmental Protection Agency's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Under a five-year action plan, the initiative must prioritize and carry out programs and projects for Great Lakes protection and restoration, including: (1) the remediation of toxic substances and areas of concern, (2) the prevention and control of invasive species and their impacts, (3) the protection and restoration of near-shore health and the prevention and mitigation of nonpoint source pollution, and (4) habitat and wildlife protection and restoration.

Funding made available to implement the initiative may not be used for any water infrastructure activity (other than a green infrastructure project that improves habitat and other ecosystem functions in the Great Lakes) for which funding is made available under the clean water or drinking water state revolving fund program. Federal agencies must: (1) maintain the base level of funding for their Great Lakes activities without regard to funding under the initiative, and (2) identify new activities to support the environmental goals of the initiative and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement.
Bill 114-S-1069 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Taxation

Complete America's Great Trails Act

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a tax credit for the fair market value of any National Scenic Trail conservation contribution. Requires the Department of the Interior to study and report on the efficacy of such tax credit in completing, extending, and increasing the number of National Scenic Trails and the feasibility and cost of making such credit refundable and transferable.
Bill 114-S-1178 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection

Defending Rivers from Overreaching Policies Act of 2015

This bill requires the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish: (1) a Supplemental Scientific Review Panel to make recommendations regarding metrics to quantify the connection between any body of water or wetland and a traditionally navigable water, and (2) an Ephemeral and Intermittent Streams Advisory Commission to develop criteria to define whether a body of water or wetland has a significant nexus to a traditional navigable water using the metrics developed by the review panel.

The commission must report to the Army Corps and the EPA on the criteria after a public comment period and release public versions of the reports.

The Army Corps and the EPA may not develop, finalize, adopt, implement, apply, administer, or enforce the proposed rule entitled, "Definition of 'Waters of the United States' Under the Clean Water Act" and published on April 21, 2014, or begin the drafting of any substantially similar rule, until they receive a final report from the commission.
Bill 114-S-1394 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection

Columbia River Basin Restoration Act of 2015

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a Columbia River Basin Restoration Program to reduce toxic contamination and clean up contaminated sites. The program must be collaborative and stakeholder-based.

The EPA must: (1) assess trends in water quality and toxic contamination or toxics reduction; (2) collect, characterize and assess data on toxics and water quality to identify possible causes of environmental problems; (3) update the Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Plan (Action Plan) and the Estuary Partnership Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (Estuary Plan) and ensure that the plans form a coherent toxic contamination reduction strategy; and (4) provide technical assistance in implementing and updating the Action Plan.

The EPA must establish a Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Working Group to: (1) participate in developing updates to the Action Plan, (2) recommend and prioritize projects and actions for the Action Plan, and (3) review progress made.

The Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership has to perform those duties and fulfill those responsibilities of the Working Group relating to the Lower Columbia River Estuary.

The EPA must establish a Columbia River Basin toxics grant program to provide funding to develop or implement projects to implement the Action Plan and the Estuary Plan.
Bill 114-S-1416 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources

This bill prohibits the President, in designating a national monument, from reserving any implied or expressed water rights associated with it.

Water rights for an associated national monument may only be acquired in accordance with the laws of the state in which the water rights are to be located.
Bill 114-S-1424 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Health

Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015

This bill amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to ban cosmetics that contain synthetic plastic microbeads beginning on January 1, 2018.
Bill 114-S-1430 — Environment / Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection

Marine Oil Spill Prevention Act

This bill address issues related to preventing and responding to oil spills.

This bill amends the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act of 2006 to extend the moratorium on oil and gas leasing in certain areas in the Gulf of Mexico until June 30, 2027.

This bill sets forth provisions concerning Coast Guard responsibilities, including designating areas that are at heightened risk of oil spills and implementing measures to ameliorate that risk.

 This bill amends the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to establish a Gulf Coast Regional Citizens' Advisory Council to advise on facilities and tank vessels.

 This bill makes an owner of oil responsible for oil spill cleanup. Currently, owners of oil are only responsible if the oil is being transported in a single-hull vessel.

This bill amends the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to permit the Coast Guard or the Department of Commerce to request a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of any accident occurring in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).

Commerce must establish an inspection fee for OCS facilities for the cost of inspections of facilities and other duties.

This bill requires a comprehensive review of the capacity of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to respond to oil spills. NOAA must develop and maintain oil spill trajectory modeling capability.



 The Coast Guard must evaluate and validate oil pollution containment and removal methods and technologies.

NOAA must carry out long-term marine environment monitoring and research program for the Gulf of Mexico.

The bill requires the Coast Guard to publish within 12 hours an Incident Action Plan in response to an oil spill.