jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2015-12-03 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the Senate on May 12, 2016. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Rapid DNA Act of 2016

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the DNA Identification Act of 1994 to require the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to issue standards and procedures for using Rapid DNA instruments to analyze DNA samples of criminal offenders.

Rapid DNA instruments carry out a fully automated process to create a DNA analysis from a DNA sample.

DNA samples prepared by criminal justice agencies using Rapid DNA instruments in compliance the FBI-issued standards and procedures may be included in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).

(Sec. 3) The bill amends the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 to allow the FBI to waive certain existing requirements if a DNA sample is analyzed using Rapid DNA instruments and the results are included in CODIS.
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2015-12-09 00:00:00

Witness Security and Protection Grant Program Act of 2015

 This bill directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) to award competitive matching grants to state, local, and tribal governments to establish or maintain witness protection programs in cases related to: (1) a homicide, serious violent felony, or serious drug offense; or (2) gangs or organized crime.

DOJ must evaluate grant applications based on certain criteria, including the prevalence of witness intimidation, the presence of organized crime, and the per capita number of homicides, violent felonies, or serious drug offenses.

 The bill also requires DOJ to: (1) consider urban and rural applicants and ensure equitable geographic distribution of grant awards; and (2) develop and disseminate best practice models to help state, local, and tribal governments address witness protection and assistance issues.
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Law
Date: 2016-01-19 00:00:00

Bankruptcy Judgeship Act of 2016

This bill amends the federal judicial code to:

 convert certain temporary bankruptcy judges to permanent bankruptcy judges and authorize the appointment of additional bankruptcy judges in Delaware and Michigan; convert temporary bankruptcy judges to permanent bankruptcy judges in specified judicial districts in Florida, Maryland, Nevada, North Carolina, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, and Virginia; and authorize the appointment of additional bankruptcy judges in the middle district of Florida.
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Law
Date: 2016-02-01 00:00:00

Federal Courts of Appeals Modernization Act

This bill establishes a Commission on Structural Alternatives for the Federal Courts of Appeals to: (1) study the present division of the U.S. courts of appeals, with particular references to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; and (2) submit to the President and Congress recommendations for changes in circuit boundaries or structure for the expeditious and effective disposition of the caseload of such courts.

The commission shall be composed of five members appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States.
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Law
Date: 2016-02-01 00:00:00

Circuit Court of Appeals Restructuring and Modernization Act

This bill divides the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit into: (1) a new Ninth Circuit, to be composed of California, Guam, Hawaii, and Northern Mariana Islands; and (2) a newly established Twelfth Circuit, to be composed of Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

The President must appoint five additional judges for the new Ninth Circuit and two additional temporary judges for the former Ninth Circuit.

The bill designates the locations where the new circuits are to hold regular sessions.

 The Circuit Executive and the Clerk of the Court of the Twelfth Circuit shall be located in Phoenix, Arizona.

The bill distributes active circuit judges of the former Ninth Circuit to the new circuits. Senior circuit judges of the former Ninth Circuit may elect their circuit assignment.

The bill authorizes the temporary assignment of circuit and district judges of the former Ninth Circuit between the new circuits.
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Law
Date: 2016-02-03 00:00:00

Judicial Administration and Improvement Act of 2016

This bill divides the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit into: (1) a new Ninth Circuit, to be composed of California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands; and (2) a newly established Twelfth Circuit, to be composed of Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, and Nevada. The bill designates locations where the new circuits are to hold regular sessions.

The bill distributes active circuit judges of the former Ninth Circuit to the new circuits. Circuit judges and senior circuit judges currently stationed in Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, or Nevada may elect their circuit assignment. For each circuit judge in regular service who elects to be assigned to the new Ninth Circuit, the President shall appoint one additional circuit judge for the Twelfth Circuit.
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Congress
Date: 2016-02-11 00:00:00

Civic Duty Act

This bill amends the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 1991 to repeal the exemption of elected legislative branch officials from serving on grand or petit juries.
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2016-02-25 00:00:00

This bill prohibits the Firearms Trace System database maintained by the National Trace Center of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from being immune from legal process. In state or federal civil actions or administrative proceedings, the contents of the database: (1) shall be subject to discovery and admissible as evidence; and (2) may be used, relied on, or disclosed in any manner. Testimony or other evidence may also be permitted based on that data.
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2016-04-27 00:00:00

Probation Officer Protection Act of 2016

 This bill amends the federal criminal code to authorize a probation officer to arrest a person (i.e., a person other than the probationer) without a warrant if there is probable cause to believe the person forcibly assaulted or obstructed a probation officer engaged in the performance of official duties.
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2016-07-07 00:00:00

Equal Justice Under Law Act of 2016

This bill states that an indigent individual facing criminal prosecution or juvenile delinquency in a state court is entitled to the effective assistance of counsel, as guaranteed by the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, at the state's expense.

It authorizes a federal class action lawsuit against a state for its systemic failure to guarantee the right to effective assistance of counsel. The assistance of counsel is ineffective when a class of individuals demonstrates that counsel's performance was not reasonable under prevailing professional norms.

Additionally, the bill amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to modify the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. Specifically, it requires a state or local government to consult with public defenders before distributing JAG funds to community organizations and local governments.
Topic: Law and Crime — Court Administration
Subject: Law
Date: 2016-07-07 00:00:00

Clarence Gideon Full Access to Justice Act or the Gideon Act

This bill amends the federal criminal code by establishing the Defender Office for Supreme Court Advocacy as a private, nonmembership, nonprofit corporation. It must advocate on behalf of individuals in noncapital cases involving an issue of federal criminal statutory law or constitutional law before: (1) the Supreme Court of the United States, and (2) the highest courts in the states when resources permit. The office may also provide assistance to attorneys advocating on behalf of those individuals.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-01-04 00:00:00

Math & Science School Readiness Act of 2007 - Amends the Head Start Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish additional scientifically-based education performance standards to ensure that children participating in the Head Start program develop and demonstrate premathematics and prescience knowledge and skills, including number concepts and operations, geometry and spatial concepts, classification, and time and measurement concepts. Requires each Head Start classroom in a center-based program to be assigned one teacher with the competency to impart such knowledge and skills.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-01-04 00:00:00

Teacher Recruitment Act of 2007 - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) to establish new programs for teacher student loan forgiveness under the guaranteed loan program and the direct loan program. Makes eligible for such student loan forgiveness any new borrower on or after October 1, 1998, who is: (1) employed as a full-time teacher in a public elementary or secondary school in an economically disadvantaged or depressed and underserved rural area; (2) state-certified or state-licensed to teach, and in compliance with state or local accountability standards; and (3) not in default on the loan. Directs the Secretary to establish a formula that ensures fairness and equality for applicants in the selection of borrowers for such loan repayment under this section, based on the amount available. Limits the portion of the outstanding loan obligation which the Secretary may repay to 15% for the first or second year of such service, 20% for the third or fourth year, and 30% for the fifth year.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-01-04 00:00:00

Directs the Secretary of Education to allot funds to states for distribution to local educational agencies (LEAs) to recruit, hire, and train 100,000 new classroom paraprofessionals in order to improve educational achievement for children. Requires that 80% of a state's allotment be allocated to LEAs on the basis of relative numbers of children from families with incomes below the poverty line residing in their school districts, and that the remainder be allocated on the basis of relative enrollments.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-02-07 00:00:00

Graduation Really Achieves Dreams Act or the GRAD Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award a grant to Project GRAD USA, a nonprofit educational organization for improving high school graduation and college attendance and completion rates for disadvantaged students, to provide technical assistance and support through subgrants to existing and new programs that implement a set of integrated education reform services. Requires the grantee to select only subgrantees that serve a substantial number or percentage of low-income students. Requires the programs to identify one or more groups of public schools at which services will be provided through a feeder pattern through which elementary and secondary schools channel students having participated in program services into an identified high school. Requires program services to include: (1) research-based programs in reading, mathematics, and classroom management; (2) campus-based social services programs, including increasing family and community involvement in schools; (3) a college access program, including providing college scholarships for students who meet established criteria, increasing student and family college awareness, and assisting students to apply for college financial aid; and (4) other services the grantee identifies as necessary.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-02-12 00:00:00

Pell Grant Equity Act of 2007 - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to make the formula for calculation of an individual Pell Grant which includes, in part, the sum of the student's tuition, inapplicable for the 2007-2008 academic year. (Thus suspends for such year the "tuition sensitivity provision" which prohibits maximum Pell Grant awards to students attending low-tuition institutions of higher education even if their income is low enough to otherwise qualify for the maximum award.) Amends the Federal Family Education Loan program to lower from 23% to 22% for FY2008, the percentage of a borrower's student loan payment made subsequent to default that a guaranty agency may retain for deposit in its operating fund if the Secretary of Education has already reimbursed it for such default.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-03-21 00:00:00

Head Start Accountability Act of 2007 - Amends the Head Start Act to require additional accountability measures for Head Start agencies, including: (1) agency designation period limits; (2) revised redesignation priorities; (3) local oversight boards; (4) revised administrative and financial management standards; (5) delegate agency evaluations and corrective actions; (6) shorter deadlines for agency corrective actions; (7) revised notice and hearing procedures for assistance suspensions, terminations, or reductions; and (8) annual audits. Prohibits recipients from using Head Start assistance to appeal any decision of the Secretary of Health and Human Services under the Act.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-03-29 00:00:00

Families Learning and Understanding English Together Act of 2007 - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to make grants to providers of family literacy services to improve the literacy and English skills of limited English proficient individuals who are parents or children in families where each parent is at least 16 years old and where at least one child is under age eight. Directs the Secretary to reserve certain funds to: (1) provide technical assistance and training to such grantees; (2) make grants to, or enter contracts with, national organizations that have family literacy service expertise to provide grantees with technical assistance and training; and (3) evaluate and improve such grant program. Requires grantees to meet specified outcome measures.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2007-04-19 00:00:00

Legal Employee Verification Act - Amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to require visas issued by the Secretary of State and immigration related documents issued by the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Homeland Security to comply with authentication and biometric standards recognized by domestic and international standards organizations. Requires the Commissioner of Social Security to: (1) establish an Employment Eligibility Confirmation System to respond to inquiries made by employers regarding the identities and employment authorizations of their employees; (2) design, implement, and maintain an Employment Eligibility Database, including annual reverification; and (3) develop a plan to phase all workers into the Database and phase out the employer verification system established in specified existing provisions. Requires the Secretary of Homeland Security (currently, the Attorney General) to implement an integrated entry and exit data system. Requires a process under which an H-2B alien (temporary nonagricultural worker) who files a nonfrivolous complaint regarding a violation of this Act and is otherwise eligible to remain and work in the United States may be allowed to seek other employment in the United States for a period not to exceed the maximum period of stay for that nonimmigrant.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-04-19 00:00:00

Teach for America Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award a grant to Teach For America, Inc. to implement and expand its program of recruiting, selecting, training, and supporting new teachers. Requires that grant funds be used to provide teachers to local educational agencies that serve a substantial percentage of students eligible for free or reduced price meals under the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. Directs the Secretary of Education to provide for a study, at least once every three years, comparing the academic achievement of students taught by teachers assisted by this Act with the academic achievement of students taught by other teachers in the same schools and positions.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-05-08 00:00:00

Adults Achieving the American Dream Act of 2007 - Amends the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act to reauthorize appropriations through FY2013 for adult education and literacy services, including integrated English literacy and civics education programs. Increases the maximum amounts that can be reserved from such funds for: (1) the National Institute for Literacy; and (2) national leadership activities. Reserves an amount for integrated English literacy and civics education programs. Directs the Secretary of Education to award grants to states for integrated English literacy and civics education programs for immigrants admitted for lawful residence in the United States.Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to reauthorize appropriations for Even Start Family Literacy Programs for FY2008 and each of the five succeeding fiscal years.Amends the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 to require the establishment of a national research and development center that includes research in adult education.Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a tax credit for employer-provided adult education and literacy programs.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Commerce
Date: 2007-05-17 00:00:00

Small Energy Efficient Businesses Act - Amends the Small Business Investment Act of 1958 to: (1) authorize financial assistance through the Small Business Administration (SBA) to state and local development companies for projects that reduce energy consumption by at least 10%, reduce the use of non-renewable energy sources, or generate renewable energy sources; and (2) provide loan limits for such projects. Amends the Small Business Act to direct the SBA Administrator to make small business loans to purchase energy efficient equipment or fixtures, or to reduce the borrower's energy consumption. Authorizes a small business development center to carry out a small business sustainability initiative (support to small businesses to evaluate their energy efficiency and achieve increased efficiency). Directs the Administrator to develop and coordinate a program to provide small business education on energy efficiency. Authorizes small business investment companies to issue Energy Saving debentures. Requires the Administrator to establish a Renewable Fuel Capital Investment Program under which the Administrator may: (1) enter into participation agreements with renewable fuel capital investment companies to promote the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of renewable energy sources; and (2) guarantee debentures issued by such companies.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-06-26 00:00:00

Prepare All Kids Act of 2007 - Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a Prekindergarten Incentive Fund from which matching grants shall be awarded to states and, through them, subgrants to qualified prekindergarten providers to establish, expand, or enhance voluntary high quality full-day prekindergarten programs serving children ages three through five. Requires prekindergarten providers to target children from families with incomes at or below 200% of the poverty line and provide them with program services free of charge. Directs state grantees to set aside: (1) at least 10% of a grant for quality early childhood development programs for children ages zero through three; and (2) at least 10% of a grant to extend the hours of early childhood programs to create extended day and year programs.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-06-26 00:00:00

Language Education for Success Act of 2007 - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide student loan forgiveness under the Federal Family Education Loan and Direct loan programs to teachers of students of limited English proficiency who have taught for five consecutive complete school years at elementary or secondary schools that serve a high proportion of disadvantaged children. Directs the Commissioner of the National Center for Educational Statistics to study and report to Congress on the performance of recipients of grants for the language instruction of limited English proficient and immigrant students under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to measure student academic progress. Directs the Secretary of Education to compile and publicize a list of state instructional programs for such students that assesses the costs and benefits of each program. Authorizes the Secretary to provide grants under the Pell Grant program to institutions of higher education to provide: (1) foreign language and teacher preparation instruction to incoming first-year undergraduates during the months preceding their enrollment; and (2) scholarships to such students for the costs of such instruction.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-07-18 00:00:00

Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to allow states, when determining whether disabled or limited English proficient student subgroups are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward state academic performance standards, to include in such subgroups students who are no longer identified as disabled or limited English proficient but who were so identified during any of the preceding three school years.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-07-24 00:00:00

Path to Success: Gang Prevention through Community Partnerships Act - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award grants to community colleges to establish partnerships with juvenile detention centers and secure juvenile justice residential facilities to provide assistance, services, and education to individuals age 16 through 19 who have served or are serving time in juvenile detention facilities for a gang-related offense who reenter the community and pursue: (1) a secondary education graduation certificate, a general equivalency diploma (GED), or equivalent certificate or diploma; (2) a certificate of completion for a specialized area of study; or (3) an associate's degree. Requires such education programs to establish a uniquely designed education plan for each individual program participant that requires the individual to receive at least a secondary education certificate or diploma in order to complete the program successfully.
Topic: Education — Underprivileged
Subject: Education
Date: 2007-07-27 00:00:00

Homeless Education Improvement Act of 2007 - Amends the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to require each state and local educational agency (LEA) to ensure that each homeless child and each homeless youth has access to the same free, appropriate public education, including state-funded or LEA-funded preschool programs, as is provided to other children and youths. Authorizes the Secretary of Education to make grants to states and U.S. territories for specified state and local activities, including mandatory establishment or designation of an Office of Coordinator for Education of Homeless Children and Youths in each state educational agency (SEA). Prohibits segregation of such children and youths into separate schools or programs within schools. Requires each SEA to make subgrants to LEAs to facilitate the identification, enrollment, attendance, and success in school of homeless children and youths. Directs the Secretary to make grants to states for transportation for school stability, readiness, and success for such children and youths.