jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2014-09-17 00:00:00

Employee Benefits Protection Act of 2014 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to require the mandatory summary description of a group health plan to declare: (1) whether the plan permits either the plan sponsor or any participating employer to unilaterally modify or terminate plan benefits affecting employees, retirees, and beneficiaries; and (2) when and to what extent plan benefits are fully vested with respect to these individuals.

Presumes that retiree health benefits cannot be modified or terminated as of the date an employee retires or completes 20 years of service with the employer. Allows this presumption to be overcome only upon a showing, by clear and convincing evidence, that the employee, before becoming a plan participant, was made aware, in clear and unambiguous terms, that the plan allowed for such a modification or termination of benefits.

Amends the National Labor Relations Act to make it an unfair labor practice for a labor organization and employer to enter into a contract or agreement to modify a previous agreement in a manner that results in a reduction or termination of retiree health insurance benefits, if the modification occurs after the retiree's retirement date.

Directs the Comptroller General (GAO) to report to Congress on strategies used by corporations to avoid obligations to pay promised employee and retiree benefits.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2014-09-18 00:00:00

Layoff Prevention Extension Act of 2014 - Amends the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 with respect to state short-time compensation programs that allow employers to reduce the workweek of their employees in lieu of layoffs.

Extends federal financing of the programs for an additional year.

Extends through December 31, 2015, the deadline for a state to submit to the Secretary of Labor its application for a short-time compensation program grant.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2014-09-18 00:00:00

CEO-Employee Pay Fairness Act of 2014 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to deny a publicly held corporation a tax deduction for the payment of performance-based remuneration in excess of $1 million to any of its current or former officers or directors if such corporation does not meet the pay fairness requirement established by this Act. Deems the pay fairness requirement to be satisfied if: (1) the average compensation paid by the employer for all applicable U.S. employees for the taxable year exceeds the inflation and productivity growth adjusted average (i.e., $115,000 in 2014) of such compensation for the preceding taxable year; and (2) the aggregate compensation paid by the employer to or for all applicable employees for the taxable year is not less than the aggregate of such compensation for the preceding taxable year.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2014-09-19 00:00:00

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow tax-free rollovers from tax-exempt retirement plans, annuities, and deferred compensation plans into a simple individual retirement account.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2014-12-01 00:00:00

Amends the Internal Revenue Code and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to extend through 2015 the automatic extensions of amortization periods for multiemployer defined benefit plans.

Amends the Pension Protection Act of 2006 to extend through 2015 rules relating to funding improvement and rehabilitation plans.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2014-12-04 00:00:00

Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) and the Internal Revenue Code to formulate a special rule for determining normal retirement age for certain existing defined benefit plans.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2014-12-11 00:00:00

Paid Sick Leave Act - Requires certain employers, who employ 15 or more employees for each working day during 20 or more workweeks a year, to permit each employee to earn at least 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.

Allows employees to use such time to: (1) meet their own medical needs; (2) care for the medical needs of certain family members ; or (3) seek medical attention, assist a related person, take legal action, or engage in other specified activities relating to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2014-12-11 00:00:00

Small Businesses Add Value for Employees Act of 2014 or the SAVE Act of 2014 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to employer-established simple individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and pension plans, to:

 repeal restrictions on rollovers from simple IRAs to qualified retirement plans; allow employers to elect to terminate simple IRAs at any time during the year; repeal the increased 25% penalty on premature distributions from simple IRAs within the first two plan years; allow additional nonelective employer contributions to simple IRAs not exceeding 10% of compensation; establish automatic deferral IRAs to permit the automatic enrollment of employees earning at least $5,000 in a preceding year; establish secure deferral arrangements for automatically enrolling employees at 6% of pay with annual increases; allow small employers a new tax credit for the cost of adopting safe harbor requirements for secure deferral arrangements; allow a transfer of unused benefits in a flexible spending arrangement to a qualified retirement or eligible deferred compensation plan; increase the tax credit for small employer pension plan startup costs; and establish multiple small employer retirement plans that provide for automatic employee contributions. Requires: (1) the Secretary of the Treasury to promulgate regulations regarding the timing of notices to participants in automatic contribution pension plans; (2) the Office of Financial Education of the Department of the Treasury to develop and implement an outreach plan to educate small businesses on the types and benefits of available retirement plans; (3) the Secretaries of the Treasury and Labor to develop recommendations for small businesses to improve retirement outcomes; and (4) the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of Education, to develop age-appropriate financial literacy curricula for elementary and secondary schools.

Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to: (1) exempt IRAs that permit payroll deductions from additional pension plan requirements, (2) require disclosures relating to lifetime income from pension plans and annuities, and (3) set forth safe harbor criteria for the selection of an annuity contract and an insurer.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2014-12-11 00:00:00

American Pension Investments Modernization Act of 2014 - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to require the fiduciary of an employee benefit plan to establish policies for appointment of an investment manager or managers to manage any plan assets or business enterprise or enterprises for brokerage and investment banking services.

Requires the fiduciary, under these policies, to consider:

 the concentration level of the plan's exposure to firm-specific risks, including operational, compliance, and fraud risks; the inclusion, to the greatest extent feasible, of minority business enterprises for brokerage and investment banking services (including enterprises owned or controlled by specified percentages of African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian Pacific Americans, Subcontinent Asian Americans, Native Americans, women, or veterans); and the utilization of diverse asset managers, taking into consideration the investment opportunities they offer in sectors, strategies, geographies, and demographics not meaningfully available to the plans. Defines "diverse asset manager" as a minority business enterprise that manages an investment portfolio of between $100 million and $25 billion.

Directs the Secretary of Labor to issue related guidance and requires the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) under the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) to take this guidance into account.

Directs the FRTIB to give current and former federal employees and Members of Congress in FERS the option to participate in actively managed funds within the employee's or Member's Thrift Savings Fund account (but no more than 20% of a current or former employee's or Member's funds).

Prohibits the FRTIB from subjecting more than 20% of the total assets under management of the Thrift Savings Fund to active management.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2013-02-11 00:00:00

Amends the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to exclude appraisers of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) from the meaning of a fiduciary subject to ERISA.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-03-06 00:00:00

Small Business Efficiency Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to treat professional employer organizations (PEOs), certified by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as employers for employment tax purposes (thus allowing such PEOs to pay wages and collect and remit payroll taxes on behalf of an employer).

Sets forth IRS certification requirements for PEOs, including financial review and reporting requirements. Requires a PEO to post a bond each year, up to $1 million, to guarantee payment of employment taxes.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-03-19 00:00:00

Shrinking Emergency Account Losses Act of 2013 or the SEAL Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to loans made from a qualified employer plan, to: (1) extend the period for repayment of loans if a plan terminates or a plan participant becomes unemployed, and (2) prohibit plans from allowing the use of credit cards or similar arrangements to access loan amounts.

Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to modify regulations governing hardship distributions from qualified employer plans to allow participants to make additional contributions to a plan during the six month period following a hardship distribution.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2013-03-20 00:00:00

Healthy Families Act - Requires certain employers, who employ 15 or more employees for each working day during 20 or more workweeks a year, to permit each employee to earn at least 1 hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked.

Declares that an employer shall not be required to permit an employee to earn more than 56 hours of paid sick time in a calendar year, unless the employer chooses to set a higher limit.

Allows employees to use such time to: (1) meet their own medical needs; (2) care for the medical needs of certain family members (including a domestic partner or the domestic partner's parent or child); or (3) seek medical attention, assist a related person, take legal action, or engage in other specified activities relating to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

Prohibits an employer from interfering with an employee's exercise of such rights.

Directs the Secretary of Labor to exercise certain investigative and enforcement authority for employees covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 or the Government Employee Rights Act of 1991. Grants the same authority, for employees under their jurisdiction, to the Librarian of Congress, the Comptroller General (GAO), the Board of Directors of the congressional Office of Compliance, and the Merit Systems Protection Board.

Authorizes civil actions by employees, individuals, or their representatives for damages or equitable relief against employers who violate this Act.

Waives a state's sovereign immunity with respect to a suit brought by an employee of a federally-assisted state program or activity for relief authorized under this Act.

Requires the Commissioner of Labor Statistics to annually compile information on paid sick time and the Comptroller General to study related matters.

Declares that nothing in this Act shall be construed to discourage employers from adopting or retaining more generous leave policies.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-04-10 00:00:00

Forty Hours is Full Time Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to the employer mandate to provide health care coverage, to: (1) modify the formula for calculating the number of full-time employees employed by an applicable large employer subject to the mandate; and (2) define a "full-time employee" as an employee who is employed on average at least 40 hours per week (currently, 30 hours).
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-04-15 00:00:00

Tax Parity for Health Plan Beneficiaries Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) exclude from an employee's gross income employer-provided accident and health plan benefits extended to a domestic partner or non-dependent, non-spouse beneficiary eligible to receive such benefits under an employer plan (i.e., "eligible beneficiary"); (2) exempt such benefits paid to eligible beneficiaries from otherwise applicable employment and unemployment taxes; (3) allow self-employed individuals a tax deduction for the health insurance costs of their eligible beneficiaries; (4) allow tax-exempt voluntary employees' beneficiary associations to provide sick and accident benefits to the domestic partners and non-dependent, non-spouse beneficiaries of their members; (5) allow reimbursement of the medical expenses of an eligible beneficiary from a health savings account (HSA); and (6) extend tax-exempt medical benefits to the eligible beneficiaries of retired employees

Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to provide guidance relating to reimbursements from a flexible spending arrangement and a health reimbursement arrangement attributable to an eligible beneficiary as defined by this Act.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2013-04-17 00:00:00

Veterans Pension Protection Act - Provides that if a veteran eligible for a pension for service or for a non-service-connected disability, or the spouse of such veteran, disposes of a resource that was part of such veteran's estate for less than its fair market value within three years before applying for such pension, then the Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) shall deny or discontinue the pension payment for months beginning on the date of such disposition and ending when the uncompensated value of such resource is reached. Provides the same denial or discontinuance in the case of a veteran eligible for an increased pension payment on account of a child, unless the Secretary determines that such denial or discontinuance would work an undue hardship.

Applies the same denial or discontinuance, with the same undue hardship exception, in the case of: (1) a veteran's surviving spouse who disposes of a covered resource for less than fair market value within such period, and (2) an increased pension for such spouse on account of a child.

Requires the Secretary, at the time a veteran, surviving spouse, or child applies for such a pension, to: (1) inform the individual of such requirements, and (2) obtain information to determine whether a period of ineligibility for such payments will be required.

Requires annual reports from the Secretary, through 2018, on the administration of this Act.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-04-23 00:00:00

Public Employee Pension Transparency Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to deny tax benefits relating to bonds issued by a state or political subdivision during any period in which such state or political subdivision is noncompliant with specified reporting requirements for state or local government employee pension benefit plans.

Requires plan sponsors of a state or local government employee pension benefit plan to file with the Secretary of the Treasury a report for each plan year beginning on or after January 1, 2014, setting forth: (1) a schedule of the funding status of the plan, (2) a schedule of contributions by the plan sponsor for the plan year, (3) alternative projections for each of the next 60 plan years of the cash flows associated with the current plan liability, (4) a statement of the actuarial assumptions used for the plan year, (5) a statement of the number of plan participants who are retired or separated from service and are either receiving benefits or are entitled to future benefits and those who are active under the plan, (6) a statement of the plan's investment returns, (7) a statement of the degree to which unfunded liabilities are expected to be eliminated, (8) a statement of the amount of pension obligation bonds outstanding, and (9) a statement of the current cost of the plan for the plan year.

Directs the Secretary  to develop model reporting statements and create and maintain a public website, with searchable capabilities, for purposes of posting plan information required by this Act.

Exempts the United States from liability for any future shortfall in any state or local government employee pension plan.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-04-25 00:00:00

Vested Employee Pension Benefit Protection Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow employees in the building and construction industry to make distributions from their tax-exempt employer pension plans at age 55 if they are not separated from service at the time of such distributions and were participants in such plan on or before April 30, 2013.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Social welfare
Date: 2013-06-06 00:00:00

Reducing Overlapping Payments Act - Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) of the Social Security Act to require reduced to zero the total of an individual's monthly disability insurance benefits and any spouse's, surviving spouse's, child's, widow's, widower's, or parent's OASDI benefits based on the individual's wages and self-employment income for any month before the individual attains retirement age in which that individual is entitled to both disability insurance benefits and unemployment compensation. (Thus allows only unemployment compensation in such a situation.)
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2013-06-12 00:00:00

Lifetime Income Disclosure Act - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to require the quarterly pension benefit statement furnished to a participant or beneficiary with the right to direct the investment of assets in his or her account under an individual account plan to include a lifetime income disclosure at least once during any 12-month period.

Requires such lifetime income disclosure to set forth the lifetime income stream equivalent of the participant's or beneficiary's total benefits accrued. Defines a lifetime income stream equivalent of the total benefits accrued as the monthly annuity payment the participant or beneficiary would receive if those total accrued benefits were used to provide lifetime income streams to a qualified joint and survivor annuitant.

Directs the Secretary of Labor to: (1) issue a model lifetime income disclosure, written in a manner which can be understood by the average plan participant; and (2) prescribe assumptions that plan administrators may use in converting total accrued benefits into lifetime income stream equivalents.

Declares that no plan fiduciary, plan sponsor, or other person shall have any liability under ERISA solely by reason of the provision of lifetime income stream equivalents derived in accordance with such assumptions and related rules and including explanations contained in the model lifetime income disclosure.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-06-19 00:00:00

Forty Hours is Full Time Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to the employer mandate to provide health care coverage, to: (1) modify the formula for calculating the number of full-time employees employed by an applicable large employer subject to the mandate; and (2) define a "full-time employee" as an employee who is employed on average at least 40 hours per week (currently, 30 hours).
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-08-01 00:00:00

Stop Subsidizing Multimillion Dollar Corporate Bonuses Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to the $1 million limitation on the deductibility of employee compensation, to: (1) extend such limitation to any individual who is a current or former officer, director, or employee of a publicly-held corporation; (2) eliminate the exemption from such limitation for compensation payable on a commission basis or upon the attainment of a performance goal; and (3) make such limitation applicable to all publicly-held corporations that are required by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to register securities and provide periodic reports to their investors.
Topic: Labor — Employee Benefits
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2013-11-14 00:00:00

Fair Playing Field Act of 2013 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code, with respect to the classification of workers for employment tax purposes, to: (1) repeal the prohibition against issuance of regulations and guidance by the Secretary of the Treasury on workers' employment tax status (i.e., as an employee or as an independent contractor) enacted by the Revenue Act of 1978; (2) direct the Secretary to issue regulations and other guidance to clarify the proper employment status of workers for employment tax purposes; (3) prohibit a retroactive assessment of employment tax, except with respect to certain skilled workers, for tax periods after December 31, 1978, and before a specified reclassification date for worker misclassifications, unless the taxpayer had no reasonable basis for not treating a worker as an employee; (4) require taxpayers who hire independent contractors on a regular and ongoing basis to provide such contractors with notice of their federal tax obligations, the labor and employment law protections that do not apply to them, and their right to seek a status determination from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); and (5) eliminate reduced penalty provisions for failure to withhold income taxes for taxpayers who lack a reasonable basis for treating a worker as other than an employee (i.e., as an independent contractor).

Provides that for purposes of determining whether a registered representative of a securities broker-dealer is an employee for employment tax purposes, no weight shall be given to instructions from a service recipient which are imposed only in compliance with investor protection standards. Makes this rule applicable to services performed by a broker-dealer after December 31, 1997.