jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2013-04-24 00:00:00

Plain Writing Act for Regulations of 2013 - Requires the head of each executive agency to: (1) implement a program for using plain writing in drafting agency regulations, (2) designate a senior official to oversee the implementation of plain writing requirements, (3) certify to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that each agency rule has been reviewed for compliance with such requirements, and (4) publish annual reports on agency compliance with such requirements on the agency's website.

Requires: (1) the Director of OMB to develop and issue guidance to agencies for implementing plain writing requirements and publish certifications of agency compliance with such requirements on the OMB's website, and (2) the Comptroller General (GAO) to report to Congress on the extent to which regulations are using plain writing and the impact of plain writing requirements on the rulemaking process.

Prohibits judicial review of compliance or noncompliance with any provision of this Act.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Congress
Date: 2013-04-24 00:00:00

Establishes the Office of the Inspector General (IG) of the Senate.

Requires the Majority and Minority Leaders of the Senate to appoint the first IG.

Limits the IG to an initial five-year term and two additional terms if reappointed.

Requires the IG to: (1) audit and investigate Senate programs and operations; (2) review legislation and regulations relating to Senate programs and operations, and make recommendations concerning their impact on the economy and efficiency in the administration of such programs and operations or the prevention and detection of fraud and abuse in them; and (3) keep the Committee on Rules and Administration and the Committee on Appropriations informed concerning fraud and other serious problems, abuses, and deficiencies relating to such administration and recommend corrective action.

Requires the Office to establish a publicly available website for posting its reports and audits, including a direct homepage link for individuals to report fraud, waste, and abuse without being required to disclose personally identifying information.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Foreign trade and international finance
Date: 2013-05-22 00:00:00

Global Investment in American Jobs Act of 2013 - Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) U.S. ability to attract foreign direct investment is directly linked to U.S. long-term economic prosperity, global competitiveness, and security; (2) it should be mindful of the potential impact upon the U.S. ability to attract foreign direct investment when evaluating proposed legislation; (3) it is a top national priority to enhance U.S. competitiveness, prosperity, and security by removing unnecessary barriers to foreign direct investment and the U.S. jobs it creates and promoting policies to ensure the United States remains the premier global destination in which to invest, hire, innovate, and manufacture products; (4) maintaining the U.S. commitment to open investment policy encourages other countries to do the same and enables the United States to open new markets abroad for U.S. companies and their products; and (5) U.S. policies regarding foreign direct investment should reflect national security interests and should not disadvantage domestic investors or companies.

 Directs the Secretary of Commerce to conduct an interagency review of the U.S. global competitiveness in attracting foreign direct investment and report to Congress recommendations for making the United States more competitive in attracting foreign direct investment without undermining fundamental domestic labor, consumer, or environmental protections.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2013-05-23 00:00:00

Regulatory Accountability Act of 2013 - Amends the Administrative Procedure Act to revise requirements for federal agency rulemaking by requiring agencies, in making a rule, to consider: (1) the legal authority under which a rule may be proposed, including whether rulemaking is required by statute or is within the discretion of the agency; (2) the nature and significance of the problem the agency intends to address; (3) whether existing federal laws or rules have created or contributed to the problem; (4) reasonable alternatives for a new rule; and (5) for any major rule or high-impact rule (generally defined as rules having an annual cost on the economy of $100 million or $1 billion or more, respectively), the potential costs and benefits associated with potential alternative rules.

Requires agencies that initiate a rulemaking that may result in a major rule or a high-impact rule to: (1) establish an electronic docket for that rulemaking, which may have a physical counterpart; and (2) publish a notice of initiation of rulemaking in the Federal Register.

Requires agencies issuing a rule to notify the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and publish a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register which shall include: (1) a text of the proposed rule; (2) a summary of rulemaking considerations; and (3) for any major rule or high-impact rule, a preliminary determination that the benefits of the proposed rule justify its costs and a discussion of the costs and benefits of alternatives to the rule. Provides similar notice requirements when an agency adopts a final rule.

Expands agency requirements for allowing opportunities for public comment. Sets forth requirements for providing public hearings for high-impact and major rules and for petitioning for the issuance, amendment, or repeal of a rule. Requires agencies, in a rulemaking for a major rule or high-impact rule, to adopt the least costly rule considered that meets relevant statutory objectives.

Requires the Administrator to establish and update guidelines for the assessment of: (1) the costs and benefits of proposed and final rules, and (2) other economic issues and risk assessments that are relevant to rulemaking.

Revises the scope of judicial review to prohibit review of a determination of whether a rule is a major rule and to establish a substantial evidence standard for affirming agency rulemaking decisions.

Sets forth criteria for issuing major guidance (agency guidance that is likely to lead to an annual cost on the economy of $100 million or more, a major increase in cost or prices, or significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or ability to compete).
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2013-06-06 00:00:00

Protect America's Cities from Government Blacklist Act of 2013 - Prohibits a federal agency from establishing or implementing a policy that discourages or prohibits the selection of a location for travel, an event, a meeting, or a conference because the location is perceived to be a resort or vacation destination.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Education
Date: 2013-06-07 00:00:00

Reengaging Americans in Serious Education by Uniting Programs Act - Directs the Secretary of Labor to award competitive, renewable, five-year grants to eligible partnerships to assist them in providing disconnected youth with the support needed to: (1) attain a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent; (2) attain a postsecondary credential, including those offered by institutions of higher education, industry groups, or registered apprenticeship programs; and (3) secure and succeed in a family-supporting career.

Requires each eligible partnership to consist of entities or individuals qualified to represent the community assisted, including: (1) the head of the local government, (2) a local educational agency, (3) a local workforce system, (4) a representative from certain state and local service agencies serving young people, (5) an institution of higher education, (6) a representative of a community-based organization, (7) a representative from business or industry, (8) a representative with expertise in labor management relations, and (9) a disconnected youth and his or her caregivers.

Requires grantees to award subgrants and contracts to community-based organizations and other entities for the provision of a comprehensive array of coordinated services to disconnected youth that include workforce preparation, education support, and youth support services.

Directs the Secretary to award planning grants to eligible partnerships to enable them to submit competitive applications for grants to support disconnected youth.

Establishes an accountability system for measuring the performance of each grantee against specified interim, transitional, and long-term indicators of success.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) award a grant or contract to an entity outside the Department of Labor for an evaluation of grant-assisted activities; (2) disseminate best practices that emerge from the partnership grant program; and (3) provide training, technical assistance, and professional development for organizations serving disconnected youth, including organizations that do not receive funding under this Act.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2013-06-18 00:00:00

Independent Agency Regulatory Analysis Act of 2013 - Authorizes the President to require an independent regulatory agency to: (1) comply, to the extent permitted by law, with regulatory analysis requirements applicable to other federal agencies; (2) publish and provide the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs with an assessment of the costs and benefits of a proposed or final economically significant rule (i.e., a rule that is likely to have an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more and is likely to adversely affect sectors of the economy in a material way) and an assessment of costs and benefits of alternatives to the rule; and (3) submit to the Administrator for review any proposed or final economically significant rule.

Prohibits judicial review of the compliance or noncompliance of an independent regulatory agency with the requirements of this Act.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2013-07-10 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the Senate on September 25, 2013. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

Security Clearance Oversight and Reform Enhancement Act - Authorizes funding for the cost of audits, investigations, and oversight activities conducted by the Inspector General of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of the OPM revolving fund and functions financed by the fund. Requires OPM to include in its budget an estimate by the OPM Inspector General of the amount required to pay the reasonable expenses (not to exceed .33% of total budgetary authority) to audit, investigate, and perform other oversight activities related to the revolving fund.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Law
Date: 2013-07-11 00:00:00

Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act of 2013 - Amends the sanctions provisions in Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to require the court to impose an appropriate sanction on any attorney, law firm, or party that has violated, or is responsible for the violation of, the rule with regard to representations to the court. Requires any sanction to compensate parties injured by the conduct in question.

Removes a provision that prohibits filing a motion for sanctions if the challenged paper, claim, defense, contention, or denial is withdrawn or appropriately corrected within 21 days after service or within another time the court sets.

Authorizes the court to impose additional sanctions, including striking the pleadings, dismissing the suit, nonmonetary directives, or penalty payments if warranted for effective deterrence.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2013-07-16 00:00:00

Government Transformation Act of 2013 - Establishes the Government Transformation Commission as an independent commission. Directs the Commission to:

 make specific and actionable recommendations to congressional committees for legislative changes, including opportunities to increase efficiency and reduce government costs, proposals to reduce government expenditures and indebtedness and improve personnel management, and proposals to make the federal government more economical, efficient, and effective; make recommendations to the President for the elimination, consolidation, or improvement of federal programs and for reinvestment and opportunities for innovation in federal agencies; provide advice and recommendations to federal agencies to make programs more economical, efficient, and effective, to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to improve and report on agency performance plans, and to Congress, OMB, and federal agencies on the design and implementation of significant new federal programs; provide a mechanism whereby federal employees, citizens, and other interested parties can offer ideas and recommendations for reviewing and improving federal programs; conduct research into best organization practices and government reform efforts and provide a repository for such information; develop and maintain criteria and a schedule for assessing federal agencies and programs; assess program evaluations; maintain the privacy and security of any data used by the Commission; and support requests made under the Freedom of Information Act. Requires the Commission to make interim and annual reports on its activities to the President and Congress.

Provides for expedited congressional consideration of legislation to implement recommendations of the Commission.

Terminates the Commission seven years after the enactment of this Act.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2013-07-24 00:00:00

Improper Payments Agency Cooperation Enhancement Act of 2014 - (Sec. 2) Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Benefits) of the Social Security Act to direct the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration (SSA) to: (1) provide information on all deceased individuals that is furnished to or maintained by the Commissioner, subject to appropriate safeguards against unauthorized use or disclosure, to federal or state agencies providing benefits or administering a federal program; and (2) provide for the use of such information by federal agencies to operate the Do Not Pay working system and to carry out tax administration or debt collection duties.

Requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to analyze and report to Congress on potential alternative sources of death data maintained by non-federal sources.

(Sec. 3) Requires the Secretaries of State and Defense, in coordination with the SSA Commissioner, to establish a procedure for submitting to the Commissioner information on the deaths of individuals.

Requires the OMB Director to: (1) issue guidance to agencies that operate or maintain a database of information relating to beneficiaries, annuity recipients, or other purposes for which improved data matching with databases would be relevant and necessary; (2) develop a plan to assist states and local agencies, and Indian tribes and organizations, to provide information, in an electronic format, to the federal government on the deaths of individuals; and (3) submit to Congress a plan to improve data matching with the federal government on the death of individuals who are benefit recipients and to submit an annual report on the implementation of such requirements.

(Sec. 4) Extends the availability of the Do Not Pay Initiative to the legislative and judicial branches and to the states.

(Sec. 5) Requires the Secretary of the Treasury to report to Congress on: (1) data analytics performed as part of the Do Not Pay Initiative to prevent and recover improper and duplicative payments, and (2) the metrics used in determining whether analytic and investigatory efforts have helped to reduce improper payments or awards.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2013-07-25 00:00:00

Energy Consumers Relief Act of 2013 - Prohibits the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from promulgating a final rule that regulates any aspect of the production, supply, distribution, or use of energy (or that provides for such regulation by state or local governments) and that is estimated by the Administrator or the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to impose aggregate costs of more than $1 billion if the Secretary of Energy (DOE) determines that the rule will result in significant adverse effects to the economy.

Requires the Administrator, for each such rule, to submit a report that contains: (1) an estimate of the total costs and benefits of the rule, (2) an estimate of the increases in energy prices that may result from implementation or enforcement of the rule, and (3) a detailed description of the employment effects that may result from implementation or enforcement of the rule.

Requires the Secretary: (1) to prepare an independent analysis to determine whether such rule will cause any increase in energy prices for consumers, any impact on fuel diversity of the nation's electricity generation portfolio or on electric reliability, or any adverse effect on energy supply, distribution, or use; and (2) upon making such a determination, to determine whether the rule will result in significant adverse effects to the economy and publish such determination in the Federal Register.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2013-07-25 00:00:00

Citizen Empowerment Act - Requires any executive agency employee who is conducting an in-person or a telephonic interview, audit, investigation, inspection, or other official interaction with an individual relating to a possible violation of federal law that could result in the imposition of civil or criminal fines or penalties or the collection of unpaid tax to allow such individual to make an audio recording of the interaction. Permits the employee conducting the interaction to record it if the employee: (1) informs the individual of the recording prior to or at the initiation of the interaction, and (2) provides the individual with a transcript of the recording at such individual's expense.

Requires the employee conducting an initial in-person or telephonic interview or other interaction to provide to the individual a verbal or written notice of such individual's rights.

Exempts from the application of this Act any in-person or telephonic interview or other interaction that: (1) is likely to include the discussion of classified material or information that would endanger public safety if released publicly; or (2) if released, would endanger an ongoing criminal investigation being conducted by a federal law enforcement officer.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2013-07-30 00:00:00

Regulatory Improvement Act of 2013 - Establishes in the legislative branch the Regulatory Improvement Commission. Requires the Commission to evaluate and provide recommendations and proposed legislation for modification, consolidation, or repeal of regulations that have been finalized not later than 10 years before the establishment of the Commission and have not been amended after being finalized (covered regulations) for the purpose of reducing compliance costs, encouraging growth and innovation, improving competitiveness, and protecting public safety. Sets forth reporting requirements for the Commission and procedures for congressional consideration of Commission reports and recommendations and proposed legislation.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2013-07-30 00:00:00

Federal Permitting Improvement Act of 2013 - Establishes the Federal Permitting Improvement Council to be chaired by a Federal Chief Permitting Officer (Federal CPO) who is an officer of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Requires the Federal CPO to: (1) establish an inventory of covered projects for which the review or authorization of the head of any federal agency is pending, (2) develop nonbinding performance schedules for reviews and authorizations of each category of covered projects, and (3) maintain an online database, to be known as the Permitting Dashboard, to track the status of federal reviews and authorizations for any covered project. Defines "covered project" as any construction activity that requires authorization or review by a federal agency and that: (1) involves renewable or conventional energy production, electricity transmission, surface transportation, aviation, ports and waterways, water resource projects, broadband, manufacturing, or any other sector as determined by the Federal CPO; and (2) is likely to require an initial investment of more than $25 million.

Requires an agency with principal responsibility for review and authorization of a covered project (lead agency) to establish: (1) a plan for coordinating public and agency participation in, and completion of, any required federal review and authorization for a covered project and submit such plan to the Federal CPO; (2) a permitting timetable that includes intermediate and final deadlines for agency action on any federal review or authorization required for a project; and (3) a process for consultation with participating agencies early in the approval process to identify and address key issues of concern.

Grants the consent of Congress for three or more contiguous states to enter into an interstate compact establishing regional infrastructure development agencies to facilitate authorization and review of covered projects.

Requires agencies to complete environmental reviews required under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 for covered projects in a timely, coordinated, and environmentally responsible manner.

Reduces the statute of limitations for judicial review of any authorization issued by an agency for a covered project from 6 years to 150 days after a notice is published in the Federal Register that authorization for a covered project is final. Requires a court, in issuing injunctive relief, to consider the potential for significant job losses or other economic harm from an order or injunction.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Congress
Date: 2013-08-01 00:00:00

Daniel Webster Congressional Clerkship Act of 2013 - Establishes the Daniel Webster Congressional Clerkship Program for the appointment of individuals who are graduates of accredited law schools to serve as Congressional Clerks in the Senate or House of Representatives.

Requires the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration and the House Committee on House Administration to each select at least six individuals for a one-year term to serve as employees in their respective chambers.

Specifies eligibility criteria for a Congressional Clerk, including that the selected candidate be a graduate of such a law school as of the starting date of his or her clerkship.

Requires the Committees to ensure that Congressional Clerks selected under this Act are apportioned equally between majority and minority party offices.

Entitles each clerk selected to the same compensation as, and comparable benefits to, an individual who holds the position of a judicial clerkship for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia within three months of graduating from law school.