jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Science, technology, communications
Date: 2011-11-02 00:00:00

Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2012 - (Sec. 2) Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to publish on its website and submit to Congress a biennial report on the state of the communications marketplace assessing: (1) competition, including intermodal, facilities-based, and new and emergent services competition and addressing the provision of content, as well as communications using the Internet; (2) deployment of communications capabilities, including whether advanced telecommunications capability is being deployed to all Americans in a reasonable and timely fashion; and (3) whether laws, regulations, or regulatory practices pose a barrier to competitive entry or expansion of existing providers of communications services. Requires the FCC to: (1) compile a list of geographic areas that are not served by any provider of advanced telecommunications capability; and (2) consider market entry barriers for entrepreneurs and other small businesses in the communications marketplace in accordance with existing national policy favoring diversity of media voices, vigorous economic competition, technological advancement, and promotion of the public interest, convenience, and necessity. (Sec. 3) Repeals and consolidates various FCC reports including reports on satellite competition, international broadband, video programming, cable industry prices, small business entry barriers, commercial mobile radio, waivers from requirements prohibiting FCC employees from being financially interested in companies subject to FCC regulation, and several other existing reports under such Act.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2011-11-03 00:00:00

Truth in Government Accounting Act of 2011 - Requires the head of each federal agency to prepare for a fiscal year and submit to the Comptroller General (GAO) three quarterly and one annual consolidated financial statement based on the fair-value accrual accounting method. Requires such statement to include all future certain liabilities and all contingent liabilities that can be reasonably estimated, all liabilities that may require future taxes for present liabilities, and other expenditures and liabilities. Requires the Comptroller General to publish all such statements on a website accessible by the public that allows a user to search agency accounts and activities by each office, bureau, and activity of an agency. Requires the Comptroller General to audit the consolidated financial statements prepared by each federal agency for each fiscal year. Requires the President's annual budget to include a summary of how the use of accrual accounting procedures would affect the estimated expenditures, appropriations, and receipts of the government in the fiscal year in which the budget is submitted. Requires the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to prepare all of the budgets submitted to the President according to both accrual accounting procedures and the cash basis accounting method. Amends the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 to require the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to use current-year spending as the baseline for estimating future mandatory and discretionary changes in spending.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2011-11-04 00:00:00

Regulatory Review Act of 2011 - Requires the head of each federal agency to conduct a periodic review (every 10 years) of any rule issued by such agency that is determined to be a major rule and that takes effect during the period beginning on January 1, 2011, to identify: (1) the costs and benefits of such rule, (2) each amendment to such rule that would accomplish the same statutory objectives but result in different costs and benefits, and (3) the costs and benefits of repealing the rule.  Requires the agency to publish the results of such review, submit a summary of the results to Congress, and make a final determination on whether the rule should be amended, continued in effect, or repealed, after providing an opportunity for comment by interested persons. Defines "major rule" as a rule that has resulted in or is likely to result in: (1) an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more; (2) a major increase in costs or prices for consumers, individual industries, federal, state, or local government agencies, or geographic regions; or (3) significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or on the ability of U.S.-based enterprises to compete with foreign-based enterprises in domestic and export markets.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2011-11-14 00:00:00

(Sec. 1) Establishes in the Department of the Interior: (1) an Under Secretary for Energy, Lands, and Minerals; (2) an Assistant Secretary of Ocean Energy and Safety; (3) an Assistant Secretary of Land and Minerals Management; (4) a Bureau of Ocean Energy (Bureau), with a comprehensive program of offshore mineral and renewable energy resources management; (5) an Ocean Energy Safety Service, administering safety and environmental enforcement activities related to offshore mineral and renewable energy resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS); and (6) an Office of Natural Resources Revenue (Office), with all functions, powers, and duties previously assigned to the Minerals Management Service regarding offshore royalty and revenue management. Prohibits Ocean Energy Safety Service personnel conducting permitting or inspections from either participating in a strike or asserting the right to strike. (Sec. 3) Directs the Secretary of the Interior to: (1) establish and maintain a National Offshore Energy Health and Safety Academy as an agency of the Ocean Energy Safety Service to train newly hired and experienced offshore oil and gas inspectors in all aspects of health, safety, environmental, and operational inspections; and (2) develop and maintain adequate programs to provide for the continuing education of certain Department of the Interior personnel. (Sec. 5) Requires the Secretary to: (1) certify annually that all Department personnel having regular, direct official contact with government contractors, or conducting investigations, issuing permits, or overseeing energy programs, comply fully with federal employee ethics laws and regulations; (2) conduct a random drug testing program of such personnel, and (3) issue supplementary ethics and drug testing guidance for employees for which certification is required. (Sec. 6) Abolishes the Minerals Management Service. (Sec. 8) Directs the Secretary to establish an Outer Continental Shelf Energy Safety Advisory Board to: (1) give independent scientific and technical advice on safe, responsible, and timely mineral and renewable energy exploration, development, and production activities; (2) review operations of the National Offshore Energy Health and Safety Academy; and (3) assess every five years, for the Secretary and certain congressional committees, offshore oil and gas well control technologies, practices, voluntary standards, and regulations. (Sec. 9) Requires the Under Secretary for Energy, Lands, and Minerals, in administering the programs and authorities under this Act, to implement a hiring preference for eligible veterans and disabled veterans.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Economics and public finance
Date: 2011-12-07 00:00:00

Pro-Growth Budgeting Act of 2012 - (Sec. 2) Amends the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (CBA) to require the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to prepare for each major bill or resolution reported by any congressional committee (except the congressional appropriations committees), as a supplement to CBO cost estimates, a macroeconomic impact analysis of the budgetary effects of such legislation for the 10-fiscal year period beginning with the first fiscal year for which such estimate was prepared and each of the next three 10-fiscal year periods. Defines "major bill or resolution" as any bill or resolution whose budgetary effects, for any fiscal year in the period for which a CBO cost estimate is prepared, is estimated to be greater than .25% of the current projected U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) for that fiscal year. Requires the analysis to describe: (1) the potential economic impact of the bill or resolution on major economic variables, including real GDP, business investment, the capital stock, employment, interest rates, and labor supply; and (2) the potential fiscal effects of the measure, including any estimates of revenue increases or decreases resulting from changes in GDP. Requires the analysis (or a technical appendix to it) to specify the economic and econometric models used, sources of data, relevant data transformations, as well as any explanation necessary to make the models comprehensible to academic and public policy analysts. (Sec. 3) Amends CBA to require the CBO Director, after the President's budget submission and in addition to the baseline projections, to report a supplemental projection to the congressional budget committees, assuming extension of current tax policy for the fiscal year commencing on October 1 of that year, with a supplemental projection for the 10-fiscal year period beginning with that fiscal year, again assuming the extension of current tax policy. Defines "current tax policy" as the tax policy in statute as of December 31 of the current year, assuming: (1) the budgetary effects of measures extending the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 and the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003; (2) the continued application of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) as in effect for taxable years beginning in 2011, with a specified assumption for taxable years beginning after 2011; and (3) the budgetary effects of extending the estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax provisions of title III of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Requires CBO to report to such committees, on or before July 1 of each year, the Long-Term Budget Outlook for: (1) the fiscal year commencing on October 1 of that year, and (2) at least the ensuing 40 fiscal years.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Economics and public finance
Date: 2011-12-07 00:00:00

Government Shutdown Prevention Act of 2011 - Makes specified provisional (automatic) continuing appropriations in the event that any regular appropriation bill for a fiscal year is not enacted before the beginning of such fiscal year, or a joint resolution making continuing appropriations is not in effect. (Thus prevents a federal government shutdown.)
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2011-12-14 00:00:00

Contingency Operations Oversight and Interagency Enhancement Act of 2011 - Establishes as an independent entity the United States Office for Contingency Operations (Office), which shall report to the Department of Defense (DOD) and the State Department. Transfers to the Office various authorities, functions, personnel, and assets of specified federal departments and agencies. Provides for an Office Director, Deputy Director, Associate Directors, and an Inspector General. Requires the Office, among other duties, to: (1) monitor political and economic instability worldwide in order to anticipate the need for mobilizing U.S. and international assistance for the stabilization and reconstruction of a foreign country or region that is at risk of, in, or in transition from, conflict or civil strife in the wake of violence or cataclysmic disaster; (2) develop contingency plans and procedures to mobilize and deploy civilian and military personnel to conduct appropriate foreign stabilization and reconstruction operations (operations); (3) execute, administer, and enforce laws, rules, and regulations relating to the preparation, coordination, and execution of operations; and (4) evaluate, and report to Congress on, the impact of operations. Gives the Director sole control over such operations. Requires the Director to: (1) coordinate with the Secretary of Defense and commanders of unified and specified combatant commands regarding Office plans for operations, and (2) prescribe a Contingency Federal Acquisition Regulation. Establishes the Stabilization and Reconstruction Fund. Outlines duties and responsibilities of the Inspector General of the Office, including special audit and investigative authority and reporting requirements. Transfers to the Inspector General all functions vested in the Offices of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction and the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Expresses the sense of Congress that, to the extent possible, the Director and Office staff should partner with the country in which an operation is taking place, other foreign government partners, international organizations, and local nongovernmental organizations throughout the planning, implementation, and particularly during the transition stages of such operations, in order to facilitate long term capacity building and sustainability of initiatives.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2011-12-16 00:00:00

Requires the Governor of the Virgin Islands to appoint a Chief Financial Officer, with the advice and consent of the Legislature of the Virgin Islands, from a list required by this Act. States that if: (1) the Legislature has not confirmed a nominee within 90 days of receiving such list the Governor shall appoint a Chief Financial Officer on an acting basis until the Legislature consents to a Chief Financial Officer, (2) a Chief Financial Officer has not been appointed within 180 days after enactment of this Act the Virgin Islands Chief Financial Officer Search Commission shall appoint from such list an Acting Chief Financial Officer until a Chief Financial Officer is appointed, and (3) the Acting Chief Financial Officer serving in an acting capacity for 180 consecutive days shall become the Chief Financial Officer. Sets forth the Chief Financial Officer's duties. Directs the Board of Elections of the Virgin Islands, as part of the closest regularly scheduled, islands-wide election in the Virgin Islands to the expiration of the fourth year of the five-year term of the Chief Financial Officer, to hold a referendum to determine whether the position of Chief Financial Officer shall be made a permanent part of the executive branch of the government of the Virgin Islands. Establishes the Virgin Islands Chief Financial Officer Search Commission to recommend at least three candidates for the Chief Financial Officer position. Terminates the Commission upon the nomination and confirmation of the Chief Financial Officer.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2011-12-20 00:00:00

Cost Recovery and Fair Value for Services Act of 2011 - Requires each federal agency's chief financial officer, by October 1 of each odd-numbered year beginning with October 1, 2011, to report to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on that officer's biennial review of agency charges for services and things of value that it provides and recommendations on revising those charges to reflect its costs in doing so. Requires such report to include: (1) with regard to such recommendations, an evaluation of whether each user is paying an equitable amount and of the user's ability to pay, the extent to which use of such program provides a public benefit, and the extent to which the program the fee is funding benefits the public and identifiable users; (2) the amount of the fee sufficient to cover the full cost of the service or thing of value; (3) whether the agency has timely and reliable cost data to determine such amount; (4) the extent to which the fee will fully or partially recover costs; (5) whether the fee structure should include exemptions or reduced fees; (6) whether the fee should be set as a percentage or as a fixed dollar amount; (7) how the fee will be structured to cover the intended share of the cost over time; and (8) whether fee collections are projected to change over time in relation to the cost of the service or thing of value. Requires the OMB Director, by December 1 of each such year, to compile and transmit such reports to specified congressional committees and to identify any recommendations with which the Director does not agree.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2012-01-18 00:00:00

Plain Regulations Act of 2012 - Requires the head of each executive agency to: (1) implement a program for using plain language in writing new and revised regulations, (2) certify to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that each proposed or final rule is in plain language, and (3) publish reports on agency compliance with plain language requirements on the agency's website. Requires the Director to: (1) develop and issue guidance to agencies for implementing plain language requirements, and (2) return proposed agency regulations that fail to meet such requirements to be redrafted and resubmitted for approval.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2012-02-01 00:00:00

Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2012 - (Sec. 2) States that the provisions of this Act shall apply to: (1) a consent decree or settlement agreement in an action to compel agency action alleged to be unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed that pertains to a regulatory action that affects the rights of private parties other than the plaintiff or the rights of state, local, or tribal governments brought under judicial review provisions of the U.S. Code or under any other statute authorizing such an action; and (2) any other consent decree or settlement agreement that requires agency action that pertains to a regulatory action that affects the rights of private parties other than the plaintiff or the rights of state, local, or tribal governments. Sets forth requirements with respect to actions to be resolved by a consent decree or settlement agreement under this Act, including requiring: (1) publication in a readily accessible manner (including electronically) of the complaint, the consent decree or settlement agreement, the statutory basis for the decree or agreement and its terms, and any award of attorneys' fees or costs; (2) an opportunity for affected parties to intervene in an action prior to the entry of a consent decree or settlement agreement; (3) referral to a mediation or alternative dispute resolution program after a motion to intervene is granted; (4) an opportunity for public comment on a proposed consent decree or settlement agreement before it is filed with a court; and (5) approval by the Attorney General of any proposed consent decree or settlement agreement in cases litigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Requires each agency to submit an annual report to Congress on the number, identity, and content of complaints, consent decrees, and settlement agreements for that year, including the statutory basis for each decree or agreement and its terms, and any awards of attorneys fees or costs in actions resolved by decrees or agreements. (Sec. 3) Requires a court to grant de novo review to any motion filed by an agency to modify a previously-entered consent decree if the basis of such motion is that the terms of the decree are no longer fully in the public interest due to the agency's obligations to fulfill other duties or due to changed facts and circumstances. (Sec. 4) Makes the provisions of this Act applicable to any covered consent decree or settlement agreement proposed to a court after the enactment of this Act.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2012-02-09 00:00:00

Federal Research Public Access Act of 2012 - Requires each federal agency with extramural research expenditures of over $100 million to develop a specified federal research public access policy that is consistent with, and that advances, the purposes of the agency. Makes each federal research public access policy applicable to: (1) researchers employed by the federal agency whose works remain in the public domain; and (2) researchers funded by the agency. Specifies exclusions.Requires the submission of annual reports by each federal agency on its federal research public access policy.
Topic: Government Operations — Bureaucracy
Subject: Government operations and politics
Date: 2012-03-01 00:00:00

Regulatory Accountability and Economic Freedom Act of 2012 - Revises criteria for the federal agency rule making process. Requires federal agencies proposing a rule to make all preliminary and final factual determinations based on evidence and to consider: (1) the legal authority under which a rule may be proposed, (2) the specific nature and significance of the problem the agency may address with a rule, (3) any reasonable alternatives for a new rule, and (4) the potential costs and benefits associated with potential alternative rules. Requires agencies to publish in the Federal Register advance notice of proposed rule making for major rules, high-impact rules, and rules involving novel legal or policy issues. Defines "major rule" as any rule that is likely to impose: (1) an annual effect on the economy of $100 million or more, adjusted annually for inflation; (2) a major increase in costs or prices; (3) significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity, innovation, or U.S. competitiveness; or (4) significant impacts on multiple sectors of the economy. Defines "high-impact rule" as any rule that is likely to impose an annual cost on the economy of $1 billion or more, adjusted annually for inflation. Rewrites provisions for congressional review of agency rule making to require congressional approval of major rules before they may take effect (currently, major rules take effect unless Congress passes and the President signs a joint resolution disapproving them). Sets forth House and Senate procedures for enacting joint resolutions approving major rules and disapproving non-major rules. Establishes the United States Red Tape Reduction Commission to advise federal agencies on the modification, consolidation, or elimination of federal regulatory requirements to reduce direct or indirect burdens on U.S. businesses.