jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2008-08-01 00:00:00

Servicemembers Access to Justice Act of 2008 - Waives a state's sovereign immunity with respect to the enforcement of uniformed services members' employment or reemployment rights or benefits under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). Makes unenforceable agreements between an employer and employee requiring arbitration of disputes arising under USERRA. Provides exceptions. Requires the validity and enforceability of such an agreement to be determined by a court (as opposed to the arbitrator). Provides increased liquidated damages, and authorizes punitive damages, against state or private employer violations of USERRA. Provides a right to a jury trial in such cases. Requires (under current law, authorizes) the award of attorney fees in actions to enforce USERRA. Defines "successor in interest" for USERRA purposes. Prohibits: (1) any statute of limitations from applying to USERRA proceedings; and (2) wage discrimination against members covered under USERRA. Requires (under current law, authorizes) a court to use equitable relief, including injunctions and restraining orders when appropriate, for USERRA violations.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2008-09-08 00:00:00

Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security or the Attorney General to adjust to permanent resident status certain alien family members of specified Armed Forces members or veterans who are serving or have served honorably on or after October 7, 2001, in the National Guard, the Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve, or in active-duty status.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2008-09-18 00:00:00

Veterans Health Care Budget Reform Act of 2008 - Requires, beginning with FY2010, a two-fiscal-year budget authority for the following accounts of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA): (1) Medical Services; (2) Medical Administration; and (3) Medical Facilities. Requires the Comptroller General to conduct a study on the adequacy and accuracy of VA baseline model projections for health care expenditures.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Agriculture and food
Date: 2008-09-25 00:00:00

Amends the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 to replace "Food and Nutrition Act of 2008" with "Food Stamp Act of 1977" in a provision reauthorizing grant funds to assist eligible private nonprofit entities to establish and carry out community food projects. Makes such grant funds for FY2008 available until September 30, 2009, to fund proposals solicited in FY2008.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2008-09-26 00:00:00

Revises TRICARE (a Department of Defense [DOD] managed health care program) to authorize the Secretary of Defense to provide extended health care services and treatment, by way of contract with private providers, for dependent autism-diagnosed children of military retirees not entitled to hospital insurance benefits under Part A (Hospital Insurance) of title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act and not enrolled under part B (Supplementary Medical Insurance) of such title.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2008-09-30 00:00:00

Military Child Care Act of 2008 - Directs the Secretary of Defense to issue guidance to ensure access to, and affordability of, respite care with respect to children under the age of 13 for: (1) spouses of members of the Armed Forces deployed to a combat zone, and for caregivers with respect to such members; and (2) survivors of members who are killed during such deployment.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2008-11-20 00:00:00

Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center Act of 2008 - Authorizes the Secretary of Defense (Secretary), upon the conclusion of a resource-sharing agreement between the Secretary and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, to transfer to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) the Navy ambulatory care center, parking structure, supporting facilities, and related medical personal property and equipment in Great Lakes, Illinois. Designates such facility and supporting facilities as the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center (Center). Provides a reversionary interest to the Secretary if the property is not used in accordance with the resource-sharing agreement or in the event of lack of facilities integration. Authorizes the Secretary to transfer to the VA functions necessary for Center operation. Extends through FY2020 a joint Department of Defense (DOD)-VA program to identify, implement, and evaluate creative health care coordination and sharing initiatives at the facility, intraregional, and nationwide levels. Deems the Center a military facility for purposes of the eligibility of members of the Armed Forces to receive care and services there.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-06 00:00:00

Belated Thank You to the Merchant Mariners of World War II Act of 2009 - Establishes in the Treasury the Merchant Mariner Equity Compensation Fund for payments by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs of a monthly benefit of $1,000 to each individual who, between December 7, 1941, and December 31, 1946, was a documented member of the U.S. merchant marine (including the Army Transport Service and the Naval Transport Service) serving as a crewmember of a vessel that was operated in U.S. waters by the War Shipping Administration or the Office of Defense Transportation, serving the Armed Forces, and under contract to, or the property of, the United States. Requires such individuals to: (1) apply for such benefit within one year after the enactment of this Act; and (2) not have received benefits under the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. Authorizes appropriations. Requires the Secretary to include, in annual budget documents submitted to Congress, detailed information on the Fund's operation.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-06 00:00:00

Veterans Outreach Improvement Act of 2009 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish, maintain, and modify as necessary procedures for ensuring the effective coordination of outreach activities of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) between and among the Office of the Secretary, the Office of Public Affairs, the Veterans Health Administration, the Veterans Benefits Administration, and the National Cemetery Administration. Directs the Secretary to give priority to state and county outreach assistance in locations that: (1) have relatively large concentrations of veterans; or (2) are experiencing growth in veteran populations. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants to state or county veterans agencies for state and local outreach services.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2009-01-06 00:00:00

Military Success in Iraq and Diplomatic Surge for National and Political Reconciliation in Iraq Act of 2009 - Makes specified declarations of policy, including that: (1) the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (the Iraq Resolution) is the sole basis of authority under which the President launched the invasion of Iraq in 2003; (2) Congress authorized the use of such force to defend U.S. national security and to enforce all relevant United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and (3) Congress has the ultimate authority to determine whether such objectives have been achieved. Repeals the Iraq Resolution. Requires the withdrawal, by the earlier of October 1, 2009, or 90 days after the enactment of this Act, of all units and members of U.S. Armed Forces deployed in Iraq, as well as all security forces under federal contract and working in Iraq. Provides exceptions. States as the policy of the United States to pursue regional and international initiatives to assist Iraq in achieving certain security, political, and economic milestones. Sets forth presidential actions to implement such policy.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-06 00:00:00

Disabled Veterans Commissary and Exchange Store Benefits Act - Permits a veteran with any compensable service-connected disability (and the veteran's dependents) to use commissary and exchange stores on the same basis as a member of the Armed Forces entitled to retired or retainer pay.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-06 00:00:00

Veterans Entrepreneurial Transition Business Benefit Act - Allows a veteran who is eligible to receive financial educational assistance under the Montgomery GI Bill to elect to use (with the approval of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs) any such assistance to establish and operate a business that the veteran will own and operate as his or her primary source of income.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2009-01-06 00:00:00

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to establish in the Treasury the Homeless Veterans Assistance Fund and to allow individual taxpayers to designate on their tax returns $3.00 of income taxes ($6.00 in the case of joint returns) to be paid over to such Fund to provide assistance to homeless veterans.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-06 00:00:00

Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a national cemetery in El Paso County, Colorado. Requires a report from the Secretary to Congress on such establishment.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-06 00:00:00

National Guardsmen and Reservists Parity for Patriots Act - Amends the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 to back-date to September 11, 2001, the period of active duty or performed active service, in support of a contingency operation or in other emergency situations, for which members of Ready Reserve components of the armed forces shall receive credit in determining eligibility for early receipt of non-regular service retired pay.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-07 00:00:00

Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish and carry out a scholarship program of financial assistance for individuals who: (1) are accepted for, or currently enrolled in, a program of study leading to a degree or certificate in visual impairment or orientation and mobility, or both; and (2) enter into an agreement to serve, after program completion, as a full-time Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employee for three years within the first six years after program completion. Sets maximum assistance amounts of $15,000 per academic year and $45,000 total. Requires pro rate repayment for failure to satisfy education or service requirements, while allowing the Secretary to waive or suspend such repayment whenever noncompliance is due to circumstances beyond the control of the participant, or when waiver or suspension is in the best interests of the United States.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-07 00:00:00

Authorizes a military chaplain, if called upon to lead a prayer outside of a religious service, to close the prayer according to the dictates of the chaplain's conscience.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-08 00:00:00

Veteran-Owned Small Business Promotion Act of 2009 - Reinstates (under current law, terminated as of the end of FY1986) the veteran-owned small business loan program, under which the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may provide loans to veteran-owned small businesses for: (1) financing plant construction, conversion, or expansion; (2) financing the acquisition of equipment, facilities, machinery, supplies, or materials; or (3) supplying working capital. Makes eligible for such loans small business owners who are veterans and have a disability rated at 10% (under current law, 30%) or more, and includes all veterans (under current law, limited to Vietnam era veterans and veterans discharged or released due to a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty). Repeals the authority to make direct loans under the program (thereby allowing only loan guaranties). Increases from $200,000 to $500,000 the maximum loan guaranty amount. Authorizes the Secretary to subsidize a loan lender in order to reduce by up to 1/2% the interest rate paid by the veteran-owned small business. Includes under a loan preference members of the National Guard and reserves activated in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Limits performance bond requirements of veteran-owned small businesses with respect to the construction, alteration, or repair of any Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) public building or public work. Treats a small business owned and controlled by veterans as a socially and economically disadvantaged small business for purposes of contracts awarded to the latter businesses under provisions of the Small Business Act.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-08 00:00:00

More Training for Veterans Act of 2009 - Amends the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 to authorize appropriations for veterans' workforce investment programs.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-08 00:00:00

Armed Forces Disability Retirement Enhancement Act - Adds new federal provisions concerning the retirement for disability of members of the Armed Forces (members) retiring one year or more after the enactment of this Act. Allows members who retire on or after October 7, 2001, but before the one-year period after the enactment of this Act, as well as members on the temporary retired list up to such date, to elect to retire under the new provisions in lieu of the current provisions. Makes such elections irrevocable. Authorizes the Secretary of the military department concerned, under the new provisions, to retire a member if: (1) the disability is of a permanent nature, or of uncertain permanency such that a temporary disability retirement is appropriate; (2) the injury, illness, or disease rendering the member unfit was incurred or aggravated in the line of duty; and (3) such injury, illness, or disease was not the result of intentional misconduct or willful neglect, or incurred during an unauthorized absence. Outlines provisions concerning: (1) qualifications for placement on the temporary disability retired list; and (2) determinations of unfitness for duty for disability retirement purposes. Authorizes the Secretary of Defense to continue after discharge or separation from active duty respite care and aid and other extended care benefits for members who incur a serious injury or illness while serving on such duty. Provides for expanded availability and use by separating members (and their dependents) of Department of Labor transition assistance programs.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-08 00:00:00

Veteran Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Subsistence Allowance Improvement Act of 2009 - Increases the amount of monthly subsistence allowance payable to veterans participating in the veterans' vocational rehabilitation program (a program of training and rehabilitation for veterans with service-connected disabilities). Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, in the case of a veteran who has reached a point of employability and is participating only in a program of employment services, to pay such veteran a subsistence allowance for three months while the veteran is satisfactorily pursuing such program.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-08 00:00:00

Retired Pay Restoration Act - Expresses the sense of Congress that military retired pay should not be reduced because a military retiree is also eligible for veterans' disability compensation awarded for a service-connected disability. Allows the receipt of both military retired pay and veterans' disability compensation with respect to any service-connected disability (under current law, only a disability rated at 50% or more). Repeals provisions phasing in the full concurrent receipt of such pay through December 31, 2013. Makes eligible for the full concurrent receipt of both veterans' disability compensation and either military retired pay or combat-related special pay those individuals who were retired or separated from military service due to a service-connected disability.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-08 00:00:00

Disabled Veterans Tax Termination Act - Amends federal military retired pay provisions to: (1) permit veterans with a service-connected disability of less than 50% to concurrently receive both retired pay and disability compensation; (2) eliminate provisions requiring a phase in between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2013, of concurrent receipt of retired pay and disability compensation; (3) eliminate the four-year phase-in of concurrent receipt of retired pay and disability compensation for disabled veterans determined to be individually unemployable; and (4) require a limited reduction in retired pay for combat-related disability retirees with less than 20 years of retirement-creditable service.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2009-01-08 00:00:00

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to suspend the limitation period for filing refund claims for overpayments of tax for any veteran whose overpayment relates to a determination by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs that such veteran was entitled to service-connected disability compensation. Provides that the suspension period begins on the date a veteran submits a claim for compensation and ends on the date the Secretary makes a determination. Permits a veteran to file a refund claim for overpayment of tax (relating to benefit determinations made by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs after 1995) even if the claim is barred by law, if the claim is filed before the end of one year after enactment of this Act.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-09 00:00:00

Authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, subject to the availability of appropriations, to increase by up to $1,000 a month the rate of the Medal of Honor special pension.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-09 00:00:00

Samuel B. Moody Bataan Death March Compensation Act - Directs the Secretary of the military department concerned to pay certain compensation to individuals (or their survivors) who, as members of the Armed Forces during World War II: (1) were captured on the peninsula of Bataan or the island of Corregidor in the Philippines by Japanese forces; and (2) participated in and survived the Bataan Death March. Allows a survivor payment to be made to the nearest surviving relative of such individual.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2009-01-09 00:00:00

Veterans' Heritage Firearms Act of 2009 - Provides a 90-day amnesty period during which veterans and their family members can register in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record any firearm acquired before October 31, 1968, by a veteran while a member of the Armed Forces stationed outside the continental United States. Grants such an individual limited immunity under the federal criminal code and the Internal Revenue Code with respect to the acquisition, possession, transportation, or alteration of such firearm before or concurrent with such registration. Extends such immunity to a veteran who attempts to register a qualifying firearm outside of the amnesty period if the veteran surrenders the firearm within 30 days after being notified of potential criminal liability for continued possession.Requires the Attorney General to: (1) transfer each firearm qualifying as a curio or relic which has been forfeited to the United States to the first qualified museum that requests it; and (2) publish information identifying each such firearm which is available to be transferred to a museum. Prohibits the Attorney General from destroying any such firearm which has been forfeited until five years after the forfeiture. Requires that any firearm transferred to a qualified museum be registered to the transferee.Makes a prohibition against transfer or possession of a machine-gun inapplicable to a transfer to or by, or possession by, a museum which is open to the public and incorporated as a not-for-profit corporation under applicable state law.
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-09 00:00:00

Health Care for America's Heroes Act - Makes eligible for health care under the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) patient enrollment system veterans with incomes not exceeding 200% of the maximum for treatment as a low-income family. (Currently, only veterans with incomes not exceeding the maximum for treatment as a low-income family are so eligible.)
Topic: Defense — Personnel Issues
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2009-01-13 00:00:00

Wounded Veteran Job Security Act - Entitles a person who is absent from employment by reason of the receipt of medical treatment for a service-connected disability (absent employee) to: (1) be retained by the person's employer; (2) the seniority and other rights and benefits determined by seniority that the person had on the commencement of such treatment plus the additional seniority and rights and benefits that the person would have attained if the person had remained continuously employed; and (3) be considered on furlough or leave of absence during such treatment and therefore entitled to other rights and benefits not determined by seniority as are other persons of similar seniority, status, and pay who are on furlough or leave of absence. Terminates such entitlement when a person knowingly provides written notice of the intent not to return to such position following treatment. Allows the absent employee to use any vacation, annual, medical, or similar leave with pay accrued before the commencement of the treatment. Provides that an employer shall not be required to comply with the requirements of this Act if: (1) the employer's circumstances have so changed as to make such compliance impossible or unreasonable; (2) such compliance would pose an undue hardship on the employer; or (3) the employment in question is for a brief, nonrecurring period without a reasonable expectation of continuing indefinitely or for a significant period. Applies health insurance continuation requirements to absences from employment described in this Act. Prohibits any employer discrimination or acts of reprisal against an absent employee.