lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-03-17 00:00:00

Fighting Occupied Cell Use So Everyone Drives More Safely Act of 2015 or the FOCUS Act of 2015

This bill directs the Secretary of Transportation to withhold 25% of a state's apportionment of certain federal-aid highway funds for a fiscal year if the state has not enacted and is not enforcing a law that:

 prohibits an operator of a moving motor vehicle from using a communication device, except in the event of an emergency, if the operator is under age 21, and using a hand-held communication device if that operator is 21 or older; and requires, upon conviction of a violation of such prohibition, the imposition of penalties similar to those for conviction of the offense of driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence. "Communication device" means a mobile telephone or other portable electronic communication device with which a user engages in a call or writes, sends, or reads a message, or plays a game or watches a video.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-03-17 00:00:00

Innovation in Surface Transportation Act of 2015

 Directs the Secretary of Transportation , in coordination with state transportation departments, to establish an innovation in surface transportation program.

Requires states to make competitive grants for innovative surface transportation projects to eligible entities, including local governments, metropolitan planning organizations, regional transportation authorities, transit agencies, tribal governments, private providers of public transportation, nonprofit transportation organizations, port authorities, joint power authorities, and local rail authorities.

Requires each state to establish an innovation in surface transportation selection panel to formulate criteria for selecting projects.

Requires a state to reserve certain percentages of federal funds apportioned for the national highway performance, the highway safety improvement, the congestion mitigation and air quality improvement, surface transportation, and transportation alternatives programs in order to fund related projects under state innovative surface transportation grants.

Authorizes states to reserve a certain percentage of such funds for a fiscal year to meet specific requests for project application support from eligible rural local governments.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-03-19 00:00:00

Drug Free Commercial Driver Act of 2015 

 Revises regulations that require motor carriers to conduct preemployment, reasonable suspicion, random, and post-accident testing of commercial motor vehicle operators for controlled substances or alcohol.

Allows motor carriers to use hair testing as an acceptable alternative to urinalysis for detecting use of controlled substances by an operator, but only for preemployment testing and random testing (but the latter only if the motor carrier tested the operator at preemployment using the same method).

Requires the Secretary of Transportation to develop requirements for laboratories and testing procedures for controlled substances that include mandatory guidelines that establish, among other things, laboratory protocols and cut-off levels for hair testing to detect the use of such substances.

Allows a motor carrier that demonstrates it can carry out a hair testing program consistent with generally accepted industry standards to apply to the Administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for exemption from mandatory urinalysis testing. Requires a motor carrier's testing program, in order to be eligible for such exemption, to employ procedures and protections similar to a fleet that has carried out a hair testing program for at least 12 months.

Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue scientific and technical guidelines for hair testing as a method for detecting the use of controlled substances.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-03-25 00:00:00

National Intersection and Interchange Safety Construction Program Act of 2015

This bill directs the Secretary of Transportation to establish a national intersection and interchange safety construction grant program.

The Secretary may make competitive grants to a state or local government, U.S. territory, tribal government, or metropolitan planning organization for projects that:

 are eligible for federal-aid highway funding, and will improve the safety of certain intersections or interchanges on the National Highway System that are in immediate need of safety improvement. The aggregate grant amount provided to an entity in a fiscal year shall not exceed 5% of the amount available for all grants under the program in that fiscal year.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-03-25 00:00:00

Intermountain West Corridor Development Act of 2015

This bill amends the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 to designate as a high priority corridor on the National Highway System, as part of Interstate Route I-11, the Intermountain West Corridor from the vicinity of Las Vegas, Nevada, extending:

 north along U.S. Route 95, terminating at Interstate Route 80; and south from the vicinity of Wickenburg to Interstate Route 10 and continuing south toward the Tucson vicinity to the Nogales, Arizona, region; and establishing an international trade corridor by employing Interstates in existence on the date of enactment of this Act or new alignments to be determined through appropriate studies.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-03-25 00:00:00

414 Plan Act of 2015

 Declares that federal laws and regulations (including prevailing rate of wage requirements under the Davis-Bacon Act) shall not apply to any federal-aid highway or highway safety construction project, except those relating to: (1) the safety or durability of a highway facility, or (2) public or workplace safety. 

Repeals the prohibition against approval of federal-aid highway projects or regulatory actions that will result in the severance of an existing major route or have significant adverse impact on the safety for nonmotorized transportation traffic and light motorcycles, unless the project or action provides for a reasonable alternative route or such a route exists.

 Defines "transportation alternatives" as any of the following activities when carried out as part of an authorized or funded federal-aid highway program or project, or as an independent program or project related to surface transportation for the construction, planning, and design of: (1) transportation projects to achieve compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; or (2) infrastructure-related projects and systems that will provide safe routes for nondrivers, including children, older adults, and individuals with disabilities to access daily needs. Repeals the authorization for states to use certain funds for construction of pedestrian walkways and bicycle transportation facilities.

Eliminates the requirement that statewide transportation plans and statewide transportation improvement programs provide for the development of accessible pedestrian walkways and bicycle transportation facilities.

Expresses the sense of Congress that states, federal agencies, localities, and private stakeholders should take steps toward increased cooperation to further expedite surface transportation projects.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-03-26 00:00:00

Transportation Funds Exemption Act of 2015

This bill prohibits the Department of Transportation from approving a federal-aid highway project in a state for a fiscal year if in the previous fiscal year state or local sales taxes were collected on covered purchases of construction materials made, in whole or in part, with federal funds.

The term "covered purchase" means:

 a purchase of construction materials used and consumed during the construction of a project or incorporated into the constructed, reconstructed, or improved product or facility; but excludes a purchase of equipment, heavy equipment, mechanized vehicles, and construction materials not fully consumed during the construction of a project.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-04-16 00:00:00

Military Corridor Transportation Improvement Act of 2015

 Amends the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, as amended, to declare as high priority corridors on the National Highway System as well as segments of the Interstate System: (1) U.S. Route 117/Interstate Route 795 from U.S. Route 70 in Goldsboro, Wayne County, North Carolina, to Interstate Route 40 west of Faison, Sampson County, North Carolina; and (2) U.S. Route 70 from its intersection with Interstate Route 40 in Garner, Wake County, North Carolina, to the Port at Morehead City, Carteret County, North Carolina.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-04-16 00:00:00

Bridge to Sustainable Infrastructure Act

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to require an inflation adjustment in calendar years after 2015 to the rates of the excise taxes on petroleum and petroleum products, diesel fuel, alcohol-based fuel, and fuels used in certain buses.

Appropriations are advanced to the Highway Account and the Mass Transit Account in the Highway Trust Fund (HTF) in anticipation of a shortfall in funding in 2015. Such advances must be repaid from the HTF to the general fund of the Treasury.

There is established in the legislative branch the Bipartisan Task Force for Sustainable Highway Funding. The Task Force shall identify and make recommendations addressing factors that affect the long-term fiscal imbalance of the HTF.

The rates of excise taxes on petroleum and diesel fuels are increased to cover an identified three- and five-year shortfall in funding of the HTF in 2017 and each subsequent calendar year through 2024.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-04-16 00:00:00

Stop Motorcycle Checkpoint Funding Act 

 Prohibits the Secretary of Transportation from providing grants or funds to a state, county, town, or township, Indian tribe, municipal, or other local government for use in any program to check helmet usage or create checkpoints for a motorcycle driver or passenger.

Repeals the authority of the Secretary to make grants to states that have a law which makes it unlawful for any individual on an operating motorcycle to be without a motorcycle helmet.

Revises grant eligibility requirements to eliminate the requirement that states achieve a certain rate of compliance with such law.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-04-21 00:00:00

No More Tolls for Roads Act of 2015

Federal authorities are terminated on and after January 1, 2016, for the establishment of a toll facility or the charging of a toll with respect to a federal-aid highway.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-04-28 00:00:00

The Department of Transportation (DOT) may not increase minimum levels of financial responsibility for commercial motor carriers of passengers.

DOT shall study and report to Congress on current federal minimum financial responsibility requirements for such carriers.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-04-30 00:00:00

Distracted Driving Prevention Act of 2015

The Department of Transportation (DOT) shall award distracted driving grants to states that enact and enforce a statute that:

 prohibits a driver from using a hand-held personal wireless communications device (such as a cell phone or smart phone) to call while driving, allows the use of a hands-free device by a driver (other than under age 18) to call, makes violation of the law a primary offense, and establishes certain minimum penalties for first violations and increased penalties for repeat violations. The DOT shall establish a research program to study distracted driving by motor vehicle drivers.

The Federal Communications Commission shall report to Congress on existing and developing wireless communications technology that may be used to reduce problems associated with distracted driving.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-05-01 00:00:00

Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act of 2015

 Authorizes a rental company that receives a notification (approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) from the manufacturer of a covered rental vehicle about any equipment defect, or noncompliance with federal motor vehicle safety standards, to rent or sell the vehicle or equipment only if the defect or noncompliance is remedied.

Specifies any rental vehicle: (1) rated at 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight or less, (2) rented without a driver for an initial term of under 4 months, and (3) that is part of a motor vehicle fleet of 5 or more motor vehicles used for rental purposes by a rental company.

Prescribes a special rule to require rental companies to comply with specified limitations on sale, lease, or rental of a motor vehicle as soon as practicable, but within 24 hours after the earliest receipt of the manufacturer's notification of a defect or noncompliance with vehicle safety standards, whether by electronic means or first class mail. Extends the 24-hour deadline for complying with such limitations to 48 hours if the notification covers more than 5,000 motor vehicles in the rental company's fleet.

Permits a rental company to rent (but not sell or lease) a motor vehicle subject to recall if the defect or noncompliance remedy is not immediately available and the company takes any actions specified in the notice to alter the vehicle temporarily to eliminate the safety risk posed.

Makes these special rules for rental companies inapplicable to junk automobiles.

Prohibits a rental company from knowingly making inoperable any safety devices or elements of design installed on or in a compliant motor vehicle or vehicle equipment unless the company reasonably believes the vehicle or equipment will not be used when the devices or elements are inoperable.

Authorizes the Secretary, upon request, to inspect records of a rental company with respect to a safety investigation. Authorizes the Secretary to require a rental company to keep records or make reports for purposes of compliance with federal motor vehicle safety orders or regulations.

Authorizes the Secretary to study the effectiveness of the amendments made by this Act and of other activities of rental companies.

Amends the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) to require the mandatory study of the safety of rental trucks during a specified seven-year period to evaluate the completion of safety recall remedies on rental trucks.

Directs the Secretary to solicit comments regarding the implementation of this Act from members of the public, including rental companies, consumer organizations, automobile manufacturers, and automobile dealers.

Declares that nothing in this Act shall: (1) be construed to create or increase any liability for a manufacturer who manufactures or imports a motor vehicle that is subject to defect or noncompliance recall requirements; or (2) supersede or otherwise affect the contractual obligations, if any, between such manufacturer and a rental company.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-05-01 00:00:00

Route to Opportunity And Development Act of 2015 or the ROAD Act of 2015

 Amends the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, as amended, to revise the high priority Raleigh-Norfolk Corridor of the National Highway System between Raleigh, North Carolina, and Norfolk, Virginia, to include Rocky Mount, Williamston, and Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-05-19 00:00:00

Buy America Update Act

This bill exempts from Buy America requirements the procurement of railroad rolling stock when:

 the cost of components and subcomponents produced in the United States is more than 60% of the cost of all components of the rolling stock; and final assembly of such rolling stock has occurred in the United States. The Department of Transportation (DOT) shall initiate a rulemaking to develop audit procedures for an agency to review rolling stock offeror and recipient compliance with domestic content requirements, and issue guidance on best practices for pre-award and post-delivery audits by recipients.

Before seeking a Buy America waiver request, Amtrak shall contract with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to conduct a supplier scouting process for domestic suppliers that can provide the compliant products for which a waiver will be sought. DOT must consider Amtrak's scouting report before deciding on the request.

Before issuing the Federal Aviation Administration a waiver of Buy America requirements, DOT shall consult with the NIST and begin a supplier scouting process for domestic suppliers that can provide for compliant aviation products for which a waiver will be sought.

DOT may approve an airport improvement project financed with passenger facility charges only if steel and manufactured goods used in the project are produced in the United States.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The expanded summary of the Senate passed version is repeated here.)

(Sec. 1) The segment of Interstate Route 10 between milepost 535 and milepost 545 at Kendall County, Texas, shall now be the "PFC Milton A. Lee Medal of Honor Memorial Highway."
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

State and Local Predatory Towing Enforcement Act

 Waives federal preemption to allow states to regulate tow truck operations performed without the prior consent or authorization of the owner or operator of the towed motor vehicle.

(Currently, states are allowed to regulate only the price of for-hire motor vehicle transportation by a tow truck, if such transportation is performed without the prior consent or authorization of the owner or operator of the motor vehicle.)
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-06-01 00:00:00

Lucid Act of 2015

Makes eligible for federal-aid highway project grants a state whose law legalizes the possession or use of marijuana with or without medical justification only if that state:

 has in effect a law prohibiting an individual from driving or being in actual physical control of a motor vehicle while impaired by marijuana, and enforces that law using training and methods for determining cognitive or physical marijuana impairment. Exempts those states from specified administrative penalties.

Revises the terms "driving while intoxicated" and "driving under the influence" to accord with this Act. Subjects repeat offenders to minimum civil and criminal penalties for driving a motor vehicle while impaired by marijuana in those states.

Directs the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to:

 study through scientific testing the extent to which marijuana impairs an individual's ability to drive a motor vehicle; and issue a report, and make it available electronically to the public, with recommendations to states on how to prevent marijuana-impaired driving.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-06-02 00:00:00

Roads Not Roses Act 

This bill repeals the authority of the Secretary of Transportation to approve as part of the construction of federal-aid highways the costs of landscape and roadside development.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-06-04 00:00:00

Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act of 2015

 This bill directs the Department of Transportation (DOT) to exempt from certain federal motor vehicle safety and labeling standards up to 500 replica motor vehicles per year manufactured or imported by a low volume manufacturer.

The term "low volume manufacturer" means a motor vehicle manufacturer (other than a person registered as an importer meeting certain requirements) that annually produces no more than 5,000 motor vehicles worldwide.

Manufacturers shall register with DOT to qualify for an exemption.

DOT shall require a manufacturer to affix a permanent label to an exempt replica motor vehicle that identifies the motor vehicle safety and labeling standards from which that vehicle is exempt and the model year the vehicle replicates.

The Clean Air Act is amended to allow a low volume motor vehicle manufacturer to install in an exempted specifically produced replica motor vehicle a motor vehicle engine (including engine emission controls) from a motor vehicle granted a certificate of conformity with Environmental Protection Agency emission control standards, or another kind of engine granted an executive order for the model year in which the motor vehicle is assembled, if certain requirements are met.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-06-09 00:00:00

Safety Through Informed Consumers Act of 2015

 Revises passenger motor vehicle information program requirements.

Directs the Department of Transportation to ensure that passenger motor vehicle crash avoidance information is provided next to, and in the same format as, crashworthiness information at each place that the latter is made available to the public.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-06-11 00:00:00

Highways Bettering the Economy and Environment Pollinator Protection Act

 This bill authorizes as an eligible project cost for the construction of a federal-aid highway the cost of improving habitat and forage for pollinators (i.e., bees, birds, bats, Monarch and other butterflies) on rights-of-way adjacent to such highways.

The Department of Transportation, in conjunction with willing states, shall carry out programs that encourage:

 integrated vegetation management practices on roadsides and other transportation rights-of-way, including reduced mowing; the development of habitat and forage for pollinators through planting of native forbs and grasses, including noninvasive, native milkweed species; research and demonstration projects on economic and environmental benefits and best practices for integrated vegetation management, reduced mowing, and planting of native forbs and grasses for pollinator habitat, forage, and migratory way stations for Monarch butterflies and other migrating pollinators; and participation in such activities by representatives of transportation landscape management, pollinator health, agriculture, horticulture, and other affected communities. Federal funds may be used for the provision of habitat, forage, and migratory way stations for Monarch butterflies, other native pollinators, and honey bees that is related to a federally-funded highway project.
Topic: Transportation — Highways
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-06-23 00:00:00

Sonoran Corridor Interstate Development Act of 2015

This bill amends the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 to designate the State Route 410, the Sonoran Corridor connecting Interstate 19 to Interstate 10 south of the Tucson International Airport in Arizona, as a high priority corridor on the National Highway System and a future part of the Interstate System.