lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2009-03-18 00:00:00

Common Sense English Act - Amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to declare that, notwithstanding any other equal employment opportunity provisions of the Act, it is not an unlawful employment practice for an employer to require employees to speak English while engaged in work.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2009-12-10 00:00:00

Put America to Work Act of 2009 - Directs the Secretary of Labor to make grants to states, local government units, and Indian tribes to create employment opportunities for unemployed and underemployed residents of distressed communities. Specifies grant uses, including funding of fast-track jobs for: (1) painting and repair of schools, community centers, and libraries; (2) restoration of abandoned and vacant properties; (3) expansion of emergency food programs to reduce hunger; (4) augmentation of staffing in Head Start and other early childhood education programs; and (5) renovation and maintenance of parks, playgrounds, and other public spaces. Requires grant recipients to use remaining grant funds to make grants to public entities, nonprofit organizations, public-private partnerships, or small businesses to create employment opportunities in: (1) construction, rehabilitation, and improvements in energy efficiency of residences or public facilities; (2) the provision of human services; (3) remediation and demolition of vacant and abandoned properties; and (4) programs that provide opportunities for employment, education, and training for disadvantaged youth.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2009-12-10 00:00:00

Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2009 - Amends the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) to revise requirements and reauthorize appropriations for: (1) WIA title I, workforce investment systems for job training and employment services; and (2) WIA title II, adult education and family literacy education programs. Revises and reauthorizes workforce investment systems with respect to: (1) state and local planning, allocation, work force investment board membership, and performance accountability; (2) one-stop centers; (3) consolidated funding for adult program activities, including job training, dislocated worker retraining, the employment service system, and reemployment grants; (4) training programs for both out-of-school and in-school youth, including challenge grants; and (5) national job training programs, including the Job Corps and programs for Native Americans, migrant and seasonal farmworkers, and veterans. Requires the Employment and Training Administration of the Department of Labor to be the principal agency to administer WIA title I workforce investment systems for job training and employment services and title III (Job Corps). Exempts religious organizations, with respect to their employment of individuals of a particular religion, from WIA nondiscrimination requirements. Prescribes requirements for the approval of state Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) plans for the carrying out of certain workforce development activities. Repeals Wagner-Peyser Act provisions relating to the U.S. Employment Service. Directs the Secretary of Labor to oversee the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of a nationwide workforce and labor market information system. Revises requirements and reauthorizes appropriations for: (1) vocational rehabilitation services under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; and (2) the Helen Keller National Center Act.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2009-12-11 00:00:00

New Deal for a New Economy Act - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury, from unobligated funds under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA), to make specified sums available for FY2010-FY2012 to the Secretary of Education, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Secretaries of Commerce, Labor, the Interior, and Agriculture. Requires: (1) the Secretary of Education to allocate, and each eligible local educational agency in the state to receive, funds in proportion to amounts received under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965; and (2) a state to make and distribute the amount allocated to it within 90 days of receipt. Authorizes the use of funds to hire new employees, rehire employees laid off during the year prior to enactment, continue to employ employees scheduled to be laid off as a result of reduced budgets, and prevent furloughs scheduled as a result of reduced budgets. Directs: (1) the Attorney General to award grants to state, local, or tribal law enforcement agencies through the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to hire, rehire, continue to employ, and prevent furloughs of police officers; (2) the Secretary of DHS, through the Administrator of the United States Fire Administration, to award grants through the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program to hire, rehire, continue to employ, and prevent furloughs of firefighters; (3) the Secretary of Commerce to award grants to states, cities or other political subdivisions or a consortium of such subdivisions, or Indian tribes, to assist in maintaining basic government services; and (4) the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to fund specific public works projects in national parks and through the National Forest Service, respectively. Establishes in the Department of Labor a New Economy Grant Program, to provide grants for the creation of new jobs on specific public works projects. Limits funding under this Act's Departments of Labor, the Interior, and Agriculture programs to individuals who meet specified criteria. Bars displacement of existing employees. Sets forth requirements regarding the use of funds, the maximum employment period, wages, reporting, and expedited administration.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2010-04-22 00:00:00

Employee Misclassification Prevention Act - Amends the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) to require every person to: (1) keep records of non-employees (contractors) who perform labor or services (except substitute work), including through an entity such as a trust, estate, partnership, association, company, or corporation, for remuneration; and (2) provide certain notice to each new employee and new non-employee, including classification as an employee or non-employee and information concerning their rights under the law. Makes it unlawful for any person to: (1) discharge or otherwise discriminate against an individual (including an employee) who has opposed any practice, or filed a complaint or instituted any proceeding related to this Act, including with respect to an individual's status as an employee or non-employee; and (2) fail to classify accurately an employee or non-employee. Doubles the amount of liquidated damages for maximum hours, minimum wage, and notice of classification violations by an employer. Subjects a person who: (1) violates such requirements (including recordkeeping requirements) to a civil penalty of up to $1,100; or (2) repeatedly or willfully violates such requirements to a civil penalty of up to $5,000 for each violation. Directs the Secretary of Labor to establish a webpage on the Department of Labor website that summarizes the rights of employees under this Act and other appropriate information. Amends the Social Security Act to require, as a condition for a federal grant for the administration of state unemployment compensation, for the state's unemployment compensation law to include a provision for: (1) auditing programs that identify employers that have not registered under the state law or that are paying unreported compensation where the effect is to exclude employees from unemployment compensation coverage; and (2) establishing administrative penalties for misclassifying employees or paying unreported unemployment compensation to employees. Requires any office, administration, or division of the Department of Labor to report any misclassification of an employee by a person subject to the FLSA that it discovers to the Department's Wage and Hour Division (WHD). Authorizes the WHD to report such information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2010-09-22 00:00:00

Exempts an H-2B visa (temporary nonagricultural worker) alien coming to work in the United States in the mobile amusement industry from fiscal year numerical limitations under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Health
Date: 2010-09-29 00:00:00

Prematurity Research Expansion and Education for Mothers who deliver Infants Early Act or the PREEMIE Act - Amends the Public Health Service Act to: (1) require the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), acting through the Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to expand, intensify, and coordinate the activities of NIH with respect to research on the causes and prevention of preterm labor and delivery and the care and treatment of preterm infants; (2) establish within NIH a multicenter clinical program and trans-disciplinary centers for prematurity research; (3) require the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), to conduct research, activities, and studies on preterm birth; and (4) require the CDC to award grants for telemedicine demonstration projects for services for high risk pregnancies. Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish and implement a national science-based consumer education campaign on the prevention of preterm birth; and (2) conduct and report on research studies and demonstration projects for reducing the rate of preterm birth. Requires the Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality of HHS to report annually to the Secretary on a strategic plan for the conduct of preterm birth-related research.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2013-08-02 00:00:00

Accurate Background Check Act of 2013 or the ABC Act of 2013 - Amends the federal judicial code to require the Attorney General (DOJ) to provide procedures to ensure the accuracy and completeness of certain criminal records and information exchanged for employment background checks.

Directs the Attorney General, if a record or information is inaccurate or incomplete, to correct, delete, or amend such information within 10 days after a request is made and prior to releasing the record to the requesting entity. Requires the Attorney General, in such an instance, to also research state and local recordkeeping systems, maintain a disposition document database to be searched along with other federal databases, and notify reporting jurisdictions of any updated information.

Considers a record or information to be incomplete if it indicates that an arrest was made and does not include the disposition of such arrest.

Requires the Attorney General, prior to such an employment background check exchange, to obtain the signed consent of the subject of such information, provide the applicant an opportunity to challenge the record, notify the requesting entity of any such challenge, and complete an investigation of such challenge within 30 days.

Extends the procedures established pursuant to this Act to apply to authorized exchanges for: (1) national security background investigations for employment in federal service, (2) government-wide security standards for forms of identification issued to federal employees and contractors, and (3) government background checks for the issuance of transportation security cards to access the secure areas of shipping vessels and facilities.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2014-06-09 00:00:00

Jobs Investment Act of 2014 - Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to develop and report on recommendations for assigning to depreciable property a class life, classification, or recovery period that more equitably provides for capital cost recovery across all industries without any significant effect on total tax revenue.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2014-09-18 00:00:00

Simplifying Technical Aspects Regarding Seasonality Act of 2014 or the STARS Act - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exempt seasonal employees from the definition of "full-time employee" for purposes of the employer mandate to provide employees with minimum essential health care coverage. Defines "seasonal employee" as an employee who is employed in a position for which the customary annual employment is not more than six months and which requires performing labor or services that are ordinarily performed at certain seasons or periods of the year.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-05-20 00:00:00

Independent Contractor Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2015 

 Amends the Internal Revenue Code to set forth criteria for classifying a worker as an employee or an independent contractor.

Prohibits: (1) any retroactive assessment of employment tax, except with respect to certain skilled workers, for tax periods after December 31, 1978, unless the employer had no reasonable basis for not treating a worker as an employee, and (2) the issuance, after the enactment of this Act, of Treasury regulations with respect to the employment status of any individual for purposes of the employment tax.

Establishes safe harbor provisions upon which a service recipient or payor may rely in classifying a service provider as an independent contractor rather than as an employee where the service provider: (1) incurs significant financial responsibility for providing and maintaining equipment and facilities to perform work under a contract; (2) incurs unreimbursed expenses or risks income fluctuations because remuneration is directly related to sales or other output rather than solely to the number of hours actually worked or expenses incurred; (3) is compensated on factors related to the work performed and not solely on the basis of hours or time expended; and (4) substantially controls the means and manner of performing the contract services, the specifications of the service recipient or payor, and any additional contractual requirements.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

Voluntary Protection Program Act

This bill provides statutory authority for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) voluntary protection program, under which management, labor, and OSHA establish cooperative relationships at workplaces that have implemented a comprehensive safety and health management system.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Social welfare
Date: 2016-04-18 00:00:00

Protection of Social Security Benefits Restoration Act

This bill amends title II (Old Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance) of the Social Security Act to prohibit the application of, and repeal authority for, administrative offsets to Social Security, railroad retirement, and black lung benefits.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-06-08 00:00:00

Layoff Prevention Extension Act of 2016

 This bill amends the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 with respect to state short-time compensation programs that allow employers to reduce the workweek of their employees in lieu of layoffs. The bill: (1) extends federal financing of the programs for an additional two years; and (2) extends through December 31, 2016, the deadline for a state to submit to the Department of Labor its application for a short-time compensation program grant.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2015-04-14 00:00:00

America Star Act 

This bill directs the Secretary of Labor to establish within the Department of Labor a voluntary America Star program under which the Secretary annually shall designate certain companies, based on specified performance categories, as America Star companies for their support for the U.S. workforce.

Companies are ineligible to participate in the program if they commit serious, repeated, or willful violations of specified federal labor law.

The Secretary shall: (1) market the America Star program annually to the public through the Department's website, and (2) design a label for designated America Star companies to use by displaying it next to the company's logo.

The Federal Trade Commission shall treat as an unfair or deceptive practice the use of a label by a company not designated as an America Star company in violation with the requirements of this Act.
Topic: Labor — General
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-03-17 00:00:00

Protecting Workplace Advancement and Opportunity Act

This bill declares that the proposed or the final rule of the Department of Labor entitled "Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees" shall cease to have any force or effect. The rule revises the "white collar" exemption of executive, administrative, professional, outside sales, and computer employees from minimum wage and maximum hour, or overtime, requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA).

If the proposed rule is a final rule on the date of enactment of this bill:

 Labor shall not enforce it based on conduct occurring before that enactment date, an employee shall not have any right of action against an employer for the employer's failure to comply with the final rule at any time before that enactment date, any regulations that were amended by the final rule shall be restored and revived as if the final rule had never taken effect, and nothing in this bill shall be construed to create a right of action for an employer against an employee for the recoupment of any payments made to the employee before the enactment of this bill that were in compliance with that final rule. Labor may promulgate any substantially similar rule only if it has completed certain required actions; but the rule shall not contain any automatic updates to the salary threshold for purposes of exemptions to minimum wage and maximum hour requirements under the FLSA.

The requirement that definitions applicable for such exemptions be defined and delimited from time to time by Labor regulations shall be construed to:

 require Labor to issue a new rule through notice and comment rulemaking for each change in any salary threshold it has proposed; and exclude any rule that would result in changes to any salary threshold for multiple time periods, including through any automatic updating procedure. Labor may not promulgate any final rule that includes any revision to duties tests for exemption from minimum wage and maximum hours requirements unless specific regulatory text for the provision was proposed in the proposed rule.
Topic: Energy — Other
Date: 2008-09-25 00:00:00

Directs the Secretary of Energy to establish a Pulp and Paper Energy Security Task Force to: (1) identify the energy needs of the forest product industry and similar manufacturing operations, and programs and services provided by the federal and state governments, as well as nongovernment organizations, that may serve to lower energy costs; and (2) assess the extent to which such programs and services serve those needs. Requires the Task Force to make recommendations to the Secretary on: (1) how to more effectively serve such needs; (2) how to promote recommended new programs and services; (3) creation of a permanent advisory board and establishment of an Internet website to receive and dispense relevant information and resources; and (4) development of additional education materials and programs. Requires the Task Force to organize and distribute existing materials that inform and educate with respect to such energy needs of the forest product industry and similar manufacturing operations.
Topic: Energy — Other
Subject: Energy
Date: 2009-01-07 00:00:00

LIHEAP Equity Act of 2009 - Amends the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981 governing state allotments under the low-income energy assistance program (LIHEAP) to limit to 50% the earmark for home heating purposes of amounts appropriated for program implementation.
Topic: Energy — Other
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2009-11-16 00:00:00

Directs the Secretary of Energy to establish a program for paying certain affected participants a one-time lump sum payment. Defines affected participants as persons who retired from active employment at one of the gaseous diffusion plants of the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), or are employed by USEC's operating contractor, on or before its privatization date as vested participants in a pension plan maintained either by USEC's operating contractor or by a contractor employed prior to July 1, 1993, by the Department of Energy to operate a gaseous diffusion plant. Prescribes a formula for the determination of such payments, based on the total recoverable amount of accrued pension benefits.
Topic: Energy — Other
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2009-05-18 00:00:00

USEC Privatization Amendments Act of 2009 - Directs the Secretary of Energy to establish a program for paying certain affected participants a one-time lump sum payment. Defines affected participants as persons who retired from active employment at one of the gaseous diffusion plants of the United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC), or are employed by USEC's operating contractor, on or before its privatization date as vested participants in a pension plan maintained either by USEC's operating contractor or by a contractor employed prior to July 1, 1993, by the Department of Energy to operate a gaseous diffusion plant. Prescribes a formula for the determination of such payments, based on the total recoverable amount of accrued pension benefits. Authorizes any affected participant who receives such a payment to make one or more rollover contributions up to the payment amount to a regular (non-Roth) individual retirement account (IRA), which shall be excluded from gross income for tax purposes under the Internal Revenue Code. Includes in gross income any such rollover into a Roth IRA.
Topic: Energy — Other
Subject: Economics and public finance
Date: 2010-03-03 00:00:00

American Renewable Energy Jobs Act - Amends the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to change from a requirement to discretionary the authority of the Secretary of the Treasury to make a grant in lieu of tax credits to each person who places in service specified energy property. Subjects any such grants to Buy American requirements without regard to whether the specified energy property involves a public building or public work. Prohibits the Secretary from making any grant payment unless the Secretary analyzes and takes into consideration domestic job preservation and creation provided by a specified energy property, including domestic job preservation and creation related to: (1) production of equipment for the property; (2) installation of equipment for the property; and (3) operation of the property. Requires submission of a copy of such analysis to specified congressional committees.
Topic: Energy — Other
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2012-09-19 00:00:00

Amends the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to revise the Federal Permit Streamlining Pilot Project offices to: (1) specify Field Office for each of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Offices designated; and (2) replace the Miles City, Montana, field office with the Montana/Dakotas State Office, Montana (Billings).