lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-02-10 00:00:00

Ensuring Access to Clean Water Act of 2014 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to direct the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or a state exercising primary enforcement responsibility for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit programs to carry out a state chemical storage facility source water protection program.

Requires such a program to provide for oversight and inspection of each covered chemical storage facility in accordance with minimum requirements, described in this Act, to prevent the release of chemicals into a navigable water that is designated for use as a domestic water source. Defines "covered chemical storage facility" as a facility at which a chemical is stored and from which a release is determined to pose a risk of harm to such source.

Prohibits this Act from precluding or denying the right of any state to adopt or enforce standards for the oversight and inspection of covered chemical storage facilities that are more stringent than this Act's minimum requirements.

Requires the Administrator to report on a survey of states' best practices in oversight and inspection programs and applicable regulations implementing the programs.

Authorizes the issuance of orders by the Administrator to carry out this Act.

Authorizes an owner or operator of a public water system to commence, or to petition the Administrator to commence, a civil action for equitable relief to address possible imminent and substantial endangerment to the health of persons supplied by the water system. Provides a special rule to expedite the Administrator's response to a petition in emergency situations.

Sets forth requirements concerning: (1) liability of a facility owner or operator for costs of response actions, (2) pre-transfer inspections of facilities, and (3) information for operators of domestic water systems on navigable waters regarding emergency response plans and chemical inventories.

Establishes a civil penalty of up to $15,000 for each day in which an owner or operator of a covered facility violates this Act.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-02-27 00:00:00

Community Water Enhancement Act of 2014 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in making grants under the pilot program for alternative water source projects to meet critical water supply needs, to consider the location and benefits of projects in rural communities (including whether the area is served by a public water system with fewer than 3,000 connections or is located in an area with no public water system).

Includes among such projects: (1) the conjunctive management of groundwater supplies by delivery of surface water instead of groundwater, and (2) water treatment or distribution facilities if the project requires such facilities to deliver the alternative water supply. Authorizes funding for the program through FY2018.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2014-03-12 00:00:00

Replaces the map included in the set of maps entitled "Coastal Barrier Resources System" (referred to in specified provisions of the Coastal Barrier Resources Act and relating to Indian Peninsula Unit FL-92 and Cape San Blas Unit P-30 in Florida) with another map relating to the same unit entitled "John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System Corrected Indian Peninsula Unit FL-92 and Cape San Blas Unit P-30" of a date to be specified.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2014-03-13 00:00:00

Sustainable Water Infrastructure Investment Act of 2014 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to exempt from state volume caps private facility bonds for sewage and water supply facilities.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2014-03-14 00:00:00

Amends the Reclamation Wastewater and Groundwater Study and Facilities Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to participate in the design, planning, and construction of, and land acquisition for, a project to reclaim and reuse wastewater in Sacramento County, California.

Requires the project to consist of three phases, the first of which shall include the planning, design, and construction of water conveyance and related infrastructure to provide recycled water to irrigate approximately 4,500 acres of land in southern Sacramento County.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2014-05-01 00:00:00

Forest Legacy Management Flexibility Act - Amends the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978 to authorize states to allow certain entities to acquire, hold, and manage conservation easements under the forest legacy program.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2014-05-20 00:00:00

Directs the Secretary of the Interior to revise maps of the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System to remove from Texas System Unit P-15 the area known as the Preserve at Mustang Island (also known as Tortuga Dunes on Mustang Island) in Nueces County, Texas.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2014-05-20 00:00:00

Coastal Communities Ocean Acidification Act of 2014 - Amends the Federal Ocean Acidification Research And Monitoring Act of 2009 to expand the ocean acidification program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to include an ongoing mechanism that allows affected industry members, coastal stakeholders, non-federal resource managers, and outside scientific experts to provide input on research, data, and monitoring needs that are necessary to support on-the-ground management, decisionmaking, and adaptation related to ocean acidification and its impacts.

Directs the Secretary of Commerce, acting through NOAA, to conduct and update at least once every five years an ocean acidification coastal community vulnerability assessment with a corresponding public report. Requires such assessment to identify: (1) U.S. coastal communities, including island communities, low-population rural communities, and subsistence communities, that are most dependent on coastal and ocean resources that may be impacted by ocean acidification; (2) the nature of those communities' social and economic vulnerabilities; (3) impacts from changes in ocean and coastal marine resources that are not managed by the federal government; and (4) key knowledge gaps where research could be devoted to better understand the possible ocean acidification impacts, risks, threats, and possible adaptation strategies for such vulnerable communities.

Requires the strategic plan for federal research and monitoring on ocean acidification developed by the Joint Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology of the National Science and Technology Council to make recommendations for research that should be conducted, including in the social sciences and economics, to address the key knowledge gaps identified in the community vulnerability assessment report.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Science, technology, communications
Date: 2014-05-22 00:00:00

Ocean Acidification Innovation Act of 2014 - Amends the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act of 2009 to authorize any federal agency with a representative serving on the Interagency Working Group on Ocean Acidification, either individually or in cooperation with other agencies, to carry out a program to award prizes competitively under the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation Act of 1980 for the purpose of stimulating innovation to advance the nation's ability to understand, research, or monitor ocean acidification or its impacts or to develop management or adaptation options for responding to ocean acidification.

Grants priority to establishing programs that address communities, environments, or industries that are in distress due to the impacts of ocean acidification.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-05-22 00:00:00

Impaired Waters Improvement Act - Authorizes the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make grants to reduce the discharges of nitrogen, phosphorus, or sediment (pollutants) in an area that is subject to a total maximum daily load (TMDL) for those pollutants under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act). Makes eligible for grants the owners and operators of: (1) publicly owned treatment works or storm water management practices serving areas subject to the TMDLs, or (2) privately owned farms implementing methods to reduce discharges of those pollutants in those areas.

Directs the Administrator to increase by 5% the civil penalty for violations of the Clean Water Act. Establishes the Impaired Waters Improvement Fund for making expenditures to carry out the grant program. Transfers for each of FY2015-FY2019 the amount attributable to the penalty increase or $100 million, whichever is less, to the Fund.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-06-12 00:00:00

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

Regulatory Certainty Act of 2014 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to limit the period during which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may prohibit the specification, or restrict the use, of an area as a disposal site for discharges of dredged or fill materials into waters of the United States to the period that:

 begins on the date that the Army Corps of Engineers provides notice to the EPA that the Corps has completed all procedures for processing an application for a permit for dredged or fill material and is ready to determine whether the permit should be issued; and ends on the date that the Corps issues the permit. Requires the Corps to ensure that the period consists of at least 30 consecutive days.

Authorizes the Corps to issue a permit for dredged or fill material only after the Corps provides notice to the EPA.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Health
Date: 2014-06-18 00:00:00

Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2014 - Amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to prohibit, beginning January 1, 2018, the distribution of a cosmetic that contains synthetic plastic microbeads.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2014-06-19 00:00:00

Advancing Conservation and Education Act of 2014 - Allows Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, or Wyoming (western states) to relinquish state land grant parcels wholly or primarily within federal conservation areas and to select, in exchange, unappropriated public land within the state. Defines "federal conservation areas" as lands within the outer boundaries of units of the National Park, National Wilderness Preservation, National Wildlife Refuge, or National Landscape Conservation Systems and certain designated lands within the National Forest System.

Directs the Secretary of the Interior to create a process for the relinquishment of such parcels.

Allows a western state to select, and the Secretary to convey, lands that are mineral in character.

Requires the overall value of the state land grant parcels and the unappropriated public land to be conveyed to be equal.

Sets forth requirements regarding records of hazardous materials on land conveyed, water rights, and grazing permits.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-07-10 00:00:00

Agricultural Conservation Flexibility Act of 2014 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw the interpretive rule issued on March 25, 2014, entitled, "U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of the Army Interpretive Rule Regarding the Applicability of the Clean Water Act Section 404(f)(1)(A)."

Prohibits the Corps and the EPA from using the interpretive rule, or any substantially similar rule or guidance, as the basis for any rulemaking, decision, or action regarding the scope or enforcement of the Clean Water Act. Provides that the use of rule or a substantially similar rule or guidance as the basis for any rule, decision, or action is grounds for vacating the rule, decision, or action.

Requires soil and water conservation practices to be treated as normal farming, silviculture, and ranching activities under permits for non-prohibited discharges of dredged or fill material. Prohibits such practices from being treated as a new use of an area of navigable waters, an impairment of the flow or circulation of navigable waters, or a reduction in the reach of such waters under those permits.

Applies this Act to activities occurring on or after March 25, 2014.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-07-11 00:00:00

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



Waters of the United States Regulatory Overreach Protection Act of 2014 - Prohibits the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from:

 developing, finalizing, adopting, implementing, applying, administering, or enforcing the proposed rule entitled, "Definition of 'Waters of the United States' Under the Clean Water Act," issued on April 21, 2014, or the proposed guidance entitled, "Guidance on Identifying Waters Protected By the Clean Water Act," dated February 17, 2012; or using the proposed rule or proposed guidance, any successor document, or any substantially similar proposed rule or guidance as the basis for any rulemaking or decision regarding the scope or enforcement of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act). Requires the Army Corps and the EPA to withdraw the interpretive rule entitled, "Notice of Availability Regarding the Exemption from Permitting Under Section 404(f)(1)(A) of the Clean Water Act to Certain Agricultural Conservation Practices," issued on April 21, 2014.

Requires the Army Corps and the EPA to: (1) consult with relevant state and local officials to develop recommendations for a regulatory proposal that would identify the scope of waters covered under the Clean Water Act and the scope of waters not covered; (2) provide for the public review and comment of a draft report that includes a recommendation only if consensus has been reached with regard to the recommendation among the Army Corps, the EPA, and state and local officials; (3) publish a final report; and (4) report to Congress on the recommendations.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-07-15 00:00:00

Estuary Urgent Needs Priority Program Act - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to revise the National Estuary Program by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make competitive awards to address urgent and challenging issues that threaten the economic and ecological well-being of coastal areas, including extensive seagrass habitat losses, recurring harmful algae blooms, unusual marine mammal mortalities, invasive exotic species, and jellyfish proliferation limiting community access to water during peak tourism seasons.

Requires the EPA to give priority to national estuary programs that are not part of the Geographic Programs as described in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2014-07-17 00:00:00

Smart Water Management Conservation and Efficiency Act of 2014 - Directs the Secretary of Energy (DOE) to establish and carry out a smart water management pilot program to award grants to three to five eligible entities (authorities that provide drinking water, wastewater treatment, or water reuse services) to demonstrate and deploy novel and innovative technology-based solutions that will: (1) increase the energy and water efficiency of drinking water, wastewater treatment, and water reuse systems; (2) improve such systems to help communities make significant progress in conserving water, saving energy, and reducing costs; and (3) support the implementation of innovative processes and the installation of advanced automated systems that provide real-time data on energy and water.

Directs the Secretary, in selecting grant recipient, to consider:

 energy and cost savings; the novelty of the technology to be used; the degree to which the project integrates next-generation sensors, software, analytics, and management tools; the anticipated cost-effectiveness of the pilot project in terms of energy efficiency savings, water savings or reuse, and infrastructure costs averted; whether the technology can be deployed in a variety of geographic regions and the degree to which the technology can be implemented on a smaller or larger scale; and whether the project will be completed in five years or less. Requires the Secretary to evaluate, annually, each project for which a grant is provided and make best practices identified available to the public.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-07-17 00:00:00

WaterSense Efficiency, Conservation, and Adaptation Act of 2014 - Establishes within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a WaterSense program to identify and promote water efficient products, buildings, landscapes, facilities, processes, and services so as to:

 reduce water use; reduce the strain on water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure; conserve energy used to pump, heat, transport, and treat water; and preserve water resources through the voluntary labeling of, or other forms of communications about, products, buildings, landscapes, facilities, processes, and services that meet the highest water efficiency and performance criteria. Requires the Administrator of EPA to identify other voluntary approaches to encourage recycling and reuse technologies to improve water efficiency or lower water use and to implement those approaches, if appropriate.

Establishes a State Residential Water Efficiency and Conservation Incentives Program to provide financial incentives for consumers to purchase and install products, buildings, landscapes, facilities, processes, and services labeled under the WaterSense program.

Requires the Administrator to make grants to owners or operators of water systems to address, mitigate, and adapt to address any ongoing or forecasted impact of climate change on the water quality or quantity of a U.S. region.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-07-28 00:00:00

Columbia River Basin Restoration Act of 2014 - Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a Columbia River Basin Restoration Program to reduce toxic contamination and clean up contaminated sites. Requires the program to be collaborative and stakeholder-based.

Requires the EPA to: (1) assess trends in water quality and toxic contamination or toxics reduction; (2) collect, characterize and assess data on toxics and water quality to identify possible causes of environmental problems; (3) update the Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Plan (Action Plan) and the Estuary Partnership Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (Estuary Plan) and ensure that the plans form a coherent toxic contamination reduction strategy; and (4) provide technical assistance in implementing and updating the Action Plan.

Directs the EPA to establish a Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Working Group to: (1) participate in developing updates to the Action Plan, (2) recommend and prioritize projects and actions for the Action Plan, and (3) review progress made.

Requires the Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership to perform those duties and fulfill those responsibilities of the Working Group relating to the Lower Columbia River Estuary.

Requires the EPA to establish a Columbia River Basin toxics grant program to provide funding to develop or implement projects to implement the Action Plan and the Estuary Plan.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2014-07-28 00:00:00

No More Land Act - Amends the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 to prohibit the Land and Water Conservation Fund from being used for acquisition.

Directs the heads of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, and the National Park Service to reduce the value of backlogged maintenance that exists on lands under the administrative jurisdiction of that agency by at least 20% in five years, with additional decreases in the backlog for subsequent years.

Instructs each agency to publish reports to Congress that document the progress made by reducing the backlogs.

Requires each agency to submit to Congress a report that prioritizes lands owned by the federal government and under the administrative jurisdiction of that agency by order of importance to the success of agency programs.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-07-30 00:00:00

Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to reauthorize and revise the National Estuary Program for FY2014-FY2018.

Requires the Environmental Protection Agency to make competitive awards to address urgent and challenging issues that threaten the economic and ecological well-being of coastal areas, including:

 extensive seagrass habitat losses, recurring harmful algae blooms, unusual marine mammal mortalities, invasive exotic species, jellyfish proliferation limiting community access to water during peak tourism seasons, flooding which may be related to sea level rise or wetland degradation or loss, or low dissolved oxygen conditions in estuarine waters.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2014-07-30 00:00:00

Indian River Lagoon Nutrient Removal Assistance Act of 2014 - Requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish an Indian River Lagoon Nutrient Removal Assistance Grant Program to assist projects related to the protection and restoration of the Indian River Lagoon in Florida.

Directs the EPA to issue regulations regarding grant selection criteria that prioritize projects that: (1) produce the greatest nutrient load reductions, (2) result in the greatest environmental benefits to the Lagoon, and (3) advance the goals and objectives of the comprehensive and management plan for the Indian River Lagoon approved under the National Estuary program of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act).

Requires the EPA to issue regulations to increase by 5% each civil penalty amount established for a violation of the Clean Water Act.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code to establish an Indian River Lagoon Nutrient Removal Assistance Trust Fund for the Program. Requires an amount equal to the increase in civil penalties to be transferred to the Fund.