lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-11-17 00:00:00

Farmers Markets for Food Deserts Act of 2016 

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to exclude from gross income amounts received by the taxpayer from the sale of locally and regionally produced agricultural products to members of the general public at a fixed location (other than a retail store) in an underserved community. (Underserved communities are located in areas of concentrated poverty with limited access to fresh locally or regionally grown foods.)

The bill also amends the Farmer-to-Consumer Direct Marketing Act of 1976 to specify that grants or other assistance provided under the Farmers' Market and Local Food Promotion Program may be used to pay any fees associated with obtaining a permit to sell locally and regionally produced agricultural products at a farmers' market located in an underserved community.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Social welfare
Date: 2015-01-07 00:00:00

Drug Free Families Act of 2015

 Amends part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act to require state TANF programs to implement a program to test TANF applicants and recipients for illegal drug use.

Requires state TANF programs to deny assistance to individuals who test positive for illegal drugs and individuals convicted of drug-related crimes.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-04-16 00:00:00

Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Act 

 Directs the Internal Revenue Service to establish a Community Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Matching Grant Program (VITA grant program) for the development, expansion, or continuation of volunteer tax preparation programs to assist low-income taxpayers and members of underserved populations.

Establishes the National Center to Promote Quality, Excellence, and Evaluation in Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. Requires such Center to: (1) promote the adoption of a universally accessible volunteer training platform for the preparation of federal income tax returns, (2) provide technical assistance to tax return preparation program managers, (3) identify and disseminate best practices related to tax site management, (4) support outreach and marketing efforts, and (5) provide evaluation of programs and activities funded under this Act.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-04-20 00:00:00

Working Families Tax Relief Act of 2015

 Amends the Internal Revenue Code, as amended by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, to: (1) make permanent the reduction in the income threshold (from $10,000 to $3,000) for determining the refundable portion of the child tax credit, (2) eliminate the inflation adjustment to such amount, and (3) allow an annual inflation adjustment after 2014 to the $1,000 maximum credit amount and the adjusted gross income threshold amounts used to reduce the allowable amount of such credit.

Modifies the earned income tax credit to: (1) make permanent the increase in the rate of such credit for taxpayers with three or more children, (2) increase the credit for taxpayers with no qualifying children, (3) reduce from 25 to 21 the qualifying age for such credit, (4) revise eligibility rules relating to married individuals living apart and qualifying children claimed by another family member, and (5) repeal the denial of such credit for taxpayers with excess investment income.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2015-04-28 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was passed by the Senate on May 6, 2015. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

WIOA Technical Amendments Act

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to revise requirements for local workforce development areas involved in statewide workforce investment activities as well as youth, adult, and dislocated worker employment and training activities.

The governor of a state may approve a request for local workforce development area designation of any area served by a rural concentrated employment program.

Local workforce development boards requirements are revised.

A state may use as an alternative workforce development board only a local entity (including a local council, regional workforce development board, or similar entity) that was in existence the day before enactment of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. Currently such an alternative local entity is eligible for designation as a local workforce development board if it has been in existence as late as the day before the enactment of the WIOA on July 22, 2014.

Certain technical amendments are made to performance accountability requirements for statewide and local workforce investment programs.

The Department of Labor shall ensure that states receive an allotment for a fiscal year for adult employment and training activities and for dislocated worker employment and training activities and statewide workforce investment activities equal to at least 90% of the state's allotment for the preceding fiscal year.

(Sec. 3) This bill also amends the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 with respect to the terms of service requirements for members of the National Council on Disability, making them (unchanged in detail) effective only as of July 21, 2014.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Social welfare
Date: 2015-05-12 00:00:00

Welfare Abuse Prevention Act

This bill amends part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act to require any state receiving a TANF block grant to maintain policies and practices to ensure that cash assistance disbursed through an electronic benefit transfer card or an electronic payment card shall not be used to withdraw more than $25 per day from an automated teller machine or through a cash-back procedure at a point of sale terminal.

The Department of Health and Human Services shall reduce to $0 the state family assistance grant payable to any state which, within two years after enactment of this Act, has not reported on its implementation of this cash withdrawal limit or has not implemented such a limit.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Housing and community development
Date: 2015-06-09 00:00:00

Keeping Moving to Work Promises Act

This bill directs the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to renew for a period of 10 years any Moving to Work demonstration program agreement with a public housing agency that: (1) provides for the use of an alternative operating fund formula, and (2) is in effect on the date of enactment of this Act.

HUD may not, in renewing an agreement, make any significant change to its financial terms.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Social welfare
Date: 2015-08-04 00:00:00

All Kids Matter Act

This bill amends part E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance) of title IV of the Social Security Act (SSAct) to revise state plan requirements to require:

 the state to identify and provide appropriate prevention, intervention, and support services before placing a child in foster care as part of its reasonable efforts to preserve and reunify families; that all at-risk children, children in foster care, and children who have left foster care to return home through reunification or reinstatement of parental rights, or for kinship guardianship or adoption, be provided with a standard array of child welfare services; the state to submit, update, and revise as necessary a description of its activities and delivery mechanisms for achieving increased permanency for all infants, children, and youth. Payments to states shall incorporate: (1) an amount equal to the federal medical assistance percentage for the state under SSAct title XIX (Medicaid), and (2) a performance achievement payment.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) shall establish criteria for assessing state performance in order to award performance achievement payments to the states.

States may elect an alternative allotment for specified administrative costs.

Aid to Families with Dependent Children eligibility under SSAct title IV part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) is removed from eligibility requirements under the Foster Care Maintenance Program.

States may provide services to an individual age 18-21 who is pursing legal permanency through family reunification, permanent placement with a planned permanent living arrangement, or such other pathways to permanency as the state, in consultation with HHS, may specify.

Eligibility for John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program services and education and training vouchers shall extend to youth who return home after attaining age 16.

HHS, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Department of Education shall jointly develop and disseminate to states permanency-supportive housing options.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Social welfare
Date: 2015-10-29 00:00:00

Child Poverty Reduction Act of 2015

This bill establishes in the Administration for Children and Families of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) the Federal Interagency Working Group on Reducing Child Poverty.

The Working Group as its primary goal shall develop a national plan to reduce:

 within 10 years the number of children living in poverty in the United States to half the number cited in the report of the U.S. Census Bureau on Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2013; within the same 10 years the number of children living in extreme poverty in the United States to zero; and within 20 years the number of children living in poverty, extreme or otherwise, in the United States to zero. HHS shall enter into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences for two public workshops to provide the Working Group with information to assist in the development of the plan.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-02-11 00:00:00

No Windfalls for Bailed Out Executives Act

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to deny deferred compensation to, or to require repayment of deferred compensation received by, key employees, members of the board of directors or other officers of a corporation, or any other employee having annual compensation of more than $1 million during any 36-month period in which their employer receives extraordinary assistance from the federal government. The bill defines "extraordinary governmental assistance" as grants, loans, loan guarantees, or other assistance to an employer that is intended to prevent such employer from becoming imminently insolvent or to cure such insolvency.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Social welfare
Date: 2016-06-09 00:00:00

Welfare Reform and Upward Mobility Act

This bill requires the President to include in the annual budget proposal the total level of means-tested welfare spending by the federal, state, and local governments for the most recent fiscal year for which such data is available, and estimated levels for the current and 10 ensuing fiscal years.

For each of FY2018-FY2028 each state that receives means-tested welfare spending by the federal government shall report annually to the Congressional Budget Office on the total amount of such spending by the state for the fiscal year.

The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 is amended to define means-tested welfare spending as spending for any federal program designed specifically to give assistance or benefits exclusively to low-income Americans, including certain targeted community and economic development programs, unless they:

 are based on earned eligibility, are not need-based, are designed exclusively or primarily for veterans of military service, or offer universal or near universal eligibility to the working population and their dependents. The bill specifies federal cash assistance, medical, food, housing, energy, education training, child care, services, and community development programs deemed means-tested welfare spending, as well as federal programs that are not so deemed, including Social Security Disability Insurance, Medicare, unemployment insurance, Social Security retirement and survivor benefits, and military service veterans programs.

The refundable portion of certain tax credits shall also be means-tested welfare spending, as well as the refundable portion of the premium and out-of-pocket health care subsidies to be paid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act.

The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 is amended to specify, as an additional purpose for the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP), promoting prosperous self-sufficiency, which means the ability of households to maintain an income above the poverty-level without services and benefits from the federal government.

The bill revises work eligibility requirements under SNAP

As a condition of receiving SNAP funds, a state agency shall operate a work activation program for adults with dependent children.

Part A (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) (TANF) of title IV of the Social Security Act is amended to create the work preparation program for TANF families.

The bill eliminates separate participation rate requirements for two-parent families.

A family with a child under age 6 shall be deemed to meet work participation requirements if any parent is engaged in work for at least 20 hours per week.

No federal funds shall be made available to carry out any means-tested housing program, but states may receive grants to fund their own housing programs.

The bill prohibits funding for abortions and for health benefits that cover abortion, including certain tax credits, except where the pregnancy results from rape or incest or in certain other health cases.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-07-14 00:00:00

Stronger Way Act

This bill requires the Department of Labor to establish a program, through grant agreements with state and local government agencies, that provides eligible unemployed or partially employed individuals with opportunities to work in a transitional job for the purpose of enabling them to gain, through wage-paying jobs, the experience and skills needed to move into regular employment.

The Internal Revenue Code is amended to revise the earned income tax credit.

The bill eliminates the existing child care tax credit and establishes in its place a refundable child tax credit equal to a specified percentage of the taxpayer's earned income, with limitations.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Civil rights and liberties, minority issues
Date: 2016-09-28 00:00:00

ADA Education and Reform Act of 2016

This bill requires the Disability Rights Section of the Department of Justice to develop a program to educate state and local governments and property owners on strategies for promoting access to public accommodations for persons with a disability. The program may include training for professionals to provide guidance about remediation for potential violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).

The bill prohibits civil actions based on the failure to remove an architectural barrier to access into an existing public accommodation unless: (1) the aggrieved person has provided to the owners or operators a written notice specific enough to identify the barrier, and (2) the owners or operators fail to provide the person with a written description outlining improvements that will be made to improve the barrier or they fail to remove the barrier or make substantial progress after providing such a description. The aggrieved person's notice must specify: (1) the address of the property, (2) the specific ADA sections alleged to have been violated, (3) whether a request for assistance in removing an architectural barrier was made, and (4) whether the barrier was permanent or temporary.

The Judicial Conference of the United States must develop a model program to promote alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to resolve such claims. The model program should include an expedited method for determining relevant facts related to such barriers and steps to resolve accessibility issues before litigation.
Topic: Social Welfare — Low-Income Assistance
Subject: Families
Date: 2016-09-28 00:00:00

Two-Generation Economic Empowerment Act of 2016

This bill establishes the interagency Council on Multigenerational Poverty to carry out specified objectives and the 2-generation approach, including by providing guidance, and addressing questions pertaining to 2-generation programs and other programs engaging in efforts to break the cycle of multigenerational poverty.

The council shall develop, make available for public comment, and submit to the President and Congress, a strategic plan to end and prevent multigenerational poverty that includes activities under the 2-generation approach and other activities consistent with specified objectives.

The council shall ensure that specified information is made available to the public and displayed on the official website of the council, including the national strategic plan to end and prevent multigenerational poverty and certain information on the 2-generation program.

The Government Accountability Office must study, and report to Congress and the council, on federal block grants under the jurisdiction of council participants to identify barriers and opportunities for collaboration in order to carry out the 2-generation approach.

The council shall establish: (1) the 2-generation performance partnership pilot program, and (2) the 2-generation social impact bonds pilot program.

The Office of Management and Budget shall designate lead agencies for purposes of carrying out the 2-generation programs.
Topic: Macroeconomics — Mass
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-04-30 00:00:00

This bill directs the Department of Transportation (DOT) to establish a pilot toll credit marketplace program for states, metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs), or local governments to buy and sell toll credits and use the proceeds for highway, transit, and other related projects. States, MPOs, or local governments may not use federal funds to purchase toll credits on the marketplace or use them for more than 10% of its annual apportionment of federal-aid highway funds in a fiscal year.

The Federal Highway Administration shall determine how a toll credit marketplace will work.

The Railroad Revitalization and Regulatory Reform Act of 1976 is amended to revise railroad rehabilitation and improvement financing program requirements. Toll credits earned shall be eligible as collateral in determining credit risk premium amounts for direct loans or loan guarantees for railroad improvement projects.
Topic: Macroeconomics — Mass
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-08-06 00:00:00

Transportation, Access, and Opportunity Act of 2015

 This bill modifies transportation programs to establish a goal of achieving an interconnected transportation system that connects people to jobs, schools, and essential services; and to require more data and public input during the planning process.

States and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) must permit the public to provide input during the development and implementation of transportation plans.

(MPOs are federally required and funded organizations responsible for the regional transportation planning process in certain urban areas.)

The bill revises the goals of the federal highway program to include achieving an interconnected transportation system which connects people to jobs, schools, and other essential services through a multimodal network. The Department of Transportation (DOT) may establish a performance measure for MPOs to measure transportation connectivity.

DOT must establish the Connection to Opportunity Pilot Program for up to 10 MPOs to develop and implement projects to improve multimodal connectivity and increase connections for transportation-disadvantaged individuals and neighborhoods with limited transportation options. The participating MPOs must submit performance data to DOT, and DOT must use the data to evaluate the programs and consider developing a national indicator to measure multimodal connections to opportunities.

DOT must create and maintain data sets and analysis tools to assist MPOs, states, and entities within DOT in carrying out performance management analyses.

The bill permanently extends the authorization for the Transportation Alternatives Program, revises federal share requirements, and permits nonprofit organizations and certain MPOs to receive funding under the program.
Topic: Civil Rights — Employees
Subject: Congress
Date: 2015-10-16 00:00:00

Stop Pay for Members Act

This bill declares that the obligation to pay the basic pay of Members of Congress may not be satisfied if the U.S. public debt reaches the public debt limit until: (1) all other obligations of the U.S. government then due have been satisfied; or (2) if earlier, the ability of the U.S. Treasury to satisfy such obligations in a timely manner is restored, whether by an increase in the public debt limit or otherwise.

Each Member of Congress consents and agrees that payment of basic pay in accordance with this Act shall constitute a full and complete discharge and acquittance of all claims and demands for service as a Member during the period covered by the payment.
Topic: Civil Rights — Employees
Subject: Congress
Date: 2016-02-04 00:00:00

Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2016

This bill declares that, if there is a federal budget deficit in a fiscal year, then:

 any pay adjustment for Members of Congress scheduled to take effect under the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946 in the succeeding calendar year shall be null and void; and effective as of the first day of the first pay period beginning in that year, the rates of basic pay for Members shall be reduced (from the rate in effect), but not below zero, by an amount prescribed according to the following formula. The reduction required under this Act is as follows:

 if the reduction is to take effect in a calendar year that does not immediately follow another calendar year in which a reduction was made, the reduced amount shall be equal to 5% of the rate of basic pay last in effect before the reduction is made; or if the reduction is to take effect in a calendar year that immediately follows another calendar year in which a reduction was made, the reduced amount shall be equal to 10% of the rate of basic pay last in effect before the most recent reduction was made. If, following one or more years in which Members' pay is reduced, a fiscal year occurs in which there is no deficit, then, effective as of the first day of the first pay period in the succeeding calendar year:

 rates of basic pay for Members shall be restored to the highest rate at any time previously payable; and pay adjustments scheduled to take effect on or after that first day shall be effective.