lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-06-01 00:00:00

Don't Ignore the Will of the American People Act 

This bill prohibits the obligation of funds made available under the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its Office of the Administrator until the EPA rescinds the rule entitled, "Clean Water Rule: Definition of Waters of the United States," about the scope of the Clean Water Act.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-06-09 00:00:00

Federal Regulatory Certainty for Water Act

This bill nullifies the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Water Rule signed on May 27, 2015, which describes the scope of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act).

Under this bill, the Clean Water Act applies to waters of the United States that are: (1) navigable-in-fact; or (2) permanent or continuously flowing bodies of water that form geographical features commonly known as streams, oceans, rivers, and lakes that are connected to waters that are navigable-in-fact.

Under this bill, the Act does not apply to: (1) waters that do not physically abut those waters of the United States through an actual and continuous surface water connection; (2) man-made or natural structures or channels through which water flows intermittently or ephemerally; or (3) wetlands (including playa lakes, prairie potholes, wet meadows, wet prairies, and vernal pools) that lack that continuous surface water connection.

The aggregation of wetlands or waters may not be used to determine whether the wetlands or waters are navigable waters.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-06-10 00:00:00

Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act of 2015

This bill amends the Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act of 2009 to revise and reauthorize the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) and the National Science Foundation's (NSF) ocean acidification programs through FY2019.

The scope of the Act is expanded to cover acidification in estuaries and the Great Lakes, not just oceans. Acidification is the decrease in pH of those waters and changes in their chemistry caused by chemical inputs, including carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The National Science and Technology Council's Subcommittee on Ocean Science and Technology must: (1) oversee the development of adaptation and mitigation strategies to address socioeconomic impacts resulting from ocean acidification, (2) ensure that agencies represented on the interagency working group on ocean acidification deliver data and information to support the Ocean Acidification Information Exchange and a data archive, and (3) establish an Ocean Acidification Advisory Board to provide advice to the subcommittee and the interagency working group and certain information to Congress and the public.

The strategic plan for federal research and monitoring on ocean acidification must include: (1) modeling to determine impacts of acidification on marine food webs, and (2) research to understand related and cumulative stressors and other biogeochemical processes occurring in conjunction with ocean acidification.

NOAA must establish data processing, storage, and archive facilities and procedures to provide for the long-term stewardship of environmental data, products, and information necessary for carrying out the Act.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-06-10 00:00:00

Tribal Coastal Resiliency Act

This bill amends the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 to authorize the Department of Commerce to award grants to qualified Indian tribes to further achievement of any of the following tribal coastal zone objectives:

 protecting, restoring, or preserving areas in the zone that hold important ecological, cultural, or sacred significance for the tribes, or traditional, historic, and esthetic values essential to the tribes; preparing and implementing a special area management plan and technical planning for important coastal areas; and implementing any coastal or shoreline stabilization measure for the purpose of public safety, public access, or cultural or historical preservation.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-06-11 00:00:00

Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act Amendments of 2015

This bill reauthorizes through FY2019 and revises the Integrated Coastal and Ocean Observation System Act of 2009.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-06-17 00:00:00

Great Lakes Water Protection Act 

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to prohibit a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) from discharging untreated or partially treated sewage into the Great Lakes or a tributary of the Great Lakes when the discharge is the result of the POTW intentionally diverting waste streams to bypass any portion of a treatment facility. A bypass is allowed if: (1) it is unavoidable to prevent loss of life, personal injury, or severe property damage, there is no feasible alternative, and the treatment works provides notice; or (2) it does not cause effluent (waste) limitations to be exceeded and is for essential maintenance to ensure efficient operation of the treatment facility.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must work with relevant states to create requirements for providing immediate notice to the public about discharges.

The EPA must establish procedures to ensure that permits issued to POTWs under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System include requirements to comply with this bill.

This bill establishes a maximum civil penalty of $100,000 per day for violations of the bill occurring on or after January 1, 2035. The penalties must be deposited into the Great Lakes Cleanup Fund, which is established by this bill. The Fund must be used for improving wastewater discharges.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-06-25 00:00:00

Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Act

This bill reauthorizes the Management Conference of the Long Island Sound Study, the Long Island Sound Stewardship Act of 2006, the Long Island Sound Grants, and Long Island Sound Stewardship Grants through FY2020.

The bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to direct the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of the Management Conference of the Long Island Sound Study to include in studies on strengthening the implementation of the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for Long Island Sound: (1) environmental impacts on the Sound watershed; and (2) planning initiatives that identify areas most suitable for various activities in order to reduce conflicts among uses, reduce adverse environmental impacts, facilitate compatible uses, or preserve critical ecosystem services.

The Office must: (1) develop and implement strategies to increase education and awareness about the ecological health and water quality of the Sound; and (2) monitor progress toward meeting the goals, actions, and schedules of the Plan.

The limit on the federal share for certain grants for projects and studies to help implement the Plan is revised by increasing the limit for grants other than citizen involvement and education grants.

A federal agency that owns or occupies real property, or carries out activities, within the Sound watershed must: (1) participate in regional and subwatershed planning, protection, and restoration activities; and (2) ensure that the property and activities are consistent with the Plan to the maximum extent practicable.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Agriculture and food
Date: 2015-07-21 00:00:00

Great Lakes Assurance Program Verification Act of 2015

This bill amends the Food Security Act of 1985 to require the Department of Agriculture (USDA) to establish a Great Lakes basin initiative for agricultural nonpoint source pollution prevention. (Nonpoint source pollution comes from diffuse sources and is caused by precipitation moving over or through the ground and carrying pollution.)

In implementing the initiative, USDA must:

 provide grants to Great Lakes states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Wisconsin) for education and outreach, technical assistance, and voluntary programs to verify implementation of practices to reduce nonpoint pollution from agricultural activities; establish a funding priority within the Great Lakes basin for payments to producers that participate in the initiative to achieve verification through a state verification program; and use existing data. In carrying out the initiative, states may collaborate with entities that have agricultural or environmental expertise, including academic or nonprofit organizations.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-07-28 00:00:00

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to exempt Indian tribes from any requirement to provide compensatory mitigation as a condition of a permit to discharge dredged or fill material into waters of the United States when the permitted activity is conducted on Indian land. If the Indian tribe ceases to maintain the permitted activity on that land, or seeks to abandon that activity without a good faith transfer, the Indian tribe must obtain a permit modification from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers may require restoration and rehabilitation of the area.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-07-28 00:00:00

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to allow a permittee under the Act to satisfy compensatory mitigation requirements for discharging dredged or fill material into the waters of the United States (permitted activity) by entering into a preservation lease with a state or Indian tribe whose wetlands are affected.

A preservation lease is an agreement under which a permittee leases wetlands or other aquatic sites on state or Indian land for the sole purpose of preserving the wetlands or other aquatic sites in an undisturbed state during the term of the lease to mitigate for a permitted activity. The term of the lease may not be less than the life of the permitted activity and must be adjusted to account for the cessation of the impacts caused by such activity.

If a permittee enters into a preservation lease and subsequently ceases to maintain the permitted activity, or seeks to abandon the permitted activity without a good faith transfer, the permittee must obtain a permit modification from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which may require restoration and rehabilitation of the area.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-07-31 00:00:00

Commonsense Permitting for Job Creation Act of 2015 

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to revise requirements for permit guidelines applicable to the designation of disposal sites for discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States. Those guidelines may not prohibit the designation of a disposal site due to the lack of a final site plan because there is not an identified end user, industry, or industrial classification for the site.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-09-10 00:00:00

Save our Bays Act 

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a new tax credit, through 2020, for developing and implementing a plan to address non-point pollution carried by surface water runoff on real property located in the United States within the boundaries of an estuary of national significance.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-09-25 00:00:00

Great Bay Regulatory Improvement Act of 2015

This bill directs the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to postpone for five years establishing water quality standards or effluent limitations under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) if those standards or limitations reduce nitrogen discharges into the Great Bay Estuary. That estuary extends from the mouth of Portsmouth Harbor, in the vicinity of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to the head-of-tide for the eight rivers (including the tributaries of those rivers) that flow into Great Bay, Little Bay, and the Piscataqua River.

During that five-year period, the EPA may not require a publicly owned treatment works (POTW) to commence construction on any upgrade of a facility for the purpose of enforcing those standards or limitations if the POTW contributes nitrogen loadings in that estuary.

The EPA must study eelgrass levels and the causes of any loss of eelgrass habitat in the Great Bay Estuary, and allow public participation in the development of the study.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-09-28 00:00:00

Promoting United Government Efforts to Save Our Sound Act or the PUGET SOS Act

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to provide for the coordination of federal Puget Sound recovery efforts with state, local and tribal recovery efforts, including by establishing:

 conditions for approval by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan for the Puget Sound region; a Puget Sound Recovery National Program Office within the EPA; a Puget Sound Federal Leadership Task Force; a Save America's Puget Sound Fund in the Department of the Treasury for certain Puget Sound recovery and protection efforts that are included in the Puget Sound Partnership's Action Agenda; and reporting requirements on the status of Puget Sound's recovery. The Puget Sound is an estuary in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-10-16 00:00:00

Offending Oil Polluters Act 

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to deny any tax credit or deduction to an offending oil polluter. The bill defines "offending oil polluter" as any person who is responsible for a vessel or facility from which oil or a hazardous substance is discharged and any person who is a member of the same expanded affiliated group as the offending oil polluter.

Specifically, the bill denies a tax benefit for any amount paid or incurred: (1) in connection with a discharge of oil or a hazardous substance, (2) for any attorney fees and court costs in connection with any legal action involving such discharge, (3) as a payment or restitution related to such discharge, and (4) for any costs or penalties required by federal law or certified in a settlement by a federal court.

The bill requires the Department of the Treasury to conduct, and report on, an annual study to determine: (1) the revenue loss as a result of tax deductions allowed for cleaning up oil that is discharged after April 19, 2010, and (2) the amount of revenue savings resulting from this Act.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-11-18 00:00:00

Imperial Valley Desert Conservation and Recreation Act of 2015

This bill directs the Department of the Interior to convey to the state of California approximately 934 acres of specified public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in San Diego County in order to allow California to include it as part of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

The Department of Transportation shall seek a conveyance from Interior of approximately 3,500 acres of BLM-administered land adjacent to the Imperial County Holtville Airport in Imperial County, California, to allow the county to expand the airport.

The bill establishes the Vinagre Wash Special Management Area in California, which shall consist of approximately 81,880 acres of certain public lands in Imperial County. Interior shall manage specified lands in the Management Area to preserve their character for eventual inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-11-30 00:00:00

Beach Act of 2015

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to revise and reauthorize through FY2020 a grant program for monitoring, and notifying the public of, any pathogens in coastal recreation waters bordering public beaches.

The bill reauthorizes through FY2018 the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2000.

The bill establishes requirements with respect to: (1) using rapid testing methods to detect unsafe levels of pathogens or pathogen indicators in those waters, and (2) notifying governmental agencies when pathogens exceed water quality standards. Those methods must provide testing results within four hours of receiving a sample. Communication with governments must occur within two hours of the receipt of the results of water quality samples.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must assess state and local compliance with coastal recreation water quality monitoring and notification legal requirements and grant conditions. The bill limits federal support of grants to non-compliant state or local governments. The Government Accountability Office must review the EPA's compliance assessments and corrective actions.

States with coastal recreation waters must adopt the most protective water quality criteria and standards practicable for pathogens.

The EPA must: (1) update the national list of beaches that are used by the public regardless of the presence of a lifeguard within 12 months and biennially thereafter (currently, periodically); (2) study the long-term impact of climate change on pathogenic contamination of coastal recreation waters; and (3) study the impacts of excess nutrients on coastal recreation waters.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-12-01 00:00:00

Discouraging Frivolous Lawsuits Act

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to revise requirements concerning citizen suits. Litigation costs (including reasonable attorney and expert witness fees) must be awarded to the prevailing party, thus the bill removes a court's discretion to award the fees. A prevailing party is defined as the party that prevails on more than half of the claims at issue.

The bill repeals the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deny or restrict the use of any area as a disposal site for dredged or fill material when the discharge of such materials would have an unacceptable adverse effect on municipal water supplies, shellfish beds and fishery areas, wildlife, or recreational areas.

Current law requires compensatory mitigation to replace the loss of aquatic resource functions in a watershed when a permit to discharge dredged or fill materials into navigable waters has unavoidable impacts on aquatic resources. This bill prohibits government entities from carrying out compensatory mitigation in excess of existing regulatory requirements.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-12-01 00:00:00

This bill makes permanent the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

 Of the appropriations from the LWCF: (1) at least 40% shall be used collectively for federal purposes for certain land and water acquisitions (as currently); (2) at least 40% shall be used collectively to provide financial assistance to states for LWCF purposes and for outdoor recreation, for the Forest Legacy Program, for cooperative endangered species grants, and for the American Battlefield Protection Program; and (3) at least 1.5% or $10 million, whichever is greater, shall be used for projects that secure recreational public access to federal public land for hunting, fishing, or other recreational purposes.

The Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture shall consider the acquisition of conservation easements and other similar interests in land where it is appropriate and feasible, taking specified considerations into account.

The bill establishes a National Park Service Critical Maintenance and Revitalization Conservation Fund in the Treasury for the deposit of specified amounts from revenues due and payable to the United States under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.

Amounts deposited in the Fund shall: (1) be used only for the high priority deferred maintenance needs of the National Park Service that support critical infrastructure and visitor services, and (2) be available for expenditure only after amounts are appropriated for such purposes.

Amounts in the Fund shall not be used for acquiring land.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-12-03 00:00:00

Groundwater Conservation Incentive Act of 2015

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to expand the tax deduction for soil and water conservation expenditures to include expenditures to reduce groundwater use and for the conversion from groundwater use to surface water use.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-12-10 00:00:00

This bill makes certain rocks, pinnacles, reefs, and islands in the Pacific Ocean within a mile of the coast of Orange County, California, part of the California Coastal National Monument and repeals their current temporary reservation.

The Department of the Interior shall ensure that economic and recreational activities conducted on the lands added to the California Coastal Monument shall continue to be allowed to the same extent they were authorized and ongoing on the day before such lands were added.

Likewise repealed is the lighthouse reservation with respect to the San Juan and San Mateo Rocks and the two rocks in the vicinity of Laguna Beach, off the coast of Orange County.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2016-02-03 00:00:00

This bill revises the boundaries of the John H. Chafee Coastal Barrier Resources System Unit M13 in Daufuskie Island, South Carolina.
Topic: Environment — Conservation
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2016-02-24 00:00:00

This bill amends the Estuary Restoration Act of 2000 to authorize a nongovernmental organization, that is allowed to serve as a non-federal interest for an estuary habitat restoration project, to provide lands owned and managed by a legally constituted public body (including a federally recognized Indian tribe) for habitat or fish and wildlife conservation. Such body must agree to: (1) operate and maintain, or allow the nongovernmental organization to operate and maintain, the project; and (2) retain the land in public ownership for uses compatible with the project.

The Secretary of the Army may not carry out such a project unless a non-federal interest has agreed to provide for operation, maintenance, and monitoring of the project (current law requires that such interest has agreed to provide for long-term maintenance and monitoring of the project).

The bill authorizes a nongovernmental organization serving as the non-federal interest for a project to pay the operation, maintenance, and replacement and rehabilitation costs of the project and the non-federal share of the costs of construction of the project.

The Secretary shall: (1) issue guidelines for implementing such projects, making every effort to streamline implementation requirements and reduce overhead costs, including by maximizing consistency with the requirements of restoration programs administered by other federal agencies; and (2) develop and revise the guidelines through a public process.