lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2016-05-19 00:00:00

This bill amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to require annual human rights reports to include information on the:

 institutionalization of children, including in orphanages and group homes, if such institutionalization can be avoided by reunifying such children with parents of origin or by adoptive placement; and related subjection of children to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, unnecessary detention, and denial of the right to life, liberty, and the security of persons.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2016-05-25 00:00:00

No Impunity for Iranian Aggression at Sea Act of 2016

This bill requires the President to submit a report that includes:

 a determination of whether, during the June 2016 incident when Iranian forces boarded two U.S. Navy combat vessels and detained the crews at gunpoint, any of the Iranian actions violated the Geneva Convention or the international right to conduct innocent passage; and a certification of whether or not federal funds were paid to Iran to effect the release of the detained crew members or other U.S. citizens. The bill prescribes specified Iranian actions that the President shall consider, including: (1) the stopping, boarding, search, and seizure of the U.S. Navy vessels and the removal and detention of the crews; and (2) the display, videotaping, or photographing of U.S. service members and the subsequent use of those photographs or videos.

The President shall: (1) upon a determination that such a violation occurred, submit and make public a list of Iranian government officials or persons acting on behalf of the Iranian government who are responsible for or complicit in any such violation; and (2) prohibit U.S. entry or admission and block property transactions of listed persons.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: Health
Date: 2016-06-08 00:00:00

SOAR to Health and Wellness Act of 2016

This bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a pilot program, to be known as Stop, Observe, Ask, and Respond to Health and Wellness Training (or SOAR to Health and Wellness Training), to train health care providers and other related providers to:

 identify potential human trafficking victims, work with law enforcement to report and facilitate communication with such victims, refer victims to social or victims service agencies or organizations, provide such victims with coordinated care tailored to their circumstances, and consider integrating this training with existing training programs. The pilot program must include the functions of the training program with the same name that was operating before this bill's enactment and the following initiatives:

 engaging stakeholders to develop a flexible training module, supporting training in diverse health care sites, providing technical assistance to health education programs, developing a strategy to incentivize the use of training materials developed under this bill and the implementation of a nationwide health care protocol, and developing a methodology for collecting and reporting data on the number of human trafficking victims served in health care settings or other related provider settings. The pilot program is authorized through FY2022.

HHS must report on the number of facilities operating under the pilot program, the number of providers trained through the pilot program, and these numbers for the program operating before the pilot program.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2016-07-12 00:00:00

War Crimes Accountability Act of 2016

 This bill expresses the sense of Congress that the United States should actively encourage prosecution of war crimes suspects and Nazi war criminals.

 The President shall submit a report for each of FY2017-FY2021 that identifies each country that is failing to: (1) cooperate with relevant jurisdictions in extraditing or deporting war crimes suspects or Nazi war criminals to the appropriate jurisdiction; (2) enforce arrest warrants issued by an international tribunal against war crimes suspects; (3) accept Nazi war criminals deported from the United States; or (4) effectively prosecute war crimes suspects or Nazi war criminals within such country's jurisdiction, including Nazi war criminals who resided in the United States and were deported from or extradited by the United States or left the United States voluntarily.

 The President may not issue a letter of offer to sell defense articles under the Arms Export Control Act for $7 million or more to an identified country.

 The President may waive such prohibition in the U.S. national security interest.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2016-09-13 00:00:00

Lost Boys and Girls Rebuilding Infrastructure to Sustain Enduring Peace in South Sudan Act or the Lost Boys and Girls RISE Act

This bill directs the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to establish a three-year pilot program to provide fellowships to up to 500 eligible individuals to assist in developing agricultural, business development, educational, medical, technological, or transportation infrastructure in South Sudan. (The program may begin after the Department of State determines that it is safe for U.S. citizens, especially citizens of Sudanese or South Sudanese descent, to travel to South Sudan and lifts the general travel warning for South Sudan.)

It is the sense of Congress that USAID should: (1) consult with members of the Lost Boys and Lost Girls of Sudan community in the United States for purposes of identifying potential participants, and (2) consider individuals who are recommended to USAID by a member of Congress.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: Immigration
Date: 2016-11-14 00:00:00

Commission on the Removal of Mexican-Americans to Mexico

This bill establishes the Commission on the Removal of Mexican-Americans to Mexico, which shall: (1) review the facts and circumstances surrounding the 1929-1941 removal of certain U.S. citizens and permanent legal residents to Mexico and the impact of such actions on such individuals, their families, and the Mexican-American community; (2) review federal, state, and local government directives that required such removal and any other related information; and (3) report its findings, conclusions, and any recommendations for legislative actions.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2015-01-08 00:00:00

Combat Human Trafficking Act of 2015

Amends the federal criminal code, with respect to sex trafficking of children, to: (1) subject to criminal prosecution buyers, as well as sellers, of commercial sex involving sex trafficking victims; (2) provide that in prosecutions of sex trafficking crimes, the government is not required to prove that a sex trafficking defendant knew or recklessly disregarded the fact that a victim was under age 18; (3) equalize the period of supervised release for sex trafficking offenders convicted of conspiracy; (4) expand wiretap authority for investigating crimes related to sex trafficking, including slavery, involuntary servitude, and forced labor; (5) grant crime victims the right to be informed in a timely manner of any plea agreement or deferred prosecution agreement; and (6) require an appellate court to apply ordinary standards of review in reviewing appeals filed by crime victims.   

Requires the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Department of Justice (DOJ) to prepare and report annually on: (1) the rates of arrests by state law enforcement officers for sex trafficking crimes involving buyers of commercial sex involving sex trafficking victims, and (2) prosecutions and convictions for such crimes in state courts.

Directs the Attorney General to ensure that: (1) DOJ anti-human trafficking training programs, including programs for law enforcement officers, include technical training on effective methods for investigating and prosecuting individuals who obtain, patronize, or solicit a commercial sex act involving a person subject to severe forms of human trafficking and on facilitating the provision of physical and mental health services by health care providers to persons subject to severe forms of human trafficking; (2) federal law enforcement officers are engaged in activities, programs, or operations involving the detection, investigation, and prosecution of such offenses; and (3) DOJ anti-human trafficking programs for U.S. attorneys or other federal prosecutors include training on seeking restitution for peonage, slavery, and human trafficking offenses to ensure that each such attorney, upon obtaining a conviction for such an offense, requests a specific amount of restitution for each victim without regard to whether the victim requests it. Requires the Federal Judicial Center to provide training to judges relating to the application of mandatory restitution provisions regarding ordering restitution for victims of such offenses.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-01-21 00:00:00

Trafficking Awareness Training for Health Care Act of 2015

Requires the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to award one medical or nursing school a grant to develop best practices for health care professionals to recognize and respond appropriately to victims of severe forms of human trafficking.

Requires the grantee to: (1) develop methods or materials to train health care professionals on best practices, (2) make a subgrant to one entity in each of the 10 administrative regions of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a pilot program to test the best practices and training, and (3) analyze the results of the pilot programs and determine which best practices are evidence-based.

Directs HHS to disseminate evidence-based best practices on their website and to health care profession schools.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2015-01-21 00:00:00

Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2015

Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) implementation of the United States National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security (NAP) is paramount in improving the lives of women around the world and increasing global stability and prosperity, (2) Congress is committed to advancing NAP principles, and (3) the President should ensure NAP's implementation and coordinate with the international community to reaffirm global commitments to implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325.

States that it is U.S. policy to implement NAP.

 Directs the Secretary of State and the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development to: (1) integrate gender goals into diplomatic and development efforts, and into agency guidance and contracting; (2) include gender in strategic and budget planning processes; and (3) review existing U.S. policies and programs on women and girls in foreign countries from a gender perspective.

Directs the heads of federal departments and agencies to ensure that NAP's tenets are incorporated into all programs related to: (1) conflict prevention, (2) humanitarian and disaster response, (3) conflict mediation, (4) peacekeeping, (5) post-conflict reconstruction, (6) institution building, and (7) democracy promotion.

Urges the Secretary to promote the inclusion of women in coordination and consultation with international partners.

Directs the Secretary, the Administrator, the Secretary of Defense and representatives of other federal agencies to implement NAP and ensure relevant personnel training.

Directs the Secretary to facilitate the efforts of partner governments to improve women's participation in peace and security processes, conflict prevention, peace-building, transitional processes, and decision making institutions in conflict-affected environments.

Directs the Secretary and the Administrator to establish guidelines for overseas U.S. personnel to consult with specified stakeholders regarding U.S. efforts to: (1) prevent, mitigate, or resolve violent conflict; and (2) enhance the success of mediation and negotiation processes by ensuring women's meaningful participation.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2015-01-28 00:00:00

Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act 

(Sec. 3) This bill authorizes the President to impose U.S. entry and property sanctions against any foreign person (or entity) who:

 is responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other gross violations of internationally recognized human rights committed against individuals in any foreign country seeking to expose illegal activity carried out by government officials, or to obtain, exercise, or promote human rights and freedoms; acted as an agent of or on behalf of a foreign person in such activities; is a government official or senior associate of such official responsible for, or complicit in, ordering or otherwise directing acts of significant corruption, including the expropriation of private or public assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, bribery, or the facilitation or transfer of the proceeds of corruption to foreign jurisdictions; or has materially assisted or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, such activities. The authority to block and prohibit transactions in property and property interests shall not include the authority to impose sanctions on the importation of goods (any article, natural or man made substance, material, supply or manufactured product, including inspection and test equipment, excluding technical data).

 The President shall, after receiving a request from the chairperson and ranking member of one of the appropriate congressional committees with respect to whether a foreign person has engaged in a prohibited activity:

 determine if the person has engaged in such an activity; and report to the chairperson and ranking member whether or not the President imposed or intends to impose specified sanctions against the person. Sanctions shall not apply to an individual as necessary for law enforcement purposes, or to comply with the Agreement between the United Nations (U.N.) and the United States regarding the U.N. Headquarters or other applicable international obligations of the United States.

The President may terminate sanctions under specified conditions.

The Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor may submit to the Department of State the names of foreign persons who may meet the sanctions criteria.

(Sec. 4) The President shall report to Congress annually regarding each foreign person sanctioned, the type of sanctions imposed, and the reason for their imposition.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2015-01-29 00:00:00

International Human Rights Defense Act of 2015

Directs the Secretary of State to establish in the Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor a Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBT Peoples who shall:

 direct U.S. government efforts regarding the human rights of LGBT people (lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender); represent the United States in diplomatic matters relevant to the human rights of LGBT people, including discrimination and violence against LGBT people; serve as the principal advisor to the Secretary of State regarding human rights for LGBT people; and implement activities regarding support, education, resettlement, and empowerment of LGBT people. Directs the Special Envoy to develop or update annually for five years a U.S. global strategy to prevent and respond to discrimination and violence against LGBT people.

Authorizes the Secretary and the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development to provide assistance to prevent and respond to discrimination and violence against LGBT people.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2015-02-12 00:00:00

Combating Human Trafficking Act of 2015

Enhancing Services for Runaway and Homeless Victims of Youth Trafficking Act of 2015

Amends the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act with respect to grants to states, localities, and private entities to carry out research, evaluation, demonstration, and service projects regarding activities designed to increase knowledge concerning, and to improve services for, runaway youth and homeless youth.

Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to give priority to proposed projects relating to staff training in:

 the behavioral and emotional effects of severe forms of trafficking in persons and sex trafficking, responding to youth who are showing effects of severe forms of trafficking in persons and sex trafficking, and agency-wide strategies for working with runaway and homeless youth who are victims of trafficking. Extends the Secretary's authority to make grants to nonprofit private agencies for the purpose of providing street-based services to runaway and homeless, and street youth, who have been subjected to, or are at risk of being subjected to, sexual abuse, prostitution, or sexual exploitation. Extends the scope of such grants also to street-based services to runaway and homeless, and street youth, who have been subjected to, or are at risk of being subjected to, severe forms of trafficking in persons and sex trafficking.

Amends the Missing Children's Assistance Act to include among the required uses of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's annual grant to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children operation of a cyber tipline to provide online users and electronic service providers an effective means of reporting Internet-related child sexual exploitation in the area of child sex trafficking, including child prostitution (currently, in the area of child prostitution).

Human Trafficking Prevention and Recovery Act of 2015

Requires the Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking to review trafficking in persons in the United States.

Directs the Comptroller General to report to Congress on: (1) the efforts of federal and state law enforcement agencies to combat human trafficking in the United States, and (2) each federal grant program one of whose purposes is to combat human trafficking or assist victims of trafficking.

Amends the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to include programs that provide housing to victims of trafficking among grant-receiving state, local, and tribal service programs for victims of trafficking.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2015-03-03 00:00:00

Human Trafficking Detection Act of 2015

 Directs the Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) to implement a program to: (1) train relevant Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and other DHS personnel on the best way to effectively deter, detect, and disrupt human trafficking and to interdict suspected perpetrators during the course of their primary roles and responsibilities; and (2) ensure that such personnel regularly receive current information on matters related to the detection of human trafficking.

Permits training to be conducted through in-class or virtual learning capabilities. Requires such training to include:

 methods for identifying suspected victims and perpetrators of human trafficking, methods for approaching a suspected victim in a manner that is sensitive to the victim and not likely to alert a perpetrator, training that is most appropriate for a particular location or environment, and a post-training evaluation of trainees. Directs the Secretary: (1) to reassess the training program annually; (2) within one year after enactment of this Act, to submit a certification to the appropriate congressional committees confirming that all such personnel have successfully completed the required training; and (3) to report annually on the overall effectiveness of the training program and on the number of cases reported by DHS personnel in which human trafficking was suspected and the number that were confirmed cases of human trafficking.

Authorizes the Secretary, upon request, to provide training curricula to assist any state, local, or tribal government or private organization to establish a training program to identify human trafficking.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2015-03-03 00:00:00

Human Trafficking Survivors Relief and Empowerment Act of 2015

Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to direct the Attorney General to give preferential consideration for a public safety and community policing grant to an applicant in a state that has in effect a law that:

 provides a process by which an individual who is a human trafficking survivor can move to vacate any arrest or conviction records for prostitution or any other non-violent offense committed as a direct result of human trafficking; establishes a rebuttable presumption that any arrest or conviction of an individual for an offense associated with human trafficking is a result of being trafficked, if the individual has been granted nonimmigrant status as a victim of severe form of human trafficking, is the subject of a certification by the Secretary of Health and Human Services as willing to assist in an investigation and prosecution of severe forms of trafficking in persons, or has other similar documentation of trafficking issued by a federal agency; protects the identity of individuals who are human trafficking survivors in public and court records; and does not require an individual who is a human trafficking survivor to provide official documentation as described in this Act in order to receive protection under the law. Authorizes the Legal Services Corporation and the recipients of its funding to provide legal services on behalf a human trafficking survivor applying for a motion to vacate under such a state law.
Topic: International Affairs — Human Rights
Subject: International affairs
Date: 2015-03-17 00:00:00

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

Syrian War Crimes Accountability Act of 2015 

(Sec. 3) Declares that Congress:

 condemns the ongoing violence, use of chemical weapons, targeting of civilian populations, and systematic gross human rights violations carried out by government of Syria and pro-government forces under the direction of President Bashar al-Assad, as well as abuses committed by extremist groups and other combatants involved in the civil war in Syria; supports the people of Syria seeking democratic change; urges all parties to the conflict to halt attacks on civilians; calls on the President to support efforts in Syria and on the part of the international community to ensure accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict; and calls for a United Nations Security Council investigation into gross violations of human rights and war crimes committed during the Syrian conflict. (Sec. 4) Requires the Department of State to report to Congress regarding war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria, including descriptions of:

 violations of internationally recognized human rights, war crimes, and crimes against humanity perpetrated during the civil war in Syria; and efforts by the Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to ensure accountability for violations of internationally recognized human rights, international humanitarian law, and crimes against humanity perpetrated in Syria by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, violent extremist groups, and other combatants involved in the conflict.