lcalvobartolome/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2016-02-04 00:00:00

Gold King Mine Spill Accountability Act of 2016

This bill requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to appoint a special investigator to investigate: (1) who was at fault for the discharge of contaminated water from the Gold King Mine north of Silverton, Colorado, into Cement Creek; (2) which individuals were responsible for the decisions that led to the spill; and (3) what downstream environmental effects were caused by the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) actions, or inactions, after the spill.

The bill: (1) entitles individuals to receive compensation for a claim filed, or civil action brought, under the Federal Tort Claims Act relating to an injury resulting from the spill, and (2) establishes within the EPA the Office of Gold King Mine Spill Claims for processing claims of allowable damages resulting from the spill. The EPA may provide compensation for a claim in an amount greater than $25,000 without the prior approval of DOJ.

The EPA must fund the implementation of the long-term monitoring program developed by the Long-Term Impact Review Team of New Mexico, for the water quality of the Animas and San Juan Rivers.

The EPA may not finalize or work on any rules (including those not related to the spill) until all claims have been paid, except rules that are necessary to address an imminent threat to public health or safety, or other emergency.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-05-12 00:00:00

Fertilizer Access and Responsible Management Act or the FARM Act

This bill requires the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to withdraw its revised enforcement policy published on July 22, 2015, concerning the exemption of retail facilities from coverage of the process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals standard. (The standard contains requirements for managing hazards associated with processes using highly hazardous chemicals.)

OSHA may publish a proposed rule relating to that exception only if: (1) it arranges for an independent third party to conduct a cost analysis of the proposed rule, and (2) the U.S. Census Bureau establishes a code for farm supply retailers under the North American Industry Classification System in a sector relating to retail trade.

OSHA, when promulgating a rule relating to the exemption of retail facilities from coverage of the standards, must provide an opportunity for the public to submit comments as specified by the bill and invite meaningful public input in the rulemaking.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2016-07-14 00:00:00

Brownfields Authorization Increase Act of 2016

This bill amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 by: (1) reauthorizing through FY2022 and revising the brownfield revitalization funding program, and (2) permanently reauthorizing a grant program for state and tribal response programs (programs responding to brownfields). (Brownfield sites are certain commercial properties that are hindered from reuse or redevelopment due to the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.)

Certain nonprofit organizations and community development entities are made eligible for brownfields revitalization funding.

The bill increases the cap on the amount that may be given in grants for direct remediation of brownfield sites.

The brownfield site characterization and assessment grant program is revised by authorizing eligible entities to receive grants for property they acquired on or before January 11, 2002.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must establish a program to provide multipurpose grants to carry out inventory, characterization, assessment, planning, or remediation activities at brownfield sites. In addition, the EPA must establish a grant program for brownfield projects that reduce the brownfield's environmental impact, increase community livability, and encourage sustainability.

The EPA must establish a grant program that provides training, research, and technical assistance to facilitate the inventory of brownfield sites, site assessments, remediation of brownfield sites, community involvement, or site preparation. (Currently, the EPA may provide funding for this purpose.) The bill authorizes the EPA to use up to a specified amount of the funding made available for the grant program on grants to assist small communities, Indian tribes, rural areas, or disadvantaged areas.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-09-26 00:00:00

Emergency East Chicago Housing Relief Act of 2016 

This bill provides an additional allocation of low-income housing tax credits for Indiana by increasing the state housing credit ceiling in 2017 and 2018.

The bill requires the state housing credit ceiling for Indiana to be increased for 2017 and 2018 by the lesser of: (1) the aggregate housing credit dollar amount allocated for such calendar year by the state housing credit agency of Indiana to buildings located in Lake County, Indiana; or (2) the additional allocation amount calculated by multiplying $18 by the population of Lake County, Indiana.

In the case of 2018, the additional allocation amount taken into account must be reduced by the amount of the increase in the state housing credit ceiling for 2017 that is required by this bill.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-03-12 00:00:00

Alan Reinstein and Trevor Schaefer Toxic Chemical Protection Act

This bill amends the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to revise the regulation of chemicals.

 A safety standard is established to ensure with reasonable certainty that no harm to human health or the environment will result from exposure to a chemical under the intended or reasonable foreseeable conditions of use. The standard includes the protection of potentially exposed or susceptible populations. The standard does not take cost or other non-risk factors into consideration.

 The bill expands the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority to require the development of new information about a chemical.

By specified deadlines, the EPA must designate a certain number of existing chemicals as high or low priority for safety assessments and determinations and conduct risk-based safety assessments and determinations for high priority chemicals. Low-priority designations are subject to judicial review.

 The EPA must prohibit or restrict the manufacture, processing, use, distribution, or disposal of a new chemical, or a significant new use of an existing chemical, if the chemical will not likely meet the safety standard, or additional information is necessary to make a safety determination.

If a chemical does not meet the safety standard, the EPA must impose restrictions to assure that it meets the standard, or ban or phase out the chemical when the safety standard cannot be met with the application of those restrictions.

The EPA may declare a proposed rule effective upon publication to protect the public interest when certain activities involving chemicals are likely to result in a significant risk of serious or widespread injury to health or the environment.

The EPA must: (1) list all forms of asbestos as high-priority chemicals; and (2) expedite identification, assessment, and action on persistent, bio-accumulative, and toxic chemicals.

 Confidential business information claims to protect information related to chemicals must be substantiated by manufacturers or processors and reviewed by the EPA. The bill sets forth the types of information that are protected from disclosure and the duration of such protection.

The EPA must require manufacturers of chemical substances to pay fees to defray the cost of administering this bill.

The EPA must operate Regional Disease Cluster Information and Response Centers and Regional Disease Cluster Information and Response Teams and may award grants for technical assistance for the investigation and mitigation of a community-based disease cluster. A "disease cluster" means the occurrence of a greater-than-expected number of cases of a particular disease within a group of individuals, a geographic area, or a period of time.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-06-02 00:00:00

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

Brownfields Utilization, Investment, and Local Development Act of 2015 or the BUILD Act

This bill amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 to revise programs and funding regarding brownfields. (Brownfields are certain commercial properties that are hindered from reuse or redevelopment due to the presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.)

(Sec. 2) The bill makes certain nonprofit organizations and community development entities eligible for brownfields revitalization funding.

(Sec. 3) The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must establish a program to provide multipurpose grants to carry out inventory, characterization, assessment, planning, or remediation activities at brownfield sites.

(Sec. 4) The brownfield site characterization and assessment grant program is revised by authorizing eligible governmental entities to receive grants for property that was acquired before January 11, 2002, even if the entities do not qualify as bona fide prospective purchasers.

(Sec. 5) The bill increases the cap on the amount that may be given in grants and loans for each site to be remediated.

(Sec. 7) The EPA must establish a grant program that provides training, research, and technical assistance to facilitate the inventory of brownfield sites, site assessments, remediation of brownfield sites, community involvement, or site preparation. (Currently, the EPA may provide funding for this purpose.) The bill authorizes the EPA to use up to a specified amount of the funding made available for the grant program on grants to assist small communities, Indian tribes, rural areas, or disadvantaged areas. (A small community is one with a population of no more than 15,000 individuals and a disadvantaged area has an annual median household income that is less than 80% of the state-wide annual median household income.)

(Sec. 8) The EPA must give consideration to waterfront brownfield sites located adjacent to bodies of water or federally designated floodplains when providing brownfield grants.

(Sec. 9) The EPA must establish a program to provide grants to: (1) carry out inventory, characterization, assessment, planning, feasibility analysis, design, or remediation activities to locate a clean energy project at brownfield sites; and (2) capitalize a revolving loan fund for those purposes. A clean energy project means: (1) a facility that generates renewable electricity from wind, solar, or geothermal energy; and (2) any energy efficiency improvement project at a facility.

(Sec. 11) The bill: (1) reauthorizes through FY2018 and revises brownfields revitalization funding, and (2) reauthorizes through FY2018 state and tribal response programs (programs responding to brownfields).
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-09-22 00:00:00

Gold King Mine Spill Recovery Act of 2015

This bill entitles persons to compensation for allowable damages (i.e., property, business, or financial losses) under the Federal Tort Claims Act if they were injured by the spill into Cement Creek from the Gold King Mine near Silverton, Colorado. The spill occurred on August 5, 2015.

The bill establishes an Office of Gold King Mine Spill Claims within the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to process and pay compensation claims.

The EPA must work with affected states and Indian tribes to develop, fund, and implement a long-term monitoring program for water quality of the Animas and San Juan Rivers in response to the spill.

The bill amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 by requiring certain agencies to work with affected states as well as research universities to: (1) identify the most dangerous abandoned and inactive mines, (2) establish a priority plan for cleaning up those mines, (3) update the plan as new information becomes available, and (4) develop a long-term research initiative. That initiative must evaluate the physical, chemical, and geological attributes of closed, abandoned, and inactive mines and pursue technological developments to aid in the cleanup of those mines.

Prior to carrying out mine remediation activities, agencies must: (1) provide affected tribal, state, and local governments notice of such activities; and (2) develop a spill prevention, control, and countermeasures plan for avoiding and mitigating the impacts of a spill.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-10-05 00:00:00

This bill removes the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) immunity from claims relating to the August 2015 spill of hazardous waste from an abandoned gold mine in Colorado into the Animas River and the San Juan River.

Civil actions relating to that spill must be commenced within 10 years after the cause of action accrues.

The EPA must work with states and Indian tribes affected by the spill to develop, fund, and implement a long-term monitoring program for water and sediment quality of those rivers.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2015-12-14 00:00:00

Superfund Polluter Pays Restoration Act of 2015

 This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) reinstate the Hazardous Substance Superfund financing rate beginning 60 days after enactment of this Act; (2) increase such rate from 9.7 cents to 15.8 cents per barrel of crude oil; (3) adjust for inflation in taxable years beginning after 2016 the $3.5 billion Superfund threshold after which no tax is imposed; (4) reinstate and increase the rates of tax on taxable chemicals; and (5) modify the definition of "crude oil" to include any bitumen or bituminous mixture, any oil derived from such mixture (including oil derived from tar sands), and any oil derived form kerogen-bearing sources (including oil derived from oil shale).

The bill amends the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 to allow the use of the Superfund for environmental remediation without further appropriation.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Taxation
Date: 2016-03-17 00:00:00

Creating Livable Environments And New Usable Property Act or the CLEAN UP Act

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend through 2019: (1) the exclusion of gain or loss on the sale or exchange of brownfield sites (land used for commercial or industrial purposes that has been contaminated with hazardous waste or pollution and has been cleaned up and made suitable for commercial or industrial uses) from unrelated business taxable income, and (2) the election to expense environmental remediation expenditures.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Labor and employment
Date: 2016-07-14 00:00:00

Fertilizer Access and Responsible Management Act or the FARM Act

This bill requires the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to withdraw its revised enforcement policy published on July 22, 2015, concerning the exemption of retail facilities from coverage of the process safety management of highly hazardous chemicals standard. (The standard contains requirements for managing hazards associated with processes using highly hazardous chemicals.)

OSHA, when promulgating a rule relating to the exemption of retail facilities from coverage of the standards, must provide an opportunity for the public to submit comments as specified by the bill and invite meaningful public input in the rulemaking.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Crime and law enforcement
Date: 2016-07-14 00:00:00

Illegal Synthetic Drug Safety Act of 2016

 This bill amends the Controlled Substances Act to modify the treatment of controlled substance analogues (i.e., substances that have substantially similar chemical structures and pharmacological effects to schedule I controlled substances).

Under current law, a controlled substance analogue that is intended for human consumption is treated as a schedule I controlled substance. This bill replaces the "intended for human consumption" qualifier with a "not a chemical substance subject to the Toxic Substances Control Act" qualifier. Specifically, a controlled substance analogue that is not a chemical substance under the Toxic Substances Control Act is treated as a schedule I controlled substance.
Topic: Environment — Hazardous Waste
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2016-09-28 00:00:00

Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2016

This bill amends the Toxic Substances Control Act by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency to: (1) identify and assess the importation, sale, and uses of, and exposures to, asbestos; and (2) impose requirements that permanently eliminate the possibility of human or environmental exposure to asbestos.

The bill allows the President to exempt any use of asbestos from the requirements if: (1) the use is necessary to protect national security interests, (2) no reasonable alternative to the asbestos use exists for the intended purpose, and (3) the use of asbestos will not result in an unreasonable risk to health or the environment.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2007-01-04 00:00:00

Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to provide for a permanent hold harmless provision for sole community hospitals under the Medicare prospective payment system (PPS) for covered outpatient department (OPD) services.Declares that, in the case of a sole community hospital for covered OPD services furnished after December 31, 2005, for which the PPS amount is less than the pre-BBA amount, the amount of payment shall be increased by the amount of such difference.(Pre-BBA amount means an amount equal to the product of the reasonable cost of the hospital for such services for the portions of the hospital's cost reporting period (or periods) occurring in the year and the base OPD payment-to-cost ratio for the hospital.)
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2007-01-18 00:00:00

Medicare Long-Term Care Hospital Improvement Act of 2007 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to prescribe requirements for a long-term care hospital (LTCH) and patient criteria for prospective payment to an LTCH. Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) determine the LTCH diagnosis related groups (LTCH-DRGs) associated with a high severity of illness for specified medical conditions; and (2) study and report to Congress on appropriate quality measures for Medicare patients receiving care in LTCHs.Directs the Secretary to choose three quality measures from the study for LTCHs to report.Amends the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 to require annual updates of LTCH base rates and wage indices and the reweighting of LTCH-DRGs. Prohibits the Secretary from extending application of the 25% (or applicable percentage) patient threshold payment adjustment to freestanding LTCHs.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2007-01-22 00:00:00

Puerto Rico Medicare Reimbursement Equity Act of 2007 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to revise the formula for the Medicare inpatient hospital services payment rate for Puerto Rico hospitals to: (1) reduce the applicable Puerto Rico percentage from 25% to zero; and (2) increase the applicable federal percentage from 75% to 100%.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2007-01-22 00:00:00

Puerto Rico Hospitals Medicare DSH Equity Act of 2007 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to prescribe a formula for the calculation of Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments for prospective payment system hospitals in Puerto Rico.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2007-02-07 00:00:00

Amends the Public Health Service Act to deem certain physicians or other licensed or certified health care practitioners to be employees of the Public Health Service for purposes of any civil action that may arise due to services provided in an emergency area by a contractor or an employee of a qualified health center. Provides that such services must be provided under an arrangement with a qualified health center or with a federal agency with responsibility for providing health services in the emergency area.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2007-02-07 00:00:00

Access to Emergency Medical Services Act of 2007 - Establishes the United States Bipartisan Commission on Access to Emergency Medical Services to: (1) identify and examine factors in the health care delivery, financing, and legal systems that affect the effective delivery of screening and stabilization services furnished in hospitals that have emergency departments pursuant to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA); and (2) make specific recommendations to Congress with respect to federal programs, policies, and financing needed to assure the availability of such screening and stabilization services and the coordination of state, local, and federal programs for responding to disasters and emergencies. Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to provide for additional payments for certain physicians' emergency services furnished pursuant to EMTALA. Requires critical access hospitals with an emergency department to report annually to the Secretary of Health and Human Services information on the hospital's average admission period for the year. Requires the Secretary to post the reported information promptly on the official public Internet site of the Department of Health and Human Services. Directs the Secretary, based on the information reported for 2008, to develop an emergency department quality measure, if it is determined that one should be included in the performance measures hospitals are required to report.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Armed forces and national security
Date: 2007-02-16 00:00:00

Directs the Secretary of Defense to provide medical personnel of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) with access to all information provided in the Department of Defense (DOD) patient tracking and management system for the purpose of treating an individual at a VA medical facility for injuries sustained while serving in Operations Iraqi Freedom or Enduring Freedom.
Topic: Health — Medical Facilities
Subject: Health
Date: 2007-02-16 00:00:00

Healthy Hospitals Act of 2007 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require public reporting of health care-associated infections data by hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. Authorizes the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a pilot program under Medicare to provide financial incentives or grants to hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers that demonstrate a satisfactory reduction in the rate of occurrence (or elimination) of health care-associated infections in the applicable hospital or ambulatory surgical center. Expresses the sense of Congress that health care providers and facilities should take measures to reduce the rate of occurrence of health care-associated infections to zero, with respect to patients to whom such providers and facilities furnish services.