More bills than anyone could possible read were passed by a
branch of Congress in June, including the 994 page National Defense
Authorization Act (NDAA), four government funding bills, and thirty
bills governing a wide range of topics, including Wall Street,
MediCare, fishing, carbon dioxide emissions, stolen art, chemical
storage, taxes, and more.
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New Congressman
Rep. Trent Kelly of
Mississippi's 1st district was sworn into office
His #2 contributor is ICE Group, (stands for Intercontinental
Exchange) which is a network of financial exchanges and clearing
houses; it operates eleven exchanges, including three in the United
States, Canada, and Europe that deal with agriculture futures.
Regional Fishery Management Council meetings will have to be
posted online
All requirements of the the National Environmental Policy Act
and all related implementing regulations will be
deemed approved if the Regional Fishery Management Council
completes a fishery impact statement.
Creates a pilot program for using electronic monitoring at
fisheries.
Repeals independent peer-reviewed analysis' of the quality of
statistics collected on fishing populations and a requirement for
catch
limits for Gulf of Mexico red snapper for recreational and
commercial fishermen
Ensures that this law will trump the National Marine
Sanctuaries Act, the Antiquities Act, and the Endangered Species
Act
Prohibits the government from factoring in red snapper killer
during the removal of offshore oil rigs when determining catch
limits.
Prohibits the government from factoring fish caught by foreign
vessels in the U.S. economic zone when determining catch
limits.
Requires new guidelines be issued that will use nongovernmental
sources for fisheries management decisions.
Removes the
requirement that the CFTC be immune from lawsuits that arise
from sharing data about swaps with domestic and foreign authorities
and
backdates this change to July 21, 2010, the effective date of
Dodd Frank Financial Reform.
Adds "a utility operations-related swap" to the list of swaps
that can be traded, which
allows gambling on the future of natural gas or electric
generation, purchases, sales, supplies or delivery.
His top 5 contributors over the course of his career are, in
this order, the American Institute of
CPA's an international association of accountants, KPMG LLP,
a multinational corporation specializing in auditing and regulation
compliance, PricewaterhouseCoopers,
and even larger multinational corporation specializing in
regulation compliance, Energy Future Holdings
Corp, a portfolio of energy companies, and
Deloitte LLP, the self-proclaimed "world's
largest" multinational corporation that specializes in auditing
and risk management. From these five companies, Conaway has taken
at least $319,873.
H.R. 2200:
CBRN Intelligence and Information Sharing Act of 2015
Allows the Office of Intelligence an Analysis of the Department
of Homeland Security to share information and work with the
Intelligence community to analyze possible chemical, biological,
radiological, and nuclear attacks.
Allows the Department of Homeland Security to share information
related to terrorist attacks with the public.
If the risk evaluation is requested by a manufacturer, the
manufacturer will pay for the risk assessment
The EPA
will be required to do at least 10 risk assessments per year
"subject to the availability of appropriations".
Adds an exemption for "replacement parts" from the EPA rules
prohibiting chemicals unless the replacement parts "contribute
significantly to the identified risk".
Adds the requirement that any rules created "shall provide for
a reasonable transition period."
Eliminates the requirement for an informal hearing when making
rules about toxic chemicals.
Allows data to be shared with State, local, or tribal
governments and with health care professionals to assist with
diagnosis or treatment.
Forces companies that want to keep information confidential to
explain their reasons and automatically releases the information to
the public in 10 years, unless the company justifies the
confidentiality again in writing.
Eliminates caps of fees that can be collected and creates a
"TSCA Service Fee Fund" to collect, store, and disperse the
funds to pay for the EPA's costs for regulating chemicals.
Orders the Chief Freedom of Information Act Officer of the
Department of Homeland Security to update Freedom of Information
Act regulations within 90 days of the bill's passage.
Orders the Chief FOIA Officer to identify the total annual cost
of implementing the FOIA within 90 days.
Orders the Chief FOIA Officer to identify unnecessary actions
taken in the course of processing requests and eliminate them
within a year of identifying them.
Orders the Chief FOIA Officer to develop a plan to to process
requests electronically.
Orders the Chief FOIA Officer to issue guidance to the
necessary people to reach the goal of reducing the FOIA request
backlog by 50 percent by 2018.
Adds a requirement for additional research into new water
treatments into the Water Resources Research Act
Requires an evaluation of water resource research projects
every three years and withdraws funds from projects that do not
qualify based on the evaluation.
H.R. 2088:
United States Grain Standards Act Reauthorization Act of 2015
Reauthorizes the Department of Agriculture's process for grain
inspections until September 30, 2020.
Forces the Secretary of Agriculture to waive weighting and
inspections of grain in an "emergency, a major disaster";
currently, the Secretary has the option to do so, but does not have
to.
A
"major disaster" is defined to specifically include "a sever
weather incident causing a region-wide interruption of government
services".
Changes the location of export inspections to specifically
"export elevators" at export port locations.
Widens the criteria for who is qualified to perform official
inspections by deleting a list of requirements.
Delegations of authority to conduct grain inspections to a State
will expire every five years, and my be renewed.
Adds a public comment period before the Secretary can delegate
inspection responsibility to a State and
requires a notice in the Federal Register announcing if the
State was approved and the rational for the decision.
The State would have to give at least
90 days notice advanced notice in writing to the Dept. of
Agriculture if they want to stop performing grain inspections,
unless there has been a major disaster.
The public must be given online a list of the States delegated
to perform official inspections, which needs to be updated at least
twice a year.
Passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote
Sponsored by Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas's 11th district
Extends mandatory price reporting requirements for livestock
until September 30, 2020.
Clarifies that reports are expected on days the Dept. of
Agriculture is open for business, including days when the
government is "on shutdown or emergency furlough as a result of a
lapse in appropriations".
Allows transactions between pork packers and producers to take
place using a new pricing formula.
Changes the definition of an importer of lamb to include anyone
who imports an average of 1,000 metric tons per year;
currently importers have to comply with regulations if they
import and average of 2,500 metric tons of lamb per year.
Changes the definition of a lamb packer to someone who owns 50%
or more of a facility and slaughters an average of 35,000 heads of
lambs per year;
currently if they slaughter 75,000 lambs per year.
Passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote
Sponsored by Rep. Michael Conaway of Texas's 11th district
H.R. 2394:
National Forest Foundation Reauthorization Act of 2015
Reauthorizes and
appropriates $3 million per year until 2018 for the National
Forest Foundation Act, which established a partnership with a
non-profit to study and restore national forests.
H.R. 889:
Foreign Cultural Exchange Jurisdictional Immunity Clarification
Act
Prohibits art imported into the United States to be temporarily
displayed from being seized by the United States, even if that art
is discovered to have been stolen.
Requires criminal background checks of any person who lives in
a house applying to provide foster care to an Indian child and
prohibits placement if anyone in the home is found to have
committed certain crimes.
S. 246: Alyce
Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children
Act
Establishes the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff
Commission on Native Children.
All 11 members will be appointed by the
President and Congressional leaders and their appointments will be
for the entire duration of the commission.
The Commission's job will be to
complete a study on the effectiveness of programs aimed at the
health and education of native children and to make recommendations
for fixing the inadequacies.
H.R. 1493:
Protect and Preserve International Cultural Property Act
Directs the State Department to designate an existing employee
to coordinate efforts to protect art around the world from being
stolen and/or destroyed.
Establishes a committee, which will meet once a year and be
made up of representatives from various Federal agencies, who will
"coordinate and inform Federal efforts to protect international
cultural property".
Blocks importation of "archaeological or ethnological material
of Syria" starting 120 days after the bills enactment.
The import restrictions
will expire in five years, but can be extended.
Passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote
Sponsored by Rep. Eliot Engel of New York's 16th district
S. 253:
Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act
Orders a public report every two years on competition,
availability of services, and regulatory barriers to entry into the
communications services business.
Repeals an annual public
report on privatization of the communications services
industry, which includes public comments.
Repeals an
annual report on foreign and domestic competition in the
communications satellite market.
Eliminates an annual report
on the "status of competition in the market for the delivery of
video programming".
Eliminates the requirement that a report on cable industry
price be completed annually.
Eliminates the requirement that a report on regulatory barriers
be reviewed every three years.
Eliminates an
FCC analysis "of whether any of such competitors have a
dominant share of the market"
Value based insurance allows insurance companies flexibility
with co-payments, allowing them to lower co-payments for services
deemed to be "high value" preventative services and increasing
rates for services with uncertain value. It's designed to "create
financial disincentives for poor health choices".
The demonstration projects
would not allow increases in co-payments to discourage the use
of services.
Passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote
Sponsored by Rep. Diane Black of Tennessee's 6th district
Prohibits the government from terminating a contract for a
Medicare Advantage organization because it fails to meet minimum
quality standards until the end of 2018.
Passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote
Sponsored by Rep. Vern Buchanan of Florida's 16th district
H.R. 1633:
DHS Paid Administrative Leave Accountability Act of 2015
Article: Administrative Leave Restrictions at DHS Backed,
FedWeek, July 8, 2015.
Orders a report to be completed by the Department of Homeland
Security four times per year on the number of people on paid
administrative leave for more than six months and the cost
associated.
Passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote
Sponsored by Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia's 11th
district
H.R. 1646:
Homeland Security Drone Assessment and Analysis Act
Orders a report on how commercially available small and medium
sized drones could be used to commit terrorist attacks and what the
Department of Homeland Security could do to stop this type of
attack.
Passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote
Sponsored by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey's 12th
district
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