$--Care To Donate?--$

Details...Click Here

For an e-mail reminder of updates

Click Here    Privacy Policy Here

The Week in 800 Words ––  Tell Them What You Think: House / Senate––Newest Public Laws––Features–– Archives

Monthly Budget Review–Last Week––Contact Us––About Us––Legal––Privacy

          The Week In Congress .com                    

Week Ending August 5, 2005                August Recess Edition #1                               Volume 2 Number 24

Welcome to the first of five "Summer Reading" Editions of TheWeekInCongress.com

This week we take a look at some of the new laws we now live under

Tax Relief and Similar Bills

2005 Tsunami Donations Deductible in 2004

The first new public law of the 109th Congress, 1st session, provides for an immediate tax break on 2004 taxes for cash donations made in 2005 to aid the South Asia tsunami relief effort. Americans, by January 7, 2005, had already donated $100 million. HR 241 PL 109-1

Photo: MorgueFiles.com

Flood Insurance Mitigation Payments Made Tax Free

Mitigation grants prevent damages from future natural disasters. Grants are provided to prevent flood damage to properties in floodplains for replacing or strengthening roofs and windows and other measures that would reduce the impact of future storms and problems including earthquake damage. FEMA calculates the potential cost of disaster damage to a facility and then cuts a grant that is less than the expected cost of damage. The IRS determined in 2004 that the payments are income and so taxable. The bill reverses that IRS decision Average payout-$83,000 HR1134

Photo: DHS

International Spending

The President's supplemental spent $82 billion to replenish military supplies, continue the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, aid victims of the December 2004 tsunamis and continue the war on terrorism. The law enacts the requirement that States produce a uniform ID card necessary for boarding planes and other activities the Federal government manages. Immigration law provisions and military death benefits are a large part of the law. HR1268 PL 109-13

Photo: DOD

Trade: DR-CAFTA

The Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement sets forth the guidelines for American's next excursion into the global economy.

   The ultimate outcome of any trade bill, this one included, is to increase trade thereby increase manufacturing, therefore jobs and a stimulated economy. Trading with countries among which are a few of the poorest on earth would seek the same ends but with a few added steps in the beginning-The poor Central American countries in the deal would attract investments from around the world, including the US, to do manufacturing business in those poor countries where labor is inexpensive and products necessary for manufacturing exports are cheap and arrive without tariff charges. An influx of foreign investment would eventually raise the standard of living in those countries, make more money available and increase the potential for higher end exports from the US. HR3045

Sanctions

Sanctions against Burma (Myanmar) is the subject of a joint House/Senate resolution  “No article may be imported into the United States that is produced, mined, manufactured, grown, or assembled in Burma”, the Act reads. HJR52

Several Laws Dealt with Modifying Court Procedures, Overriding Court Decisions

How and where class action lawsuits are handled was the subject of the Second public law this year. Under Class Action Lawsuit Reform most suits would be heard in Federal courts. The action was taken to direct such suits away from 'magnet courts'; court locations that have proven to be generous to plaintiffs. The bill also revises coupon settlements where Complainants are paid in coupons for goods or services rather than in cash. Attorney fees would be regulated as well. S5 PL 109-2

Terry Schaivo

One of the more popularized legislative matters this year was Congress's intervention in the the Terry Schaivo matter in Florida. The bill provided the parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo, a Florida woman who had been in what some called a vegetative state for nearly 15 years and who’s life support systems were removed by a Florida court, the opportunity to have the case heard de novo by a Federal court also in Florida. The case had been litigated extensively always to the same end: According to her husband Ms. Schiavo’s wishes when she was whole was not to live on life support. Her parents did not believe that was her wish and wanted to take care of her for the remainder of her life. Adding urgency to the matter the most recent court hearing resulted in the removal of Ms. Schiavo’s feeding tubes only days earlier. The de novo ruling would require the Federal judge to hear the case anew although he would rely on previous evidence and testimony. The Federal judge did not reverse the court supported decision to remove the feeding tube. S686 PL 109-3

Bankruptcy Reform

The Bankruptcy Reform bill aimed to make filing for bankruptcy under Chapter 13 of the IRS code more of a challenge. Chapter 13 erases most if not all debts and was seen as allowing too many people to circumvent their debts and then, through one State law mechanism or another hold onto valuable assets or even gather assets protected from creditors before going bankrupt. Basically, the law allows all parties to a bankruptcy action to challenge the filer's assertion that even some of the debt can not be paid. S256

Copyright Infringement and Editing Movies

Making and selling copies of movies in a theater could result in three years in jail. The law also sets as a crime “…distribution of a computer program, musical work, motion picture or other audiovisual work or sound recording being prepared for commerical distribution but not yet distributed to the market if the distributor knew the product was destined to market". Exempt from copyright laws is the technology and process of editing movies and videos shown in a private home as long as a permanent copy of the video is not made. That element of the law addresses new technology and the business of editing out content considered lewd, overly violent, etcetera. S167

Medical Matters and Your Health

Although the Medical Malpractice Reform bill passed the House it has not yet been considered in the Senate. That bill would provide for compensatory awards for lost work and other costs to those injured by doctors, hospitals or medications. Punitive damages would be limited and would not be awarded unless the complainant proves that the procedure, device or medication was intended to do harm. HR5.

 

Patient Navigator Training

   The President signed in to law two bills of medical significance. The patient navigator bill provides demonstration grants to train patient navigators. A Patient Navigator would be a person who is trained and knowledgeable about directing the ill to early diagnosis and proper treatment, find health insurance and, when appropriate, participate in clinical trials for new treatments. Patients challenged with cancer and other major diseases would be the likely group to receive the service. HR1812

Patient Safety Database

Patient Safety is the subject of a law that would test the creation a national database of patient information. The selling point of the bill was that a person injured far from home would benefit from medical records being instantly available for the attending physician. Consequently, fewer errors would be made by the physician because he or she could refer to the patient's medical records. The law is more of a test flight that runs parallel to a 2004 Presidential directive that the Dept of Health and Human Services look into the viability of establishing a nationwide system of interoperable computers containing patient data. The law provides for a system that would not produce any connection between the patient identity and the records. S544.

Medical Devices

Medical devices now fall under a new schedule of payments to the FDA for pre-market testing services. Companies normally paying around $150,000 for the tests will now pay $281,000. HR3423

Drug Addiction

Medication proven highly successful in weaning drug addicts away from narcotics can only per prescribed to thirty patients per doctor but a clinic of doctors still functioned under the thirty patient rule. The new law allows clinics to prescribe popular drugs to more patients S45

Selling US Narcotics Abroad

US manufactured narcotics can only be shipped to the foreign country where they will be used. The new law allows for trans-shipment to other countries from the country of original delivery. S1395

Miscellaneous New Laws

Satellites and Your Cell Phone

INTELSAT is an organization of governments and private business that handle satellite communications. The creation of the organization goes back to 1979 and the current bill made into law would take one of several steps towards privatizing some elements of the operation. S1282.

Photo: NASA

  Washington's White Salomon River now a wilderness HR38; 

  Colorado's Sand Creek Massacre National Historic site created HR 481;

  Old cemeteries preserved in Nevada HR541;  Storing water in Wyoming HR1046;

  Women suffragettes HJRES59.