Legislation of the 111th Congress

The 111th Congress is off to a strong start, passing a budget that is a blueprint for America’s economic recovery and jobs—and sustainable growth for years to come.  The budget lays the foundation for the bold agenda of President Obama and this Congress to take America in a New Direction: affordable health care, clean energy, educational excellence, fiscal responsibility, and tax fairness.

SIGNED INTO LAW

LILLY LEDBETTER FAIR PAY ACT, to restore the rights of women and other workers to challenge unfair pay—to help close the wage gap where women earn 78 cents for every $1 a man earns in America.
H.R. 11 Signed Into Law January 29, 2009

HEALTH CARE FOR 11 MILLION CHILDREN, to finally provide cost-effective health coverage for 4 million more children whose parents earn too little to provide their own insurance, but too much to qualify for Medicaid, and preserve coverage for 7 million children already enrolled.
H.R. 2 Signed Into Law February 4, 2009

DIGITAL TELEVISION DELAY, which will help mitigate anticipated challenges for consumers posed by the digital television (“DTV”) transition
S. 352 Signed Into Law February 11, 2009

AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT, enacted in the first month of President Obama’s term, to jumpstart our economy, create and save 3.5 million jobs, give 95% of American workers a tax cut, and begin to rebuild America’s road, rail, and water infrastructure, with unprecedented accountability measures — no earmarks, new state whistleblower protections, and an historic degree of transparency at www.recovery.gov.
H.R. 1 Signed Into Law February 17, 2009

2009 APPROPRIATIONS BILLS, which finishes the appropriations process for fiscal year 2009.
H.R. 1105 Signed Into Law March 11, 2009

OMNIBUS PUBLIC LANDS MANAGEMENT ACT 0F 2009, the most significant conservation bill in 15 years, a big boost to economic development and tourism at 160 mostly rural American sites; creating 2 million new acres of wilderness across 9 states; establishing 3 new national park units; designating 1,000 miles of wild and scenic rivers; designating a National Monument and 3 National Conservation Areas; protecting world-class hunting land in the Wyoming Range; and recognizing new Historic Sites and Heritage Areas.
H.R. 146 Signed Into Law March 30, 2009

EDWARD M. KENNEDY SERVE AMERICA ACT, tripling volunteerism opportunities for national service for 250,000 Americans, for everyone from students to retirees; creating new service corps for education, health care, energy and veterans; establishing a Summer of Service opportunity for middle and high school students; and increasing the financial award for volunteering college students.
H.R. 1388 Signed Into Law April 21, 2009

STRENGTHENING OVERSIGHT OF TARP, to expand the authority of the TARP Special Inspector General, to help ensure that taxpayers’ funds are effectively used to get credit flowing to businesses and families.
S. 383 Signed Into Law April 24, 2009

HELPING FAMILIES SAVE THEIR HOMES ACT, building on the President’s housing initiative, to provide significant incentives to lenders, servicers, and homeowners to work together to modify loans and to avoid foreclosures, which cost families their homes every 13 seconds in America.
H.R. 1106 Signed Into Law May 20, 2009

FIGHTING MORTGAGE AND CORPORATE FRAUD & CREATING COMMISSION ON CAUSES OF CRISIS, to provide tools for prosecuting the mortgage scams and corporate frauds that contributed to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression; and to create an outside commission to examine its causes.
S. 386 Signed Into Law May 20, 2009

MILITARY PROCUREMENT REFORM, to crack down on Pentagon waste and cost overruns, which GAO says amount to $296 billion just for the 96 largest weapons systems, by dramatically beefing up oversight of weapons acquisition, promoting greater use of competition, and curbing conflicts of interest.
S. 454 Signed Into Law May 22, 2009

CREDIT CARDHOLDERS BILL OF RIGHTS, to provide tough new protections for consumers by banning unfair rate increases, abusive fees, and penalties—such as retroactive rate hikes on existing balances and double-cycle billing — giving consumers clear information, and strengthening enforcement.
H.R. 627 Signed Into Law May 22, 2009

PASSED BY HOUSE

TARP ACCOUNTABILITY AND PAY FOR PERFORMANCE ACT, to strengthen accountability of the financial rescue effort launched by President Bush; support President Obama’s refocusing of efforts to get credit flowing to businesses and families and provide new tools to fix the housing foreclosure crisis; to set up an Inspector General to monitor TARP spending; and ban unreasonable compensation to top employees at participating institutions.
TARP Accountability (H.R. 384) Passed January 21, 2009
Pay for Performance Act (H.R. 1664) Passed April 1, 2009

CAMPUS SAFETY, which is designed to enable our colleges and universities to easily obtain the best information available on how to keep their campuses safe and how to respond in the event of a campus emergency. 
H.R. 748 Passed February 3, 2009

STOPPING ABUSE IN TEEN PROGRAMS, which would keep teens safe with new national standards for residential programs that are focused on teens with behavioral, emotional, or mental health, or substance abuse problems
H.R. 911 Passed February 23, 2009

WATER QUALITY INVESTMENT ACT, to launch clean water projects across America, creating an estimated 680,000 jobs over the next five years.
H.R. 1262 Passed March 12, 2009

HOMELAND SECURITY BILLS, including the Reducing Over-Classification Act, H.R. 553; the Fair, Accurate, Secure, and Timely (FAST) Redress Act, H.R. 559; and the National Bombing Prevention Act, H.R. 549.
Passed February 3, 2009

BONUS RECOUPMENT, which would hold companies, including American International Group (AIG), accountable for the bonuses that were paid to their executives.
H.R. 1586 Passed March 19, 2009

EMERGENCY WILDFIRE SUPPRESSION, creating a federal FLAME fund for catastrophic, emergency wildland fire suppression activities to be used when annually appropriated funds run out.
H.R. 1404 Passed March 26, 2009

VETERANS BILLS, to provide earned benefits and crucial services to our veterans, who have served with honor and bravery.   These measures provide a cost of living increase for veterans’ disability benefits, expand employment services for homeless veterans, and fully reimburse veterans for emergency care.
H.R. 1513, H.R. 1171, and H.R. 1377 Passed March 30, 2009

PUBLIC HEALTH BILLS, in recognition of Public Health Week, the House passed eight key public health bills.
Passed March 30 and 31, 2009

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, which provides a federal media shield. The bill would provide journalists with a qualified privilege as to sources and information, while at the same time, recognizing the need for effective law enforcement and robust national security.
H.R. 985 Passed March 31, 2009

REDUCING MILITARY FAMILIES TAX, which currently unfairly penalizes the 55,000 surviving spouses of military personnel who died as a result of their service-connected injuries.
H.R. 1804 Passed April 1, 2009

BUDGET BLUEPRINT, reflecting the President’s plan to get the economy moving again, by cutting taxes for middle-income families by $1.5 trillion and creating jobs with targeted investments in health care, clean energy and education – while cutting the Bush deficit by nearly two-thirds by 2013.
H. Con. Res. 85 Passed April 2, 2009

FDA REGULATION OF TOBACCO, granting the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate the advertising, marketing, and manufacturing of tobacco products, currently the number-one cause of preventable death in America, responsible for about 1 in 5 deaths each year, $193 billion annually in health care costs and lost productivity, and 1,000 children each day becoming new, regular smokers.
H.R. 1256 Passed April 2, 2009

ENVIRONMENTAL BILLS, in recognition of Earth Day, the House passed the Electronic Device Recycling Research and Development Act and the Green Energy Education Act.
H.R. 1580 and H.R. 957 Passed April 22, 2009

PUTTING 50,000 COPS ON THE BEAT, to authorize $1.8 billion a year for COPS grants over the next five years, which will fund putting an additional 50,000 police officers on the street across the country.
H.R. 1139 Passed April 23, 2009

WATER RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, to coordinate national research and development efforts on water and provide a clear path forward to ensure adequate water supplies for generations to come.  It will ensure that we have an effective national water strategy that uses federal research and development dollars efficiently and eliminates redundant programs.
H.R. 1145 Passed April 23, 2009

HATE CRIMES PREVENTION ACT, to give law enforcement the resources they need to prevent and prosecute hate crimes against Americans because of their gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability, as well as because of their race, color, religion, or national origin.
H.R. 1913 Passed April 29, 2009

MORTGAGE REFORM AND ANTI-PREDATORY LENDING, which responds to the subprime mortgage crisis by instituting much needed reform to prevent these bad loans from being made in the first place. It stops the kinds of predatory and irresponsible mortgage loan practices that played a major role in the current financial and economic meltdown and prevents borrowers from deliberately misstating their income to qualify for a loan.
H.R. 1728 Passed May 7, 2009

GREEN SCHOOL MODERNIZATION, to provide critical investments to modernize, renovate, and repair school facilities across the country, while encouraging energy efficiency and creating nearly 140,000 new jobs. 
H.R. 2187 Passed May 14, 2009

JOB CREATION THROUGH ENTREPRENEURSHIP, a major effort to give established small businesses and entrepreneurial start-ups the needed tools and resources to thrive, create jobs and drive economic growth.
H.R. 2352 Passed May 20, 2009

WAR SUPPLEMENTAL BILL, to provide funds for the remainder of FY 2009 to provide our troops in harm’s way with what they need, implement the President’s plans for winding down the war in Iraq and changing strategy in Afghanistan, require a report on progress, and fund pandemic flu response.

ADOPTED AS HOUSE POLICY

OVERSIGHT HEARINGS ON WASTE, FRAUD, AND ABUSE, required of every House committee to regularly conduct oversight on Federal agencies and spending, reversing years of lax Congressional oversight; builds on the more than 1,400 hearings held in the New Direction Congress in 2007 – 2008.
H.Res. 40 Passed January 14, 2009

EARMARK REFORM, the 111th Congress continues reform, cutting in half the amount of Congressionally-designated spending; and providing unprecedented transparency about who’s requesting the funding.

HOUSE RULES PACKAGE, setting forth the internal rules governing the structure, composition, decorum, and debate in the House for the 111th Congress. This Rules Package for the 111th Congress builds on the reforms of the 110th Congress to further strengthen the integrity of this institution and enable Congress to work more effectively. 
H. Res. 5 Passed January 6, 2009

ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY, with two key government reform bills that were passed by the House in the 110th Congress but were never acted upon in the Senate:  the Presidential Records Act Amendments, which restores meaningful public access to presidential records by nullifying a 2001 Bush executive order, and the Presidential Library Donation Reform Act, which requires the disclosure of big donors to presidential libraries.
H.R. 35 and H.R. 36 Passed January 7, 2009

RECOGNIZING THE PLIGHT OF THE TIBETAN PEOPLE, a resolution recognizing the plight of the Tibetan people on the 50th anniversary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama being forced into exile, and calling for a sustained multilateral effort to bring about a durable and peaceful solution to the Tibet issue.
H. Res. 226 Passed Marcdh 11, 2009