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 create and save 3.5 million jobs, jumpstart our economy, and transform it for the 21st century, with unprecedented accountability measures—no earmarks, new state whistleblower protections, strong oversight, and an historic degree of public transparency online at www.recovery.gov. The Act:
- gives 95% of American workers one of the fastest and broadest tax cuts in history
- creates and saves jobs to solve the nation’s greatest challenges:
- clean, renewable energy and energy efficiency
- science, innovation, and education
- health care to lower costs and improve care with electronic medical records
- extend high-speed internet to businesses and schools in every community across America
- begins to rebuild America’s road, rail, and water infrastructure with significant new investments
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
HEADING TO PRESIDENT’S DESK
FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT, to strengthen oversight of the financial stability fund known as TARP – sending this critical accountability measure (passed by the Senate on Feb. 4) to the President’s desk.
S. 383 Passed March 25, 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
HELPING FAMILIES SAVE THEIR HOMES ACT, building on the President’s efforts, and providing significant incentives to lenders, servicers, and homeowners to work together to modify loans and to avoid foreclosures—costing families their homes every 13 seconds in America; and in some cases, allowing bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of loans for families with existing mortgages.
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
HELPING FAMILIES SAVE THEIR HOMES, which takes a key step in putting into force President Obama’s comprehensive Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan.
H.R. 1106 Passed March 5, 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
MAKING MORE PROGRESS IN ENDING 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 President Obama’s plan to get the economy moving again—after eight years of the lowest job growth in three quarters of a century—and lay the foundation for lasting prosperity and economic growth. The House budget:
- Cuts the Bush deficit by nearly two-thirds by 2013
- Cuts taxes for middle income families by $1.5 trillion
- Creates jobs with targeted investments in affordable health care, clean energy, and education
- Reduces non-defense discretionary spending to its lowest level as a percent of the economy in nearly half a century
- Makes an historic investment in Veterans’ health care and services
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
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