Economic Equity Act

Economic Equity Act - Title I: Employment Opportunities - Subtitle A: Nontraditional Employment for Women Act - Nontraditional Employment for Women Act - Amends the Job Training Partnership Act to modify requirements regarding women in nontraditional employment (defined as occupations or fields where women comprise less than 25 percent of the individuals) relating to: (1) job training plans and coordination and special services plans; (2) the duties of the State job training coordinating council; and (3) the use of certain funds.

Requires States to develop demonstration programs to train and place women in nontraditional employment.

Subtitle B: Worker Retraining Act of 1991 - Worker Retraining Act of 1991 - Mandates grants to not more than ten States to plan, establish, and operate worker retraining initiatives to allow employed low-income individuals to advance from low skill to higher skill positions. Authorizes appropriations.

Subtitle C: Women in Apprenticeship Occupations and Nontraditional Occupations Act - Women in Apprenticeship Occupations and Nontraditional Occupations Act - Requires the Department of Labor to promote an outreach program to employers to inform employers of the availability of technical assistance in preparing the work place to employ women in apprenticeable occupations and other nontraditional occupations.

Mandates a report to the Congress on the participation of women in apprenticeable and other nontraditional occupations.

Subtitle D: Glass Ceiling Act of 1991 - Glass Ceiling Act of 1991 - Establishes a Glass Ceiling Commission to study and report to the President and appropriate committees of the Congress concerning: (1) eliminating artificial barriers to the advancement of women and minorities; and (2) increasing the opportunities and developmental experiences of women and minorities to foster advancement to management and decision making positions in business.

Establishes the National Award for Diversity and Excellence in American Executive Management. Allows a recipient business to publicize the receipt of the award and use the award in its advertising, if the business agrees to help other U.S. businesses improve with respect to the promotion of opportunities and developmental experiences of women and minorities to foster the advancement of women and minorities to management and decision making positions.

Authorizes appropriations. Terminates the Commission and the authority to make awards four years after enactment of this Act.

Subtitle E: Women and Minorities in Science and Mathematics Act of 1991 - Women and Minorities in Science and Mathematics Act of 1991 - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 with regard to women and minorities who are underrepresented in science and mathematics to mandate grants and contracts for education programs.

Modifies existing provisions regarding: (1) off-campus programs; (2) adult and continuing education staff development; (3) research and research application in adult and continuing education; (4) the "talent search" and "upward bound" programs; (5) midcareer teacher retraining; (6) school, college, and university partnerships; (7) professional development resource centers; (8) congressional teacher scholarships; (9) model and cooperative education; (10) graduate education programs; (11) Harris fellowships; (12) graduate assistance in areas of national need; (13) the Minority Science Improvement Program; and (14) science and engineering access programs.

Subtitle F: Commission on the Advancement of Women in the Science and Engineering Work Forces Act - Commission on the Advancement of Women in the Science and Engineering Work Forces Act - Establishes the Commission on the Advancement of Women in the Science and Engineering Work Forces.

Title II: Women in Business - Subtitle A: Act for Microenterprise - Act for Microenterprise - Amends the Social Security Act to exclude business assets from consideration in determining: (1) eligibility for aid and services to needy families with children (AFDC); and (2) income and resources in connection with provisions relating to supplemental security income (SSI). Excludes income from a business with five or fewer employees, during the first year of the business, from consideration in determining the amount of aid under AFDC and SSI.

Amends the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) to require approval of any State law making unemployment compensation payable to individuals starting microenterprises. Requires State law to entitle an individual performing services in a microenterprise to receive regular or extended unemployment compensation.

Amends the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to allow assistance under certain provisions of the Act to be used for: (1) loans to commercial enterprises with five or fewer employees, one or more of whom own the enterprise; and (2) counseling, technical assistance, educational programs, planning, and training to facilitate such commercial enterprises.

Amends the Small Business Act to set forth Congressional findings regarding microenterprises and implementation of loan programs under specified provisions of the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958.

Amends the Home Owners' Loan Act to add references to microenterprise loans to provisions defining "qualified thrift investments."

Requires each Federal banking agency to establish a division to be known as the Microenterprise Technical and Operations Office to offer technical assistance, training, outreach, and other support.

Subtitle B: Microlend for the Future Act - Microlend for the Future Act - Authorizes the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to make loans and grants to community based organizations for the startup and expansion of microenterprises, with the organizations using the loans to make loans and the grants to provide technical assistance to microenterprises. Authorizes appropriations.

Subtitle C: Women's Business Procurement Assistance Act of 1991 - Women's Business Procurement Assistance Act of 1991 - Amends the Small Business Act to add references to small businesses owned and controlled by women to provisions concerning: (1) Government-wide goals for participation of small businesses in procurement; (2) U.S. policy on small business participation in Federal procurement and on timely payment by prime contractors to small business subcontractors; and (3) a clause required to be included in Federal agency contracts.

Requires that each Federal agency having procurement powers: (1) designate a specialist responsible for programs to assist small businesses owned and controlled by women; and (2) engage in affirmative efforts to identify and solicit offers from such businesses.

Establishes in the Small Business Administration the Office of Women's Business Ownership.

Subtitle D: Equal Surety Bond Opportunity Act - Equal Surety Bond Opportunity Act - Prohibits discrimination by a surety in any aspect of a surety bond transaction: (1) on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, or age; (2) because the applicant has exercised any right under this title; or (3) because the applicant previously obtained a bond through certain means. Specifies activities not constituting discrimination. Provides for civil and equitable relief and prohibits a company from being approved as a surety by the Secretary of the Treasury unless the company is in full compliance with the requirements of this subtitle.

Amends Federal Law to require surety companies to be in compliance with this subtitle.

Subtitle E: Small Business Access to Surety Bonding Survey Act of 1991 - Small Business Access to Surety Bonding Survey Act of 1991 - Requires the Comptroller General to conduct a survey and report to specified congressional committees on the experiences of businesses, especially small businesses, in obtaining surety bonds from corporate surety firms.

Title III: Economic Justice - Subtitle A: Pay Equity Technical Assistance Act - Pay Equity Technical Assistance Act - Directs the Secretary of Labor to carry out a continuing program regarding reducing or eliminating, conducting research on, and providing technical assistance concerning wage disparities based on sex, race, or national origin.

Subtitle B: Legislative Pay Equity Study - Declares that it is congressional policy that persons employed in the legislative branch shall receive equal pay for comparable work.

Establishes the Commission on Employment Discrimination in the Legislative Branch.

Subtitle C: Part-Time and Temporary Workers Protection Act - Amends the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to set forth special participation, vesting, and accrual rules applicable to part-time and temporary employees. Allows limited reductions in employer-provided group health plan premiums for part-time employees. Modifies, for provisions relating to protection of employee benefit rights, the definition of "employee" to include persons who have performed at least 500 hours of service per year.

Subtitle D: Child Support Enforcement Improvements Act of 1991 - Child Support Enforcement Improvements Act of 1991 - Shields a depository institution from liability under Federal or State law for disclosing any financial record of an individual to a State child support enforcement agency attempting to establish, modify, or enforce a child support obligation. Prohibits the recipient enforcement agency from improperly disclosing the information and provides for civil damages.

Amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act to allow a consumer reporting agency to furnish a consumer report to such an enforcement agency that is making such an attempt.

Amends the Social Security Act to require that a State plan for child and spousal support include certain procedures relating to the provision by an absent parent of medical insurance coverage for one or more children of a custodial parent. Increases the incentive payment to States for successful enforcement of court orders for the coverage. Modifies requirements concerning: (1) regulation of the interception of refunds from the internal revenue service; and (2) employer withholding of support payments.

Provides for a national network to build on the statewide child support enforcement systems States are developing.

Subtitle E: Dependent Care Tax Credit Refundability - Amends the IRC to allow as a limited refundable credit a portion of: (1) expenses for household services and for the care of a qualifying individual; and (2) respite care expenses.

Subtitle F: Pell Grant Eligibility Expansion Act - Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to remove provisions prohibiting, in certain circumstances, basic educational opportunity grants (BEOGs) to less than half-time students.

Subtitle G: Federal Council on Women Act - Federal Council on Women Act - Establishes in the legislative branch the Federal Council on Women to make recommendations on a wide range of issues and concerns relating to women.

Title IV: Retirement Equity - Subtitle A: Pension Reform Act of 1991 - Pension Reform Act of 1991 - Amends the Tax Reform Act of 1986 to modify requirements relating to the effective date of the application of nondiscrimination rules to integrated plans.

Amends the IRC to repeal provisions relating to nondiscrimination requirements and permitted disparity with regard to contributions to pension plans, including simplified pension plans.

Modifies minimum coverage requirements for qualified pension, profit-sharing, and stock bonus plans with regard to whether an employer operates separate lines or a single line of business.

Amends the IRC and ERISA to modify minimum vesting standards to remove provisions relating to multiemployer plans.

Requires the Comptroller General to report to specified congressional committees on alternative: (1) methods of requiring employee pension benefit plans to provide cost-of-living and other adjustments to benefits; and (2) pension portability mechanisms for preserving and enhancing the real value of deferred vested pension benefits.

Allows a domestic relations court order entered after enactment of this Act and amending an order originally entered before 1985 to be considered a qualified domestic relations order for purposes of certain provisions of the Retirement Equity Act of 1984.

Subtitle B: Spousal Pension Equity Act - Spousal Pension Equity Act - Amends provisions of the IRC relating to limitations on the amount of annual compensation taken into account to prohibit aggregation of spousal incomes when both spouses are licensed to perform services in the same professional field and perform the services for the employer.

Subtitle C: Social Security Care Provider Act of 1991 - Social Security Care Provider Act of 1991 - Amends title II (Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance) (OASDI) of the Social Security Act to change the formula for determining the number of an individual's benefit computation years.

Subtitle D: Social Security Modernization Act of 1991 - Social Security Modernization Act of 1991 - Amends OASDI to require, provided this method increases benefits, that the combined earnings of an individual and his or her spouse, during their marriage, be divided equally for determining OASDI benefits. Terminates the amendment made by this subtitle after the year 2015. Mandates studies every five years by the appropriate congressional committees to determine the effect of the termination on beneficiaries.

Subtitle E: Former Military Spouses - Amends the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991 to apply amendments relating to retired pay to any divorces, dissolutions of marriage, annulments, and legal separations (currently, to any such events that occur more than 90 days after enactment of the Act).

Subtitle F: Federal Employees Former Spouses - Amends the Civil Service Retirement Spouse Equity Act of 1984 to modify requirements for entitlement of a former spouse of a Federal employee or Member of Congress to a survivor annuity. Allows any former spouse who becomes eligible, because of this subtitle, for a survivor annuity, to enroll in a health benefits plan under specified provisions of Federal law.