Project for American Renewal Act

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Effective Compassion

Subtitle A: Charity Tax Credit

Subtitle B: Other Provisions

Title II: Community Empowerment

Subtitle A: Education

Subtitle B: Restitution and Responsibility

Subtitle C: Independence

Subtitle D: Housing

Title III: Other American Renewal Incentives

Subtitle A: Housing

Subtitle B: Responsible Parenting

Subtitle C: Character Development

Subtitle D: Family Reconciliation

Subtitle E: Mentor Schools

Subtitle F: Role Models Academy

Subtitle G: Kinship Care

Project for American Renewal Act - Title I: Effective Compassion - Subtitle A: Charity Tax Credit - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to create a credit for charitable contributions, which shall be in lieu of any deduction for such contributions, equal to the sum of: (1) 100 percent of contributions not exceeding $100; and (2) 90 percent of contributions in excess of $100 up to a maximum dollar amount of $500. Provides for a study of such credit.

(Sec. 111) Repeals the earned income credit for individuals without children.

(Sec. 112) Requires reports from the House Committee on Ways and Means and the Senate Committee on Finance on changes in laws which would reduce corporate tax subsidies sufficient to raise specified amounts of revenues.

(Sec. 121) Provides for the authorization of appropriations under the Food Stamp Act of 1977 regardless of whether payments to the States provisions of part A (Aid to Families with Dependent Children) (AFDC) of title IV of the Social Security Act are repealed.

(Sec. 131) Provides for reductions in amounts paid to each State under the AFDC program.

(Sec. 132) Repeals title XX (Block Grants to States for Social Services) of the Social Security Act.

(Sec. 141) Amends the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to reduce community development block grants.

(Sec. 142) Amends the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act to repeal title II (HOME Investment Partnerships Act).

Subtitle B: Other Provisions - Creates a tax credit of $500 for each eligible individual for the home care of: (1) unmarried pregnant women; (2) hospice care patients, including AIDS and cancer patients; (3) homeless individuals; and (4) battered women and battered women with children.

(Sec. 152) Amends the Public Health Service Act to: (1) deem specified free clinic health professionals providing qualifying health services as employees of the Public Health Service; and (2) provide such health professionals with specified limited legal liability. Authorizes appropriations for making payment for judgments against the United States pursuant to this section for the acts or omissions of such professionals. Requires a report to the Congress concerning such judgments.

(Sec. 153) Directs the Attorney General and the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish and carry out a competitive grant program to provide funding to States and communities to: (1) establish an information network to enhance coordination of matches between various nonprofit organizations and electing AFDC families or nonviolent criminal offenders; (2) hire staff to coordinate such matches; and (3) disseminate information about such program. Authorizes appropriations. Provides for the establishment of a national information clearinghouse concerning such program.

Title II: Community Empowerment - Subtitle A: Education - Educational Choice and Equity Act of 1995 - Authorizes appropriations for the Secretary of Education to award grants to eligible entities for at least 100 demonstration projects under which low-income parents receive education certificates for the costs of enrolling their eligible children in a choice school. Reserves funds for the Comptroller General to evaluate such projects. Requires each participating school to comply with title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

(Sec. 206) Requires such projects to involve: (1) at least one local educational agency (LEA) that receives a concentration grant under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) and meets other specified criteria; and (2) a sufficient number of public and private choice schools, in the Secretary's judgment, to allow for a valid demonstration project.

Requires priority be given to projects: (1) in which choice schools offer an enrollment opportunity to the broadest range of eligible children; (2) that involve diverse types of choice schools; and (3) that will contribute to geographic diversity of grant awards.

Subtitle B: Restitution and Responsibility - Authorizes the Attorney General to provide grants to enable the States to: (1) collect data on victim restitution over a specified period; (2) create or expand automated data systems to track restitution payments; (3) make improvements in the manner in which restitution is ordered and collected; and (4) enhance and expand methods of enforcement of restitution orders.

(Sec. 211) Requires a State, to be eligible, to certify that it has a victim advocacy program that provides assistance to crime victims throughout the judicial process and provides courts with a victim impact statement prior to sentencing. Authorizes appropriations.

Subtitle C: Independence - Provides for the establishment of demonstration projects designed to determine: (1) the social, civic, psychological, and economic effects of providing to individuals and families with limited means an incentive to accumulate assets; (2) the extent to which an asset-based welfare policy that promotes saving for education, home ownership, and microenterprises may be used to enable individuals and families with low income to achieve economic self-sufficiency; and (3) the extent to which an asset-based welfare policy improves the community in which participating individuals and families live.

(Sec. 222) Requires each qualified not-for-profit organization or State or local government agency receiving a grant to establish a Reserve Fund.

Specifies income and net worth tests for individuals eligible for assistance under a demonstration project. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 223) Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a deduction for contributions to an individual development account by or on behalf of a qualified individual. Limits such contributions to $2,000 per year, and qualified expenses to: (1) postsecondary educational expenses; (2) a first-home purchase; and (3) business capitalization. Excludes distributions for such purposes from gross income. Exempts such accounts from taxation, except the tax on unrelated business income. Disregards funds in an individual development account of a demonstration project participant for purposes of all means-tested Federal programs.

Subtitle D: Housing - Directs the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (Secretary) to transfer ownership (after satisfying any indebtedness) of unoccupied and substandard public housing units to the appropriate local governmental entities. Grants the appropriate community development corporations a six-month right of subsequent first purchase.

(Sec. 233) Directs the Secretary to establish a program to provide maternal health certificates to eligible pregnant women for maternity home expenses. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 237) Authorizes the Secretary to make demonstration grants for State maternity care programs. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 241) Directs the Secretary to make grants to eligible nonprofit organizations for rehabilitation of structures for use as maternity housing and services facilities. Authorizes appropriations.

(Sec. 248) Directs the Secretary to evaluate and report on programs under this part.

Prohibits funds under this part from being used to promote or perform abortions or abortion counseling.

Title III: Other American Renewal Incentives - Subtitle A: Housing - Amends the United States Housing Act of 1937 to reserve a specified percentage of public housing units for legally married families.

Subtitle B: Responsible Parenting - Amends title V (Maternal and Child Health Services) of the Social Security Act to provide for various specified program changes, including: (1) an increase in funding, as well as a corresponding increase in Federal set-asides; (2) provision and promotion of sexual abstinence and adoption-related services; (3) prohibitions on the use of funds for family planning services in schools and for programs or projects that provide abortions or abortion counseling or referral; (4) additional application requirements related to maximizing the role of families and religious and charitable organizations in solving problems relating to parenthood or adolescent pregnancies; and (5) new reporting requirements for the State and the Secretary of Health and Human Services involving State activities in connection with program services relating to abstinence and adoption.

(Sec. 318) Amends the Public Health Service Act to repeal certain programs and demonstration projects related to population research and voluntary family planning as well as adolescent family life.

Subtitle C: Character Development - Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award: (1) mentor program grants to eligible local educational agencies to establish mentoring programs designed to link individual at-risk youth with responsible, individual adults who serve as mentors; and (2) implementation and evaluation grants to national organizations or agencies serving youth to conduct a multisite demonstration project, involving five to ten project sites, develop and evaluate screening standards for school-linked mentoring programs, and develop and evaluate volunteer recruitment activities for school-linked mentoring programs.

(Sec. 325) Sets forth permitted and prohibited uses of grant funds awarded under this Act.

(Sec. 326) Directs the Secretary to develop and distribute to eligible local educational agencies receiving a mentor program grant specific model guidelines for the screening of mentors.

(Sec. 330) Authorizes appropriations for Mentoring Program Grants and Implementation and Evaluation Grants.

Subtitle D: Family Reconciliation - Amends part B (Child-Welfare Services) of title IV of the Social Security Act with regard to family preservation and support services to create certain set-asides for States with approved family reconciliation plans which require a minimum 60-day waiting period and participation in counseling programs before final dissolution of a marriage involving one or more children under age 12.

(Sec. 332) Amends the Legal Services Corporation Act to prohibit the use of funds under that Act for legal assistance in certain actions relating to divorces or separations except where there is court-determined spousal abuse.

Subtitle E: Mentor Schools - Mentor Schools Act - Amends the Education Amendments Act of 1972 to provide that nothing in specified provisions of such Act shall be construed to prohibit the establishment or operation of a same gender public elementary or secondary school if: (1) comparable courses, services and facilities are available to students of each sex; and (2) the same policies and criteria for admission to such schools are used for both sexes.

Subtitle F: Role Models Academy - Directs the Secretary of Education to carry out a demonstration program under which a four-year, residential, military-style academy (the Role Models Academy) is established which: (1) shall offer at-risk youth secondary school coursework and vocational training (and may offer precollegiate coursework); (2) focuses on the education and vocational training of youth at risk of delinquency or dropping out of secondary school; (3) has a teaching staff primarily composed of former members of the armed forces or participants in the Troops to Teachers Program, if they are qualified and trained to teach at the Academy; (4) operates a mentoring program involving role models from all sectors of society; (5) may contain a Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps unit; (6) is housed on the site of any military installation closed pursuant to a base closure law; and (7) if effective, serves as a model for similar military-style academies throughout the United States.

(Sec. 354) Authorizes appropriations.

Subtitle G: Kinship Care - Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award grants to States for demonstration projects to develop or implement procedures to use adult relatives as the preferred placement for children removed from their parents. Sets forth grant eligibility and program evaluation requirements.

(Sec. 362) Requires States that receive grants under this Act to develop procedures to ensure that reasonable efforts will be made, prior to the placement of a child in foster care, to provide notice to a relative who might be available to care for the child.

(Sec. 363) Authorizes appropriations.