Education Department FY99 Appropriations bill

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Department of Labor

Title II: Department of Health and Human Services

Title III: Department of Education

Title IV: Related Agencies

Title V: General Provisions

Title VI: Child Protection Act of 1998

Title VII: Miscellaneous Provisions

Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999 - Title I: Department of Labor - Department of Labor Appropriations Act, 1999 - Makes appropriations for FY 1999 to the Department of Labor for: (1) training and employment services; (2) community service employment for older Americans; (3) Federal unemployment benefits and allowances; (4) State unemployment insurance and employment service operations; (5) advances to the Unemployment Trust Fund and other trust funds; (6) employment and training program administration; (7) the Pension and Welfare Benefits Administration and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation; (8) the Employment Standards Administration; (9) certain special benefits; (10) the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund; (11) the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; (12) the Mine Safety and Health Administration; (13) the Bureau of Labor Statistics; (14) departmental management; (15) the Assistant Secretary for Veterans Employment and Training; and (16) the Office of Inspector General.

Sets forth authorized uses of, and limitations on, funds appropriated under this title.

Title II: Department of Health and Human Services - Department of Health and Human Services Appropriations Act, 1999 - Makes appropriations for FY 1999 to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for: (1) the Health Resources and Services Administration; (2) the Medical Facilities Guarantee and Loan Fund for Federal interest subsidies for medical facilities; (3) health education assistance loans; (4) the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Trust Fund; (5) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; (6) the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including amounts for the John E. Fogarty International Center, the National Library of Medicine, the Office of the Director, and buildings and facilities; (7) the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; (8) retirement pay and medical benefits for Public Health Service commissioned officers; (9) the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research; (10) the Health Care Financing Administration for grants to States for Medicaid, payments to health care trust funds, program management, and the Health Maintenance Organization Loan and Loan Guarantee Fund; (11) the Administration for Children and Families for family support payments to States; (12) low income home energy assistance; (13) refugee and entrant assistance; (14) the child care and development block grant; (15) the social services block grant; (16) children and families services programs; (17) family preservation and support; (18) payments to States for foster care and adoption assistance; (19) the Administration on Aging; (20) the Office of the Secretary for general departmental management; (21) the Office of Inspector General; (22) the Office for Civil Rights; and (23) policy research.

Sets forth authorized uses of, and limitations on, funds appropriated under this title.

(Sec. 202) Directs the Secretary of HHS to make available through assignment not more than 60 employees of the Public Health Service to assist in child survival activities and to work in AIDS programs through and with funds provided by the Agency for International Development, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund or the World Health Organization.

(Sec. 211) Prohibits funds appropriated in this Act from being made available under title X (population research and voluntary family planning) of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA), unless the award applicant certifies to the Secretary that it encourages family participation in the decision of minors to seek family planning services, and provides counseling to minors on resisting attempts to coerce them into engaging in sexual activities.

(Sec. 216) Names the Consolidated Laboratory Building (Building 50) at NIH the Louis Stokes Laboratories.

(Sec. 217) Prohibits the use of funds appropriated by this Act to carry out the Medicare+Choice program if the Secretary denies participation in such program to an otherwise eligible entity (including a Provider Sponsored Organization) because the entity informs the Secretary that it will not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or provide referrals for abortions.

(Sec. 218) Prohibits the expenditure of funds under this Act to reimburse States for Viagra (except for postsurgical treatment). Requires the availability of up to $100 million of the amount of such reduction in budget authority and outlays to enhance mental health services for children with emotional and behavioral disorders who are at risk of violent behavior.

(Sec. 219) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act to take any administrative action against States that do not cover Viagra or any other drug or device under section 1927 of the Social Security Act for the treatment of erectile dysfunction.

(Sec. 220) Declares that no provider of services under title X of the PHSA shall be exempt from any State law requiring notification or the reporting of child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, or incest.

Prohibits appropriations for carrying out title X of PHSA from being made available to any family planning project if any service provider in the project knowingly provides contraceptive drugs or devices to a minor, unless: (1) the minor is emancipated under applicable State law; (2) the minor has the written consent of a custodial parent or custodial legal guardian to receive the drugs or devices; (3) a court of competent jurisdiction has directed that the minor may receive the drugs or devices; or (4) such service provider has given actual written notice, to a custodial parent or custodial legal guardian of the minor, of the intent to provide the drugs or devices, at least five business days before providing them.

Title III: Department of Education - Department of Education Appropriations Act, 1999 - Makes appropriations for FY 1999 to the Department of Education for: (1) education reform; (2) education for the disadvantaged; (3) impact aid; (4) school improvement activities; (5) Indian education; (6) bilingual and immigrant education; (7) special education; (8) rehabilitation services and disability research; (9) special institutions for persons with disabilities, including the American Printing House for the Deaf, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School, the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, and Gallaudet University; (10) vocational and adult education; (11) student financial assistance; (12) the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program account; (13) higher education; (14) Howard University; (15) the college housing and academic facilities loans program; (16) the historically Black college and university capital financing program account; (17) education research, statistics, and improvement; (18) departmental management; (19) the Office for Civil Rights; and (20) the Office of the Inspector General.

Sets forth authorized uses of, and limitations on, funds appropriated under this title.

(Sec. 301) Prohibits funds appropriated in this Act from being used to: (1) transport teachers or students in order to overcome racial imbalance in any school or to carry out a racial desegregation plan; or (2) prevent the implementation of programs of voluntary prayer and meditation in public schools.

(Sec. 305) Amends the General Education Provisions Act to bar the use of funds provided to the Department of Education or to an applicable program in any Act in FY 1999 to field or pilot test, implement, administer, or distribute national tests. Makes such prohibition inapplicable to the International Math and Science Study or the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

(Sec. 306) Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to allow certain institutions of higher education to use specified funds for endowment building purposes.

(Sec. 307) Prohibits use of funds under this Act to enforce certain annual compliance audit requirements of the guaranteed student loan program under the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) against those lenders with guaranteed student loan portfolios that do not exceed $5 million.

(Sec. 308) Allows States and local educational agencies to use specified funds for innovative programs.

(Sec. 309) Amends the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to revise requirements relating to: (1) child placements in alternative educational settings; and (2) the Secretary's reducing or withholding payments to States.

(Sec. 311) Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to revise requirements for applications and priorities in funding bilingual education and special alternative instructional programs. Sets at two years the maximum period for a student to be in such a program, with specified exceptions involving comprehensive evaluations and a maximum of four years. Directs the Secretary of Education to report annually to specified congressional committees: (1) identifying the ten percent of funding recipients that have been the least successful in assisting students in attaining English proficiency by the end of their second academic year of enrollment in a bilingual education program or special alternative instructional program; and (2) explaining if and why funding will be continued for such a program.

Title IV: Related Agencies - Makes appropriations for FY 1999 to the: (1) Armed Forces Retirement Home; (2) Corporation for National and Community Service; (3) Corporation for Public Broadcasting; (4) Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; (5) Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission; (6) Institute of Museum and Library Services; (7) Medicare Payment Advisory Commission; (8) National Commission on Libraries and Information Science; (9) National Council on Disability; (10) National Education Goals Panel; (11) National Labor Relations Board; (12) National Mediation Board; (13) Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission; (14) Railroad Retirement Board for the dual benefits payments account, Federal payments to the railroad retirement accounts, administration, and the Office of Inspector General; (15) Social Security Administration for payments to the social security trust funds, special benefits for disabled coal miners, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program, administrative expenses, and the Office of Inspector General; and (16) U.S. Institute of Peace.

Title V: General Provisions - Sets forth authorized uses of, and limitations on, funds appropriated under this Act.

(Sec. 506) Sets forth Buy American requirements.

(Sec. 509) Prohibits funds appropriated under this Act from being expended for abortions or for health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion, except in cases where the pregnancy is the result of rape or incest or where a woman suffers from a physical condition that would, as certified by a physician, place her in danger of death unless an abortion is performed.

(Sec. 511) Prohibits the use of funds made available in this Act for: (1) the creation of a human embryo for research purposes; or (2) research in which a human embryo is destroyed or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero under Federal regulations and the Public Health Service Act.

(Sec. 512) Prohibits the use of funds made available in this Act for activities to promote the legalization of a controlled substance unless there is significant medical evidence of a therapeutic advantage to the use of such substance or that federally-sponsored trials are being conducted to determine such advantage.

(Sec. 514) Bars the use of funds made available in this Act to pay the expenses of an election officer appointed by a court to oversee an election of any officer or trustee for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

(Sec. 516) Amends the National Labor Relations Act to direct the National Labor Relations Board to assert jurisdiction over any labor dispute involving any class or category of employers over which it would assert jurisdiction under the standards prevailing on August 1, 1959, with specified inflation adjustments to financial threshold amounts.

Title VI: Child Protection Act of 1998 - Child Protection Act of 1998 - Requires any elementary or secondary school or public library that has received any Federal funds for acquisition or operation of any computer accessible to minors that has access to the Internet to: (1) install software on that computer that is adequately designed to prevent minors from obtaining access to any obscene information using that computer; and (2) ensure that such software is operational whenever that computer is used by minors, except that such software's operation may be temporarily interrupted to permit a minor to have access to information that is not obscene or otherwise unprotected by the Constitution under the direct supervision of an adult designated by such school or library.

(Sec. 602) Authorizes Federal agency heads, if they have reason to believe that any recipient of funds failing to comply substantially with such requirements, to: (1) withhold further payments under that program or activity; (2) issue a complaint to compel compliance through a cease and desist order; or (3) enter into a compliance agreement with a recipient.

Title VII: Miscellaneous Provisions - Amends the Public Health Service Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, and the Social Security Act to establish standards relating to access to routine and preventive obstetrical and gynecological services under group health plans, group and individual health insurance coverage, Medicare, and Medicaid.

(Sec. 702) Amends the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act to require cigarette labels and advertising to include the Surgeon General's warning that African Americans suffer the highest death rates from several diseases caused by smoking.