Transportation, Treasury Appropriations bill

(This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary has been expanded because action occurred on the measure.)

Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2004 - Title I: Department of Transportation - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2004 for the following agencies: (1) Department of Transportation, Office of the Secretary; (2) Office of Civil Rights; (3) the Working Capital Fund; (4) Minority Business Resource Center Program; (5) Federal Aviation Administration; (6) grants-in-aid for airports; (7) Federal Highway Administration (FHWA); (8) Federal-Aid Highways, including Highway Safety Programs; (9) Appalachian Development Highway System; (10) Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration; (11) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; (12) National Driver Register; (11) Highway Traffic Safety Grants; (12) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; (13) Federal Railroad Administration; (14) Railroad Research and Development; (15) Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Program; (16) Next Generation High-Speed Rail; (17) Alaska Railroad Rehabilitation; (18) Grants to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak); (19) Federal Transit Administration (FTA); (20) Formula Grants; (21) University Transportation Research; (22) Transit Planning and Research; (23) Capital Investment Grants; (24) Job Access and Reverse Commute Grants; (25) Utah Transportation Projects; (26) Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation; (27) Maritime Administration; (28) Research and Special Programs Administration; (29) Pipeline Safety; (30) Emergency Preparedness Grants; (31) Office of the Inspector General; and (32) the Surface Transportation Board.

(Sec. 113) Authorizes FY 2004 funding of historic covered bridges eligible for Federal assistance under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) from amounts set aside for the discretionary bridge program.

(Sec. 114) Directs the Secretary of Transportation to enter into an agreement with Nevada, Arizona, or both, to provide a method of funding for construction of a Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge from funds allocated for the Federal Lands Highway Program.

(Sec. 130) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act to implement or enforce any provisions of the Final Rule, issued on April 16, 2003 (Docket No. FMCSA-97-2350), with respect to either the operators of utility service vehicles.

(Sec. 154) Makes certain funds available to the Colorado Roaring Fork Transportation Authority also available for expenditure on park and ride lots in Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, Colorado, as part of the Roaring Fork Valley Bus Rapid Transit project.

(Sec. 156) Directs the Secretary to establish a pilot grant program to determine the benefits of encouraging cooperative procurement of major capital equipment in pilot projects involving urbanized formula grants for mass transit capital projects, capital investment grants and loans for new fixed guideway systems, and mass transportation service projects for areas other than urbanized areas. Sets the Federal share for a grant at 90 percent of the net project cost.

(Sec. 157) Makes certain new fixed guideway system funds available for the Yosemite, California, area regional transportation system project also available for obligation for the replacement, rehabilitation, or purchase of buses or related equipment, or the construction of bus related facilities.

(Sec. 158) Directs the Secretary, for the purpose of calculating the non-New Starts share of the total project cost of both phases of San Francisco Muni's Third Street Light Rail Transit project for FY 2004, to: (1) include all non-New Starts contributions made towards Phase 1 of the two-phase project for engineering, final design and construction; and (2) also allow non-New Starts funds expended on one element or phase of the project to be used to meet the non-New Starts share requirement of any element or phase of the project.

(Sec. 159) Authorizes the use for the Euclid Corridor Transportation Project of certain funds made available for the Cleveland Berea Red Line Extension to the Hopkins International Airport project.

Title II: Department of the Treasury - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2004 for the Department of the Treasury, including: (1) department-wide systems and capital investments; (2) the Office of Inspector General; (3) Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration; (4) the Air Transportation Stabilization Board; (5) Treasury Building and Annex Repair and Restoration; (6) Financial Crimes Enforcement Network; (7) Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau; (8) U.S. Mint; (9) Bureau of the Public Debt; (10) the Internal Revenue Service (IRS); (11) tax law enforcement; and (12) health insurance tax credit administration.

(Sec. 216) Amends Federal law to extend from five years to six years the authorization for the personnel management demonstration project providing for the compensation and performance management of not more than a combined total of 950 employees who fill critical scientific, technical, engineering, intelligence analyst, language translator, and medical positions in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Title III: Executive Office of the President and Funds Appropriated to the President - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2004 for compensation of the President and salaries and expenses of designated White House agencies, including: (1) the Council of Economic Advisors; (2) National Security Council; (3) Office of Management and Budget (OMB); and (4) various Federal Drug Control Programs.

Title IV: Independent Agencies - Authorizes appropriations for FY 2004 for independent agencies, including: (1) the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board; (2) Committee for Purchase from People Who are Blind or Severely Disabled; (3) Federal Election Commission; (4) Election Assistance Commission; (5) Federal Labor Relations Authority; (6) Federal Maritime Administration; (7) General Services Administration (GSA); (8) Merit Systems Protection Board; (9) the Morris K. Udall Scholarship and Excellence in National Environmental Policy Trust Fund; (10) the Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund; (11) the National Archives and Records Administration; (12) the National Historical Publications and Records Commission; (13) the National Transportation Safety Board; (14) the Office of Government Ethics; (15) the Office of Personnel Management (OPM); (16) the Office of Special Counsel; (17) U.S. Postal Service; (18) U.S. Tax Court; and (19) the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance.

(Sec. 408) Authorizes the GSA Administrator to: (1) acquire certain land in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, as a site for the public building needs of the Federal Government; (2) design and construct upon the site a new Federal Office Building to house the Federal agencies presently located in the Thomas J. McIntyre Federal Building. Makes certain funds available for such purposes; and (3) convey without consideration the Thomas J. McIntyre Federal Office Building to the City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for economic development purposes, subject to specified conditions.

Title V: General Provisions (This Act) - Sets forth permissions for and restrictions upon the use of funds for designated Department of Transportation activities.

(Sec. 504) Declares that none of the funds in this Act shall be available for salaries and expenses of more than 106 political and Presidential appointees in the Department of Transportation. Prohibits the assignment of such appointees on temporary detail outside the Department of Transportation.

(Sec. 508) None of the funds in this Act shall be used to establish in the Department of Transportation a National Highway Safety Advisory Committee.

(Sec. 511) Authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to allow the issuer of any preferred stock heretofore sold to the Department of Transportation to redeem or repurchase it upon the payment to the Department of an amount determined by the Secretary.

(Sec. 515) Subjects funds appropriated or limited in this Act to the requirements for the safety of cross-border trucking between the United States and Mexico of the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2002, including an annual report to specified congressional committees on the safety and security of transportation into the United States by Mexico-domiciled motor carriers.

(Sec. 517) Reduces funds provided in this Act for the Working Capital Fund by $17.816 million, which limits FY 2004 Working Capital Fund obligational authority for elements of the Department of Transportation funded in this Act to no more than $98.899 million. Requires such reductions from the budget request to be allocated by the Department of Transportation to each appropriations account in proportion to the amount included in each account for the Working
Capital Fund.

(Sec. 518) Amends the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) to designate the portion of U.S. 78 from Tupelo, Mississippi, to Memphis, Tennessee, a high priority corridor.

(Sec. 519) Makes recovered improper payments by the Department of Transportation to a third party contractor under a financial assistance award available to: (1) reimburse the actual expenses incurred in recovering improper payments; and (2) pay contractors for services provided in recovering them.

(Sec. 523) Prohibits payment of the salary from any appropriation under this Act for any person filling a permanent or indefinite position formerly held by an employee who has: (1) left to enter the U.S. Armed Forces; (2) satisfactorily completed his period of active military or naval service;(3) within 90 days after release from such service, or from hospitalization continuing after discharge for a period of not more than one year, applied for restoration to his former position; and (4) been certified by the Office of Personnel Management as still qualified to perform the duties of his former position, but not been restored to it.

(Sec. 524) Sets forth Buy America requirements, and penalties for their violation.

(Sec. 528) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act by the Executive Office of the President to request from the Federal Bureau of Investigation any official background investigation report on any individual: (1) without the individual's express prior written consent during the same presidential administration; or (2) unless such request is required due to extraordinary circumstances involving national security.

(Sec. 529) Makes specified cost accounting standards inapplicable to a contract under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

(Sec. 530) Authorizes OPM, to resolve litigation and implement any settlement agreements regarding the nonforeign area cost-of-living allowance program, to accept and use (without regard to any restriction on unanticipated travel expenses imposed in an Appropriations Act) funds made available to it pursuant to court approval.

(Sec. 532) Makes eligible for certain funds any bridge owned and operated by a State agency: (1) whose toll revenues are administered by a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO); and (2) whose toll revenues provide for subsidizing of non-capital transportation costs. Limits the amount of toll revenues expended for non-capital transportation costs to the cumulative amount of local toll revenues used for Federal interstate and Federal-aid highway construction and improvement projects in the toll bridge corridors. Requires the Secretary of Transportation, before authorizing an expenditure of funds, to determine that the cumulative amount of toll revenues used for such projects is greater than the cumulative amount of toll revenue used for non-capital transportation projects not directly related to the on-going operation and maintenance of the toll bridges.

(Sec. 533) Reduces by $128.076 million any amounts appropriated or limited in this Act in specified Object Classes.

(Sec. 534) Prohibits the use of funds appropriated or limited in title I of this Act to change weight restrictions or prior permission rules at Teterboro Airport (New Jersey).

(Sec. 535) Amends Federal postal law to extend through December 31, 2005, the mandate to the U.S. Postal Service for a special first-class mail postage rate as a convenient way for the public to contribute to funding for breast cancer research.

(Sec. 536) Amends the Federal Transit Act to direct the FTA and FHWA to work with the Utah Transit Authority and the Utah Department of Transportation to coordinate the development regional commuter rail and the northern segment of I-15 reconstruction located in the Wasatch Front corridor extending from Brigham City to Payson, Utah. Includes in such coordination: (1) integration of preliminary engineering and design; (2) a simplified method for allocating project costs among eligible FTA and FHWA funding sources; and (3) a unified accounting and audit process.

States that, for purposes of determining and allocating the nongovernmental and governmental share of costs, the following projects comprise a related program of projects: (1) regional commuter rail; (2) the TRAX light rail system; (3) TRAX extensions to the Medical Center and to the Gateway Intermodal Center; and (4) the northern segment of I-15 reconstruction. Requires the governmental share of project costs appropriated from the Section 5309 New Start program to conform to the share specified in the extension or reauthorization of TEA21.

Title VI: General Provisions (Departments, Agencies, and Corporations) - Sets forth requirements for the use of appropriations by designated departments, agencies and corporations.

(Sec. 617) Sets restrictions upon the use of appropriations, including the mandate that any Federal department, agency, or instrumentality administer in good faith, a written policy designed to ensure that all workplaces are free from discrimination and sexual harassment and are not in violation of title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

(Sec. 618) Prohibits appropriations from being made available for the salary of any Federal staffer or personnel that restrains other Federal personnel from communication or contact with congressional personnel regarding the employment of such other officer or employee, or pertaining to the department or agency of such other officer or employee.

(Sec. 628) Prohibits the use of funds by OPM or any other Federal department or agency to prohibit any agency from using appropriated funds as it sees fit to contract independently with private companies to provide online employment applications and processing services.

(Sec. 632) Amends Federal law to extend from October 1, 2003, to October 1, 2004, the authorization for the franchise fund pilot programs in six executive agencies.

(Sec. 633) Prohibits, with specified exceptions, including exceptions for law enforcement and supervisory purposes, the use of funds made available in this or any other Act by any Federal agency to collect personally identifiable information relating to an individual's access to or use of Federal or nongovernmental Internet sites.

(Sec. 634) Prohibits the use of appropriations under by this Act to enter into a contract providing prescription drug coverage, unless it also provides for contraceptive coverage. Exempts specified religious plans.

(Sec. 636) Increases to 4.1 percent the adjustment in rates of basic pay for Federal employees under certain statutory pay systems, including civilian employees in the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.

(Sec. 638) Prohibits the expenditure of appropriations under by this Act for FY 2004 for the purchase of a product or service offered by Federal Prison Industries, Inc., unless the purchasing agency determines that such offered product or service provides the best value to the buying agency pursuant to Government-wide procurement regulations.

(Sec. 639) Authorizes Federal departments and agencies to use funds appropriated for official travel to participate in the fractional aircraft ownership pilot program, if consistent with OMB Circular A-126 regarding official travel for Government personnel.

(Sec. 640) Requires each Federal department and agency to evaluate the creditworthiness of an individual before issuing him or her a Government purchase or travel charge card. Prohibits the department or agency from issuing such a card to an individual who either lacks a credit history or is found to have an unsatisfactory credit history. Prescribes conditions for the issuance of a restricted-use charge, debit, or stored value card made in accordance with specified agency procedures.

(Sec. 642) Requires each Federal agency to report annually to Congress on the competitive sourcing (privatizing) activities performed by it during the previous fiscal year.