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Designates the facility of the United States Postal Service located at Highway 49 South in Piney Woods, Mississippi, as the "Lawrence C. and Grace M. Jones Post Office Building."
Establishes the Mississippi Hills National Heritage Area. Designates the Mississippi Hills Heritage Area Alliance as the coordinating entity for the Area. Prohibits the Alliance from using federal funds received under this Act to acquire real property or any interest in real property. Requires the Alliance to develop and submit a management plan for the Area.
- Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish within the Office of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) the position of National Diabetes Coordinator, whose duties shall be to: (1) serve as the Secretary's principal advisor on reducing the rates of diabetes and its complications; (2) develop a measurement for the incidence of diabetes; (3) develop and coordinate implementation of a national strategy to reduce the incidence, progression, and impact of diabetes and its complications; (4) provide leadership and coordination to ensure that diabetes-related programs and policies of HHS are coordinated internally and with those of relevant federal, state, and local agencies with a goal of avoiding duplication of effort, maximizing impact, and marshaling all government resources; and (5) coordinate public and private resources to develop and lead a public awareness campaign regarding the prevention and control of diabetes and its complications.
- Requires reports to the President: (1) from the HHS Secretary on a national strategy to reduce the incidence, progression, and impact of diabetes and its complications; (2) from the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on negotiations with health plans to include appropriate standards and activities to reduce risk factors for diabetes and encourage prevention and early treatment; and (3) from the Secretary of Agriculture on ways in which food programs and nutritional support can be better targeted at concerns specific to those at risk for diabetes or those already diagnosed whose complications could be reduced by more effective diet.
- Amends the Public Health Service Act to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) establish a grant program to enable states to develop statewide stroke care systems; (2) foster the development of stroke care systems through information sharing among involved agencies and individuals; (3) develop a model curriculum for training emergency medical services personnel in the identification, assessment, stabilization, and prehospital treatment of stroke patients; (4) issue recommendations and guidelines on best practices for establishing and operating such systems; and (5) provide public information on recognition of stroke signs and symptoms and appropriate actions. Authorizes the Secretary to make grants or enter into cooperative agreements for such purposes.
- Directs the Secretary to: (1) maintain the Paul Coverdell National Acute Stroke Registry; and (2) award grants to states to develop stroke care systems that provide high-quality prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. Authorizes the Secretary to make related state planning grants.
- Requires the Secretary to give special consideration in awarding grants to states in a geographic area with an elevated incidence of stroke or stoke-caused disabilities or demonstrating a significant need for assistance in establishing such a system.
- Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish a geography education grant program under title II, Teacher Quality Enhancement.
- Authorizes the Secretary of Education to award a grant to a national nonprofit educational organization or consortium, with 75% to be used for subgrants to institutions of higher education associated with state geographic alliances, nonprofit educational organizations, or state or local educational agencies.
- Requires various grantee and subgrantee activities designed to expand geographic literacy among kindergarten through grade 12 students by improving their teachers' professional development programs offered through institutions of higher education. Includes among such activities state-based conferences to assess geographic literacy and identify improvement strategies.
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Co-Sponsored Bills
- Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services, acting through various federal agencies, to develop a national Shaken Baby Syndrome public health campaign. Requires the Secretary to: (1) develop a National Action Plan and effective strategies to increase awareness of opportunities to prevent Shaken Baby Syndrome; and (2) coordinate the Plan and strategies with evidence-based strategies and efforts that support families with infants and other young children.
- Directs the Secretary to carry out communication, education, and training about Shaken Baby Syndrome prevention, including efforts to communicate with the general public, such as by: (1) disseminating effective prevention practices and techniques to parents and caregivers; (2) producing evidence-based educational and information materials; and (3) carrying out Shaken Baby Syndrome training.
- Requires the Secretary to work to ensure that the parents and caregivers of children are connected to effective supports through the coordination of existing programs and networks or the establishment of new programs, including a 24-hour phone hotline and the development of an Internet website for round-the-clock support.
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- Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to provide that no permit shall be required by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the national pollutant discharge elimination system for the discharge from a recreational vessel of graywater, bilge water, cooling water, weather deck runoff, oil water separator effluent, or effluent from properly functioning marine engines or for any other discharge that is incidental to the normal operation of such vessel.
- Defines a "recreational vessel" as any vessel that is leased, rented, or chartered to a person for that person's pleasure or that is manufactured or used primarily for pleasure, excluding vessels that are subject to Coast Guard inspection and that are engaged in commercial use or that carry paying passengers.
- Requires the Administrator to: (1) develop management practices for recreational vessels to mitigate the adverse impacts on U.S. waters of discharges incidental to normal vessel operation (excluding sewage) in any case in which the Administrator determines that the use of those practices is reasonable and practicable; and (2) promulgate federal standards of performance (which may distinguish among vessel types) for each discharge for which such a management practice is developed.
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- Requires the withholding of 20% of U.S. contributions to the regular budget of the United Nations and other applicable international organizations until the President certifies that neither the United Nations (or U.N. agencies) nor any other international organization has authority under U.S. law to impose, or has imposed or proposed, taxes or fees on the U.S. government, states, or U.S. corporations or nationals.
- States that such provision shall not apply to: (1) fees for publications or other fees that are not tantamount to a tax on U.S. citizens; (2) the World Intellectual Property Organization; or (3) staff assessment costs of the United Nations and its agencies.
- Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish demonstration projects to: (1) increase public awareness about the factors that lead to chronic kidney disease, how to prevent it, how to treat it, and how to avoid kidney failure, as well as enhance surveillance systems and expand research to better assess the prevalence and incidence of kidney disease; and (2) enable individuals with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) to develop self-management skills.
- Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act (SSA) to provide for Medicare coverage of kidney disease patient education services.
- Directs the Secretary to: (1) establish blood flow monitoring demonstration projects; and (2) arrange with the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences to evaluate the barriers to increasing the number of individuals with ESRD who elect to receive home dialysis services or other treatment modalities under Medicare.
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Amends the Communications Act of 1934 to prohibit the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), notwithstanding any other provision of any Act, from having the authority to require broadcasters to present opposing viewpoints on controversial issues of public importance, commonly referred to as the Fairness Doctrine.
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