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Sponsored Bills
- Expresses the sense of the Senate that: (1) the United States remains committed to the people of Somalia and to helping build the institutions necessary for a stable and peaceful nation; and (2) the President, in partnership with the African Union, the United Nations, and the international community, should provide humanitarian assistance, ensure accountability for parties responsible for violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Somalia, and call on all parties to recommit to an inclusive dialogue to promote peace and security in Somalia and across the Horn of Africa.
- Urges the governments of Ethiopia and of Eritrea to assist in helping to bring about stability to Somalia.
- Disapproves of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leadership's inconsistent commitment to peacefully resolving the conflict in Uganda.
- Urges the LRA and the government of Uganda to recommit to a political solution to the conflict.
- Entreats all regional parties to cease human rights violations and address, within the context of a broader national reconciliation process in Uganda, issues of accountability and impunity for those crimes against humanity already committed.
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- Prohibits, with a specified exception, the obligation or expenditure of funds for the V-22 or CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft program.
- Repeals a provision of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 granting multiyear procurement authority for the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft program.
- Requires the Secretary of the Interior to provide financial assistance for approved projects relating to the conservation of cranes, using amounts in the Crane Conservation Fund established by this Act.
- Allows a project proposal to be submitted by: (1) any wildlife management authority of a country located in the African, Asian, European, or North American range of a species of crane that carries out at least one activity that affects crane populations; (2) the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora; and (3) any person or organization with demonstrated expertise in the conservation of cranes.
- Establishes the Crane Conservation Fund in the Multinational Species Conservation Fund.
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Amends the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to allow members of the Armed Forces who are called to active duty for a period of not less than 90 days to cancel or suspend their cell phone contracts without incurring early termination or reactivation fees.
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Co-Sponsored Bills
- Amends the Child Nutrition Act of 1966 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to revise the definition of "food of minimal nutritional value," the sale of which in areas where school meals are sold or eaten is prohibited as a condition for federal funding of school lunch and breakfast programs.
- Applies such definition (and prohibition) to all food sold outside such programs anywhere on school campuses at any time of the day, with the possible limited exemption of food sold at school fundraisers.
- Requires the Secretary, when revising such definition, to consider the recommendations of authoritative scientific organizations and evidence concerning the relationship between diet and health.
- Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to award quality reform grants to eligible entities to enhance, encourage, and expedite implementation of quality reform plans in order to: (1) encourage the coordinated development of local health care quality reforms; (2) fund the development of practices beneficial to the health care system; (3) expand information technology, electronic health records, and interoperable data systems in the health care system; (4) develop reimbursement practices that align financial incentives with health and prevention reforms to identify and encourage best practices; (5) lower the costs of health care delivery; (6) encourage experimentation in different U.S. regions; and (7) reward cooperation among local entities engaged in reforming the health care system.
- Requires the Secretary to establish the Quality Reform Committee, which shall: (1) approve the application of an eligible entity and recommend to the Secretary that a grant be awarded; (2) evaluate and exchange best practices related to activities carried out under the grant; (3) share research and expertise; and (4) study, identify, and report on market failures and anomalies that create economic incentives adverse to achievement of the goals of quality reform, cost reduction, health information technology expansion, and illness prevention.
Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to provide for Medicare coverage of kidney disease education services.
- Authorizes the presiding judge of a U.S. appellate court or U.S. district court to permit the photographing, electronic recording, broadcasting, or televising to the public of court proceedings over which that judge presides except when such action would constitute a violation of the due process rights of any party.
- Directs: (1) a district court, upon the request of any witness in a trial proceeding other than a party, to order the face and voice of the witness to be disguised or otherwise obscured to render the witness unrecognizable to the broadcast audience of the trial proceeding; and (2) the presiding judge in a trial proceeding to inform each witness who is not a party of the right to make such request.
- Authorizes the Judicial Conference of the United States to promulgate advisory guidelines to which a presiding judge may refer in making decisions regarding the management and administration of photographing, recording, broadcasting, or televising described in this Act.
John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act of 2007- Amends the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to direct the Attorney General to assume the obligation to repay student loans for borrowers who agree to remain employed, for at least three years, as: (1) state or local criminal prosecutors; or (2) state, local, or federal public defenders in criminal cases. Allows a borrower and the Attorney General to enter into an additional loan repayment agreement, after the required three-year period, for a successive period of service which may be less than three years. Limits the amount paid under such program on behalf of any borrower to $10,000 per calendar year and $60,000 total.
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