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Sponsored Bills
Commends General Peter J. Schoomaker for his extraordinary dedication to duty and service to the United States throughout his distinguished career in the U.S. Army.
Amends the Internal Revenue Code to make permanent the suspension of the taxable income limitation on percentage depletion for oil and natural gas produced from marginal properties.
- Allows a pilot who has attained 60 years of age to serve as a passenger airline pilot until the age of 65 years old only if the pilot serves: (1) as a required pilot in multi-crew aircraft operations; and (2) with another required pilot who has not yet attained 60 years of age. Terminates the age-60 rule (mandatory retirement age) 30 days after enactment of this Act.
- Declares that such requirements shall not provide the basis for a claim of seniority made under any labor bargaining agreement in effect between the pilots and an air carrier by any pilot who has attained age 60 before the effective date of this Act and who is seeking a position as a pilot with such carrier following that pilot's termination or cessation of employment or promotion or transfer to another position with such air carrier.
Amends the Clean Air Act to: (1) extend the duration of credits for renewable fuel and biodiesel to 36 months (currently, 12 months) after the date of generation; (2) extend the temporary exemption for small refineries from renewable fuel program requirements until 2013 (currently, they are exempted until 2011); and (3) apply the authorization of funding for the cost of loan guarantees to carry out commercial demonstration projects to demonstration projects for celluosic biomass ethanol and ethanol (currently, for celluosic biomass ethanol and sucrose-derived ethanol).
- Requires the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study the feasibility of increasing consumption in the United States of ethanol-blended gasoline with levels of ethanol of not less than 10% and not more than 40%.
- Requires the study to evaluate: (1) production and infrastructure constraints on increasing consumption; (2) the economic, market, and energy impacts of state and regional differences in ethanol blends and of separate and distinctly-labeled fuel storage facilities and dispensers; (3) the environmental impacts of mid-level ethanol blends on evaporative and exhaust emissions from, and on the operation, durability and performance of, on-road, off-road, and marine engines, recreational boats, vehicles, and equipment (engines); and (4) the safety impacts of mid-level ethanol blends on consumers that own and operate such engines.
- Amends the Clean Air Act to authorize the Administrator to approve an application to waive specified prohibitions concerning new fuels and fuel additives only after providing for notice and an opportunity for public comment (repeals a provision treating an application as granted if the Adminsitrator fails to act on it within 180 days).
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Co-Sponsored Bills
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.
Directs the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate to arrange for the presentation of a congressional gold medal to Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D. (who performed the first successful coronary bypass, pioneered the field of telemedicine, was elected the first President of Baylor College of Medicine, and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction and the National Medal of Science) in recognition of his many outstanding contributions to the nation.
Amends the federal criminal code to authorize a nonresident of a state to carry concealed firearms (other than a machinegun or destructive device) in that state if such nonresident has a valid permit to carry firearms in any state and is not prohibited from carrying a firearm under federal law, subject to restrictions imposed by the state issuing the permit or under this Act.
- Amends the Iran Freedom Support Act to direct the President to appoint a special envoy for human rights in Iran within the Department of State to coordinate efforts to improve respect for the fundamental human rights of the people of Iran and work with organizations committed to promoting democracy in Iran.
- Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) there is a direct relationship between the state of freedom and democracy within Iran and the efforts of the Iranian regime to acquire nuclear weapons and the long-term success of the global war on terror; (2) it is essential that the issue of human rights violations in Iran should remain a top U.S. foreign policy priority independent of efforts to address the nuclear threat in Iran; (3) the U.S. government should explore the possibility of a regional human rights dialogue with Iran; (4) the United Nations has a significant role to play in improving human rights in Iran; and (5) the commitment to human rights and democracy of an Iranian national who has applied for a U.S. entry visa should be considered when determining visa eligibility.
Amends the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 to eliminate the requirement that forage producers must participate in the insurance pilot program or the noninsured crop disaster assistance program in order to receive crop disaster and livestock assistance.
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