Appropriations bill FY2005, Labor, HHS, Education

Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2005 - Makes appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and related agencies for FY 2005.

Title I: Department of Labor - Department of Labor Appropriations Act, 2005 - Makes appropriations for FY 2005 to the Department of Labor for: (1) the Employment and Training Administration; (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 the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund; (6) employment and training program administration; (7) the Employee Benefits Security Administration; (8) the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation; (9) the Employment Standards Administration; (10) certain special benefits, including ones for disabled coal miners; (11) the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Fund; (12) the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund; (13) the Occupational Safety and Health Administration; (14) the Mine Safety and Health Administration; (15) the Bureau of Labor Statistics; (16) the Office of Disability Employment Policy; (17) departmental management; (18) veterans employment and training; (19) the Office of Inspector General; and (20) a working capital fund for a new core accounting system.

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

(Sec. 101) Prohibits use of Job Corps funds under this title to pay individual compensation at a rate in excess of Executive Level II.

(Sec. 102) Allows not more than one percent of discretionary funds for the current fiscal year for the Department of Labor in this Act to be transferred between appropriations. Prohibits any increase of any such appropriation by more than three percent by any such transfer.

(Sec. 103) Directs the Secretary of Labor to issue a monthly transit subsidy to the Department's employees in the National Capital Region.

Title II: Department of Health and Human Services - Department of Health and Human Services Appropriations Act, 2005 - Makes appropriations for FY 2005 to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for: (1) the Health Resources and Services Administration; (2) health education assistance loans; (3) the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program Trust Fund; (4) the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), for disease control, research, and training; (5) the National Institutes of Health (NIH), including the John E. Fogarty International Center, the National Library of Medicine, and the Office of the Director; (6) the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; (7) the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; (8) the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for grants to States for Medicaid, payments to health care trust funds, program management, and the Health Maintenance Organization Loan and Loan Guarantee Fund; (9) the Administration for Children and Families for payments to States for child support enforcement and family support programs; (10) low-income home energy assistance; (11) refugee and entrant assistance; (12) payments to States for the child care and development block grant; (13) the social services block grant; (14) disabled voter services; (15) children and families services programs; (16) promoting safe and stable families, through family preservation and support; (17) payments to States for foster care and adoption assistance; (18) the Administration on Aging; (19) the Office of the Secretary for general departmental management; (20) the Office of Inspector General; (21) the Office for Civil Rights; (22) policy research; (23) retirement pay and medical benefits for Public Health Service commissioned officers, and medical care of dependents and retired personnel; and (24) the public health and social services emergency fund, for expenses related to countering potential biological, disease, and chemical threats to civilian populations, for the Strategic National Stockpile, and for activities to ensure a year-round influenza vaccine production capacity and the development and implementation of rapidly expandable influenza vaccine production technologies.

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. 203) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act to implement a certain mandatory breast cancer study under the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) or to construct regional centers for primate research under the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993.

(Sec. 204) Prohibits the use of funds under this Act for the NIH, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to pay an individual's salary, through a grant or other extramural mechanism, at a rate in excess of Executive Level I.

(Sec. 205) Prohibits the use of funds under this title for Head Start to pay an individual, either as direct costs or any peroration as an indirect cost, at a rate in excess of Executive Level II.

(Sec. 206) Prohibits the expenditure of funds under this Act pursuant to specified evaluation provisions of PHSA, except for funds specifically provided for in this Act, or for other taps and assessments made by any office located in the Department of HHS, prior to a report by the Secretary of HHS to specified congressional committees detailing the planned uses of such funds.

(Sec. 207) Directs the Secretary of HHS to determine a portion, up to 2.3 percent, of appropriations for PHSA programs to be made available for evaluation of implementation and effectiveness of such programs.

(Sec. 208) Allows the transfer between appropriations of not more than one percent of discretionary funds in this Act for the current fiscal year for the Department of HHS. Prohibits any increase of any such appropriation by more than three percent by any such transfer, but allows that appropriation to be increased by an additional two percent subject to approval by the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations.

(Sec. 209) Authorizes the Directors of the NIH and of the Office of AIDS Research (OAR) jointly to transfer up to three percent among institutes, centers, and divisions from the total amounts identified by these two Directors as funding for research pertaining to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

(Sec. 210) Requires the amount for research related to HIV (of amounts made available for NIH in this Act), as jointly determined by the Directors of NIH and of OAR, to be made available to the OAR account. Requires the Director of OAR to transfer from such account amounts necessary to carry out certain provisions of PHSA.

(Sec. 211) Prohibits funds under this Act from being made available under title X (population research and voluntary family planning) of PHSA, unless the award applicant certifies to the Secretary of HHS 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. 212) Prohibits use of funds under this Act to carry out the Medicare+Choice program if the Secretary of HHS 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. 213) Declares that no provider of services under title X (population research and voluntary family planning) of PHSA shall be exempt from any State law requiring notification or the reporting of child abuse, child molestation, sexual abuse, rape, or incest.

(Sec. 214) Prohibits funds under by this Act from being used to withhold substance abuse funding from a State pursuant to specified PHSA provisions, if such State certifies to the Secretary of HHS that the State will commit additional State funds to ensure compliance with State laws prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to individuals under 18 years of age.

(Sec. 215) Authorizes the Secretary of HHS, in order for the CDCP to carry out international health activities, including those relating to HIV/AIDS and other infectious disease, chronic and environmental disease, and other health activities abroad during FY 2005, to utilize specified authorities under: (1) the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956; and (2) other Federal laws to lease, alter, or renovate facilities in foreign countries to carry out such programs.

(Sec. 216) Authorizes the Division of Federal Occupational Health to use personal services contracting to employ occupational health professionals and professionals in management and administration.

(Sec. 217) Authorizes the NIH Director to use certain available funds to enter into transactions (other than contracts, cooperative agreements, or grants) to carry out research in support of the NIH Roadmap Initiative of the Director. Authorizes the Director, in entering such transactions, to determine and use appropriate peer review procedures in lieu of the peer review and advisory council review procedures that would otherwise be required under PHSA.

(Sec. 218) Rescinds the unobligated balance of funds appropriated, under certain Social Security Act provisions added by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-173), for a program of loans to hospitals to pay capital costs of projects to improve their cancer-related health care infrastructure.

(Sec. 219) Reduces the amount otherwise provided by this Act for Program Management at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

(Sec. 220) Reduces the amount appropriated in this Act for Disease Control, Research, and Training at the CDCP. Requires such reduction to be derived from amounts made available for administrative and related information technology expenses. Requires the CDCP Director to determine the allocation of the reduction among CDCP activities and report the proposed allocation to the Committees on Appropriations.

(Sec. 221) Directs the Secretary of HHS to make a contract with the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences to study and report on: (1) a clinical consensus on how to modernize Medicare criteria for distinguishing an inpatient rehabilitation facility from an acute care hospital and other providers of intensive medical rehabilitation; and (2) appropriate medical necessity criteria for determining clinical appropriateness of inpatient rehabilitation facility admissions.

Prohibits the Secretary or a Medicare fiscal intermediary or administrative contractor, until nine months after such report is made to Congress and the Secretary, from expending any funds appropriated by this Act or any other Act to: (1) apply certain Medicare program criteria, commonly known as the 75 percent rule, to determine whether a hospital or unit of a hospital is an inpatient rehabilitation facility; (2) compile facility data pertaining to compliance with such 75 percent rule or enforce such rule; or (3) use or apply any existing or new local medical review policy, local coverage determination, or national coverage determination with respect to medical necessity standards for inpatient rehabilitation facilities under the Medicare program.

(Sec. 222) None of the funds appropriated in this title may be used to impede the exchange of information between the Office of the Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Congress, including its members, committees, and staff.

Title III: Department of Education - Department of Education Appropriations Act, 2005 - Makes appropriations for FY 2005 to the Department of Education for: (1) education for the disadvantaged; (2) impact aid; (3) school improvement programs; (4) Indian education; (5) innovation and improvement activities; (6) safe schools and citizenship education; (7) English language acquisition and language enhancement; (8) special education; (9) rehabilitation services and disability research; (10) special institutions for persons with disabilities, including the American Printing House for the Blind, the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School, the Model Secondary School for the Deaf, and Gallaudet University; (11) vocational and adult education; (12) certain student financial assistance programs, as well as Federal administrative expenses for such programs (setting a maximum individual Pell Grant amount); (13) specified higher education programs; (14) Howard University; (15) the college housing and academic facilities loans program; (16) the historically Black college and university capital financing program account; (17) the Institute of Education Sciences; (18) departmental management and program administration; (19) the Office for Civil Rights; and (20) the Office of the Inspector General.

Sets the maximum individual Pell Grant amount at $4,050 during award year 2005-2006.

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

(Sec. 301) Prohibits the use of funds to transport teachers or students in order to: (1) overcome racial imbalance in any school; or (2) carry out a racial desegregation plan.

(Sec. 302) Prohibits the use of funds to require, directly or indirectly, the transportation of any student to a school other than the school nearest the student's home, except, for a student requiring special education, to the school offering such special education, in order to comply with title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Declares that such a prohibited indirect requirement of transportation of students includes the transportation of students to carry out a plan involving the reorganization of the grade structure of schools, the pairing of schools, or the clustering of schools, or any combination of grade restructuring, pairing or clustering. Exempts the establishment of magnet schools from such prohibition.

(Sec. 303) Prohibits funds under in this Act from being used to prevent the implementation of programs of voluntary prayer and meditation in public schools.

(Sec. 304) Allows the transfer between appropriations of not more than one percent of discretionary funds for the current fiscal year for the Department of Education in this Act. Prohibits any increase of any such appropriation by more than three percent by any such transfer.

(Sec. 305) Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to extend by two years, to October 30, 2007, the deadline for local educational agencies to submit applications for Impact Aid payments relating to Federal property acquired by the Federal Government before October 30, 2000.

(Sec. 306) Prohibits any funds appropriated by this Act from being available to the Secretary of Education to: (1) enforce any change or clarification of Department of Education policy with respect to the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program Consolidation loans for borrowers with both FFEL and non-FFEL loans, as provided in a specified letter of the Secretary; or (2) issue letters, regarding loan verification certificates to providers of FFEL requesting information about William D. Ford Direct Student Loans, including Direct Stafford, PLUS, and Consolidation Loans, that make statements that certification forms cannot be approved because borrowers either have Direct Loans or have a Direct Consolidation Loan and no other loans.

Title IV: Related Agencies - Makes appropriations for FY 2005 to the: (1) Armed Forces Retirement Home; (2) Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled; (3) Corporation for National and Community Service, for domestic volunteer service programs and operating expenses; (4) Corporation for Public Broadcasting; (5) Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service; (6) Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission; (7) Institute of Museum and Library Services; (8) Medicare Payment Advisory Commission; (9) National Commission on Libraries and Information Science; (10) National Council on Disability; (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; and (15) Social Security Administration for payments to the Social Security trust funds, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program, administrative expenses, and the Office of Inspector General.

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

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

(Sec. 505) Prohibits the use of funds appropriated under this Act for programs to distribute sterile needles or syringes for the injection of illegal drugs, unless the Secretary of HHS determines that such programs are effective in preventing the spread of HIV and do not encourage the use of illegal drugs.

(Sec. 507) Prohibits the expenditure of funds appropriated under this Act, or in any trust fund to which funds are appropriated under this Act, for abortions or for health benefits coverage that includes coverage of abortion, with exceptions specified in section 509 of this Act.

(Sec. 508) Provides that the prohibition in section 508 shall not apply to an abortion: (1) if the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest; or (2) in the case where a woman suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness, including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself, that would, as certified by a physician, place the woman in danger of death unless an abortion is performed. Provides that nothing in section 508 shall be construed as: (1) prohibiting the expenditure by a State, locality, entity, or private person of State, local, or private funds (other than a State's or locality's contribution of Medicaid matching funds); or (2) restricting the ability of any managed care provider from offering abortion coverage or the ability of a State or locality to contract separately with such a provider for such coverage with State funds (other than a State's or locality's contribution of Medicaid matching funds).

(Sec. 509) 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, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero under specified Federal regulations and the Public Health Service Act. Defines "human embryo or embryos" to include any organism, not protected as a human subject under specified Federal regulations as of the date of the enactment of this Act, that is derived by fertilization, parthenogenesis, cloning, or any other means from one or more human gametes or human diploid cells.

(Sec. 510) 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. 512) Bars the use of funds made available in this Act to promulgate a final standard under the Social Security Act providing for a unique health identifier for an individual (except in an individual's capacity as an employer or health care provider) until legislation is enacted specifically approving the standard.

(Sec. 514) Prohibits the availability of funds under the Library Services and Technology Act for assistance to purchase computers or Internet access for any covered library (under specified provisions of such Act as amended by the Children's Internet Protections Act) unless the library has certified its compliance with certain requirements for Internet safety.

(Sec. 515) Prohibits the availability of funds under the Enhancing Education Through Technology Act of 2001 (part D of title II of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended by the Children's Internet Protections Act and the No Child Left Behind Act) to any covered elementary or secondary school, unless its local educational agency has certified the school's compliance with certain requirements for Internet safety.

(Sec. 516) Prohibits the use of funds to enter into an arrangement under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974 with a nongovernmental financial institution to serve as disbursing agent for benefits payable under such Act.

(Sec. 517) Requires a 15-day advance notice of specified types of reprogramming of funds to be given the Appropriations Committees of both Houses of Congress.

(Sec. 518) Prohibits the use of funds by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) to enforce a prohibition, under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), against public disclosure by the PBGC of information, including funding status, that is required to be reported to the PBGC by certain pension plans.

(Sec. 519) Prohibits the use of funds made available in this Act to send or otherwise pay for the attendance of more than 50 Federal employees from that agency at any single conference occurring outside the United States.

(Sec. 520) Prohibits the use of funds made available in this Act for the National Institute of Mental Health to fund two specified grants.

(Sec. 521) Prohibits the use of funds by the Department of Labor to implement or administer any change to specified regulations regarding overtime compensation in effect on July 14, 2004. Makes an exception for specified changes in the Department's final regulation published on April 23, 2004 (thus allowing implementation and administration of rule changes which increase the maximum salary amount at which an employee must receive overtime pay, and the minimum salary amount at which an exemption from overtime pay requirements is triggered).

(Sec. 522) Prohibits the use of funds by the Secretary of Education to administer or pay any special allowance to holders of student loans under certain provisions of the Higher Education Act of 1965 pursuant to specified regulations of the Department of Education.

(Sec. 523) Prohibits the expenditure of funds made available under this Act to the Department of Education in contravention of the provision of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act of 1996 which prohibits aliens not lawfully present in the United States from being eligible for any postsecondary education benefit on the basis of their residence within a State or locality, unless any U.S. citizen or national is eligible for such a benefit without regard to State or local residence.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov