This Week in Congress: December 3, 2012

Dec 3, 2012

This week, the House will consider nine bills, ranging from immigration to patent law.

Legislation under consideration this week includes:

Eliminate Privacy Notice Confusion Act (H.R. 5817): eliminates the requirement that financial institutions send annual privacy notices to their customers if their privacy policy has not changed, the institution does not share information with its affiliates, and it shares information with third parties in accordance with the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

H.Res. __: amends the Senate version of H.R. 2838, which authorizes $17.4 billion for the Coast Guard through FY 2014, prohibits the decommissioning of two icebreakers until analysis can be performed on the merits of extending their useful service lives, and authorizes $296 million for the U.S. Maritime Administration for FY 2013. The House amendment strikes language from the bill that would have established national ballast water discharge standards.

H.R. 6582: exempts from federal energy standards certain walk-in cooling, refrigeration units and commercial cooling units. It also requires the Department of Energy to create unified efficiency standards for certain water heaters, high-velocity systems, heat pumps and air conditioning units and establishes a web tracking system for federal energy management and data collection.

H.R. 6602: revises Title 36 of the United States Code relating to patriotic and national observances, ceremonies, and organizations. It reorders and expands the table of contents, requires reserved chapters to be noted in the table of contents, and improves clarity of language in the title.

H.R. 6605: eliminates the requirement that each state or local government receiving a DNA Identification Grant submit a report to the Department of Justice on its use of the funds. These grants have not been funded since 2003.

H.R. 6620: repeals the 10-year limitations on Secret Service protection for former presidents and their children enacted in 1997. By doing so, it restores lifetime Secret Service protection for former presidents and requires that children of former presidents receive protection until they reach age 16.

H.R. 6223: allows foreign nationals working in an executive level security position with the U.S. armed forces or diplomatic service to benefit with regard to U.S. naturalization requirements in the same way as people who work as interpreters or translators. Specifically, it allows time spent abroad providing these services to count towards the “continuous residence” and “physical presence” requirements.

Patent Law Treaties Implementation Act of 2012 (S. 3486): amends U.S. patent law to conform to certain requirements under the Hague System and Patent Law Treaty regarding the processing of international applications and associated application fees, and creating a registry of patent interests, applications and conveyances or other transfers of rights. It also directs the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to issue regulations and rules creating a domestic application process that complies with the Hague System and Patent Law Treaty.

21st Century Language Act of 2012 (S. 2367):  strikes the word "lunatic" from federal law.

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