Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1996

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Title I: Department of Transportation

Title II: Related Agencies

Title III: General Provisions

Title IV: Providing for the Adoption of Mandatory Standards

and Procedures Governing the Actions of Arbitrators in

the Arbitration of Labor Disputes Involving Transit

Agencies Operating in the National Capital Area

Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1996 - Title I: Department of Transportation - Makes appropriations for FY 1996 (with specified rescissions, limitations on obligations and direct loans, and liquidations of contract authorizations) for: (1) the Office of the Secretary of Transportation; (2) the Coast Guard; (3) the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); (4) the Federal Highway Administration (FHA); (5) the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; (6) the Federal Railroad Administration (including funds for Alaska Railroad rehabilitation and specified Rhode Island rail development); (7) the Federal Transit Administration; (8) the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation; (9) the Research and Special Programs Administration; (10) the Office of the Inspector General; and (11) the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Title II: Related Agencies - Makes appropriations for FY 1996 for: (1) the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board; (2) the National Transportation Safety Board; (3) the Interstate Commerce Commission (for severance, closing costs, and other sunset expenses); and (4) the Panama Canal Commission.

Title III: General Provisions - Sets forth specified prohibitions, limitations, permissions, and mandates with respect to the use of appropriations under this Act.

(Sec. 308) Authorizes the Secretary of Transportation to enter into grants, cooperative agreements, and other transactions with any person, agency, U.S. instrumentality, any State or local government, any educational institution, and any other entity in execution of the Technology Reinvestment Project authorized under the Defense Conversion, Reinvestment and Transition Assistance Act of 1992 and related legislation.

(Sec. 310) Requires the Secretary to distribute, on a ratio-formulated basis, Federal-aid highway State obligation limits for FY 1996 for Federal-aid highways.

Prohibits a State from obligating more than 25 percent of its allocation for such projects during the first three months of FY 1996. Sets forth additional specified obligation limits for States during FY 1996.

(Sec. 311) Limits funds available for salaries and expenses to no more than 100 political and presidential appointees in the Department of Transportation (DOT). Prohibits the assignment of such personnel on temporary detail outside of the Department.

(Sec. 313) Prohibits the use of funds for the Highway Safety Advisory Committee of the DOT.

(Sec. 316) Prohibits the use of funds to establish a vessel traffic safety fairway less than five miles wide between the Santa Barbara Traffic Separation Scheme and the San Francisco Traffic Separation Scheme.

(Sec. 317) Authorizes airports to transfer, without consideration, to the FAA any instrument landing systems which were purchased through a Federal airport aid or development program and which conform to FAA performance specifications.

(Sec. 318) Prohibits the use of funds to award multiyear contracts for production end items that include: (1) economic order quantity or long lead time material procurement in excess of $10 million in any one year of the contract; (2) a cancellation charge greater than $10 million which at the time of obligation has not been appropriated to the limits of the Government's liability; or (3) a requirement that permits performance under the contract during the second and subsequent years without conditioning such performance upon the appropriation of funds.

(Sec. 320) Prohibits the use of funds to enforce provisions of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 requiring States to use recycled rubber in their asphalt pavement.

(Sec. 324) Prohibits the use of funds to place speed limit or distance signs using the metric system on any State highway.

(Sec. 325) Requires tolls collected from motor vehicles on any bridge connecting the boroughs of Brooklyn, New York, and Staten Island, New York, to continue to be collected for only those vehicles exiting from such bridge in Staten Island.

(Sec. 329) Declares the sense of the Congress that all equipment and products bought with funds under this Act should be American-made. Requires each Federal agency to give notice of this policy to any entity it provides financial assistance or contracts with.

(Sec. 330) Prohibits the use of funds to promulgate corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards under the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act for automobiles in any model year that differ from standards promulgated for such automobiles prior to enactment of this Act.

(Sec. 331) Subjects the acquisition by the U.S. Coast Guard of all 47-foot Motor Life Boats to open competition for all U.S. shipyards.

(Sec. 332) Prohibits the use of funds in this Act for planning or construction of a sixth runway at the new Denver International Airport, Denver, Colorado.

(Sec. 335) Cancels permanently $25 million of the budgetary resources provided to the DOT (excluding the Maritime Administration). Directs the Secretary to reduce the existing field office structure and consolidate DOT's surface transportation field offices and administrative activities.

Authorizes the President to transmit to the Congress, in conjunction with the budget request, a plan for the reorganization of the DOT's surface transportation activities and its relationship with the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

(Sec. 337) Prohibits the use of funds for employee training which: (1) does not meet identified needs for knowledge, skills, and abilities bearing directly upon the performance of official duties; (2) contains elements likely to induce high levels of emotional response or psychological stress in some participants; (3) does not require prior employee notification of the content and methods to be used in the training and written end of course evaluations; (4) contains any methods or content associated with religious or quasi- religious belief systems or "new age" belief systems; (5) is offensive to, or designed to change, participants' personal values or lifestyle outside the workplace; or (6) includes content related to human immunodeficiency virus-acquired immune deficiency syndrome (HIV-AIDS) other than that necessary to make employees more aware of its medical ramifications and the workplace rights of HIV-positive employees.

(Sec. 338) Prohibits the use of funds to enforce the requirement that airport charges make the airport as self-sustaining as possible or the prohibition against revenue diversion under the Airport and Airway Improvement Act of 1982 against Hot Springs Memorial Field in Hot Springs, Arkansas, on the grounds of its failure to collect fair market rental value for the facilities known as Kimery Park and Family Park. Declares that the FAA does not find that any use of, or structures on, such parks are incompatible with the safe and efficient use of the airport.

(Sec. 339) Prohibits the use of funds, without express congressional authorization, to pay for any lobbying activities designed to influence a Member of Congress with respect to any legislation or appropriation before the Congress. Declares that such prohibition shall not prevent DOT officers or employees from communicating to such Members requests for legislation or appropriations which are deemed necessary for the efficient conduct of the public business.

(Sec. 340) Prohibits the use of funds to pay the salaries and expenses of any individual to arrange tours of scientists or engineers employed by or working for China, to hire Chinese citizens to participate in research fellowships sponsored by the modal administrations of the DOT, or provide training or any technology transfer to scientists or engineers employed by or working for China. Excepts from this prohibition the FAA or the joint FAA, Department of Defense, and Department of Commerce initiative to modernize China's air traffic control system.

(Sec. 342) Makes specified amounts available for the transfer of certain rail and motor carrier functions from Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) to the DOT.

(Sec. 343) Prohibits the use of funds for improvements to the Miller Highway in New York City, New York.

(Sec. 345) Directs the Secretary to identify successful telecommuting programs in the public and private sectors and provide to the public information regarding the establishment of such programs and their costs and benefits.

(Sec. 346) Exempts the Indian Reservation roads program from any reduction in authorizations due to budget reductions.

(Sec. 347) Directs the FAA Administrator to develop both a personnel management system and an acquisition management system for the FAA.

(Sec. 351) Authorizes the Secretary to: (1) administer and implement exemptions from certain odometer disclosure requirements of the Code of Federal Regulations; and (2) adopt or amend such exemptions for any class or category of vehicle deemed appropriate.

(Sec. 352) Designates the FAA Technical Center at the Atlantic City International Airport in Pomona, New Jersey, as the William J. Hughes Technical Center.

(Sec. 353) Prohibits the use of funds to close any multi-mission small boat stations or subunits. Authorizes the Secretary to implement management efficiencies within the small boat unit system, provided that no stations or subunits are closed.

(Sec. 354) Amends specified Federal law to permit the transfer of certain Federal property to the city of Hoboken, New Jersey.

(Sec. 355) Urges Japan to honor the terms of the United States-Japan bilateral aviation agreement. Urges the President to: (1) identify strong and appropriate forms of countermeasures that could be taken against Japan for its violation of the agreement; and (2) promptly impose against Japan any necessary and appropriate countermeasures to ensure that Japan abides by the agreement.

(Sec. 357) Authorizes the State of North Dakota to use certain Federal funds to build a siding and intermodal facility near Wahpeton, Richland County, North Dakota.

Title IV: Providing for the Adoption of Mandatory Standards and Procedures Governing the Actions of Arbitrators in the Arbitration of Labor Disputes Involving Transit Agencies Operating in the National Capital Area - National Capital Area Interest Arbitration Standards Act of 1995 - Prohibits an arbitrator rendering an arbitration award involving the employees of an interstate compact agency operating in the National Capital Area from making a finding or a decision for inclusion in a collective bargaining agreement governing conditions of employment without considering specified factors. Prohibits such arbitrator, when rendering an award, from providing salaries and other benefits that exceed the interstate compact agency's funding.

(Sec. 405) Sets forth provisions with respect to the enforcement and judicial review of such awards.