The Reference Attorneys are still receiving a number of calls about the ECO-Gift Card Act, Public Law 111-209, the Amendment to the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (“CCARD”).  This new Public Law strikes out Section 403 in Title IV of CCARD, found in Public Law 111-24, and replaces it with new language.  Procedurally, this Act works differently than what most attorneys who do legislative research are accustomed.

Unlike a number of laws that passed by Congress amending existing statutes, this Act amends the Public Law itself – not the codified statute.  The only statutory reference you will see about the ECO-Gift Card Act will be in the KeyCite History for 15 U.S.C.A. 1693L-1.  

// var sc_project=5841089; var sc_invisible=1; var sc_security="013ba72d"; // ]]>

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

President Obama signed the Education Jobs Fund bill (H.R. 1586) Tuesday. The bill provides for 26 billion in aid to the states for education aid. To see how your state fared in the election year money grab, click here.

Two interesting items worth noting. First, there is a bit of confusion over Title I. I have provided a snapshot of the official text. Under title one there is a mention of Education Jobs Fund and Education Jobs Funds.

Luckily with Westlaw you automatically search pluralities with the singular version of a word so you are covered no matter what database you are searching for information (news, legislative materials, etc.). Secondly, Congress slapped Governor Rick Perry of Texas around a bit by calling Texas out by name. Texas apparently created a “reserve” with previous stimulous money instead of spending it appropriately. The language in this bill mandates assurances that Texas actually appropriates the money correctly.

Bill: 2009 CONG US HR 1586

//

A frequent task Summer Associates have been faced with is trying to determine what precisely has happened with federal statutes over time.  On Westlaw we have the United States Code Annotated back through 1990 (USCAXX, XX= 2 digit year), but it is important to note that we also have United States Public Laws (US-PL) , and The United States Statutes at Large (STATLRG)back to the creation of the United States.  Many of the Acts in the Public Laws and Statutes at Large are not codified, of course.

The Statutes at Large can be interesting from a historical perspective as well. A couple of interesting acts I have run across include:

• Mary Todd Lincoln was granted the Franking Privilege –  14 Stat. 3  (the Franking Privilege entitles you to free postage). 
•  Original pay rates of Congress – 1 Stat. 70  were $6 per day, but only days that they attended!
• The President’s pay rate –  1 Stat 72 ( 25,000 which would be $628,000 in 2009 dollars using the Consumer Price Index Method). 
• As well as the first secret society incorporated by an Act of Congress in 1893 28 Stat. 96, the Knights of Pythias.

//

The Federal Register tweets.  While that is exciting for a variety of reasons, I found a recent tweet most helpful.  A few calls have come in about Public Law 111-209.  What is Public Law 111-209?  According to @Federal Register, PL 111-209 (HR 5502) amends “gift card provisions effective date.”

Pulling up PL 111-209 (also cited as 2010 HR 5502 or 124 Stat 2254) indicates that it amends the “gift card provisions effective date” of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CCARD for short).

While I love short public laws (and this is a short public law), I couldn’t figure out the significance of this change in effective date.   (After all, this tiny little public law garnered its own tweet.)

A little more research indicates that PL 111-209 is also popularly known as the ECO-Gift Card Act.  Prior to the passage of PL 111-209, the implementation of the gift card rules of CCARD was scheduled for August 22, 2010.  In a function of the law of unintended consequences, this August 22nd deadline would have led to the destruction of millions of plastic gift cards that would have no longer complied with the disclosure requirements CCARD.  According to one of its sponsors, the ECO-Gift Card Act will prevent 100 million of those plastic gift cards from ending up in the landfill (or ocean) prematurely.  That is the equivalent of eight football fields filled 12 feet deep with plastic cards.

PL 111-209 gives retailers until Jan. 31, 2011 (well after the Christmas shopping season) to get those *old* gift cards off of their shelves and get the new, compliant gift cards and gift certificates into place.

It’s worth noting that the ECO-Gift Card Act passed both the House and Senate unanimously.  Our legislators may not agree on a lot, but they apparently don’t care for wasted plastic.

//

There have been several articles this week about the delay in the Senate over the New Start Treaty, a nuclear arms agreement President Obama has negotiated with Russia.  The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the Senate had shelved the treaty until the fall session, potentially not until after the midterm elections.  This report was followed by a Times Editorial urging Senatorial critics to ratify.

While the treaty has gotten relatively little news coverage over the past few months, it has been an occasional hot topic.  In early July Mitt Romney aired several criticisms of the treaty; this was followed with a harsh rebuttal by Senator Luger, one of the main Republican voices in support of the treaty.

You can decide the merits of the treaty yourself by looking it up on Westlaw.  Treaties can be pulled via Find by Citation using various citation formats—the Senate Treaty Document number, the United States Treaties (U.S.T.) number, and the Treaties and Other International Agreements (T.I.A.S.) number, among others.  These formats can be something of a mystery, however, to lawyers unaccustomed to treaties and international law.

An easier solution might be to go to the USTREATIES database.  This database includes all treaties since 1778 to which the United States is a party, including treaties with American Indian tribes.  The database has a template that allows you to search by treaty name, or to pull all treaties between the U.S. and a specific country.

In the case of the New Start treaty, a search in Treaty Title for “New Start” retrieves no results, since New Start is not the technical title of the treaty.  However, a free-text search for “new start” will retrieve two results, the first of which is “A Treaty With Russia On Measures For Further Reduction And Limitation Of Strategic Offensive Arms”…also known as the “New START Treaty.”  The treaty can also be viewed at S. Treaty Doc. No. 111-5.

There are several other treaty databases in addition to USTREATIES, including databases with many European and International treaties.  If you can’t find what you’re looking for in USTREATIES, try CMB-TREATIES (which is the largest treaty database) or give the Reference Attorneys a call.

//

As the odds of a Speaker Boehner increase, supporters of a climate-change bill have turned up the heat on getting carbon-reducing legislation through the Senate.  Their efforts appear to have failed.  Already the politicos and pundits are queuing up their obits (here, here and here) for Federal Senate Bill 1733 – Senator Kerry’s Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act.

Senator Kerry urges that the bill is not dead.

Should Kerry’s bill resurrect, you can track its progress – or death by committee – on Westlaw.  Simply use our Federal Bill Tracker service (US-BILLTRK) to follow Senate Bill 1733.  It will provide you with a complete listing of the twists and turns this bill would take should the cause be championed.

Alternatively, should the GOP prevail in November, you can use the Federal Bill Tracker to see if Boehner holds true to his promise to repeal the Health Care reform legislation that, according to Boenher, “ruined the best health care system in the world.”

Grab your popcorn.

//

There has been a flurry of  Congressional news this week with the enactment of the Financial Reform Bill, and the Senate passing the extension of jobless benefits.  When researching active or recently passed legislation it is important to understand which version you are interested in, either the engrossed, enrolled or introduced version, and how to access other versions.

In Westlaw, a find by citation for the Wall Street reform Bill 2009 CONG US HR 4173, will pull up all the versions as separate results.  When you are in any of these bills you can click on the Graphical Bills link on the left side of the screen.  To open up a map that not only shows all of the versions, but also links to legislative history organized by category.

//

Interested in monitoring discussion of the oil spill in the Congressional Record? Try running the following search:

Database: CR

Search Query: te(B.P. “british petroleum” (oil /4 spill! & gulf)) & DA(AFT 05/01/2010)

After running the search, click “Add search to Westclip” at the top of the result list. You can set up a Westclip to get an email with new documents on a daily basis. The database name and search query should be set by default. You can name your search and set a Client ID if necessary. Click “edit” in the upper right corner next to “delivery settings” and click “properties” next to email so that you can make sure your email address is entered.

//

//

The U.S. Senate recently voted to amend the American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 to include a provision making the payment of punitive damages a non-deductible expense.  To view the text of the amendment and comments surrounding its introduction, try the following search in the Congressional Record (CR) database:  “closing tax loopholes act” & punitive exemplary /2 damage.

To find recent media coverage of the amendment and the deductibility of punitive damages in general, try a search in ALLNEWSPLUS for:  deduct! /s punitive exemplary /2 damage & da(2010).

For some discussion on the history of the deduction, search the TP-ALL database for:  pr,ti(deduct! /5 punitive exemplary /2 damage).

//

One hot topic in many state legislatures currently involves prohibiting texting while driving, and perhaps other cell phone-related distractions while driving as well.

Even Oprah is on board.  For recent legislative amendments on this topic, try the following search:

Databases: LEGIS-OLD-ALL, LEGIS-ALL

Search Query: CELLULAR DISTRACT! TEXT! /4 DRIV! & DA(LAST 3 YEARS)

Documents Retrieved: 35

For Journals and Law Review Articles on this topic, try this search: 

Database: JLR

Search Query: ti(text! distract! cell! mobile phon! telephon! /4 driv!)

Documents Retrieved: 20