Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1980 and 1981

(Conference report filed in House, H. Rept. 96-399) =Title I: Department of State= - Department of State Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1980 and 1981 - Authorizes appropriations through fiscal year 1981 for the Department of State to be used for: (1) the administration of foreign affairs; (2) international organizations and conferences; (3) international commissions; (4) migration and refugee assistance (with $25,000,000 for each of fiscal years 1980 and 1981 earmarked for resettling refugees in Israel); (5) the U.S. share of expenses for the bilateral science and technology agreement with Yugoslavia; and (6) salary increases and currency fluctuations. Requires the United States to reduce its contribution to the United Nations by a specified percentage of the amount budgeted by the United Nations for certain Palestinian organizations. Permits the use of up to ten percent of the authorized appropriations for the State Department to be shifted from one account to another. Makes retroactive to a specified date the promotions of 64 Foreign Service officers of classes seven and eight. Stipulates that only funds authorized for fiscal year 1979 be used to pay backpay to such officers. Declares it the sense of the Congress that the Secretary should improve coordination of foreign national pay systems and wage schedules with the Department of State and the Department of Defense and other overseas agencies. Requires the Department to keep open the following Foreign Service posts: (1) Salzburg, Austria; Bremen, Germany; Nice, France; Turin, Italy; Goteborg, Sweden; Adana, Turkey; Tangier, Morocco; Mandalay, Burma; Brisbane, Australia; and Surabaya, Indonesia. Stipulates that personnel assigned to such consulates shall not be counted towards any personnel ceiling for the Department of State. Authorizes the Secretary of State to refuse nonimmigrant visas to aliens from signatory countries of the Helsinki Agreement which are in violation of the human rights provisions of such Agreement. Prohibits the Secretary from recommending nonimmigrant visas for aliens affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization or who are representatives of purported labor organizations, which are in fact instruments of a totalitarian state. Amends the Department of State Appropriation Act, 1979, to repeal the provision eliminating the estimated United States share of the United Nations technical assistance programs. =Title II: International Communication Agency= - International Communication Agency Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1980 and 1981 - Authorizes appropriations through fiscal year 1981 for the International Communication Agency (ICA). Repeals the loyalty investigations required by the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 and the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961. Amends the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 to give the Director of the ICA, as well as the Secretary of State, authority to employ aliens without regard to the civil service and classification laws. Amends the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 to exempt the Director from provisions concerning the management and disposal of government property with respect to the furnishing of facilities in foreign countries and reception centers in the United States. Amends the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 to authorize the Director to provide services within the United States in connection with exchange activities when such services are requested and reimbursed by other departments or agencies. Amends the United States Information and Educational Exchange Act of 1948 to permit the Director to approve the acquisition, leasing, and improvement of real property without regard to provisions requiring the Attorney General's approval of the title. Restricts such leases of real property to terms of ten years unless longer periods are authorized by Congress. Redesignates the United States Advisory Commission on International Communication, Cultural and Educational Affairs as the United States Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. Provides for the appointment of a Staff Director and staff of such Commission subject to provisions of law governing appointments in the competitive service. Revises the administrative authority of the Secretary of State. Authorizes additional appropriations for the ICA to cover the salary increases and currency fluctuations. Amends the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 to make the compensation of members of ICA's Board of Foreign Scholarships equivalent to that of members of other Federal advisory boards at the first step of the GS-15 level. Authorizes the public distribution within the United States of the films, "Margaret Mead-Reflections", "Aspen," and the "English Teaching Forum." =Title III: Board for International Broadcasting= - Board for International Broadcasting Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1980 and 1981 - Amends the Board for International Broadcasting Act of 1973 to authorize appropriations through fiscal year 1981. Authorizes the appropriation of additional amounts for RFE/RL, Incorporated, to cover currency fluctuations. Amends the Board for International Broadcasting Act of 1973 to direct the Board to prepare and submit a report setting forth alternative plans for relocation to the United States of employees of RFE/RL. =Title IV: Technical Provisions= - Amends an Act to establish a Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe to limit to $6,000 the amount the Commission may use for official reception and representational expenses. Stipulates that any statutory reference to the Committee on International Relations of the House of Representatives shall be deemed a reference to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives. Expresses the sense of the Congress that U.S. policy should promote and encourage cultural, scientific, and economic relations between Egypt and Israel. Amends the International Organizations Immunities Act to include within its purview the International Labor Organization. Expresses the sense of the Congress that the International Whaling Commission and all whaling nations should agree to a moratorium on the commercial killing of whales. Exempts the U.S. representatives to the World Administrative Radio Conference from the conflict of interest guidelines of the Ethics in Government Act. Extends the time to complete and revise the goals of a report by the President to the Congress concerning the ways in which U.S. law discriminates against Americans living and working abroad. Directs the President to: (1) promote a speedy end to the Rhodesian conflict; and (2) terminate sanctions against Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, unless the President reports to Congress that such termination is not in the national interest. Stipulates that such sanctions shall be terminated if Congress rejects the Presidential determination against termination.

Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Conference report filed in House" stage on July 31, 1979. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.

Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.