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<BillSummaries>
<item congress="113" measure-type="hr" measure-number="5791" measure-id="id113hr5791" originChamber="HOUSE" orig-publish-date="2014-12-04" update-date="2014-12-22">
<title>FINER Act of 2014</title>
<summary summary-id="id113hr5791v00" currentChamber="HOUSE" update-date="2014-12-22">
<action-date>2014-12-04</action-date>
<action-desc>Introduced in House</action-desc>
<summary-text><![CDATA[<p>Fines in Need of Extensive Reform Act of 2014 or the FINER Act of 2014 - Prohibits federal agency rules that provide for an assessment of an administrative fine from taking effect until 90 days after the rule and relevant rule guidance is made available on the agency's website. </p> <p>Establishes procedures for enforcement of, and challenges to, administrative fines to: (1) prohibit fine assessments unless a particular officer or employee of the agency is responsible for assessing the fine, (2) allow persons to challenge the imposition of a fine in federal court or through alternative dispute resolution by a neutral third party, and (3) require rule violations to be dismissed if the agency officer or employee who assessed the fine is not present in court for any proceedings contesting the fine.</p> <p> Requires agencies to publish annually in the Federal Register guidance for any rules for which they may assess an administrative fine.</p> <p>Allows a person who prevails in contesting a fine to recover reasonable court costs and attorney's fees.</p> <p>Provides for fine amounts to be deposited into the Treasury. Prohibits fines from being used to supplement or offset the appropriations of the agency that assessed the fine. </p> <p>Excludes user fees, criminal fines or penalties, or court-imposed fines from the requirements applicable to administrative fines.</p>]]></summary-text>
</summary>
</item>
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<dc:language>EN</dc:language>
<dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
<dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
<dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
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