Term
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Definition
| The act permitted settlers to claim 160-acre parcels of public land on the condition that they reside on the land for five consecutive years. Eventually 1.6 million homesteads were granted and 270,000,000 acres (1,100,000 km2) were privatized between 1862 and 1986, a total of 10% of all lands in the United States. |
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Term
| New York State Tenement House Act 1901 |
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Definition
| The Act reformed earlier laws regarding tenement housing a required improved lighting, ventilation and toilets and running water in each unit. It outlawed the dumbbell design. Lawrence Veiller helped draft the act. |
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Term
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Definition
| The act set aside money from sales of semi-arid public lands for the construction and maintenance of irrigation projects. The newly irrigated land would be sold and money would be put into a revolving fund that supported more such projects. This led to the eventual damming of nearly every major western river. |
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Term
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Definition
| The act was the first law to provide federal protection for archeological and historical sites. The aim is to protect all historic and prehistoric sites on United States federal lands and to prohibit excavation or destruction of these antiquities. |
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Term
| Standard State Zoning Enabling Act (SZEA) 1924 |
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Definition
| Confirmed New York State’s authority to delegate police power to municipalities to enact local zoning ordinances. Drafted and approved under Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover. |
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Term
| Standard City Planning Enabling Act 1928 |
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Definition
| The Act, outlined the powers of municipal planning commissions and required the adoption of a master plan by local governing bodies. |
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Term
| Federal Home Loan Bank Act 1932 |
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Definition
| Established twelve regional banks under the system. Created the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) to refinance mortgages of economically distressed homeowners, which legally expired after discriminatory practice. |
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Term
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Definition
| The Taylor Grazing Act established the US Grazing Service to manage the public rangelands, which was later merged with the General Land Office in 1946 to form the Bureau of Land Management. |
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Term
| National Housing Act 1934 |
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Definition
| The act established the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation and created the Federal Housing Administration to insure private mortgages. It was designed to stop the tide of bank foreclosures on family homes. |
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Term
| Indian Reorganization Act 1934 |
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Definition
| Enacted to conserve and develop Indian lands and resources, granted certain rights of home rule and provided for vocational education. |
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Term
| Historic Sites, Buildings and Antiquities Act 1935 |
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Definition
| The act is the predecessor of the National Historic Preservation Act and it declared for the first time “…that it is a national policy to preserve for public use historic sites, buildings, and objects of national significance…” |
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Term
| US Resettlement Administration 1935 |
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Definition
| Rexford Tugwell headed this new deal program which relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. |
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Term
| Wagner-Steagall Housing Act 1937 |
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Definition
| The act, aka the Housing Act of 1937, provided for subsidies to be paid from the U.S. government to local public housing agencies (LHA’s) to improve living conditions for low-income families. It created the US Housing Authority which became the Public Housing Administration and funded Local Housing Authorities. It tied slum clearance to public housing projects. |
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Term
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Definition
| This was the first comprehensive housing bill. It initiated urban renewal, focusing on slum clearance, urban renewal and new housing construction. |
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Term
| National Interstate and Defense Highway Act 1956 |
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Definition
| The bill appropriated $25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles of interstate highways over a 20 year period. The funding came through the creation of the Highway Trust Fund which gathers money from excise taxes on new vehicles and sales tax on gasoline. This was the largest public works project in the nation’s history. |
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Term
| Urban Mass Transportation Act 1964 |
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Definition
| The Act provided grant money for public transit systems in the form of matching funds to cities and states. Typically, the federal government pays up to 80% of capital costs and up to 50% of operating costs for local transit systems. |
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Term
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Definition
| The act created the legal definition of Wilderness in the United States and established a National Wilderness Preservation System of federally owned land. Prohibits all forms of mechanized transport within the wilderness boundaries. |
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Term
| Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Development Act 1966 |
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Definition
| This act was the centerpiece of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society program (elimination of poverty and of racial injustice) and created the Model Cities Program which addressed urban blight and poverty by focusing on community participation rather than top down planning. |
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Term
| National Historic Preservation Act 1966 |
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Definition
| The act established the National Register of Historic Places and created the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. It requires Federal agencies to evaluate the impact of all Federally funded or permitted projects on historic properties |
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Term
| National Flood Insurance Act 1968 |
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Definition
| Created the National Flood Insurance Program, currently administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). |
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Term
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Definition
| This act was also known as the Fair Housing Act and was the first federal law prohibiting discrimination between sex, race, national origin, religion and familial status. |
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Term
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Definition
| The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The act requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) for federally funded actions that have the potential to significantly impact the environment. It acknowledged the importance of an open and public decision-making process. |
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Term
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Definition
| Implemented to protect public health and welfare by limiting air pollution emissions and exposure to ambient air pollutants. It created National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and required non-attainment areas to develop strategies to achieve compliance. |
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Term
| Coastal Zone Management Act 1972 |
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Definition
| Created a voluntary Coastal Management Program to meet established federal standards. |
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Term
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Definition
| The 1972 act regulated water quality of lakes and rivers by using a permit process. It set wastewater standards for industry and water quality standards for surface water contamination. It introduced a permit system for regulating point sources of pollution. |
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Term
| Endangered Species Act 1973 |
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Definition
| The act established a federal list of endangerd and threatened species and required planning projects in areas with endangered or threatened species to consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service. It was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a “consequence of economic growth and development untendered by adequate concern and conservation.” |
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Term
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Definition
| Created statewide planning system and required identification of urban growth boundaries separating urban from rural areas. |
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Term
| Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) 1974 |
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Definition
| Covers all water used for drinking, whether above or below ground, and sets standards. |
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Term
| Housing and Community Development Act 1974 |
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Definition
| The act instituted the CDBG program, which replaced the categorical grant with the flexible block grant as the principle form of federal aid for local community development. Larger cities and urban counties, called “entitlement communities,” are required to prepare and submit a “Consolidated Plan” that establishes goals for the use of CDBG funds. Grantees are also required to hold public meetings to solicit input from the community, ensuring that proposed projects are aligned with the community’s most urgent needs. |
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Term
| Energy Policy Conservation Act 1975 |
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Definition
| Established Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for light trucks and passenger cars. Manufacturers can earn credits for exceeding standards. |
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Term
| Emergency Housing Act 1975 |
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Definition
| The act authorized HUD to provide short-term assistance to help defray mortgage payments for persons temporarily unemployed or underemployed as the result of poor economic conditions. |
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Term
| Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 1976 |
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Definition
| Congress enacted RCRA to address the increasing problems the nation faced from its growing volume of municipal and industrial waste. Cradle to grave legislation for hazardous waste material, regulated by the EPA. |
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Term
| Toxic Substances Control Act 1976 |
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Definition
| TSCA does not separate chemicals into categories of “toxic” and “non-toxic”, rather it prohibits the manufacture or importation of chemicals that are not on the TSCA Inventory (or subject to one of many exemptions). |
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Term
| Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) 1977 |
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Definition
| The act seeks to address discrimination in loans made to individuals and businesses. It was put in place to stop widespread practice of redlining of urban, low income minority neighborhoods. |
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Term
| Urban Park and Recreation Program Recovery Act 1978 |
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Definition
| The act authorized matching grants to renovate and improve parks and other recreational facilities in low-income communities. |
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Term
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Definition
| Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act was created to protect people, families, communities and others from heavily contaminated toxic waste sites that have been abandoned. It created liability for persons discharging hazardous waste, taxed polluting industries in order to establish a trust fund for the cleanup and can be applied retroactively. |
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Term
| Farmland Protection Policy Act 1981 |
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Definition
| Enacted to minimize federal program contribution to loss of farmlands, it developed standards for identifying the effects of such programs on the loss of farmland. |
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Term
| Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) 1981 |
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Definition
| LESA is a rating system developed by NRCS and USDA to assess the suitability of parcels for continued agricultural use. It includes environmental, economic, social and geographic features. |
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Term
| Coastal Barrier Resources Act 1982 |
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Definition
| Designates various undeveloped coastal barrier islands for inclusion in the Coastal Barrier Resources System, which are ineligible for direct or indirect federal assistance that might support development except for emergency life-saving activities. |
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Term
| Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) 1984 |
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Definition
| Required EPA to develop a regulatory program for the storage of hazardous substances and requires owners of tanks to prevent, detect and clean up an releases. |
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Term
| Low Income Housing Tax Credit 1986 |
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Definition
| LIHTC is a tax credit created under the Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA86) that gives incentives for the utilization of private equity in the development of affordable housing aimed at low-income Americans. It enabled nonprofit housing organizations to raise housing construction funds by selling tax credits to investors and corporations. Tax credits must be used for new construction, rehabilitation or both. |
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Term
| Community Right to Know Act 1986 |
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Definition
| Its purpose is to encourage and support emergency planning efforts to provide the public and local governments with information concerning potential chemical hazards present in their communities. It required certain industries to report the amount and type of toxic substances the generate. |
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Term
| Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act (NAHA) 1990 |
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Definition
| This act established the Home Ownership Made Easy (HOME) program which provided matching federal funds to local government expenditures for low-income housing needs. Jurisdictions must prepare a Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) to qualify to receive funds. |
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Term
| Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) 1990 |
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Definition
| The ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits, under certain circumstances, discrimination based on disability. The act required that mass transit systems be accessible to those with physical disabilities. |
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Term
| Americans with Disabilities Act 1991 |
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Definition
| The ADA is a wide-ranging civil rights law that requires businesses and governments to provide people with disabilities equal access to jobs, transportation and public facilities. |
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Term
| Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) 1991 |
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Definition
| Required coordination between states and metropolitan areas for air quality standards. Created the Transportation Enhancements program to deal with community wide impacts of transportation, and earmarked funds for scenic byways and historic preservation, bike and pedestrian paths, and other enhancements. (expired in 1997, succeeded by the TEA-21) |
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Term
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Definition
| HOPE VI is a major HUD plan meant to revitalize public housing projects into mixed-income developments. It was established to replace the many large-scale, low quality public housing projects with smaller, higher quality mixed income projects. Its philosophy is largely based on New Urbanism and the concept of Defensible space. |
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Term
| Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) 1996 |
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Definition
| Provided federal control of pesticide distribution, sale and use. The Act required all users of pesticides to pass a certification exam in order to apply pesticide. |
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Term
| Wetlands Reserve Program 1996 |
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Definition
| The program offers financial incentives for landowners to protect, restore, and enhance wetlands on their property. The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) administers the program with funding from the Commodity Credit Corporation. |
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Term
| Telecommunications Act 1996 |
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Definition
| The purpose was to increase competition in the communications business and to streamline the installation of cell phone towers. The act gave telecom companies pre-emption powers over local regulations as well as eminent domain powers over private property. |
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Term
| Housing Opportunity Extension Act 1996 |
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Definition
| The act was designated public housing units for elderly or disabled and families, provided funding for Habitat for Humanity and evicted individuals with drug or alcohol abuse or criminal records. |
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Term
| Transportation Equity Act (TEA-21) 1998 |
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Definition
| The successor to the ISTEA, TEA-21 improved safety, protection of the natural environment and promoted more efficient and flexible transportation systems. The Act provided enhancement grants for improvements to scenic quality, pedestrian and bike paths, and preservation of historical highway facilities. |
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Term
| Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act 2000 |
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Definition
| The act prohibits the imposition of burdens on the ability of prisoners to worship as they please, as well as making it easier for churches and other religious institutions to avoid state restrictions on their property use through zoning laws. |
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Term
| Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 |
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Definition
| The act reinforces the importance of planning to lessen the potential effects of a natural hazard. States and local governments are required to prepare plans that identify likely risks. |
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Term
| Manufactured Housing Improvement Act 2000 |
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Definition
| The act established installation and building standards for manufactured homes. |
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