II 

113TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1853 

To amend the Environmental Research, Development, and Demonstration 

Authorization Act of 1978 to provide for Scientific Advisory Board member qualifications, public participation, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

DECEMBER 18, 2013 

Mr. BOOZMAN (for himself, Mr. MANCHIN, Mr. CRAPO, Mr. VITTER, Mr. SESSIONS, and Mr. WICKER) introduced the following bill; which was read 

twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works 

A BILL 

To amend the Environmental Research, Development, and 

Demonstration Authorization Act of 1978 to provide for 

Scientific Advisory Board member qualifications, public 

participation, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘EPA Science Advisory 

5 Board Reform Act of 2013’’. 

6 SEC. 2. SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD. 

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1 thorization Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 4365(b)) is amended 

2 to read as follows: 

3 ‘‘(b)(1) The Board shall be composed of at least nine 

4 members, one of whom shall be designated Chairman, and 

5 shall meet at such times and places as may be designated 

6 by the Chairman in consultation with the Administrator. 

7 ‘‘(2) Each member of the Board shall be qualified by 

8 education, training, and experience to evaluate scientific 

9 and technical information on matters referred to the 

10 Board under this section. The Administrator shall select 

11 Board members from nominations received as described 

12 in paragraph (3) and shall ensure that— 

13 ‘‘(A) the scientific and technical points of view 

14 represented on and the functions to be performed by 

15 the Board are fairly balanced among the members of 

16 the Board; 

17 ‘‘(B) at least ten percent of the membership of 

18 the Board are from State, local, or tribal govern19 ments; 

20 ‘‘(C) persons with substantial and relevant ex21 pertise are not excluded from the Board due to af22 filiation with or representation of entities that may 

23 have a potential interest in the Board’s advisory ac24 tivities, so long as that interest is fully disclosed to 

25 the Administrator and the public and appointment 


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1 to the Board complies with section 208 of title 18, 

2 United States Code; 

3 ‘‘(D) in the case of a Board advisory activity on 

4 a particular matter involving a specific party, no 

5 Board member having an interest in the specific 

6 party shall participate in that activity; 

7 ‘‘(E) Board members may not participate in ad8 visory activities that directly or indirectly involve re9 view and evaluation of their own work; 

10 ‘‘(F) Board members shall be designated as 

11 special Government employees; and 

12 ‘‘(G) no federally registered lobbyist is ap13 pointed to the Board. 

14 ‘‘(3) The Administrator shall— 

15 ‘‘(A) solicit public nominations for the Board by 

16 publishing a notification in the Federal Register; 

17 ‘‘(B) solicit nominations from relevant Federal 

18 agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, 

19 Defense, Energy, and Health and Human Services; 

20 ‘‘(C) make public the list of nominees, including 

21 the identity of the entities that nominated them, and 

22 shall accept public comment on the nominees; 

23 ‘‘(D) require that, upon their provisional nomi24 nation, nominees shall file a written report disclosing 

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1 ronmental Protection Agency grants, contracts, co2 operative agreements, or other financial assistance, 

3 that are relevant to the Board’s advisory activities 

4 for the three-year period prior to the date of their 

5 nomination, and relevant professional activities and 

6 public statements for the five-year period prior to 

7 the date of their nomination; and 

8 ‘‘(E) make such reports public, with the excep9 tion of specific dollar amounts, for each member of 

10 the Board upon such member’s selection. 

11 ‘‘(4) Disclosure of relevant professional activities 

12 under paragraph (3)(D) shall include all representational 

13 work, expert testimony, and contract work as well as iden14 tifying the party for which the work was done. 

15 ‘‘(5) Except when specifically prohibited by law, the 

16 Agency shall make all conflict of interest waivers granted 

17 to members of the Board, member committees, or inves18 tigative panels publicly available. 

19 ‘‘(6) Any recusal agreement made by a member of 

20 the Board, a member committee, or an investigative panel, 

21 or any recusal known to the Agency that occurs during 

22 the course of a meeting or other work of the Board, mem23 ber committee, or investigative panel shall promptly be 

24 made public by the Administrator. 


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1 ‘‘(7) The terms of the members of the Board shall 

2 be three years and shall be staggered so that the terms 

3 of no more than one-third of the total membership of the 

4 Board shall expire within a single fiscal year. No member 

5 shall serve more than two terms over a ten-year period.’’. 

6 (b) RECORD.—Section 8(c) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 

7 4365(c)) is amended— 

8 (1) in paragraph (1)— 

9 (A) by inserting ‘‘risk or hazard assess10 ment,’’ after ‘‘at the time any proposed’’; and 

11 (B) by inserting ‘‘risk or hazard assess12 ment,’’ after ‘‘to the Board such proposed’’; 

13 and 

14 (2) in paragraph (2)— 

15 (A) by inserting ‘‘risk or hazard assess16 ment,’’ after ‘‘the scientific and technical basis 

17 of the proposed’’; and 

18 (B) by adding at the end the following: 

19 ‘‘The Board’s advice and comments, including 

20 dissenting views of Board members, and the re21 sponse of the Administrator shall be included in 

22 the record with respect to any proposed risk or 

23 hazard assessment, criteria document, standard, 

24 limitation, or regulation and published in the 

25 Federal Register.’’. 


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1 (c) MEMBER COMMITTEES AND INVESTIGATIVE PAN2 ELS.—Section 8(e) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 4365(e)) is 

3 amended by adding at the end the following: ‘‘These mem4 ber committees and investigative panels— 

5 ‘‘(1) shall be constituted and operate in accord6 ance with the provisions set forth in paragraphs (2) 

7 and (3) of subsection (b), in subsection (h), and in 

8 subsection (i); 

9 ‘‘(2) do not have authority to make decisions on 

10 behalf of the Board; and 

11 ‘‘(3) may not report directly to the Environ12 mental Protection Agency.’’. 

13 (d) PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.—Section 8 of such Act 

14 (42 U.S.C. 4365) is amended by adding after subsection 

15 (g) the following: 

16 ‘‘(h)(1) To facilitate public participation in the advi17 sory activities of the Board, the Administrator and the 

18 Board shall make public all reports and relevant scientific 

19 information and shall provide materials to the public at 

20 the same time as received by members of the Board. 

21 ‘‘(2) Prior to conducting major advisory activities, the 

22 Board shall hold a public information-gathering session to 

23 discuss the state of the science related to the advisory ac24 tivity. 


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1 ‘‘(3) Prior to convening a member committee or in2 vestigative panel under subsection (e) or requesting sci3 entific advice from the Board, the Administrator shall ac4 cept, consider, and address public comments on questions 

5 to be asked of the Board. The Board, member committees, 

6 and investigative panels shall accept, consider, and ad7 dress public comments on such questions and shall not ac8 cept a question that unduly narrows the scope of an advi9 sory activity. 

10 ‘‘(4) The Administrator and the Board shall encour11 age public comments, including oral comments and discus12 sion during the proceedings, that shall not be limited by 

13 an insufficient or arbitrary time restriction. Public com14 ments shall be provided to the Board when received. The 

15 Board’s reports shall include written responses to signifi16 cant comments offered by members of the public to the 

17 Board. 

18 ‘‘(5) Following Board meetings, the public shall be 

19 given 15 calendar days to provide additional comments for 

20 consideration by the Board.’’. 

21 (e) OPERATIONS.—Section 8 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 

22 4365) is further amended by adding after subsection (h), 

23 as added by subsection (d) of this section, the following: 

24 ‘‘(i)(1) In carrying out its advisory activities, the 

25 Board shall strive to avoid making policy determinations 


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1 or recommendations, and, in the event the Board feels 

2 compelled to offer policy advice, shall explicitly distinguish 

3 between scientific determinations and policy advice. 

4 ‘‘(2) The Board shall clearly communicate uncertain5 ties associated with the scientific advice provided to the 

6 Administrator. 

7 ‘‘(3) The Board shall ensure that advice and com8 ments reflect the views of the members and shall encour9 age dissenting members to make their views known to the 

10 public and the Administrator. 

11 ‘‘(4) The Board shall conduct periodic reviews to en12 sure that its advisory activities are addressing the most 

13 important scientific issues affecting the Environmental 

14 Protection Agency.’’. 

15 SEC. 3. RELATION TO THE FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMIT16 TEE ACT. 

17 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

18 Act shall be construed as supplanting the requirements of 

19 the Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.). 

20 SEC. 4. RELATION TO THE ETHICS IN GOVERNMENT ACT OF 

21 1978. 

22 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

23 Act shall be construed as supplanting the requirements of 

24 the Ethics in Government Act of 1978 (5 U.S.C. App.). 

Æ 


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