IIB 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1431 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 30, 2017 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and 

Public Works 

AN ACT 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

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

3 Board Reform Act of 2017’’. 

4 SEC. 2. SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD. 

5 (a) INDEPENDENT ADVICE.—Section 8(a) of the En6 vironmental Research, Development, and Demonstration 

7 Authorization Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 4365(a)) is amend8 ed by inserting ‘‘independently’’ after ‘‘Advisory Board 

9 which shall’’. 

10 (b) MEMBERSHIP.—Section 8(b) of the Environ11 mental Research, Development, and Demonstration Au12 thorization Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 4365(b)) is amended 

13 to read as follows: 

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

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

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

17 by the Chairman. 

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

19 education, training, and experience to evaluate scientific 

20 and technical information on matters referred to the 

21 Board under this section. The Administrator shall ensure 

22 that— 

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

24 represented on and the functions to be performed by 

25 the Board are fairly balanced among the members of 

26 the Board; 


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

2 the Board are from State, local, or tribal govern3 ments; 

4 ‘‘(C) persons with substantial and relevant ex5 pertise are not excluded from the Board due to af6 filiation with or representation of entities that may 

7 have a potential interest in the Board’s advisory ac8 tivities, so long as that interest is fully disclosed to 

9 the Administrator and the public and appointment 

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

11 United States Code; 

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

13 a particular matter involving, or for which the Board 

14 has evidence that it may involve, a specific party, no 

15 Board member having an interest in the specific 

16 party shall participate in that activity; 

17 ‘‘(E) Board members may not participate in ad18 visory activities that directly or indirectly involve re19 view or evaluation of their own work, unless fully 

20 disclosed to the public and the work has been exter21 nally peer-reviewed; 

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

23 special Government employees; 

24 ‘‘(G) no registered lobbyist is appointed to the 

25 Board; and 


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1 ‘‘(H) a Board member shall have no current 

2 grants or contracts from the Environmental Protec3 tion Agency and shall not apply for a grant or con4 tract for 3 years following the end of that member’s 

5 service on the Board. 

6 ‘‘(3) The Administrator shall— 

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

8 publishing a notification in the Federal Register; 

9 ‘‘(B) solicit nominations from relevant Federal 

10 agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, 

11 Defense, Energy, the Interior, and Health and 

12 Human Services; 

13 ‘‘(C) solicit nominations from— 

14 ‘‘(i) institutions of higher education (as de15 fined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education 

16 Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a))); and 

17 ‘‘(ii) scientific and research institutions 

18 based in work relevant to that of the Board; 

19 ‘‘(D) make public the list of nominees, includ20 ing the identity of the entities that nominated each, 

21 and shall accept public comment on the nominees; 

22 ‘‘(E) require that, upon their provisional nomi23 nation, nominees shall file a written report disclosing 

24 financial relationships and interests, including Envi25 ronmental Protection Agency grants, contracts, coVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:17 Mar 30, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1431.RFS H1431

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1 operative agreements, or other financial assistance, 

2 that are relevant to the Board’s advisory activities 

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

4 nomination, and relevant professional activities and 

5 public statements for the five-year period prior to 

6 the date of their nomination; and 

7 ‘‘(F) make such reports public, with the excep8 tion of specific dollar amounts, for each member of 

9 the Board upon such member’s selection. 

10 ‘‘(4) Disclosure of relevant professional activities 

11 under paragraph (3)(E) shall include all representational 

12 work, expert testimony, and contract work as well as iden13 tifying the party for which the work was done. 

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

15 Agency shall make all conflict of interest waivers granted 

16 to members of the Board, member committees, or inves17 tigative panels publicly available. 

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

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

20 or any recusal known to the Agency that occurs during 

21 the course of a meeting or other work of the Board, mem22 ber committee, or investigative panel shall promptly be 

23 made public by the Administrator. 

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

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


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

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

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

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

5 4365(c)) is amended— 

6 (1) in paragraph (1)— 

7 (A) by inserting ‘‘or draft risk or hazard 

8 assessment,’’ after ‘‘at the time any proposed’’; 

9 (B) by striking ‘‘formal’’; and 

10 (C) by inserting ‘‘or draft risk or hazard 

11 assessment,’’ after ‘‘to the Board such pro12 posed’’; and 

13 (2) in paragraph (2)— 

14 (A) by inserting ‘‘or draft risk or hazard 

15 assessment,’’ after ‘‘the scientific and technical 

16 basis of the proposed’’; and 

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

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

19 dissenting views of Board members, and the re20 sponse of the Administrator shall be included in 

21 the record with respect to any proposed risk or 

22 hazard assessment, criteria document, standard, 

23 limitation, or regulation and published in the 

24 Federal Register.’’. 


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

3 4365(e)(1)(A)) is amended by adding at the end the fol4 lowing: ‘‘These member committees and investigative pan5 els— 

6 ‘‘(i) shall be constituted and operate 

7 in accordance with the provisions set forth 

8 in paragraphs (2) and (3) of subsection 

9 (b), in subsection (h), and in subsection 

10 (i); 

11 ‘‘(ii) do not have authority to make 

12 decisions on behalf of the Board; and 

13 ‘‘(iii) may not report directly to the 

14 Environmental Protection Agency.’’. 

15 (e) PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.—Section 8 of such Act 

16 (42 U.S.C. 4365) is amended by amending subsection (h) 

17 to read as follows: 

18 ‘‘(h)(1) To facilitate public participation in the advi19 sory activities of the Board, the Administrator and the 

20 Board shall make public all reports and relevant scientific 

21 information and shall provide materials to the public at 

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

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

24 Board shall hold a public information-gathering session to 


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1 discuss the state of the science related to the advisory ac2 tivity. 

3 ‘‘(3) Prior to convening a member committee or in4 vestigative panel under subsection (e) or requesting sci5 entific advice from the Board, the Administrator shall ac6 cept, consider, and address public comments on questions 

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

8 and investigative panels shall accept, consider, and ad9 dress public comments on such questions and shall not ac10 cept a question that unduly narrows the scope of an advi11 sory activity. 

12 ‘‘(4) The Administrator and the Board shall encour13 age public comments, including oral comments and discus14 sion during the proceedings, that shall not be limited by 

15 an insufficient or arbitrary time restriction. Public com16 ments shall be provided to the Board when received, and 

17 shall be published in the Federal Register grouped by com18 mon themes. If multiple repetitious comments are re19 ceived, only one such comment shall be published along 

20 with the number of such repetitious comments received. 

21 Any report made public by the Board shall include written 

22 responses to significant comments, including those that 

23 present an alternative hypothesis-based scientific point of 

24 view, offered by members of the public to the Board. 


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

2 given 15 calendar days to provide additional comments for 

3 consideration by the Board.’’. 

4 (f) OPERATIONS.—Section 8 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 

5 4365) is further amended by amending subsection (i) to 

6 read as follows: 

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

8 Board shall strive to avoid making policy determinations 

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

10 compelled to offer policy advice, shall explicitly distinguish 

11 between scientific determinations and policy advice. 

12 ‘‘(2) The Board shall clearly communicate uncertain13 ties associated with the scientific advice provided to the 

14 Administrator or Congress. 

15 ‘‘(3) The Board shall ensure that advice and com16 ments reflect the views of the members and shall encour17 age dissenting members to make their views known to the 

18 public, the Administrator, and Congress. 

19 ‘‘(4) The Board shall conduct periodic reviews to en20 sure that its advisory activities are addressing the most 

21 important scientific issues affecting the Environmental 

22 Protection Agency. 

23 ‘‘(5) The Board shall be fully and timely responsive 

24 to Congress.’’. 


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1 SEC. 3. RELATION TO THE FEDERAL ADVISORY COM2 MITTEE ACT. 

3 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

4 Act shall be construed as supplanting the requirements of 

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

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

7 1978. 

8 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

9 Act shall be construed as supplanting the requirements of 

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

Passed the House of Representatives March 30, 

2017. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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