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Union Calendar No. 35 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1431 

[Report No. 115–63] 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 8, 2017 

Mr. LUCAS (for himself, Mr. PETERSON, Mr. SMITH of Texas, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. 

BANKS of Indiana, Mr. ROHRABACHER, Mr. POSEY, Mr. BROOKS of Alabama, Mr. WEBER of Texas, Mr. BABIN, Mr. HIGGINS of Louisiana, Mr. 

HULTGREN, Mr. BRIDENSTINE, Mr. ABRAHAM, Mr. LAHOOD, Mr. WEBSTER of Florida, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. DUNN, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. 

CHAFFETZ, Mr. SCHWEIKERT, Mr. PALAZZO, Mr. YOUNG of Alaska, Mr. 

BARTON, Mr. PEARCE, Mr. FARENTHOLD, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. TIPTON, and 

Mr. GOODLATTE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 

Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 

MARCH 27, 2017 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union 

and ordered to be printed 


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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. 


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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 2017’’. 

6 SEC. 2. SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD. 

7 (a) INDEPENDENT ADVICE.—Section 8(a) of the En8 vironmental Research, Development, and Demonstration 

9 Authorization Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 4365(a)) is amend10 ed by inserting ‘‘independently’’ after ‘‘Advisory Board 

11 which shall’’. 

12 (b) MEMBERSHIP.—Section 8(b) of the Environ13 mental Research, Development, and Demonstration Au14 thorization Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 4365(b)) is amended 

15 to read as follows: 

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

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

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

19 by the Chairman. 

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

21 education, training, and experience to evaluate scientific 

22 and technical information on matters referred to the 

23 Board under this section. The Administrator shall ensure 

24 that— 


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

2 represented on and the functions to be performed by 

3 the Board are fairly balanced among the members of 

4 the Board; 

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

6 the Board are from State, local, or tribal govern7 ments; 

8 ‘‘(C) persons with substantial and relevant ex9 pertise are not excluded from the Board due to af10 filiation with or representation of entities that may 

11 have a potential interest in the Board’s advisory ac12 tivities, so long as that interest is fully disclosed to 

13 the Administrator and the public and appointment 

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

15 United States Code; 

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

17 a particular matter involving, or for which the Board 

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

19 Board member having an interest in the specific 

20 party shall participate in that activity; 

21 ‘‘(E) Board members may not participate in ad22 visory activities that directly or indirectly involve re23 view or evaluation of their own work, unless fully 

24 disclosed to the public and the work has been exter25 nally peer-reviewed; 


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

2 special Government employees; 

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

4 Board; and 

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

6 grants or contracts from the Environmental Protec7 tion Agency and shall not apply for a grant or con8 tract for 3 years following the end of that member’s 

9 service on the Board. 

10 ‘‘(3) The Administrator shall— 

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

12 publishing a notification in the Federal Register; 

13 ‘‘(B) solicit nominations from relevant Federal 

14 agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, 

15 Defense, Energy, the Interior, and Health and 

16 Human Services; 

17 ‘‘(C) solicit nominations from— 

18 ‘‘(i) institutions of higher education (as de19 fined in section 101(a) of the Higher Education 

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

21 ‘‘(ii) scientific and research institutions 

22 based in work relevant to that of the Board; 

23 ‘‘(D) make public the list of nominees, includ24 ing the identity of the entities that nominated each, 

25 and shall accept public comment on the nominees; 


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1 ‘‘(E) require that, upon their provisional nomi2 nation, nominees shall file a written report disclosing 

3 financial relationships and interests, including Envi4 ronmental Protection Agency grants, contracts, co5 operative agreements, or other financial assistance, 

6 that are relevant to the Board’s advisory activities 

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

8 nomination, and relevant professional activities and 

9 public statements for the five-year period prior to 

10 the date of their nomination; and 

11 ‘‘(F) make such reports public, with the excep12 tion of specific dollar amounts, for each member of 

13 the Board upon such member’s selection. 

14 ‘‘(4) Disclosure of relevant professional activities 

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

16 work, expert testimony, and contract work as well as iden17 tifying the party for which the work was done. 

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

19 Agency shall make all conflict of interest waivers granted 

20 to members of the Board, member committees, or inves21 tigative panels publicly available. 

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

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

24 or any recusal known to the Agency that occurs during 

25 the course of a meeting or other work of the Board, memVerDate Sep 11 2014 22:01 Mar 27, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1431.RH H1431

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1 ber committee, or investigative panel shall promptly be 

2 made public by the Administrator. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

9 4365(c)) is amended— 

10 (1) in paragraph (1)— 

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

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

13 (B) by striking ‘‘formal’’; and 

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

15 assessment,’’ after ‘‘to the Board such pro16 posed’’; and 

17 (2) in paragraph (2)— 

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

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

20 basis of the proposed’’; and 

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

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

23 dissenting views of Board members, and the re24 sponse of the Administrator shall be included in 

25 the record with respect to any proposed risk or 


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1 hazard assessment, criteria document, standard, 

2 limitation, or regulation and published in the 

3 Federal Register.’’. 

4 (d) MEMBER COMMITTEES AND INVESTIGATIVE PAN5 ELS.—Section 8(e)(1)(A) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 

6 4365(e)(1)(A)) is amended by adding at the end the fol7 lowing: ‘‘These member committees and investigative pan8 els— 

9 ‘‘(i) shall be constituted and operate 

10 in accordance with the provisions set forth 

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

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

13 (i); 

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

15 decisions on behalf of the Board; and 

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

17 Environmental Protection Agency.’’. 

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

19 (42 U.S.C. 4365) is amended by amending subsection (h) 

20 to read as follows: 

21 ‘‘(h)(1) To facilitate public participation in the advi22 sory activities of the Board, the Administrator and the 

23 Board shall make public all reports and relevant scientific 

24 information and shall provide materials to the public at 

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


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

2 Board shall hold a public information-gathering session to 

3 discuss the state of the science related to the advisory ac4 tivity. 

5 ‘‘(3) Prior to convening a member committee or in6 vestigative panel under subsection (e) or requesting sci7 entific advice from the Board, the Administrator shall ac8 cept, consider, and address public comments on questions 

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

10 and investigative panels shall accept, consider, and ad11 dress public comments on such questions and shall not ac12 cept a question that unduly narrows the scope of an advi13 sory activity. 

14 ‘‘(4) The Administrator and the Board shall encour15 age public comments, including oral comments and discus16 sion during the proceedings, that shall not be limited by 

17 an insufficient or arbitrary time restriction. Public com18 ments shall be provided to the Board when received, and 

19 shall be published in the Federal Register grouped by com20 mon themes. If multiple repetitious comments are re21 ceived, only one such comment shall be published along 

22 with the number of such repetitious comments received. 

23 Any report made public by the Board shall include written 

24 responses to significant comments, including those that 


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1 present an alternative hypothesis-based scientific point of 

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

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

4 given 15 calendar days to provide additional comments for 

5 consideration by the Board.’’. 

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

7 4365) is further amended by amending subsection (i) to 

8 read as follows: 

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

10 Board shall strive to avoid making policy determinations 

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

12 compelled to offer policy advice, shall explicitly distinguish 

13 between scientific determinations and policy advice. 

14 ‘‘(2) The Board shall clearly communicate uncertain15 ties associated with the scientific advice provided to the 

16 Administrator or Congress. 

17 ‘‘(3) The Board shall ensure that advice and com18 ments reflect the views of the members and shall encour19 age dissenting members to make their views known to the 

20 public, the Administrator, and Congress. 

21 ‘‘(4) The Board shall conduct periodic reviews to en22 sure that its advisory activities are addressing the most 

23 important scientific issues affecting the Environmental 

24 Protection Agency. 


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

2 to Congress.’’. 

3 SEC. 3. RELATION TO THE FEDERAL ADVISORY COM4 MITTEE ACT. 

5 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

6 Act shall be construed as supplanting the requirements of 

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

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

9 1978. 

10 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

11 Act shall be construed as supplanting the requirements of 

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


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Union Calendar No. 35 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1431 

[Report No. 115–63] 

A BILL 

To amend the Environmental Research, Developfor other purposes. member qualifications, public participation, and 1978 to provide for Scientific Advisory Board ment, and Demonstration Authorization Act of 

MARCH 27, 2017 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 

State of the Union and ordered to be printed 


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