II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 543 

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 

FEBRUARY 24, 2015 

Mr. BOOZMAN (for himself, Mr. MANCHIN, and Mr. INHOFE) 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 2015’’. 

6 SEC. 2. SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD. 

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


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
2 

•S 543 IS

1 Authorization Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 4365(a)) is amend2 ed by inserting ‘‘independently’’ after ‘‘Advisory Board 

3 which shall’’. 

4 (b) MEMBERSHIP.—Section 8(b) of the Environ5 mental Research, Development, and Demonstration Au6 thorization Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. 4365(b)) is amended 

7 to read as follows: 

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

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

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

11 by the Chairman. 

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

13 education, training, and experience to evaluate scientific 

14 and technical information on matters referred to the 

15 Board under this section. The Administrator shall ensure 

16 that— 

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

18 represented on and the functions to be performed by 

19 the Board are fairly balanced among the members of 

20 the Board; 

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

22 the Board are from State, local, or tribal govern23 ments; 

24 ‘‘(C) persons with substantial and relevant ex25 pertise are not excluded from the Board due to afVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:37 Feb 27, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S543.IS S543

SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
3 

•S 543 IS

1 filiation with or representation of entities that may 

2 have a potential interest in the Board’s advisory ac3 tivities, so long as that interest is fully disclosed to 

4 the Administrator and the public and appointment 

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

6 United States Code; 

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

8 a particular matter involving a specific party, no 

9 Board member having an interest in the specific 

10 party shall participate in that activity; 

11 ‘‘(E) Board members may not participate in ad12 visory activities that directly or indirectly involve re13 view or evaluation of their own work, unless fully 

14 disclosed to the public and the work has been exter15 nally peer-reviewed; 

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

17 special Government employees; and 

18 ‘‘(G) no federally registered lobbyist is ap19 pointed to the Board. 

20 ‘‘(3) The Administrator shall— 

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

22 publishing a notification in the Federal Register; 

23 ‘‘(B) solicit nominations from relevant Federal 

24 agencies, including the Departments of Agriculture, 


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
4 

•S 543 IS

1 Defense, Energy, the Interior, and Health and 

2 Human Services; 

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

4 the identity of the entities that nominated each, and 

5 shall accept public comment on the nominees; 

6 ‘‘(D) require that, upon their provisional nomi7 nation, nominees shall file a written report disclosing 

8 financial relationships and interests, including Envi9 ronmental Protection Agency grants, contracts, co10 operative agreements, or other financial assistance, 

11 that are relevant to the Board’s advisory activities 

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

13 nomination, and relevant professional activities and 

14 public statements for the five-year period prior to 

15 the date of their nomination; and 

16 ‘‘(E) make such reports public, with the excep17 tion of specific dollar amounts, for each member of 

18 the Board upon such member’s selection. 

19 ‘‘(4) Disclosure of relevant professional activities 

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

21 work, expert testimony, and contract work as well as iden22 tifying the party for which the work was done. 

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

24 Agency shall make all conflict of interest waivers granted 


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
5 

•S 543 IS

1 to members of the Board, member committees, or inves2 tigative panels publicly available. 

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

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

5 or any recusal known to the Agency that occurs during 

6 the course of a meeting or other work of the Board, mem7 ber committee, or investigative panel shall promptly be 

8 made public by the Administrator. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

15 4365(c)) is amended— 

16 (1) in paragraph (1)— 

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

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

19 (B) by striking ‘‘formal’’; and 

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

21 assessment,’’ after ‘‘to the Board such pro22 posed’’; and 

23 (2) in paragraph (2)— 


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
6 

•S 543 IS

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

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

3 basis of the proposed’’; and 

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

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

6 dissenting views of Board members, and the re7 sponse of the Administrator shall be included in 

8 the record with respect to any proposed risk or 

9 hazard assessment, criteria document, standard, 

10 limitation, or regulation and published in the 

11 Federal Register.’’. 

12 (d) MEMBER COMMITTEES AND INVESTIGATIVE PAN13 ELS.—Section 8(e)(1)(A) of such Act (42 U.S.C. 

14 4365(e)(1)(A)) is amended by adding at the end the fol15 lowing: ‘‘These member committees and investigative pan16 els— 

17 ‘‘(i) shall be constituted and operate 

18 in accordance with the provisions set forth 

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

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

21 (i); 

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

23 decisions on behalf of the Board; and 

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

25 Environmental Protection Agency.’’. 


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
7 

•S 543 IS

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

2 (42 U.S.C. 4365) is amended by amending subsection (h) 

3 to read as follows: 

4 ‘‘(h)(1) To facilitate public participation in the advi5 sory activities of the Board, the Administrator and the 

6 Board shall make public all reports and relevant scientific 

7 information and shall provide materials to the public at 

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

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

10 Board shall hold a public information-gathering session to 

11 discuss the state of the science related to the advisory ac12 tivity. 

13 ‘‘(3) Prior to convening a member committee or in14 vestigative panel under subsection (e) or requesting sci15 entific advice from the Board, the Administrator shall ac16 cept, consider, and address public comments on questions 

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

18 and investigative panels shall accept, consider, and ad19 dress public comments on such questions and shall not ac20 cept a question that unduly narrows the scope of an advi21 sory activity. 

22 ‘‘(4) The Administrator and the Board shall encour23 age public comments, including oral comments and discus24 sion during the proceedings, that shall not be limited by 

25 an insufficient or arbitrary time restriction. Public comVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:37 Feb 27, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S543.IS S543

SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
8 

•S 543 IS

1 ments shall be provided to the Board when received. The 

2 Board’s reports shall include written responses to signifi3 cant comments offered by members of the public to the 

4 Board. 

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

6 given 15 calendar days to provide additional comments for 

7 consideration by the Board.’’. 

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

9 4365) is further amended by amending subsection (i) to 

10 read as follows: 

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

12 Board shall strive to avoid making policy determinations 

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

14 compelled to offer policy advice, shall explicitly distinguish 

15 between scientific determinations and policy advice. 

16 ‘‘(2) The Board shall clearly communicate uncertain17 ties associated with the scientific advice provided to the 

18 Administrator or Congress. 

19 ‘‘(3) The Board shall ensure that advice and com20 ments reflect the views of the members and shall encour21 age dissenting members to make their views known to the 

22 public, the Administrator, and Congress. 

23 ‘‘(4) The Board shall conduct periodic reviews to en24 sure that its advisory activities are addressing the most 


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS
9 

•S 543 IS

1 important scientific issues affecting the Environmental 

2 Protection Agency. 

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

4 to Congress.’’. 

5 SEC. 3. RELATION TO THE FEDERAL ADVISORY COM6 MITTEE ACT. 

7 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

8 Act shall be construed as supplanting the requirements of 

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

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

11 1978. 

12 Nothing in this Act or the amendments made by this 

13 Act shall be construed as supplanting the requirements of 

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

Æ 


SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with BILLS