I

103D CONGRESS

1ST SESSION H. R. 1994

To authorize appropriations for environmental research, development, and

demonstration for fiscal years 1994, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

MAY 5, 1993

Mr. VALENTINE introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

A BILL

To authorize appropriations for environmental research, development, and demonstration for fiscal years 1994, 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 ‘‘Environmental Re5 search, Development, and Demonstration Authorization

6 Act of 1993’’.

7 SEC. 2. GENERAL AUTHORIZATION.

8 (a) ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT,

9 AND DEMONSTRATION.—
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1 (1) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be

2 appropriated to the Administrator of the Environ3 mental Protection Agency (hereafter in this Act re4 ferred to as the ‘‘Administrator’’) $536,000,000 for

5 fiscal year 1994 for environmental research, develop6 ment, and demonstration activities and for program

7 management and support of the Office of Research

8 and Development.

9 (2) EFFECT ON OTHER AUTHORIZATION.—

10 Nothing in this Act shall affect amounts authorized

11 for fiscal year 1994 for Superfund research activities

12 as authorized by the Superfund Amendments and

13 Reauthorization Act of 1986 (Public Law 99–499;

14 100 Stat. 1613).

15 (b) LIMITATION ON CLOSING OFFICES AND REDUC16 TIONS-IN-FORCE.—No funds appropriated pursuant to

17 this Act shall be used by the Administrator to close any

18 field station, regional office, laboratory, or other research

19 center, or for any reduction-in-force, and no such closing

20 or reduction shall be finalized, unless at least thirty days

21 prior to the issuing of any general notice of such closing

22 or reduction the Administrator informs the appropriate

23 legislative and appropriations committees of the House of

24 Representatives and the Senate in writing of the reasons

25 for such closing or reduction, the impact of such closing
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1 or reduction on carrying out the provisions of this Act,

2 the details of such reduction or closing, and other perti3 nent information.

4 (c) AVAILABILITY.—Appropriations made pursuant

5 to this Act shall remain available for obligation or expendi6 ture for such periods as may be specified in the Acts mak7 ing such appropriations.

8 SEC. 3. FUNDAMENTAL RESEARCH PROGRAMS.

9 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—In addition to providing re10 search support for the regulatory needs of the program

11 offices, the Administrator shall establish separately identi12 fied research programs consisting of fundamental ecologi13 cal, health, and risk reduction research. Such research

14 shall be undertaken for the purpose of generating fun15 damental knowledge necessary to support efforts to iden16 tify, assess, and mitigate serious environmental risks.

17 (b) AUTHORITY.—In carrying out programs under

18 this section, the Administrator may support research on

19 environmental processes and trends, identification and as20 sessment of potential risks to human health and the envi21 ronment, and approaches to prevent and reduce such

22 risks. The Administrator is authorized to establish and

23 maintain resources, expertise, and facilities necessary to

24 the advancement of the fundamental research programs

25 established in this section.
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1 (c) SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD.—The Science Advi2 sory Board established under the Environmental Re3 search, Development, and Demonstration Authorization

4 Act of 1978 (hereafter in this Act referred to as the

5 ‘‘Science Advisory Board’’), or a designated subcommittee

6 thereof, shall—

7 (1) review the activities undertaken under the

8 programs established under subsection (a);

9 (2) make recommendations on the appropriate

10 balance between the fundamental research and the

11 programmatic research undertaken by the Environ12 mental Protection Agency and update such rec13 ommendations at least every two years;

14 (3) make any recommendations with respect to

15 the programs established under subsection (a) that

16 the Science Advisory Board considers to be appro17 priate; and

18 (4) every two years beginning in March 1994,

19 submit to the Administrator and to the Congress a

20 report containing the results of a review undertaken

21 pursuant to paragraph (1) and the recommendations

22 (with any updates thereto) made pursuant to para23 graphs (2) and (3).

24 (d) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—Section 2 of the

25 Environmental Research, Development, and Demonstra-
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1 tion Authorization Act of 1981 is amended by striking

2 subsection (f).

3 SEC. 4. ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING AND ASSESSMENT

4 PROGRAM.

5 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Administrator shall es6 tablish an Environmental Monitoring and Assessment

7 Program to conduct comprehensive, long-term environ8 mental monitoring, data collection, and data analysis as

9 a means of assessing and responding to the current and

10 long-term status and trends of the ecological resources of

11 the United States.

12 (b) COORDINATION.—The Administrator shall coordi13 nate the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Pro14 gram activities with the heads of other Federal agencies

15 in order to identify, integrate, and fully utilize results of

16 related efforts undertaken by other agencies and minimize

17 duplication of efforts.

18 (c) ANNUAL REPORT.—The Administrator shall pub19 lish an annual report identifying and assessing the per20 formance of the activities undertaken under the Environ21 mental Monitoring and Assessment Program, the effec22 tiveness of interagency coordination, and the contributions

23 of multiagency research to the advancement of research

24 goals.
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1 (d) PUBLIC DATA.—The Administrator shall periodi2 cally submit to Congress and make publicly available a

3 compilation of any statistical data summaries and inter4 pretive reports on ecological status and trends developed

5 as a result of the Environmental Monitoring and Assess6 ment Program.

7 SEC. 5. MODERNIZATION PROGRAM.

8 (a) MODERNIZATION PROGRAM.—The Administrator

9 shall establish a modernization program designed to iden10 tify, acquire, and maintain modern buildings, facilities,

11 supplies and equipment needed to conduct high quality re12 search. In carrying out this section, the Administrator

13 shall ensure that such buildings, facilities, supplies, and

14 equipment shall at a minimum meet the standards gen15 erally accepted by the scientific community as appropriate

16 for conducting research, including research instrumenta17 tion replacement standards.

18 (b) STUDIES.—The Administrator shall conduct

19 studies—

20 (1) to evaluate and determine the adequacy of

21 current buildings, facilities, supplies, and equipment

22 and identify future building, facility, supplies, equip23 ment and research instrumentation needs; and

24 (2) to identify and assess future research per25 sonnel needs and make recommendations for attract-
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1 ing and retaining qualified scientists, engineers and

2 other personnel to meet such needs.

3 (c) DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION.—The studies re4 quired by this section shall be submitted to the Committee

5 on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Rep6 resentatives and the Committee on Environment and Pub7 lic Works of the Senate within one year after the date

8 of enactment of this Act.

9 SEC. 6. REPEAL OF 5-YEAR RESEARCH REPORT REQUIRE10 MENT.

11 (a) REPEAL.—Section 5 of the Environmental Re12 search, Development, and Demonstration Authorization

13 Act of 1976 is repealed.

14 (b) AMENDMENTS TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL RE15 SEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEMONSTRATION AUTHOR16 IZATION ACT OF 1978.—The Environmental Research,

17 Development, and Demonstration Authorization Act of

18 1978 is amended as follows:

19 (1) Strike section 4.

20 (2) Strike ‘‘including those defined in the five21 year research plan’’ at the end of section 7(a).

22 (3) Strike section 8(c).

23 (4) Strike ‘‘The Administrator shall include’’

24 and all that follows through the end of the sub25 section in section 9(a).
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1 SEC. 7. SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD.

2 (a) ANNUAL REPORT.—The Science Advisory Board

3 shall submit to Congress and to the Administrator an an4 nual report that contains the views of the Science Advisory

5 Board on proposed research programs as described in the

6 President’s budget request for research, development, and

7 demonstration activities at the Environmental Protection

8 Agency. Such report shall be submitted to Congress as

9 soon as practicable after the submission of the President’s

10 budget to Congress. The Administrator shall cooperate

11 with the Director of the Science Advisory Board, particu12 larly with respect to the timely provision of budget infor13 mation to the Science Advisory Board, to allow the Science

14 Advisory Board to carry out its duties under this sub15 section.

16 (b) EVALUATION.—The Science Advisory Board shall

17 conduct periodic evaluations of selected areas of the cur18 rent and planned research, development, and demonstra19 tion activities of the Environmental Protection Agency.

20 The areas of evaluation shall be selected by the Science

21 Advisory Board in consultation with the Administrator,

22 the Office of Research and Development, other Agency

23 programs, the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech24 nology of the House of Representatives and the Committee

25 on Environment and Public Works of the Senate. Reports

26 containing the Science Advisory Board’s evaluations and
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1 recommendations shall be filed with such committees and

2 the Administrator. The Administrator shall provide to

3 such committees a written response to the Science Advi4 sory Board’s evaluation and recommendations within sixty

5 days after the Science Advisory Board’s report has been

6 submitted.

7 (c) CONCURRENT SUBMISSION TO CONGRESS.—Any

8 report required by law to be submitted by the Science Ad9 visory Board to the Administrator shall be concurrently

10 submitted to the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech11 nology of the House of Representatives and the Committee

12 on Environment and Public Works in the Senate.

13 SEC. 8. MISCELLANEOUS AUTHORIZATION FOR COOPERA14 TIVE AGREEMENTS.

15 In reviewing research, development and demonstra16 tion grant, contract, and cooperative agreement applica17 tions, the Administrator may enter into cooperative agree18 ments to conduct appropriate scientific and professional

19 reviews of such applications and may use research funds

20 authorized by this Act for such cooperative agreements.

21 SEC. 9. RESEARCH ACCOMPLISHMENTS REPORT.

22 The Administrator shall submit an annual report to

23 the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the

24 House of Representatives and the Committee on Environ25 ment and Public Works of the Senate setting out the ac-
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1 complishments of the research, development, and dem2 onstration programs for which funds are authorized by

3 this Act and the significance of such accomplishments to

4 the Environmental Protection Agency’s mission.

5 SEC. 10. TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER AND INFORMATION EX6 CHANGE.

7 The Administrator shall carry out a program of envi8 ronmental technology transfer and exchange of scientific

9 and technical information designed to make full and effec10 tive use of the Agency’s research, development, and dem11 onstration efforts. The Administrator may establish and

12 maintain resources necessary to advance such technology

13 transfer and information exchange program.

14 SEC. 11. RESEARCH TO SUPPORT THE EVALUATION OF

15 HEALTH AND ECOLOGICAL RISK.

16 (a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The Administrator shall es17 tablish a separately identified research program designed

18 to improve the capability of the Environmental Protection

19 Agency to identify, assess, and compare risks to public

20 health and natural ecosystems resulting from contamina21 tion of the environment.

22 (b) OBJECTIVES.—Under the program authorized by

23 subsection (a), the Administrator may conduct research

24 to—
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1 (1) develop and improve methodologies for the

2 comparison of risks to public health and natural

3 ecosystems, including risks resulting from contami4 nation of different environmental media;

5 (2) facilitate the monitoring of pollutants and

6 contaminants discharged to the environment;

7 (3) identify and develop methodologies for as8 sessing and reducing risks to natural ecosystems;

9 (4) develop and improve methodologies for the

10 assessment of noncancer risks to public health and

11 the integrated assessment of cancer and noncancer

12 health risks;

13 (5) support any other activities of the Environ14 mental Protection Agency relating to the identifica15 tion, assessment, or comparison of risks to public

16 health and natural ecosystems resulting from con17 tamination of the environment; and

18 (6) develop improved methodologies for evaluat19 ing the benefits, both quantitatively and quali20 tatively, of ecological protection activities, including

21 improved methods to value natural resources and to

22 account for long-term environmental effects in the

23 Agency’s economic analysis.

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