for the release or threatened release of a hazardous
substance at, from, or in connection with property—
‘‘(A) acquired through foreclosure;
‘‘(B) subject to a security interest held by
such institution or lender;
‘‘(C) held by a lessor pursuant to the
terms of an extension of credit; or
‘‘(D) subject to financial control or finan-
cial oversight pursuant to the terms of an ex-
tension of credit;
shall be limited to the actual benefit conferred on
such lender by a removal, remedial, or other re-
sponse action undertaken by another party.
‘‘(2) COMPUTATION OF ACTUAL BENEFIT.—For
purposes of this section, the actual benefit conferred
on an institution or lender by a removal, remedial,
or other response action shall be equal to the net
gain, if any, realized by such institution or lender
due to such action. For purposes of this subsection,
the ‘net gain’ shall not exceed the amount realized
by the institution or lender on the sale of property
less acquisition, holding, and disposition costs.
‘‘(3) EXCLUSION.—Notwithstanding paragraph
(1), but subject to the provisions of section 107(d),
a lender that caused or contributed to the release of
a hazardous substance may be liable for a response
action pertaining to that release.
‘‘(4) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this Act
the following definitions shall apply:
‘‘(A) 
PROPERTY
ACQUIRED
THROUGH
FORECLOSURE.—
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘prop-
erty acquired through foreclosure’ means
property acquired, or the act of acquiring
property, from a nonaffiliated party by a
lender—
‘‘(I) through purchase at sales
under judgment or decree, power of
sales, nonjudicial foreclosure sales, or
from a trustee, deed in lieu of fore-
closure, or similar conveyance, or
through repossession, if such property
was security for an extension of credit
previously contracted;
‘‘(II) through conveyance pursu-
ant to an extension of credit pre-
viously contracted, including the ter-
mination of a lease agreement; or
‘‘(III) through any other formal
or informal manner by which the lend-
er temporarily acquires, for subse-
quent disposition, possession of collat-
eral in order to protect its interest.
‘‘(ii) EXCLUSION.—Property is not ac-
quired through foreclosure if the lender
does not seek to sell or otherwise divest
such property at the earliest practical,
commercially reasonable time, on commer-
cially reasonable terms, taking into account
market conditions and legal and regulatory
requirements.
‘‘(B) 
LENDER.—The 
term 
‘lender’
means—
‘‘(i) a person that makes a bona fide
extension of credit to, or takes a security
interest from, another party;
‘‘(ii) the Federal National Mortgage
Association, the Federal Home Loan Mort-
gage Corporation, the Federal Agricultural
Mortgage Corporation, or other entity that
in a bona fide manner is engaged in the
business of buying or selling loans or inter-
ests therein.
‘‘(iii) any person engaged in the busi-
ness of insuring or guaranteeing against a
default in the repayment of an extension of
credit, or acting as a surety with respect to
an extension of credit, to another party;
and
‘‘(iv) any person regularly engaged in
the business of providing title insurance
who acquires the property as a result of
assignment or conveyance in the course of
underwriting claims and claims settlement.
‘‘(C) EXTENSIONS OF CREDIT.—The term
‘extension of credit’ includes a lease finance
transaction—
‘‘(i) in which the lessor does not ini-
tially select the leased property and does
not during the lease term control the daily
operations or maintenance of the property;
or
‘‘(ii) that conforms any regulations is-
sued by the appropriate Federal banking
agency (as defined in section 3 of the Fed-
eral Deposit Insurance Act) or the appro-
priate State banking regulatory authority.
‘‘(D) FORECLOSURE; 
FORECLOSE.—The
terms ‘foreclosure’ and ‘foreclose’ mean, respec-
tively, acquiring, and to acquire, a vessel or fa-
cility through—
‘‘(i) purchase at sale under a judg-
ment or decree, a power of sale, a
nonjudicial foreclosure sale, or from a
trustee, deed in lieu of foreclosure, or simi-
lar conveyance, or through repossession, if
such vessel or facility was security for an
extension of credit previously contracted;
‘‘(ii) conveyance pursuant to an exten-
sion of credit previously contracted, includ-
ing the termination of a lease agreement;
or
‘‘(iii) any other formal or informal
manner by which the person acquires, for
subsequent disposition, possession of collat-
eral in order to protect the security inter-
est of the person.–
‘‘(p) SAVINGS CLAUSE.—Nothing in this section
shall—
‘‘(1) affect the rights or immunities or other de-
fenses that are available under this Act or other ap-
plicable law to any party subject to the provisions of
this section;
‘‘(2) be construed to create any liability for any
party; or
‘‘(3) create a private right of action against any
lender or against any Federal agency that regulates
lenders.’’.
SEC. 3. INNOCENT LANDOWNER.
Section 101(35) of the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42
U.S.C. 9601 (35)) is amended by redesignating subpara-
graphs (C) and (D) as subparagraphs (D) and (E),
respectively, and inserting after subparagraph (B) the
following:
‘‘(C)(i) A defendant who has acquired real
property shall have established a rebuttable pre-
sumption that he has made all appropriate in-
quiry within the meaning of subparagraph (B)
if he establishes that, within 180 days prior to
the time of acquisition, he conducted an envi-
ronmental site assessment of the real property
which meets the requirements of this subpara-
graph.
‘‘(ii) For purposes of this subparagraph,
the term ‘environmental site assessment’ means
an assessment of the real property and sur-
rounding areas to obtain commonly known or
reasonably ascertainable information about the
property and to assess the obviousness of the
presence or likely presence of contamination at
the real property, and which consists of each
of the following elements:
‘‘(I) Interview of owners, operators,
and occupants of the property to determine
information regarding the potential for
contamination there.
‘‘(II) Review of standard historical
sources as necessary to determine previous
uses and occupancies of the property since
the property was first developed. For pur-
poses of this subclause, the term ‘standard
historical sources’ means any of the follow-
ing, providing they are reasonable ascer-
tainable: recorded chain of title documents
regarding the real property, including all
deeds, easements, leases, restrictions, and
covenants, aerial photographs, fire insur-
ance maps, property tax files, USGS 7.5
minutes topographic maps, local street di-
rectories, building department records,
zoning/land use records, and any other
sources that are credible to a reasonable
person and that identify past uses and oc-
cupancies of the property.
‘‘(III) Determination of the existence
of recorded environmental cleanup liens
against the real property which have arisen
pursuant to Federal, State, or local stat-
utes.
‘‘(IV) Review of reasonably ascertain-
able Federal, State, and local government
records of sites or facilities that are likely
to cause or contribute to contamination at
the real property, including, as appro-
priate, investigation reports for such sites
or facilities; records of activities likely to
cause or contribute to contamination at the
real property, including landfill and other
disposal location records, underground
storage tank records, hazardous waste han-
dler and generator records and spill report-
ing records; and such other reasonable as-
certainable Federal, State, and local gov-
ernment environmental records which re-
flect incidents or activities which are likely
to cause or contribute to contamination at
the real property.
‘‘(V) A visual site inspection of the
real property and all facilities and improve-
ments on the real property and a visual in-
spection of immediately adjacent prop-
erties, including an investigation of any
hazardous substance use, storage, treat-
ment, and disposal practices on the prop-
erty.
A record is considered to be ‘reasonably ascer-
tainable’ for purposes of this clause if a copy or
reasonable facsimile of the record, or access to
it, is obtainable from the government agency by
request (within reasonable time and cost con-
straints) 
and 
the 
record 
is 
practically
reviewable.
‘‘(iii) No presumption shall arise under
clause (i) unless the defendant has maintained
a complication of the information reviewed in
the course of the environmental site assessment.
‘‘(iv) Notwithstanding any other provision
of this paragraph, if the environmental site as-
sessment discloses the presence of contamina-
tion at the real property to be acquired, no pre-
sumption shall arise under clause (i) with re-
spect to such contamination unless the defend-
ant has taken reasonable steps, in accordance
with commonly available technology, existing
law, and generally acceptable engineering prac-
tices, as may be necessary to confirm the ab-
sence of such contamination.
‘‘(v) For the purposes of this paragraph,
the term ‘contamination’ means an existing re-
lease, a past release, or the material threat of
a release of a hazardous substance, other than
de minimis conditions that generally do not
present a material risk of harm to public health
or welfare or the environment.’’.
SEC. 4. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY UNDER SOLID WASTE
DISPOSAL ACT.
The Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et
seq.) is amended as follows:
(1) By adding at the end of section 1004 the
following paragraph:
‘‘(42) The terms ‘operator’, ‘generator’, and
‘transporter’ do not include a person who would not
be an owner or operator within the meaning of sub-
paragraphs (E) and (F) of section 101(20) of the
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensa-
tion and Liability Act of 1980.’’.
(2) By adding at the end of section 9003(h)(9)
the following sentence: ‘‘This definition shall be con-
strued to be parallel and comparable to that speci-
fied in section 101(20)(E) of the Comprehensive En-
vironmental Response, Compensation, and Liability
Act of 1980.’’.
SEC. 5. EFFECTIVE DATE.
The amendments made by this Act shall become ef-
fective immediately upon enactment.
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HR 200 IH——2