I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4231 
To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide requirements for agency 
decision making based on science. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
NOVEMBER 2, 2017 
Mr. NORMAN (for himself, Mr. GOSAR, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. FRANKS of Ari-
zona, Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia, Mr. PERRY, Mr. PEARCE, Mr. GOH-
MERT, Mr. BUCK, Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina, Mr. BRAT, Mr. 
BABIN, Mr. ALLEN, and Mr. JODY B. HICE of Georgia) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide 
requirements for agency decision making based on science. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Better Evaluation of 
Science and Technology Act’’ or the ‘‘BEST Act’’. 
SEC. 2. USE OF SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION IN RULE MAK-
ING. 
Section 553 of title 5, United States Code, is amend-
ed by adding at the end the following: 
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‘‘(f) To the extent that an agency makes a decision 
based on science when issuing a rule under this section, 
the agency shall use scientific information, technical pro-
cedures, measures, methods, protocols, methodologies, or 
models, employed in a manner consistent with the best 
available science, and shall consider as applicable— 
‘‘(1) the extent to which the scientific informa-
tion, technical procedures, measures, methods, proto-
cols, methodologies, or models employed to generate 
the information are reasonable for and consistent 
with the intended use of the information; 
‘‘(2) the extent to which the information is rel-
evant for use by the head of the agency in making 
a decision related to issuing the rule; 
‘‘(3) the degree of clarity and completeness with 
which the data, assumptions, methods, quality assur-
ance, and analyses employed to generate the infor-
mation are documented; 
‘‘(4) the extent to which the variability and un-
certainty in the information, or in the procedures, 
measures, methods, protocols, methodologies, or 
models, are evaluated and characterized; and 
‘‘(5) the extent of independent verification or 
peer review of the information or of the procedures, 
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measures, methods, protocols, methodologies, or 
models. 
‘‘(g) An agency shall make a decision described in 
subsection (f) based on the weight of the scientific evi-
dence. 
‘‘(h) Each agency shall make available to the public— 
‘‘(1) all notices, determinations, findings, rules, 
consent agreements, and orders of the head of the 
agency in connection with a rule; 
‘‘(2) a nontechnical summary of each risk eval-
uation conducted in connection with a rule; and 
‘‘(3) a list of the studies considered by the 
agency in carrying out each risk evaluation described 
in paragraph (2), along with the results of those 
studies.’’. 
Æ 
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