I
106TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 3448
To improve the management of environmental information and to encourage
innovation in the pursuit of enhanced environmental quality, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
NOVEMBER 18, 1999
Mr. GREENWOOD (for himself, Mr. DOOLEY of California, Mr. BOEHLERT,
and Mrs. TAUSCHER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to
the Committee on Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on
Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Budget, for a period to be
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned
A BILL
To improve the management of environmental information
and to encourage innovation in the pursuit of enhanced
environmental quality, and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Second Generation of
Environmental Improvement Act of 1999’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds that—
(1) While existing environmental statutes have
been effective at reducing pollution even as the pop-
ulation and economy have grown, new approaches
are needed to address remaining and emerging envi-
ronmental problems, to make the regulatory system
more efficient, and to better enable communities to
solve their environmental problems.
(2) Numerous studies have recommended ex-
perimenting with performance-based regulatory ap-
proaches that provide regulated entities with greater
flexibility in determining how to meet environmental
standards and that, in return, require greater ac-
countability through enhanced monitoring and data
reporting.
(3) Federal performance-based approaches can
take advantage of many technical advances made
over the past 30 years, including the growth of the
Internet, the creation of environmental management
systems and the development of pollution prevention
strategies, such as life-cycle management and re-
source stewardship; and can build on successful
State and local initiatives.
(4) While the Environmental Protection Agency
and the States have begun to experiment with such
approaches, the Agency’s efforts have been ham-
pered by an inadequate information system, and lack
of clear statutory authority and congressional direc-
tion.
SEC. 3. PURPOSES.
The purposes of this Act are to—
(1) improve the quality of, and streamline the
collection, management, and dissemination of envi-
ronmental performance measures and other environ-
mental information to ensure that the information is
a useful gauge of environmental conditions and
trends, is valuable to regulators and to the general
public, and is accurate and up-to-date; and
(2) provide the Environmental Protection Agen-
cy with additional authority and incentives to experi-
ment with performance-based regulatory approaches
in dealing with States, communities, and the private
sector to improve the state of the environment and
the efficiency of the regulatory system.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act—
(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-
trator’’ means the Administrator of the Environ-
mental Protection Agency.
(2) AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Agency’’ means the
Environmental Protection Agency.