Title: Regulatory Certainty Act of 2017
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
Regulatory Certainty Act of 2017
This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to limit the period during which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may prohibit the specification, or restrict the use, of an area as a disposal site for discharges of dredged or fill materials into waters of the United States to the period that:
The Corps of Engineers must ensure that the period consists of at least 30 consecutive days.
The Corps of Engineers may issue a permit for dredged or fill material only after the Corps of Engineers provides notice to the EPA.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2917 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2917

 To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to clarify when the 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority 
 to prohibit the specification of a defined area, or deny or restrict 
 the use of a defined area for specification, as a disposal site under 
            section 404 of such Act, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 15, 2017

Mr. Gibbs (for himself, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Dunn, Mr. McKinley, Mr. Massie, 
Mr. Jones, Mr. Perry, Mr. Barletta, Mr. Lamborn, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Graves 
  of Missouri, Mr. Johnson of Ohio, Mr. Jenkins of West Virginia, Mr. 
  Tipton, and Mr. Collins of New York) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and 
                             Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to clarify when the 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority 
 to prohibit the specification of a defined area, or deny or restrict 
 the use of a defined area for specification, as a disposal site under 
            section 404 of such Act, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Regulatory Certainty Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. PERMITS FOR DREDGED OR FILL MATERIAL.

    (a) In General.--Section 404(c) of the Federal Water Pollution 
Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344(c)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``(c)'' and inserting ``(c)(1)'';
            (2) in paragraph (1), as so designated, by inserting 
        ``during the period described in paragraph (2) and'' before 
        ``after notice and opportunity for public hearings''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2)(A) The period during which the Administrator may 
        prohibit the specification (including the withdrawal of 
        specification) of any defined area as a disposal site, or deny 
        or restrict the use of any defined area for specification 
        (including the withdrawal of specification) as a disposal site, 
        under paragraph (1) shall--
                    ``(i) begin on the date that the Secretary provides 
                notice to the Administrator that the Secretary has 
                completed all procedures for processing an application 
                for a permit under this section relating to the 
                specification and is ready to determine, in accordance 
                with the record and applicable regulations, whether the 
                permit should be issued; and
                    ``(ii) end on the date that the Secretary issues 
                the permit.
            ``(B) The Secretary shall ensure that the period described 
        in subparagraph (A) consists of not fewer than 30 consecutive 
        days.
            ``(C) The Secretary may issue a permit under this section 
        only after the Secretary provides notice to the Administrator 
        in accordance with this paragraph.''.
    (b) Applicability.--The amendments made by subsection (a) shall 
apply to a permit application submitted under section 404(a) of the 
Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1344(a)) after the date 
of enactment of this Act.
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