BEST Act

Bill: 115-hr-4231
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Norman, Ralph [R-SC-5]
Introduced: 2017-11-02
Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
Subjects: Administrative law and regulatory procedures

General science and technology matters

Scientific communication
Latest action: action_date: 2017-11-21
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial And Antitrust Law.

Summaries:
action_date: 2017-11-02
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><b>Better Evaluation of Science and Technology Act or the BEST Act</b></p> <p>This bill requires a federal agency, to the extent it is making a decision based on science when issuing a rule, to use scientific information, technical procedures, methods, protocols, methodologies, or models in a manner that is consistent with the best available science and the intended use of the information, based on the weight of the scientific evidence. </p> <p>Each federal agency shall make available to the public: (1) all of its notices, determinations, findings, rules, consent agreements, and orders in connection with a rule; (2) a nontechnical summary of each risk evaluation conducted in connection with a rule; and (3) a list of the studies considered by the agency in carrying out each evaluation, along with the results of those studies. </p>

tv_txt: I 115th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 4231 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES November 2, 2017 Mr. Norman (for himself, Mr. Gosar , Mr. McClintock , Mr. Franks of Arizona , Mr. Mooney of West Virginia , Mr. Perry , Mr. Pearce , Mr. Gohmert , 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.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Better Evaluation of Science and Technology Act or the BEST Act . 2. Use of scientific information in rule making Section 553 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: (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 procedures, 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 information, technical procedures, measures, methods, protocols, 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 relevant 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 assurance, and analyses employed to generate the information are documented; (4) the extent to which the variability and uncertainty 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, measures, methods, protocols, methodologies, or models. (g) An agency shall make a decision described in subsection (f) based on the weight of the scientific evidence. (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 evaluation 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. .