[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2610 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2610

   To provide an affirmative defense in a civil action brought with 
respect to a Federal requirement which is potentially in conflict with 
                      another Federal requirement.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 26, 1999

 Mr. Hoekstra introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                       Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To provide an affirmative defense in a civil action brought with 
respect to a Federal requirement which is potentially in conflict with 
                      another Federal requirement.

    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 Fairness Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds--
            (1) Laws are often complex, confusing, contradictory, 
        burdensome, and duplicative
            (2) Persons are put in the position of having to violate 
        the law every day when attempting compliance with conflicting 
        law.
            (3) Persons should not be held liable when complying with 
        at least one of conflicting requirements of the law.
            (4) A study by the General Accounting Office showed that in 
        California a typical manufacturing business has to comply with 
        35 Federal and 33 State laws, many of which are redundant.
            (5) Businesses in today's global economy are not confined 
        by time and distance, therefore they may easily move their 
        business to a more favorable regulatory climate.

SEC. 3. AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE.

    (a) Defense.--It shall be an affirmative defense to a civil action 
brought against a person to enforce a Federal regulatory requirement 
that such requirement is potentially in conflict with another 
regulatory requirement with which such person is in compliance.
    (b) Definition.--For purposes of this Act, the term ``potentially 
in conflict'' means that a requirement of a Federal regulation overlaps 
with, is inconsistent with, or conflicts with another requirement of, a 
Federal regulation or Federal statute and includes establishing 
labeling requirements that are not identical for the same product, 
establishing packaging requirements for the same product that are not 
identical, establishing training requirements that are not identical on 
the same subject matter, or establishing third party notification or 
warning requirements that are not identical for goods or services.
                                 <all>