[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2639 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2639

To establish peer review for the review of standards promulgated under 
            the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             July 29, 1999

    Mr. Bonilla (for himself, Mr. Boyd, Mr. Wicker, Mr. Sununu, Mr. 
 Hayworth, Mr. Pitts, Mrs. Northup, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Sessions, Mr. 
  Hobson, Mr. Tiahrt, Mr. Cooksey, Mr. McInnis, Mr. Knollenberg, Mr. 
   Foley, Mr. Norwood, Mrs. Cubin, Mr. Peterson of Pennsylvania, Mr. 
Hefley, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Hoekstra, Ms. Pryce of Ohio, Mr. Schaffer, Mr. 
   Hastings of Washington, Mr. Linder, Mr. Stenholm, Mr. Blunt, Mr. 
Boehner, Mr. Goode, Mr. Chambliss, Mr. Skeen, and Mr. Paul) introduced 
 the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education 
                           and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To establish peer review for the review of standards promulgated under 
            the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.

    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 ``Sound Scientific Practices Act''.

SEC. 2. PEER REVIEW.

    (a) In General.--Whenever the Secretary of Labor determines that a 
standard should be promulgated under section 6 of the Occupational 
Safety and Health Act of 1970 in order to serve the objectives of such 
Act, the Secretary shall appoint a panel of individuals to review--
            (1) the scientific and economic data which forms the basis 
        for such standard, and
            (2) the relevance of the data to industries and workers 
        which would be affected by such standard.
    (b) Panel.--
            (1) In general.--A panel appointed under subsection (a) for 
        a standard shall be broadly representative and balanced and 
        shall include persons with expertise in scientific and economic 
        analysis and persons with expertise relevant to any industry 
        which would be subject to such standard.
            (2) Conflicts of interest.--Persons with substantial and 
        relevant expertise shall not be excluded from a panel merely 
        because they represent entities which may have potential 
        interest in a standard under consideration if that interest is 
        fully disclosed to the Secretary. In the case of a panel 
        considering a standard affecting a single entity, no peer 
        reviewer representing such entity may be included on such 
        panel.
    (c) Reports.--Reports of a panel appointed under subsection (a) for 
a standard, including any individual and minority reports, shall be 
published together with any proposed or final rule promulgating such 
standard. The Secretary shall provide a written response to all 
significant comments of the panel and shall include such responses with 
the proposed or final rule to which the reports of the panel members 
are attached.
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