[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2634 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2634

 To amend the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and 
 Liability Act of 1980 to provide liability relief to small businesses.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 25, 2000

   Mr. Bond introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
       referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and 
 Liability Act of 1980 to provide liability relief to small businesses.

    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 ``Small Business Relief Act of 2000''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) in enacting the Comprehensive Environmental Response, 
        Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 9601 et 
        seq.), Congress intended to clean up the most polluted waste 
        sites in the United States;
            (2) lawsuits to pay for cleanups under that Act threaten 
        thousands of small business owners that incurred liability by 
        activities as benign as disposing of garbage;
            (3) despite improvements by local, State, and Federal 
        officials in the cleanup of the most polluted waste sites in 
        the United States, thousands of innocent small business owners 
        remain unfairly subjected to the liability scheme under that 
        Act;
            (4) exempting innocent small businesses is the only way to 
        solve the unintended consequences of liability provisions under 
        that Act; and
            (5) relieving innocent small business owners from liability 
        under that Act will curb litigation, steering money away from 
        excessive legal costs and toward the cleanup of waste sites.

SEC. 3. SMALL BUSINESS LIABILITY RELIEF.

    Section 107 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, 
Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 9607) is amended by 
adding at the end the following:
    ``(o) Small Business Exemption.--
            ``(1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), no 
        person shall be liable to the United States or to any person 
        (including liability for contribution) under this section for 
        any response costs at a facility listed on the National 
        Priorities List under paragraph (3) or (4) of subsection (a) 
        if--
                    ``(A) the person is a business that, for the 
                taxable year preceding the date of transmission of 
                notification that the business is a potentially 
                responsible party, employed full- and part-time 
                employees, the aggregate time worked by whom was 
                equivalent to the hours that would be worked by not 
                more than 100 full-time employees; and
                    ``(B) the person is not affiliated through any 
                familial or corporate relationship with any person that 
                is or was a potentially responsible party responsible 
                for response costs at the facility.
            ``(2) Exception.--
                    ``(A) In general.--Paragraph (1) shall not apply to 
                the case of a person if the Federal Government or a 
                third party demonstrates that--
                            ``(i) a hazardous substance described in 
                        paragraph (3) or (4) of subsection (a) 
                        contributed significantly, or could contribute 
                        significantly, individually or in the aggregate 
                        with other hazardous substances, to the cost of 
                        the response action with respect to the 
                        facility;
                            ``(ii) liability for costs or damages 
                        arises under this subsection as a result of the 
                        gross negligence or intentional misconduct of 
                        the person; or
                            ``(iii) the person--
                                    ``(I) failed to comply with any 
                                request for information or 
                                administrative subpoena issued by the 
                                President under this Act; or
                                    ``(II) impeded the performance of a 
                                response action with respect to the 
                                facility.
                    ``(B) Gross negligence.--For the purposes of this 
                subsection, the term `gross negligence' includes 
                reckless, willful, or wanton misconduct by a person.''.
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