[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 64 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 H. R. 64

      To provide for the establishment of the position of Deputy 
     Administrator for Science and Technology of the Environmental 
               Protection Agency, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 3, 2001

  Mr. Ehlers introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                          Committee on Science

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
      To provide for the establishment of the position of Deputy 
     Administrator for Science and Technology of the Environmental 
               Protection Agency, 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. DEPUTY ADMINISTRATORS.

    (a) Deputy Administrator for Science and Technology.--
            (1) Appointment.--The President shall appoint, by and with 
        the advice and consent of the Senate, a Deputy Administrator 
        for Science and Technology of the Environmental Protection 
        Agency.
            (2) Responsibilities.--The Deputy Administrator for Science 
        and Technology shall have overall responsibility for the 
        scientific and technical foundation of Environmental Protection 
        Agency decisions, including being responsible for--
                    (A) identifying and defining the important 
                scientific issues facing the Environmental Protection 
                Agency, including those embedded in major policy or 
                regulatory proposals;
                    (B) developing and overseeing an integrated 
                agencywide strategy for acquiring, disseminating, and 
                applying information;
                    (C) ensuring that the complex scientific outreach 
                and communication needs of the Environmental Protection 
                Agency are met, including the need to reach throughout 
                the Agency for credible science in support of the 
                regulatory offices, regions, and Agency-wide policy 
                deliberations, as well as the need to reach out to the 
                broader domestic and international scientific community 
                for scientific knowledge that is relevant to an Agency 
                policy or regulatory issue;
                    (D) coordinating and overseeing scientific quality 
                assurance and peer review practices throughout the 
                Environmental Protection Agency; and
                    (E) developing processes to ensure that appropriate 
                scientific information is used in decisionmaking 
                throughout the Environmental Protection Agency, and 
                ensuring that the scientific and technical information 
                underlying each Environmental Protection Agency 
                regulatory decision is valid, appropriately 
                characterized in terms of scientific uncertainty and 
                cross-media issues, and appropriately applied.
            (3) Qualifications.--An individual appointed under 
        paragraph (1) shall have an outstanding technical background, 
        including research accomplishments, scientific reputation, and 
        experience in public forums.
            (4) Consultation.--Before appointing an individual under 
        paragraph (1), the President shall consult with the National 
        Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the 
        Science Advisory Board of the Environmental Protection Agency, 
        and other appropriate scientific organizations.
            (5) Compensation.--The Deputy Administrator for Science and 
        Technology shall be compensated at the rate provided for level 
        III of the Executive Schedule pursuant to section 5314 of title 
        5, United States Code.
    (b) Deputy Administrator for Policy and Management.--The position 
of Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall be 
redesignated as the Deputy Administrator for Policy and Management, and 
the individual serving in that position as of the date of the enactment 
of this Act shall assume such title.
    (c) Conforming Amendment.--Section 5314 of title 5, United States 
Code, is amended by striking the item relating to the Deputy 
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and inserting the 
following:
            ``Deputy Administrator for Policy and Management of the 
        Environmental Protection Agency.
            ``Deputy Administrator for Science and Technology of the 
        Environmental Protection Agency.''.

SEC. 2. ASSISTANT ADMINISTRATOR FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.

    (a) Title and Term.--One of the Assistant Administrators of the 
Environmental Protection Agency shall be  designated as the Assistant 
Administrator for Research and Development, and shall also have the 
title of Chief Scientist of the Environmental Protection Agency. 
Appointments to such position made after the date of the enactment of 
this Act shall be for a term of 6 years.
    (b) Qualifications.--An individual appointed under subsection (a) 
shall have an outstanding technical background, including research 
accomplishments, scientific reputation, and experience in leading a 
research and development organization.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS CONCERNING OTHER ACTIVITIES OF OFFICE OF 
              RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT.

    It is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) the Office of Research and Development should--
                    (A) make a concerted effort to give research 
                managers of the Office a high degree of flexibility and 
                accountability, including empowering the research 
                managers to make decisions at the lowest appropriate 
                management level consistent with the policy of the 
                Environmental Protection Agency and the strategic goals 
                and budget priorities of the Office;
                    (B) maintain approximately an even balance between 
                core research and problem-driven research;
                    (C) develop and implement a structured strategy for 
                encouraging, and acquiring and applying the results of, 
                research conducted or sponsored by other Federal and 
                State agencies, universities, and industry, both in the 
                United States and in foreign countries; and
                    (D) substantially improve the documentation and 
                transparency of the decisionmaking processes of the 
                Office for--
                            (i) establishing research and technical-
                        assistance priorities;
                            (ii) making intramural and extramural 
                        assignments; and
                            (iii) allocating funds; and
            (2) the Administrator of the Environmental Protection 
        Agency should--
                    (A) substantially increase the efforts of the 
                Agency--
                            (i) to disseminate actively the research 
                        products and ongoing projects of the Office of 
                        Research and Development;
                            (ii) to explain the significance of the 
                        research products and projects; and
                            (iii) to assist other persons and entities 
                        inside and outside the Agency in applying the 
                        results of the research products and projects;
                    (B)(i) direct the Deputy Administrator for Science 
                and Technology to expand on the science inventory of 
                the Agency by conducting, documenting, and publishing a 
                more comprehensive and detailed inventory of all 
                scientific activities conducted by Agency units outside 
                the Office, which inventory should include information 
                such as--
                            (I) project goals, milestones, and 
                        schedules;
                            (II) principal investigators and project 
                        managers; and
                            (III) allocations of staff and financial 
                        resources; and
                    (ii) use the results of the inventory to ensure 
                that activities described in clause (i) are properly 
                coordinated through the Agency-wide science planning 
                and budgeting process and are appropriately peer 
                reviewed; and
                    (C) change the peer-review policy of the Agency to 
                more strictly separate the management of the 
                development of a work product from the management of 
                the peer review of that work product, thereby ensuring 
                greater independence of peer reviews from the control 
                of program managers, or the potential appearance of 
                control by program managers, throughout the Agency.
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